STEWART ANDERSON, HP
My ability to think
systematically
and globally is
largely because of
my involvement
in the employee-
resource group.
“
”
of. I came out that weekend to
the organization and it changed
everything,” he recalls.
Anderson joined HP’s Pride
group, which he believes at 30
years old is the oldest LGBT
employee-resource group
anywhere. Working in the
organization, he developed his
leadership skills and today is a
business operations manager in
consumer products.
“I started out with the company as an individual
contributor,” he says. “My ability to think systematically and globally is largely because of my involvement
in the employee-resource group. There was reciprocal
mentoring. I was able to interact with other senior
leaders in a non-threatening way.”
For Ward, Anderson and thousands of employees
across the United States and,
these days, globally, membership in an employee-resource
group has been critical to their
retention and development and
often has made the difference
in their career trajectories. For
their companies, these groups
play a rapidly increasing role in
the recruitment, retention and
talent development of ALL
their employees and in their
marketing efforts aimed at traditionally underserved
communities.
Here are some of their stories as well as the latest
trends from corporate America, the most effective
metrics to assess the success of employee-resource
groups, a primer on what these groups are and how to
set them up.
Vanessa
Wilczewski
Leadership
Comes at
Any Age
Vanessa Wilczewski is only 23 years old,
but she is showing her company what
leadership is as co-chair and one of the
founders of Aetna’s EnRGY group for
Generation Y employees.
Wilczewski, who is in a rotational leadership-development
program in IT, joined the company in June 2008 after graduating from Boston University with a degree in economics.
She quickly realized she had a strong need to connect
with other young professionals who were going through
similar on-boarding processes. She found out through
Aetna’s Office of Diversity about the company’s strong
employee-resource groups and presented a proposal—
with goals and milestones—on forming the group.
EnRGY now has more than 400 members. The group
helps with a mentoring site and is working with the company on recruitment and engagement, including a marketing campaign to encourage younger employees to join.
“We brainstorm and work collaboratively to bring
ideas to the office,” Wilczewski says. “For example, we
call attention to stories of young individuals—why
they joined Aetna, why their jobs are meaningful, how
they work together in teams and how they make a
difference.”
