Webinar Topic: Leveraging ERGs in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals
Moderator: Maneet Sarai, Chief Product Officer, Teleskope
Panelists:
Karla Zevallos, DEI Manager, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Jesus Morales II, D&I Manager, Labcorp
Brittnee Bleau, Project Coordinator, DEI Office, Mass General Brigham
Key topics: Employee Resource Groups, ERG Strategy, Business Goals, Health Equity, ERG Management, Leadership Team, ERG Structures, Product & Service Innovation, ERG Metrics, ERG Budgets
Webinar Transcript
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Alright, So, since we're just at the top of the hour here we're going to wait for some participants to sign in. Just to note everyone we did have over 100 participants registered So, we're going to give it a minute or two just to let folks trickle in. They might be coming from other meetings. So, we'll just take a pause right now. You can probably see on the bottom the participant count continues to go up. For all the attendees that are joining, thanks a lot for joining. We're going to give it another minute here just because we do have a good amount of registrants for this webinar. So, we'll get kicked off here just at the two-minute mark with introductions just to allow for more time for people to trickle in. Cool, thank you!
Just as another announcement, So, thanks a lot everyone for joining So, we're just going to give it about 30 more seconds here to let for more folks to dial in. Obviously, it's a Friday so, some folks are probably coming back from calls and things like that. So, just want to give ample time for everyone to start. But of course we will get started here in about the next 30 seconds with our webinar today and then as folks dial in we'll just let them join and pick up as they come in. Just a note for all the attendees, this webinar will be recorded we'll make this available after the webinar as well So, if you do have to drop midway through no worries at all we will be sending out a recording of the webinar for all the panelists as well. Alright So, we'll just give it another 30 seconds and then we'll go ahead and get started get kicked off here. Alright So, we'll give it another 10 seconds let a few more folks trickle in and then we'll go ahead and jump off. Alright So, why don't we go ahead and get started here.
So, thanks a lot everyone for attending our webinar. This is a series of webinars that we'll be hosting as Teleskope featuring some of our customers as well as some other industry participants who have experience in the DEI space, in the ERG space and this particular webinar is really all focused on the healthcare industry. We have some really esteemed webinar participants here. We're going to shed some great light on the work that they've been doing across various sectors of healthcare. So, we think about healthcare it's not just one sort of specific industry we're talking about Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics, Hospital Systems and So, forth So, we'll have a great amount of insights and participation from folks really across the overall healthcare industry.
Now with that said let me just do a quick introduction on myself and Teleskope and give you a little bit of context there and then we will pass the mic around to our webinar panelists here So, that they can give a quick introduction as well. So, just by way of introduction everyone, my name is Maneet Sarai. I’m Head of Products at Teleskope. The whole mission behind Teleskope is just to build an all-in-one DEI platform that would allow organizations to manage, run and measure all their various programs in one solution. We had the privilege of working with a tremendous portfolio of customers, some of them are featured on our webinar today, and I'll let them all introduce themselves but just know my name is Maneet Sarai, I'll be managing today's webinar. From a moderation standpoint, asking a series of questions to our panelists here and really helping facilitate the conversation and just So, everyone knows in terms of the timeline here, we're going to go through a quick round-robin of introductions, we're going to get into some of the key questions around ERGs and DEI in Healthcare and So, forth and then what we'll try to do is reserve a little bit of time on the tail end for audience Q & A.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: I would like to introduce our webinar panelists here and I'll first start with Jesus. So, Jesus would you like to give a quick introduction and when you're doing an introduction feel free just to give a little bit more detail about your role your organization and also your ERG program with some high-level metrics there as well.
