Five Reasons Why Your ERG Volunteers Stop Helping
You might hear the word “burnout” and envision a high-stress, high-power job with unrelenting deadlines. However, Employee Resource Group (ERG) members can also experience burnout.
ERG members can often feel unsupported when trying to make a difference in your organization, and it’s because ERGs usually lack the formal systems and support available in a traditional paid job, leading to frustration and burnout.
When starting an Employee Resource Group, you must consider why your ERG members might feel burned out and stop helping.
Here are five reasons why your ERG Volunteers might stop helping and some of the best practices for Employee Resource Groups to help you address them.
1. Your goals and objectives aren’t clear
Having unclear goals is one of the most common reasons ERG members become disengaged. When your goals aren’t clear, it’s hard for your members and volunteers to understand what they’re doing – and why they’re doing it!
Starting an Employee Resource Group allows you to improve employee engagement and retention, creates a more inclusive culture, and drives business initiatives. However, your shared purpose can be muddy and hard to understand without clear goals.
No one likes to spend time on a project they feel is pointless. Give everyone a clear sense of purpose, and you’ll see the entire mood shift for the better.
Check out this article on why your ERG needs clear goals.
2. You don’t have a written strategy
We can all be guilty of trying to juggle too many things at once. It can be hard to stay focused when the information is in our heads and our plan isn’t written down.
It’s easy to think, “I’ve got it under control,” only to find out that your team is discouraged and everyone is on a different page. One of the ways you can remedy this is to create a clear written strategy.
A written strategy ensures that your ERG has a shared sense of purpose and helps you conduct long-term planning. It will help you focus on achieving your diversity and inclusion goals while improving your bottom line.
Read this article to learn more about how to write a strategy for your ERG.
3. Your meetings aren’t productive
Have you heard the saying, “this could have been an email?” People tend to roll their eyes when they attend an unproductive meeting.
When meetings are disorganized, ERG members feel like their time is wasted, leading to burnout and frustration.
If you spend all your time discussing ideas with no action points or next steps, you risk wasting the time of your ERGs members. Your meetings should have a clear structure with time for discussion and brainstorming but always end in specific tasks and action points.
People need to leave the meeting with a sense of direction and an understanding of what they need to do to advance ERG goals. This brings us to our next point…
4. You’re not delegating tasks or following up
If you’re not delegating specific tasks at the end of your ERG meetings, your meetings might be a waste of time. People want to feel like they have something to do that will directly contribute to the success of the ERG.
Even if you are delegating tasks at the end of your meetings, are you following up and offering support? Each action item should have an assigned period.
At a set time during that period, you should be reaching out to provide guidance, support, and feedback.
At the next meeting, each member should present their progress and explain what they could complete and could not finish. As the ERG leader, it is up to you to connect all progress back to your overall goals and strategy.
Connecting the dots helps ERG members see how their work is advancing the ERG’s mission.
Another common issue ERG leaders face when leading an ERG at work is not delegating enough, and it’s because they are so excited and passionate.
It's natural to want to give the ERG your all, but if you’re not delegating tasks to your group members, they will get frustrated and bored.
If you want the ERG to succeed, you must delegate, delegate, delegate. You’ll be amazed at what your ERG can produce and accomplish if you have the right people in your group.
5. You’re not providing any rewards
Of course, people tend to lose steam when they are working on any project. It’s common to experience fatigue or burnout even when you are passionate about the goals you’re trying to achieve.
Giving your members something concrete to look forward to can help counteract burnout and fatigue. Never underestimate the power of building rewards into your timeline with social activities, prizes, and even something as simple as pizza.
Remember – praise and recognition are also rewards. While they may not be enough on their own, it’s crucial to keep telling them you see their excellent work and they’re helping the ERG reach its goals.
Praise, feedback, recognition, and a little fun – being a good leader is about knowing when people need these rewards.
Do you need support and coaching to keep your ERG members engaged?
We coach ERG leaders on keeping their members and supporters engaged so their ERG can be impactful through our 12-week program.
If you work in HR or Diversity and Inclusion, you can find out more by attending one of our upcoming events.
