{"id":5076,"date":"2023-10-24T10:58:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T14:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=5076"},"modified":"2023-10-24T11:03:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T15:03:26","slug":"a-mens-employee-resource-group-really-why-four-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/a-mens-employee-resource-group-really-why-four-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"A Men\u2019s Employee Resource Group \u2013 Really? Why? Four Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Men are a vital part of the diversity mix and need networking opportunities too.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), often call Business Resource Groups, are employee led groups supported by company leadership around groups with common identities. The most popular groups are women, race and culture-based groups, LGBTQA, Veterans and People with Disabilities. Over the past few years ERG efforts have expanded into groups like Mental Health and Wellness, Parents \/ Caregivers, Environment Awareness and more.

ERGs ideally serve both the needs of employees and the organization around DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging) initiatives and organize activities around leadership development, recruiting, community outreach, workplace culture and more.

Now more organizations, including one of my best clients which I have helped launch ERGs and training their leaders, have started Men\u2019s ERGs. And this has raised some questions like:
\u2022 Why do we need a men\u2019s ERG? They are not an under-represented minority within our organization.
\u2022 Men hold most of the power and privilege in our organization, so why would they need a group?

Yes, there are valid questions. And here are four valid reasons for the legitimacy of and the need for Men\u2019s ERGs:

1. Men are indeed a crucial part of the diversity fabric. DEIB is about all of us working together to leverage our unique differences for good, not setting up a \u201cWe vs. Them\u201d culture. We should never frame the discussion as one of the \u201cdiverse and the un-diverse.\u201d Everyone is part of diversity. This also now provides availability of all employees to join an ERG that aligns with their identity in addition to joining as allies.<\/p>\r\n

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Men are now taking more responsibilities at home and with children.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

2. Men are now facing many of the same challenges that women have always faced in the workplace, especially as men in today\u2019s culture are taking more responsibility for managing the home and raising the children. Men also may need to discuss challenges like managers who are OK with women on the team needing to leave early to pick up a sick kid from school, but look unfavorably upon their male employees who need to do the same.

3. Men can have in depth discussions on how they can work together to promote DEIB instead of being labeled as \u201cthe diversity problem.\u201d They can team with the women\u2019s ERG to discuss how men can better support and mentor women in the workplace and better understand challenges and issues women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities face.

4. Finally, there are some industries and organizations where men are indeed an under-represented minority.

It is great that ERGs are continuing to grow and expand into more areas so that everyone can participate in advancing DEIB in the increasingly diverse interconnected global economy.

<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), often call Business Resource Groups, are employee led groups supported by company leadership around groups with common identities. The most popular groups are women, race and culture-based groups, LGBTQA, Veterans and People with Disabilities. Over the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1141,2374,464,1140,2373],"class_list":["post-5076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-info","tag-business-resource-groups","tag-deib","tag-employee-resource-groups","tag-ergs","tag-mens-erg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}