03:50 Panelist Introductions & ERG overview
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, absolutely. Hi everyone! First, thank you Maneet and Teleskope for the invitation to come and share a little bit about Labcorp. I'm very grateful to be here with you all as well as the panelists that are on this call. My name is. as many mentioned, is Jesus Morales. I am a Diversity and Inclusion Programs Manager at Labcorp but I'm also a founder of Humano, which is Lacorp’s Hispanic and Latin ERG. I also work and represent all of our eight ERGs within Labcorp. Labcorp is a Diagnostics and Drug development company and operates heavily in the healthcare space. I've been with Labcorp for about 10 years now and working in the ERG space the entire time. I helped launch our first two ERGs. It was our Veterans Group and our Pride Group which features our LGBTQ+IA community in 2014.
Fast forward now, we have eight ERGs with chapters in 15 different countries. We have over 9000 members. We roughly represent 12% of our employee population and all that can honestly be said because we use Affinities. Technology helped us immensely. We integrated Affinities coming up on two years and prior it was an administrative burden and hampered participation at times. Having the platform has allowed our members to nearly double in the past two years and having the ability to track information with greater ease has made a big impact. In just two years the platform has enabled our member count to be nearly doubled.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect! Thanks a lot, Jesus, really appreciate it. Why don't we jump down to Brittnee and then we'll go to Karla right after that Brittnee do you want to do a quick introduction on yourself Mass General your programs and So, forth?
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, definitely! Brittnee Bleau. I use she/her pronouns. I'm part of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion team at our Enterprise Services Division through Mass General Brigham. We are the largest private employer in Massachusetts with over 82,000 employees. We have a system of hospitals throughout Massachusetts and there are other community health opportunities around those areas as well as an institution in New Hampshire. And part of those are our two award-winning academic centers, academic hospitals that are Mass General Hospital and Brigham Women's Hospital. So, ERGs have been around since the 80s with our association of multicultural Mass General Hospital locations and for ERG data we have a total of 14 current ERGs and we're adding three this year to make 17. We have a number of members, around 1800, which is teching up every single day and we use the Affinities platform as well for our ERGs which we named Communities at Mass General Brigham.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you So, much Brittnee! Alright, now our final webinar panelist Karla Zevallos. Karla, would you like to give an introduction on yourself, Takeda and your role there in your program?
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: Yes, Hi! Thank you everyone. I thank you Maneet and Teleskope for having me here and I’m very glad to be discussing this topic. My name is Karla Zevallos at the US DEI Manager. My pronouns are she/hers. I'm very excited about this presentation because as I was looking at how can we bring these ERGs to the forefront of DE&I. First of all, Takeda Pharmaceuticals is a company with 240 years and is the oldest pharmaceutical in the world I would say. Our headquarters are here in Massachusetts in Kendall but we also have headquarters in Tokyo in Japan.
We are a global company that is driven by our values of patient reputation, business and and also we are very focused on our people and people development. What I would say about what TRGs is – we call it Takeda Resource Groups - We've been growing and we’re into this journey, this transformation since we had different companies merging. Takeda merging with Shire. We went through this transformation journey with our TRGs and now we have 10 of them but we are I'm very happy to announce that we'll be launching a 11th TRG and the platform Teleskope actually has allowed us to have more concrete metrics and see what is the impact of our ERGs. We have grown tremendously this year. We achieved 41 percent growth membership. So, we are 21000 employees in the US and then we are about 7000 part of our TRGs, our Takeda Resource Groups. Across the globe also we have a representation for our TRGs. We are 51000 employees across the world with Takeda and with different ERGs TRGs just across Europe, Japan and also, we have some representation in the Middle East.
