Elevating Employee Resource Group Engagement and Community

Once you have your Employee Resource Group for family caregivers at your company, how do you maximize the engagement and supercharge your community with support and resources?

[If you haven’t created a Caregiver ERG yet, start with this post: Beginner’s Guide: Launching a Working Caregiver Employee Resource Group.]

When I co-led my company’s Women’s ERG, I felt this underlying responsibility to keep providing value to our group. I recognized the impact our group could have on our organization, but at times, organizing the group’s activities and sharing content felt like one more area in my life where I was falling short of the commitment I wanted to uphold.

Let’s simplify how ERGs can add value and not feel like this is another area contributing to a leader’s overwhelm. ERGs can implement several ideas from the list below to keep their group energized, growing, and collaborating.

Content Ideas for Your ERG Community Platform

Your team likely already has a dedicated Slack or Teams channel for your Employee Resource Group (ERG). While it’s a fantastic space for sharing thoughts and inquiries, sometimes it falls on one person to keep the conversation going. To ensure engagement, I suggest assigning a couple of ERG members to consistently post content in your channel, ideally at least once a week. Here are some content ideas to consider:

• Caregiving-related Statistics: Share stats to combat feelings of isolation among working family caregivers and normalize their experiences. This recent white paper from the Rosalyn Carter Institute for Caregivers is a great place to start.
• Inspiring Caregiving Quotes: Motivate and encourage reflection within your community with uplifting quotes.
• Journal Prompts: Foster openness and vulnerability within the group. Consider using resources like the “Just for You: A Daily Self-Care Journal,” which offers 365 prompts.
• Curated Media: Share relevant videos, news articles, and other media for group discussion.
• Recommended Products and Resources: Highlight useful caregiving and self-care products. The Happy Healthy Caregiver Shop showcases a few of my favorites.
• Engaging Polls: Use polls to gauge common interests, gather feedback on ERG activities, or make decisions collaboratively.

Enhance ERG Engagement with Team Events On and Offsite

Boost team morale and wellness by organizing diverse team events within the office or offsite.

• Rejuvenating Self-care Experiences: Organize activities like local hikes and picnics or offer signups for wellness days featuring yoga, meditation, and massage professionals.
• Volunteer Activities: Leverage your expertise and interests, benefiting the office and the community. Host Health and Wellness Fairs to promote optimal living, provide screenings, and offer caregiver resources. Alternatively, educational workshops for local schools could be developed to focus on supporting young caregivers. Or, self-care tote bags could be assembled for all employees.
• Recharge Outdoors: Contribute to environmental conservation with nature projects such as tree planting at a senior living community or community cleanups, fostering team bonding while making a positive impact.
• Social Creativity: Encourage creativity and social connection through DIY projects like creating a Happy Healthy Caregiver Caregiver Jar or exploring calming activities like adult coloring or art journaling.

By diversifying your team events, you can foster engagement, promote wellness, and make a positive impact both internally and externally.

Provide Engaging Intellectual Events for Caregiver ERG Members

Offering diverse intellectual events is a great way to keep members of your Caregiver ERG engaged and informed. Here are some ideas to consider:

• External Speaker Sessions: Bring in experts from outside your organization to share their knowledge and insights on caregiving-related topics. I have a corporate package of webinars, support sessions, and resources for corporate clients, and you can learn about my speaking services here.
• Internal Speaker Sessions: Utilize the expertise within your ERG by hosting sessions where members can share their stories, lessons learned, and insights. Consider inviting department leads to discuss employee benefits available to support caregivers or highlighting several ERG members through a moderated panel discussion.
• Book Club Discussions: Organize a book club focusing on literature related to caregiving, self-care, or personal development. Here’s a list of some recommended caregiving and self-care books.
• Podcast Club: Create a podcast club where members can listen to and discuss episodes related to caregiving, mental health, or wellness. I invite you to check out the Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast, which focuses on current or former family caregivers sharing their stories, strategies, and recommendations for other caregivers.
• Digital Courses: Offer digital courses or webinars on relevant topics such as stress management, communication skills, or financial planning for caregivers. One option is the self-paced digital course ‘6 Steps to Infusing Self-Care Into Your Caregiving Life.’
• Topical Discussions: Host regular discussions on common care-related issues or emerging trends in caregiving, such as asking for help, setting boundaries, seeking local resources, coping with changing roles, and remote caregiving.

By providing a variety of intellectual events, you can cater to the diverse interests and learning preferences of your Caregiver ERG members while enhancing their knowledge and skills in caregiving and wellness.

Instilling a Deeper Connection

Level up your ERG engagement by considering some of these options:

• Launch a Caregiver Mentorship Program: Cultivate meaningful connections within your ERG by establishing a mentorship program where experienced family caregivers can offer guidance and support to newer caregivers.
• Highlight Members to the Rest of the Company: Showcase the stories and contributions of your Caregiver ERG members by featuring them in the company newsletter or at company events. This recognizes their efforts, strengthens the sense of community within the organization, and lets other employees know more about an ERG they may be interested in joining.
• Spotlight Executive Speakers: Foster empathy and understanding by inviting C-level or VP executives to share their caregiving experiences with your group. This personal touch from leadership can inspire and motivate members while promoting a culture of openness and support.

By implementing these strategies, Employee Resource Groups can deepen engagement, strengthen connections, and create a more inclusive and supportive workplace environment.

Don’t feel you must be solely responsible for your ERG’s engagement and community strength. Eventually, for our Women’s ERG, my partner and I recognized the importance of shifting our focus to primarily strategic roles. Delegating execution tasks to other ERG team members diversified responsibilities and offered valuable leadership opportunities for their professional growth. Embracing a divide-and-conquer approach within your Caregiver ERG may also translate to fostering effective family caregiver strategies at home, like distributing family and care responsibilities.  Creating sustainable plans and systems at home and the office mitigates professional and personal burnout.