While you shouldn’t expect affinity groups to do your DEI work for you, affinity group leaders can offer valuable insights into how you can improve policies and work experiences for that group. “They can serve as a champion for the group to senior leaders.” Give Diverse Voices a Platform “HR can serve almost as the conscious for the group,” Hicks says. HR is pivotal in helping group leaders develop policies and boundaries for their groups, including meeting within work hours if they’re discussing topics that the organization might seek insight into. Plan on compensating members by allowing them to meet on company time and giving them a budget, because they’re ultimately doing work for the organization, says HR and DEI consultant Mardia Shands, SPHR. Be sure to give credit for innovative business ideas that come from affinity groups. While you shouldn’t rely on affinity groups to own these efforts, they are an important piece of diversity and inclusion strategies and can function as think tanks for business decisions, too. But don’t put the onus on affinity groups to write your DEI policies or fix problems within the organization. By their nature, employee affinity groups do address issues within the organization, especially as they relate to the identity the group is based on. If you want affinity groups to benefit individual members and the organization as a whole, you need to set boundaries and expectations. Give affinity groups opportunities to lead in the organization as a whole by providing resources for them to host events or presentations. Send them to conferences or offer scholarships for professional certifications, suggests Cecil Hicks, Jr., SPHR, associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity, access and inclusion at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Put resources toward developing affinity group leaders and members. “Affinity groups can be a part of the planning, development and institutionalization of those strategies.” “Leadership development is probably the primary objective of affinity groups, since there’s usually a dearth of diversity in the upper echelons,” says Ayanna Cummings, SPHR, director of diversity and inclusion at Compass Group at Microsoft and founding director at Tapestry Consulting, LLC. Identifying diverse candidates for succession improves your DEI efforts by assembling leaders and decision-makers with a range of experiences and perspectives. Affinity groups help elevate diverse talent to leadership positions. Develop Leaders for Succession PlanningĪll too often, diversity is concentrated in an organization’s lowest ranks. Here’s how to cultivate mutually beneficial results for both the organization as a whole and individual affinity group members. But only affinity groups that are aligned with organizational objectives optimize their use of time and resources. In fact, 90% of Fortune 500 companies recognize these benefits and support affinity groups in their workplace culture. These groups, designed to support employees who share characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, lifestyle or interests, can provide a powerful voice in your organization.Įmployee affinity groups produce several important benefits for organizations, including a more inclusive culture and improved recruitment and retention. Supporting employee affinity groups is one effective way to cascade your DEI efforts throughout the organization. If you wish to join a WFCP Affinity Group, please fill out the application form.Fostering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a business imperative in 2021, but those efforts can’t be confined to a program - they must be embedded in your organizational culture.
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