10:00 How are ERGs aligning with Business Objectives
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Excellent. Thank you So, much Karla and really once again I just want to echo a thank you to all of our panelists here. Obviously, it's a Friday, you're taking time out of your day to be able to share some insights with the community, So, very much So, appreciated for that. Now what we're going to do since we went through all of our introductions here, we're going to get into the meat of our webinar where we're really talking about some really poignant questions about ERGs
specifically, within that Healthcare vertical and for our first question here I'd love to call on Karla, really would love just to pick your brain on how you're really aligning your ERG strategy to business objectives, I know that's kind of a broad brushstroke question but that is really the topic that probably everyone on this panel is looking to get further insights to. Obviously, you're in Pharmaceuticals So, there's a lot of stuff you're doing around clinical trials and other type of activities within that particular industry but when you're really looking at your ERG strategy, how are you tying that back to either business objectives, business goals, hiring, recruiting whatever that might be and this would be a really good question just to tee It up and then we'll dovetail into more specifics after that. So, Karla, if you'd like to chime in first we'll start there and then we'll pass the baton around to the other folks.
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: Yeah, first of all, I would say that our TRGs (our ERGs) perform a great influence, a great impact on the cultural at Takeda. As I mentioned before we are a company that is driven by the communities that we serve, our patients are the people that we serve internally. So, we have a great impact in that engagement in that culture increasing the sense of belonging and as business impact we have our ERGs participating in Clinical Trials at boards as well as participating in Pilot Programs with HR in seeing how can we recruit retain and develop our talent that's another piece.
A particular program where we have created impact for example is our Take Pride Group that influenced and gave feedback and input on the transgender guidelines that were set up a year ago in our company. So, that was a great direct impact of our ERGs as well as the M2S plasma that was a clinical aspect that where they provided input in which male gay could donate plasma where there were some policy areas that prohibited in the past. So, our company was at the forefront of these changes. Also, another different allyship campaigns that we have through our TRGs bring not only the aspect of you belonging to this group this particular identity but how do we as a company our allies and also how do we leverage intersectionality. That's a big also area where our ERGs have been able to be at the forefront in bringing the topic of intersectionality. Also, the voice of the patient - we have our Latino group Impacto who does a program called La Vos where we invite a healthcare providers and patients to share their experiences from a cultural perspective. And everyone at Takeda is able to hear what are those challenges specifically when it comes to Health Equity and there are also other type of projects that maybe I can share more as we develop the conversation but as I see everyone can see the impact from the cultural perspective, from the business perspective, from the HR perspective but also from the communities that we serve and our patients as well.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: That was awesome Karla! Thank you for sharing those stories. Very, very insightful. On this particular question here, I would love to see if Jesus or Brittnee would like to chime in, just about your overall strategy and tying that back to business objectives. Obviously, Labcorp and Mass General, a little bit different from Pharmaceuticals but you know when we're talking about that patient voice that Karla was talking about. There's probably some synergies between the two. Brittnee maybe we can go to you next if you have anything to chime in here and then Jesus, if you have anything to add that'd be great.
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, thank you Maneet. So, Mass General Brigham is United Against Racism, which is our long-term multi-million dollar commitment to address the many impacts that racism has on our Mass General Brigham patients, employees and the broader communities we work in. Our organization believes that systemic racism is a public health issue which impacts our patients but also our workforce and these communities that we serve.
In the employee space, the ERGs throughout our organization aim to build communities increase employee engagement, help meet the business needs and provide a place for employees to feel, seen, heard, valued, and engaged. We use ERGs as Thought Partners to meet these D&I goals, help departments or initiatives gather insight from representative affinity groups and help lead meaningful change for various organizational strategies. Since implementing our Affirmities software named Communities at Mass General Brigham, we've been able to increase active membership for our 14 active ERGs and reduce the administrative burden for our leaders. We also use the metrics to collect and report out powerful stories that help tell the overall ERG story across our system of 82000 employees.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Yeah, really appreciate those insights there Brittnee. Jesus, anything to add there?
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, So, our strategy currently is rooted in community diversity and inclusion. We have three priorities that we kind of align that with and I'm not going to go into all of them, there's a lot that everybody else has covered it's similar to what we do at Labcorp. But one of the areas is creating an environment for engagement across our company and in our communities. The ERGs play a big part in this priority. Our ERGs have structure in place with leadership that they can align with business needs. We have an executive committee sponsor that reports directly to the CEO designated to each of our ERGs. This ensures our ERGs have a voice at the highest levels So, we want to make sure that they're in integrated with all of the business decisions that we're making across the organization.
