5 Tips to Measure ERG Program Success and Communicate Impact

Published July 11, 2024

Four out of five companies say employee resource groups (ERGs) are increasing in significance, and more than half of impact leaders surveyed in the State of Corporate Purpose 2024 said they are increasing their ERG budgets this year.

That’s because ERGs have transcended their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) origins, taking on a broader role and influencing everything from a company’s volunteer efforts, to selecting nonprofit partners, to funding decisions. Demonstrating the value of ERGs to support ongoing investment, sustain momentum and ensure they continue to thrive is critical.

In this post, we’ll cover how you can measure the success of your ERG program and share strategies to communicate its impact. 

1. Align program with company goals

Setting clear goals for your ERG program will guide how you’ll measure its success, making it a crucial first step before embarking on your reporting journey. Aim to align ERG metrics with your company’s broader goals, as well as its DEI and CSR objectives, to help you determine what’s most relevant and valuable for the business.

For example, if your company prioritizes retaining top talent, tracking ERG participation rates and the correlation with employee turnover may be useful. Or if increasing belonging is a focus area, evaluating whether ERG members feel a higher sense of connectedness may be valuable. 

2. Track relevant ERG metrics

If your ERG program is just getting off the ground or if you’re new to tracking metrics, consider starting with these success indicators as a way to measure performance.

Number of participants

• Track program-wide, for specific groups, and/or for different regional chapters over time.
• Measure participation as a percentage of the total employee population.
• Count events organized by ERGs, noting attendance and participation rates.

Leadership participation

• Monitor the involvement of leadership, as their participation often encourages broader employee engagement.

• Take note of clicks, poll results, shares, reactions, and comments to track interactions with ERG-created content.

3. Go deeper to measure brand and community impact

Once you’re ready to dig in a little further, consider adding these more advanced metrics to help you get an even broader sense of the impact of your ERG program. 

Sense of belonging

• Conduct regular engagement surveys as part of your DEI strategy to assess how included ERG members feel within the organization.

Retention and career progression

• Track the internal promotion rates of ERG leaders and members. As a best practice, integrate ERG leader contributions into annual performance reviews.
• Monitor the retention and attrition rates of ERG members versus non-ERG members. 

Referrals from ERG members

• Measure the number of new employee referrals that come from ERG members to see how ERGs contribute to building a diverse talent pipeline.

Community impact

• Calculate the total donation volume to nonprofits and volunteer hours contributed by ERG members.
• Tally the number of ERG-directed grants given, number of nonprofits positively impacted, and positive outcomes generated.

Satisfaction of ERG members

• Conduct regular member surveys to track employee satisfaction and feedback over time from ERG participants. Ask things like what’s working and what’s not, what’s important to group leaders and how can DEI leaders better support the group to achieve their goals.
• Measure the impact ERGs have on company culture – as perceived by ERG members and the broader workforce.

 ERG accomplishments

• Document year-over-year achievements, such as policy changes influenced by ERGs, shifts in organizational language around certain topics of focus for your ERGs, or marketing or product development strategies influenced by ERGs.

4. Streamline reporting

Gathering and analyzing data across multiple ERGs can be time-consuming. Now that you’ve selected the most relevant metrics to track, consider streamlining your reporting through broader measurement tools. For example, you can leverage company-wide engagement surveys or smaller pulse surveys to more efficiently gather data from ERG members.

You may also want to consider advocating for an ERG management solution like Benevity Affinity Groups as part of your annual ERG budget. This purpose-built technology makes it easy to measure group engagement, membership, event attendance, top contributors and more across all your ERGs from one source of truth.

5. Communicate your impact

Effectively communicating the impact and success of your ERG program is key not only for sustaining member engagement, but also to secure ongoing company support and investment. You’ll want to showcase the real results your ERGs are bringing to your business, your nonprofit partners and communities.

Here are a few best practices for singing the praises of your ERGs, both internally and externally:

• Dedicate a section on your intranet or in an internal newsletter to feature regular updates on programming and success stories from your ERGs.
• Recognize active members and major initiatives during company meetings or through internal recognition programs. 
• Share quarterly reports with executive leadership highlighting key metrics, impact stories and outcomes of successful ERG-led initiatives. 

• Showcase the work and achievements of your ERGs across your company’s social media platforms as a way to strengthen your employer brand and value proposition. 
• Publish a regular cadence of blog posts that highlight the impact and outcomes from ERG-led initiatives. Also encourage ERG members to write for the blog to share their personal experiences.
• Present your ERG successes to peers at industry events and position your company as one that’s taking a holistic approach to advancing DEI and social impact.
• Include the impact of your ERGs’ efforts — volunteering initiatives, fundraisers and donation drives, grants, etc. — in your annual impact reports.
• Show how ERGs are contributing to the sum of positive outcomes generated by your company.