Eat’n Park Hospitality Group identified a need to facilitate ERGs as an integral component in living out our core value of “We Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”. Knowing that ERGs allow networking, elevate diverse perspectives, drive meaningful conversations, increase team member engagement, and far more, ENPHG set out to launch Inclusion Groups (IGs), our term for ERGs, starting with the Women’s Inclusion Group (WING) which targeted our largest diversity population and served to support a strong identified talent pipeline of women leaders.

The Empowerment Committee of our DEI Council completed extensive research and had many conversations with local organizations around best practices for launching and maintaining ERGs. Additionally, an Inclusion Group charter was created, with the anticipation that once our WING was launched, at least one more Inclusion Group would be formed by the end of the fiscal year. WING’s inaugural event was announced on International Women’s Day by our Chief People officer and IG executive sponsor, with all consequent communication and action being driven by our voluntary WING chair and other WING members involved in its inception.

Our first WING event had a total of 70+ attendees, and WING currently has 120 members. After the first event, a survey was sent out to help determine what this team member-driven group wants to see from future WING events, communication, opportunities, and learning. As we work to  internally build awareness around WING, Inclusion Groups in general, and their purposes, we’re so excited to build on this existing framework.

Laine Deal