Technology has really enabled us, having Affinities and similar to Mass General, excuse me we call it ‘We Belong’. We actually rebranded the tool internally So, it's difficult for me to sometimes say Affinities. So, we use We Belong internally and that platform has enabled us to grow immensely because of the reach that it has. And sharing all of the great work as you know everybody's mentioning between events, announcements, all the different things that are happening, this brings all of our groups together also and then it also helps us challenge a lot of the policies that we create. Our Enable Group, which is part of our disabilities, they've helped challenge a lot of our accommodations that we have across many of our sites and facilities that transcend into our patients and customers as well. So, there's a lot of different ways that our ERGs are helping but being able to pull out those metrics out of Affinities has really helped and increase the case and visibility of the ERGs across our business.
17:12 Executive Sponsorships and ERGs
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect and you brought up a really good point around your Executive Sponsorship. How those folks have you know either dotted lines or direct lines to the CEO. You know one thing I'd like to ask you Jesus, is since you've been at
Labcorp since like the forming years of these ERGs, was it always like that or did it require sort of going to the top and getting that type of Executive Sponsorship to really buy in So, you have that level of visibility. So, if you could share some insights just on historically there because I think a lot of the webinar would love to know and especially for those customers who are just getting started on the journey because as you all know these things kind of started grassroots, right? So, like how did that work for you Jesus at your visibility of Labcorp? How do you get that Executive Sponsorship from the top?
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, to be honest with you, that took some time. It took a lot of culture and education, you know to get folks involved in understanding what the true business impact, community impact and just overall positivity that ERGs bring to the organization. Once that piece kind of became evident it's been much easier to have those conversations and get people involved especially at senior levels. And it's important to have your senior level involved because they're making those business decisions.
The other piece is, just like any other part of an organization, ERGs, I consider them kind of like a non-profit to be honest with you, they require a budget. They need some funds in order to operate to actually do things within the organization. They also need some things dedicated. Our ERGs are solely completely voluntary. So, it's above and beyond their day jobs. We’re already amazed by the work that they're doing. They're going above and beyond that work. So, it's important that we are able to show that accountability and what the impact is on the ERGs and help defend some of the budget that we're trying to get to help and support that ERG space.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Definitely. Perfect, appreciate that Jesus. So, teeing up into our next question here, we're staying right on time. When it comes to the term like Health Equity, that's kind of a big thing. It might have different definitions across Hospital Networks or Pharmaceuticals or Diagnostic and Laboratory type companies. But when you're looking at Health Equity and what is that thread into ERGs? How are you promoting Health Equity for your ERGs? How are they helping promote it for your patients or your customer populations? Jesus, I did have you teed up for this question maybe that's a great segue for you to chime in and then we'll let Karla and Brittnee chime in as well. But really if you can help the audience understand what does Health Equity mean to Labcorp. What does that mean in terms of your ERGs and the work that you're doing sort of overseeing all of communities in the organization? I think that'd be a great question for the audience as well.
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, absolutely. And let me start by saying Labcorp's mission is rooted in improving health and improving lives. So, this also means ensuring everyone has a seat at the table when it comes to all decisions around Diagnostic testing and Drug development and making changes to accommodate all types of needs along the way. So, it's a constant evolution. There are things that are constantly changing between our demographics, our backgrounds and So, forth and we want to make sure that we're held accountable to that. Our ERGs play a big part in influencing Health Equity. They help our organization shed light on disparities in Diagnostics and help us expand our thought and remove perceptions. Our ERGs host many panel discussions around events and So, forth around this topic to ensure our Business Leaders always have them in mind and when making those decisions.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you, Jesus. Karla, I'd love to ask if you if you have any other insights on how Takeda views Health Equity and in terms of what is the tie back to your ERGs. I know you gave some really good examples about I believe you said M2S plasma. I'm not really, I'm not a pharmaceutical specialist but maybe if you want to dive deeper into that Karla that'd be really helpful for the audience here.
