Business areas within the company are sometimes presented with complex business problems, circumstances, or issues where they could benefit from the perspective of a diverse group of employees.

An ERG “incubator” provides a platform to bring together a diverse group of individuals (representing each of our 12 ERGs) to learn and share ideas, build consensus, leverage innovative insights, and provide perspective to assist business areas. The opportunity to serve with a select group of employees offers increased engagement and professional growth and developmental opportunities for ERG members as well. The incubator group includes representation across a variety of business areas, locations, shifts, job levels, and tenure. This concept was piloted from 2018-2019. Because of the success and positive feedback from the pilot, the Incubator concept was rolled out in 2020 with a new group of ERG employees and expanded to include 12 per ERG (144 total). Examples of the business issues presented to the incubator for feedback include Employee Referral Program, COVID resources, Remote Worker engagement, Mentoring and Development into the future, Employee Experience, Executive Listening Sessions, and Gender Identity.

Since its inception, the ERG Incubator has been used numerous times to gain insight and perspective on various business challenges and opportunities. In 2021 the Incubator provided feedback on 35 business issues – a 59% increase over 2019. This is evidence of the value the group is providing and how it is being actively promoted across the organization. We plan to continue to monitor usage and outcomes to continuously improve. Many positive outcomes have resulted from the feedback provided by the incubator group. Examples include: the Employee Referral Program bonus amount was increased, development programs were created that align with specific demographic groups, and social media content was enhanced. Business partner survey feedback indicates that those who use the incubator are highly satisfied.
Example results/scores:
I would recommend using the ERG Incubator to my business partners and colleagues: 9.7/10.0
The diverse perspectives shared by the ERG Incubator helped inform our decision: 9.5/10.0