From ripples to waves: Open sourcing workplace diversity initiatives
An inspirational anecdote amidst the shifting tides of DEI
Ripples to Waves
Before diving in, I'd like you to think about a time when you joined an organization – whether it be a club, a company, a team – and witnessed it grow and change over time. Perhaps your team grew from 5 to 15 people, or from 20 to 200; or perhaps you moved from the bottom of the league to being a championship contender.
This is how I feel about the “Black in Tech” Employee Resource Group (ERG) that I am part of (real name redacted). This ERG is an organization who’s mission is to create an environment where Black individuals can thrive in the tech industry.
As the president of this Black in Tech ERG, I spent the first few weeks of 2024 reflecting on our achievements and progress over the past year. I was amazed by how much we had accomplished, despite all of this being “on the side of our desks” –outside of our main job duties. But, I was disappointed that I had not celebrated these milestones along the way. Funny enough, I found myself not following my own advice to recognize tiny wins, which I gave in my other article, Why Diversity Matters:
You don't need a large group to start making an impact. Every individual that joins the community or that we help matters, and each should be celebrated. This ERG I have spoken of was started six years ago with just six engineers, wanting to share their experiences by starting a book club, and it has since grown to hundreds of members across three continents.
The best part? We are just getting started.
So with the support of the others on the Black in Tech Leadership Team, we wrote a 2023 year-in-review memo to share our progress with our members.
Now, I'd like to share that memo with you for two reasons:
Reason 1: To raise awareness that with the shifting DEI tide, individuals, not employers, will have to drive DEI
I first need to be abundantly clear that I am not here to take a stance on Affirmative Action, as it's an incredibly nuanced topic. But I do think it is important that we are all aware of how it affects the DEI landscape, as can be seen in this Jan. 2024 Harvard Business Review article:
On the heels of that decision [overturning affirmative action], newly empowered activists have brought a barrage of challenges against workplace DEI efforts. Major companies are being slapped with formal complaints, litigation, and threatening letters.
The changing landscape is affirmed in an April 2024 Wall St. Journal article about diversity goals disappearing from companies’ annual investor reports and moving to “separate reports”:
Dozens of companies altered descriptions of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in their annual reports to investors as DEI programs come under legal and political threat. The changes highlight the balancing act companies face as they navigate pressure from both critics and advocates of diversity efforts…
“Forget about any ideological agenda. You’re just trying to figure out, how do I follow the law?…” said Jason Schwartz, a partner with Gibson Dunn and a leader of the law firm’s DEI Task Force. Schwartz currently represents the Fearless Fund, a venture firm whose grants to Black female entrepreneurs have been challenged in court.
Given this, we can likely expect to see employers scale back their DEI efforts, which may manifest in ways such as reduced funding and headcount. This is why I find it critical to "open source" the ~secret sauce~ behind our grassroots driven ERG. By providing more visibility into how successful ERGs operate, I hope that others can leverage these processes and ideas in their own settings, wherever they may be.
Again, to me, DEI is not about mandating an equal distribution of races or sexes across a company – it's about creating an environment where everyone, regardless of their race or ethnicity or sex, can feel comfortable in the place where they spend the most of their time.
Reason 2: To inspire those who are on a similar journey of working to increase diversity and inclusivity – to keep pushing; to keep moving that needle.
I want to share this memo to provide evidence that the action of a handful of people can indeed drive meaningful change.
Though they may not have realized it, those six Black engineers that started a book club over an email thread all those years ago created a domino effect that grew into a strong Black Tech community with literally over 1,000 members. I'd like to thank all of them, and I hope to continue the legacy of what they all started.
And so, without further adieu, I present a 2023 ERG in review (with redactions). I speak in the first person (we) in regards to the ERG:
Black in Tech ERG 2023 Year in Review
Fam,
They said better late than never, so I’d like to share our year in review for 2023. Our mission is to create and grow a community where Black individuals can thrive in Tech. As I think back to when I joined this community, and it was a handful of us on a Chime bridge every week, I am immensely proud of how this group has grown and evolved over the years. In 2023, we held our first ever leadership team transition and focused on building and scaling out our core pillars: Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement.