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: Yeah no, of course and Jesus brought a great point just sharing his company's goal overall, right? What is the purpose as well as in Takeda also we have the purpose of elevating diversity equity and inclusion in all aspects of the organization but because our purpose and our greater purpose is Better Health and brighter future for all. Our Takeda Resource Groups play a critical role in helping us achieve specifically that. And Health Equity is a big area in our company where we are creating opportunities for these communities that we serve, that they are heard through the clinical trials as I mentioned before but also through the spectrum of that patient journey before they, at the research point with the clinical trials but also when they start the medication as well as the type of resources that they receive and So, important that our ERGs also are partnering some instances in providing input on those resources that are needed for those communities.
When it comes to the Black African-American Community, Latino Community, resources that are that are accessible language and culturally appropriate is very important for our company to be aware of those. The access aspect as well as how you are tailoring or providing a specific resources and services to communities that might look different, right? There is there is no one-size-fits-all. It's important to have those considerations when you are having Health Equity. We know the difference of equality versus equity and we can provide everything on medications for everyone but how about the equity part of what specific that you need to tailor those specific needs to that specific patient and population. And our ERGs help us in providing input regarding to that.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you So, much Karla. Brittnee just wanted to see, anything that you'd like to add on to that the Health Equity conversation, what that means at Mass General Brigham?
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, thank you. Health Equity is really at the core of our organization's mission as Mass General Brigham is dedicated to enhancing patient care, teaching, research and taking a leadership role. As an Integrated Health Care System, we increase value and continuously improving the quality of our care is essential to maintaining this excellence. This is easily translated into our Employee Engagement strategy which is really to increase awareness and safe spaces for our employee populations but also impacts the retention and employee satisfaction. As well as being, you know, the leader in helping these employees have a sense of belonging. All of these facets really make our employees feel welcomed and valued and allow them to bring their best selves to work So, that they're able to provide this quality patient care to patients and also the engagement of our workforce.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Definitely and Brittnee, I'd like to sort of dovetail on that question with you and I think a lot of our audience would like to know if you know when you're looking at your ERGs, how far does that extend? Does it go to doctors? Does it go to the nurses that are working in the hospital to all the way down the line? So, could you give some overview of like how far did the ERGs extend because I think even with a lot of our customers, they're always asking you know alright definitely employees, does it go to contractors? Do we allow you know subsidiary business units into the ERGs as well? Because you know all these things have implications into them right and there's all considerations that you have to give. So, Brittnee if you could give some insight just on like what is the level of extent into that that would be really helpful I think for the audience here.
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, thank you. So, prior to 2020, each system, each entity within our system had the option of having ERGs and there were quite a few that did. So, what happened in 2021 was really an engagement to bring all of these ERGs under one D&I Department which is the D&I Department of Enterprise Services and it includes everyone all 82000 of our employees regardless of if they're doctors, researchers, analysts, HR generalists and making sure that we have a wide breadth of membership throughout leadership roles and we don't exclude anyone from any of these resource groups. Some of the departments and places throughout
our system have their own employee resource groups like the Black Analysts Group and a Black Nurses Group. So, there's a way for us to really translate our ERG platform form into a place where everyone can be engaged and start an ERG.
26:20 Product and Service Innovation and ERGs (with examples)
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Excellent. Alright, So, just going into sort of the next question here, Brittnee that we had lined up and like to call on you first really around when you're looking at ERGs and how are they helping with products or services that Mass General is delivering, right. So, obviously some of the panelists here maybe you're doing products some of them maybe you're doing services type of business but when you're really looking at like the core offering that Mass General provides, are you doing any sessions with the ERGs to really get their input into hey we're taking a new product to market or we're launching a new hospital or we're doing a new service. What do you think the considerations are? Any insights you can share there, Brittnee, at least from Mass General and how you leverage the ERGs to get that type of insight because you know at the end of the day when you're launching a new product or service in a business, you don't know what you don't know, right? So, I've always thought ERGs are a great resource to be able to figure out like ‘Hey, are there some things that we need to consider that might not even be in in the lens at the moment’, right? So, if you can share anything like that, Brittnee, that would be helpful. And then you know I'd love to pass that around to Jesus and Karla as well and on the whole R&D, product development, bringing new services to market.
