L. David Kingsley, formerly Chief People Officer at Pluralsight, has built employee resource groups at multiple stages of company growth. On Reimagining Company Culture, he made the case that ERGs are the most underused feedback channel in most HR functions, and the most often abused.
His framing is direct. ERGs deliver some of the highest-quality signal People teams will ever get. But the structures around them often extract value without giving back, leaving the volunteers exhausted and the insights unrealized.
Why ERGs Are the Best Feedback Channel HR Has
The members of an employee resource group share an identity dimension that the rest of the workplace does not always see. That shared experience produces patterns that aggregate engagement surveys miss. Harvard Business Review's research on aligning DEI with strategy consistently points to ERG insight as a leading indicator of culture issues.
The catch is that the insight only flows when the ERG is staffed and resourced. Volunteer fatigue is the most common reason an ERG goes quiet, and that silence gets read as a sign that the issue resolved.
How HR Should Structure ERG Feedback Loops
What Should ERG Leaders Get for Their Time?
Time, money, and visibility. Time means hours protected during the workweek, not pure volunteer overhead. Money means a real budget for programming and external development. Visibility means the leader's work shows up in performance reviews and promotion decisions, not just in a passion-project line.
How Often Should HR Meet With ERGs?
A monthly cadence at the working level, a quarterly cadence with senior HR leadership, and a twice-yearly cadence with the executive team. The point is not the meeting count. It is the regularity that produces accountability.
What Actually Works When You Build ERG Programs
Pay ERG Leaders
The volunteer model breaks at scale. Stipends, equity refreshers, or load reductions on the day job all signal that the work is real work.
Connect ERG Insights to Policy Design
If the parents and caregivers ERG raises a recurring concern about leave policy, the policy team should be in the room. ERG feedback that does not reach the policy lever stays advisory.
Measure ERG Impact, Not Just Engagement Scores
Track policy changes influenced, retention by ERG-affiliated cohorts, and ER case patterns by dimension. Pair the ERG data with structured employee feedback and you get a picture neither produces alone.
Where Employee Relations Fits in an ERG Strategy
ERGs surface lived experience. ER captures formal complaints. The two together create the most complete view of how identity and inclusion play out at work. A connected DEI and ER strategy uses both data sets to find systemic issues early.
How ER Data Validates ERG Concerns
When the LGBTQ ERG raises concerns about manager comments, ER case data either confirms or contradicts the pattern. Either answer is useful. Confirmation justifies action. Contradiction prompts a deeper look at why complaints are not being filed.
Frequently Asked Questions About ERG Feedback
How do you start an ERG program from scratch?
Identify three or four communities with both interest and capacity. Resource them with budgets, executive sponsors, and a clear scope. Start with feedback and programming. Add policy influence in year two.
What is the right ratio of ERGs to employee population?
There is no perfect ratio. Quality beats coverage. A handful of well-resourced ERGs deliver more value than a dozen underfunded ones. Audit existing groups before launching new ones.
How do you avoid burning out ERG leaders?
Cap commitment hours, rotate leadership annually, and protect time during the workweek. Pair every leader with an executive sponsor who shares the work, not just the support.
Should ERGs report into HR or DEI?
Either works if the structure is intentional. What matters more is who has authority to act on ERG input. If neither HR nor DEI can change policies, the ERGs will eventually disengage.
Can ERG insights replace engagement surveys?
No. They complement each other. ERGs surface depth on identity and lived experience. Engagement pulses capture breadth across the workforce. Use both.
How ERGs Compare to Affinity Groups and Resource Groups
The terms get used interchangeably, but the structures matter. Affinity groups focus on community. Resource groups focus on shared identity and access to development. Modern ERGs combine both with a third element, which is influence on company strategy. The most effective programs build all three layers deliberately.
The programs that stay at the affinity level alone tend to plateau. The programs that resource influence well produce the kind of organizational change that justifies the investment. SHRM research on employee resource groups consistently links influence on policy with stronger outcomes.
What Senior Sponsors Actually Do for ERGs
Open doors. Senior sponsors give ERG leaders access to executive conversations that would not otherwise happen. They advocate for budget. They translate ERG insights into the language the C-suite uses. The role is real work, not ceremonial.
Why ERG Metrics Should Sit Outside Engagement Surveys
Aggregate engagement scores can mask the experience of ERG-affiliated employees. Build a separate measurement track that captures the cohort experience and feeds it back into the broader strategy. Pair the data with engagement infrastructure for the full picture.
How do you handle ERG conflicts with company policy?
Treat the ERG as a stakeholder, not a critic. The conflict often surfaces something the policy team needed to know. Document the input, follow up with action, and communicate the rationale even when the decision lands differently than the ERG hoped.
Should ERG participation count in performance reviews?
Yes, especially for ERG leaders. The work is real and the impact compounds across the organization. Performance evaluation that ignores it sends the wrong signal about what the company values.
How does AllVoices support ERG feedback loops?
By aggregating ER and engagement data in ways that surface cohort patterns ERGs care about. Connected DEI infrastructure turns ERG insight into measurable change.
The pace of change in People functions has accelerated. Workforce expectations shifted faster than most operating models could keep up, and the companies that adapted early are pulling ahead. The HR leaders who have done this work well share a few traits. They invest in data infrastructure before they need it. They build manager capability as a primary lever. They treat ER as a strategic function rather than a back-office task. And they protect the time and budget that the multi-year horizon requires.
The work compounds. Short-term wins look small. Two and three years in, the gap between organizations that built the discipline and those that did not becomes the kind of difference everyone in the industry can see. Start the work now and the compounding starts now.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Kingsley's framing is a corrective to the version of ERG strategy that treats the groups as cultural decoration. Done well, ERGs are a strategic asset that produces some of the highest-quality data the People team will ever get.
The investment is real. Time, money, executive attention, and a willingness to act on what gets surfaced. The return is a workplace that responds to its own people instead of guessing.
HR leaders who pair strong ERG infrastructure with connected ER and engagement data build a culture intelligence engine that compounds over time.
The work is iterative. Run the listening, watch the data, adjust the operating rhythm, and repeat. The People functions that build this discipline produce compounding gains across retention, performance, and the organizational resilience that shows up most clearly in the hardest quarters.
Modern employee relations infrastructure closes the gap between what leaders intend and what employees experience. The companies that invest in that infrastructure now will hold their advantage as the broader market catches up.
See how AllVoices integrates ERG insights with employee relations and engagement data.
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