In Recruitment, we formed partnerships internally with multiple Talent Acquisition organizations across the company to help increase the visibility and reach of our programs, such as our "ERG-member Interviewer Pool" and Interview Prep Sessions. Externally, we built relationships with programs focused on increasing diversity in tech which included Google's Tech Equity Collective, Karat - Brilliant Black Minds, Codepath, ColorStack.These new connections will be critical to influence more aspiring, diverse tech professionals both inside and outside of our company.
We also started what we called “internal recruiting” and identified hundreds of engineers and engineering leaders – from interns/apprentices to VPs/directors – to join our Black in Tech ERG Slack channel, creating a space for providing guidance and resources to the community.
Our interview prep program continued to flourish, with 100% year over year growth in attendees and 87% of attendees reporting feeling more prepared for their interviews after participating. Additionally, our collaboration with Howard University supported 5 student teams, 3 of which won the top 3 spots in their senior capstone competition! We look forward to expanding these programs in 2024 by connecting with students earlier in their studies to further increase the interest in Tech.
In Retention, we launched an Ambassadors program, now with 16 Ambassadors, to take a grassroots approach to increasing involvement and outreach. We found new ways to create community support, such as creating a company-wide group with 100+ interns – which was especially impressive because it was created and led by an intern!
We also hosted 117 events to keep our community engaged, ranging from weekly sync ups to career development info-sessions. In 2024, we will focus on personalized onboarding for new members and increased knowledge sharing around Artificial Intelligence applications in everyday use cases.
In Advancement, first, we have to give a huge congratulations to the 7 members that have joined our ERG within their first year of joining the company (recruitment), have more than 1 year of tenure (retention), and have been promoted (advancement) – what we call a Triple Crown! You all are an inspiration to more than you’d imagine. Our Promotion Doc Writing Workshop continues to be the most attended program that we run – with thousands of viewers over the year, and even receiving a shout out from our C-suite executives at an all-hands! We plan to revamp the workshops in 2024 to enable ad-hoc access and increase reach by providing structured workshop material along with the panel sessions to answer personalized questions.
And if you made it this far down the email, know that these programs would not exist without the time and effort that volunteers put in on the side of their desks. Thank you. It really does make a difference to our community, and I am extremely excited to see even more folks get involved in 2024.
Let’s keep moving the needle,
Matt
A rising tide lifts all ships
Now, an astute reader may be thinking to themselves: "Hey, before the memo, you said that DEI was about creating a community that is inclusive to everyone, but your memo only talks about helping Black individuals". You're spot on. And in my experience, starting with the community that you identify with is the best place to start. You can't boil the ocean, so they say. But I can tell you that as we have scaled, we have started collaborating with other ERGs, such as Women in Engineering, Asian, and Indigenous ERGs, by sharing our playbooks and partnering with them on our programs like the Promo Doc Workshop and interview prep.
My journey in this ERG has shown me that lasting change does not require immense resources from the start, just a few ripples in the pond. Gradually, a multitude of ripples, turns into waves. We use the phrase “a rising tide lifts all ships” – our impact applies not only to those directly involved in our programs but also extends beyond them, even if it is only to show that: We, as individuals, do have the power to improve and drive DEI.
In closing
There is a moment that almost all of our volunteers feel – we call it the "This is why I <insert ERG-name/>" moment. It's when you feel and realize that you have tangibly impacted someone's life, and you realize that you've only just begun... What's your "Why I ERG" moment?
Are you thinking about starting any initiatives? Have you started any? How are they going? I’d love to hear about them and help in any way – perhaps even Open Source them!
Reach out to splash-of-colour@substack.com with your stories and your progress!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or opinions of their employer. Any content provided by the author is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any organization, company, or individual. The author is not responsible for any consequences resulting from the use or interpretation of the information presented in this article, and no endorsement, approval, or disapproval by their employer should be inferred.