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Definitely. So, what we look at when we look at Employee Resource Groups and how they can interact with the business as a whole including patient care is really a way for them to give input on various D&I strategies and that could look like ERG policies throughout the organization on certain levels. It can also look at the inequities through the system at certain levels and be able to give input based on education and trainings and pilot groups. To be able to roll out this information and get really critical feedback on what is going to make sense within the broader population of our employees, patients, visitors.
So, I'll give one example our LGBTQ Resource Groups started a grassroots initiative in 2021 to really allow employees staff patients and visitors with an opportunity to represent their pronouns with buttons and stickers So, that no one would be using pronouns that weren't represented as what one individual would use. This initiative grew and was made a priority initiative for our entire organizational system with really strong leadership buy-in and you know commitment. So, with senior leader buy-in, came pilots that are happening at some of our institutions and this initiative will be a launched along with educational materials, FAQs to ensure that people feel safe, represented and make sure people aren't experiencing any negative impacts of being misgendered or being represented in the use of their pronouns at any of our institutions or through any of our employee spaces.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you so much for that, Brittnee. Karla, anything to add on there on how your ERGs are helping take new products to market help with R&D, help with new services either internal or those services that you're providing to customers. Anything to dovetail off of what Brittnee said on how you're using these for like pilot groups or sounding boards into the overall, you know, real business and products that Takeda has taken to market?
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: Yeah, well the research and the medication is a little bit different as just a product but what I mentioned before is the perspective of bringing the different ERGs into conversations about if our guidelines when it comes to clinical trials are being fair. There being cultural areas taken into consideration. That's one but also, I mentioned as well the part of the marketing aspect of how our resources are being provided to our patients, I think that's very important. Also, the translation aspect of some of these resources, our TRGs also serve as the reviewing that those translations are also that it makes sense, right that is not very stiff and that is culturally appropriate when we are launching those type of resources to the rest of our patients. So, that's some of the aspects that I've seen more in contact.
As well as when we had these larger celebrations with Hispanic Heritage Month, we make sure that we connect the voice of the employee with the voice of the customers that we serve. Especially when we went through the COVID pandemic, we invited people from the community, even organizations and non-profit organizations to discuss what were the inequities that we found with Black and Brown communities and how that impacted particularly to those communities just to raise the awareness of because that's very close to the communities that we are serving. So, that was a very important, I think impactful initiative that our ERGs were able to bring closer to people that might not able to have that exposure, right. People in the in the company that might be doing research in the lab and might not be hearing them closely what patients or HCPs are dealing with through those hard times that we that we encounter and still after the pandemic we bring in those conversations because it's just So, important to continue bringing awareness of Health Equity.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Definitely. Jesus from your end anything you want to add on to that on how you're leveraging ERG is either a sounding boards, pilot groups, focus groups and things like that to help better deliver the products and services that Labcorp provides into the market?
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, I'll be quickly brief because a lot of the things that everyone covered are similar to some of the experiences that we're doing at Labcorp. I think the biggest part is really just having ERGs and enabling them to be a sounding board for sharing lived experiences. They provide a lens for others to understand and they're often relatable and I think that's where it drives a lot of conversations and thinking from different perspectives and then also incorporating those different groups when they're making those decisions when it comes to not only just policies within the organization but in some cases policies that impact our healthcare, you know, across the US but also on a global scale. So, that's all I wanted to add.
32:55 ERG Metrics and KPIs (with examples)
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you, Jesus. So, just going into the next question here is really talking about measuring success. So, we do have some questions that are already in the chat around KPIs, things like that. That's probably the biggest question that most people ask is how are you measuring? How are you rolling up the overall data? How are you presenting it? To present that ROI business case, right? Because definitely, Jesus, as you mentioned a lot of this stuff is voluntary, right? So, it's just passionate colleagues that you have that say, ‘Hey I want to help lead a community or I want to help lead a safe space for folks to be able to come and bring their whole self to Labcorp or Mass General or Takeda’ and you know to be able to do these types of initiatives to be able to continue to sponsor them obviously we have to prove the value whether that's retention whether that's you know having higher performers whether that's having you have folks that you know just believe in the overall mission of the organization. So, I'd love to just tee up this this high-level question around what are some of those indicators of success? How are you tracking that? And then more importantly who's the audience of those indicators, right? Is it just you know senior leadership in the organization or does that touch a lot more folks across the business? So, for this you know, Jesus, since you know we were just with you maybe I'll call on you first and if you just want to touch on some of the KPIs that you're tracking within Labcorp and then we'll go around the room because obviously this is a big question, we already have some folks in the Q&A asking similar questions to this.
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, sure. Thank you. I'll start with a couple indicators, right. So, for us some of the indicators are around growth and retention - growth of our ERGs and then retention of our employees, right. So, technology has helped us in many ways to report the ERG growth, track where everyone is within our organization. It helps us to be able to see where our footprint is within our ERG space So, that we can partner that with different parts of the business as well. With Affinities you can also see all the work that the ERGs are doing. So, it provides that space that everyone can come to, one collective location and know that this is where everything that's happening when it comes to Employee Resource Groups. Prior to that we were, you know, we were kind of I would say discombobulated. There were things everywhere. Tracking, I mean you're all nodding your heads, you know how administrative a lot of this work is. So, a big part of a of this has been able to even look at data. So, in the past two years, we've been gathering a lot around our growth. We've been gathering some of that data around our growth and tying it back into some of our HR data to see where some of those folks have been staying longer, maybe potentially getting promoted.
A big part of this is also aligning folks with performance reviews. So, we want to make sure a lot of the great work that they're doing in this space is also being documented with their performance reviews, their succession plans, you know because it's very important that it's recognized that there's a lot of great work being done here. So, all of that is being seen by our managers which also trickles up to our senior leaders and like I mentioned before we do partner our leadership with each aspect of our ERGs. So, when we have leadership involved, they can see all of that great work as it's happening throughout the year, we don't end up having to come towards the end of the year and say look this is all the great work that I've done this collectively and then they start making those decisions. We can actually go and start making those decisions in real time now that we couldn't do before. So, that enables us to look at the data a little bit differently and like I said we're just getting started, So, being with the system for two years now it's really starting to open up the door to challenging not just eventually looking at retention and growth but maybe starting to look at deeper dives into the events that we're planning and the different type of information that we're sharing in the ERG space and if that's truly making an impact. Because I love the fact that we can track now how many participants are coming and joining our events. That's something we didn't have two years ago and we were really struggling to maintain. So, technology has been a huge I think propulsion for us in the ERG space.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you, Jesus. Karla would love to pass the mic to you just to talk about you know what does Takeda look at from KPI standpoint? Again, broad brushstroke question, everyone asks the same question but it's one of those things where, it's not something you can just Google, right? So, you can't just Google you know what are the key KPIs for ERGs and really have a concrete response there. So, that's why these webinars are really helpful to really understand like hey all these great companies across the world, what are they really looking at, right? So, Karla from where you sit and I know you know you have that purview over the United States but of course your ERGs are more global. So, I would love to hear both of those perspectives around how does Takeda look at ERGs and who's the audience of those metrics and how are you sharing those out?
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: A lot that I was going to share was excellently shared by Jesus about the importance of having one place to go. I think Affinities, we call it the
TRG Hub, where everything is concentrating and focused it has helped tremendously in setting up the KPIs. In the past as well we didn't have, everything was everywhere -SharePoint, Yammer - we didn't know distribution list manually as we know this is a volunteer role. So, it was very hard and very time consuming for members of these groups and leaders that to have everything in one place.
38:21 ERGs after Mergers & Acquisitions
So, that’s I think that one of the great evolutions I would say because we had our transformation journey, I shared with you that we had different Mergers and Acquisitions in the journey of this Takeda Resource Groups finally in 2019 - 2020 is where we merged Shire and Takeda. So, it was very hard to bring them all together under one umbrella and that's when we started the journey actually with Teleskope at the time in 2021 where we were still aligning and streamlining ERGs coming from this company and from this company, how you bring them under one company, under one umbrella and I think a huge KPI for us was the launch obviously of this technology that allowed us to have clear metrics of where we are at that time, to have a clear baseline and where we moved, right.
So, for us the indicator of success has been first, to have clear metrics of the number of members that are engaged on those TRGs, second, expansion of our TRGs across different locations in the company in the US but also across the US. Chapters that we open in regions then we never had a representation of Employee Resource Groups is a huge indicator for us as well. And thirdly, I will say the visibility, not only for the visibility obviously for all employees about the initiatives the events but also for our leaders. I agree with Jesus, it's so important to have leaders supporting the TRGs to everything has from top to down, down to top like grassroots, we are the grassroots organizations So, I completely agree with that perspective it's a non-profit, it's the grassroots is really the heart of the company and how do we bring that for everyone to leverage and understand the value that it brings. It is not only about celebrations, gatherings but also the impact and the value that they bring to the business and as we mentioned with several examples.
As we became streamlining our technology, I think that really that has helped us with the visibility allowing everyone to see all these great initiatives and events that I our TRGs put together. But this is also the beginning for us. I mentioned that after just one year of launching our TRGs, from January 31st 2022 to January 31st 2023, we had tremendous amount (30 percent) but then in February we had another jump So, now we are at 41 increase of ERG membership and this is just an excellent way to see how using technology plus community plus all the passion of these volunteer groups can help any company succeed in independently of the industry.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Yeah and a couple of points on that one Karla, I think you brought a really good point on Mergers and Acquisitions, right. So, a lot of our customers, especially a lot of the folks on the call probably represent organizations that are very large that constantly are either divesting parts of the business or buying in new businesses and bringing them in and when you're looking at M&A there's so many pieces, right. You have to merge the technology, you have to merge all the business processes but one of the ways that I've always thought ERGs are really instrumental in Mergers and Acquisitions is bringing people together, right. So, what easier way can you like bring cultures together than say ‘Hey, you have these groups, we have these groups, let's figure out how these can merge.’ And then all of a sudden, probably a week after that they're in the same events together, they're putting together comms, right? And you're kind of getting them to coalesce on similar strategies. So, I think that’s an excellent point you brought up there with a merger with Shire and Takeda and how you leverage the ERGs, at least manage that cultural aspect and get people to talk the same language, understand the business, understand the various ebbs and flows of the business. And then also you know one of the things I really appreciate about working with you Karla and Takeda is the global nature of your ERGs, right. I think for a lot of folks, a lot of people think ERGs are just a United States trend but when we work with Takeda and we see ‘hey wait there's TRGs launching in Europe and APAC all over the place right and then you really start to see like these groups really do have global positioning and they can really benefit employees not just in the United States, where we think it's a trend, but really across the globe. So, I've always appreciated that from you Karla and then being able to really understand the breadth and the scope that these can take on. Oh, sorry did you have something to add there?
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: No, I was just going to say we are launching in Japan which and I just want to mention that because that's a culture where it took a long time to understand what is a concept of an ERG. So, I just wanted to add that quick and even in cultures where it's not familiar they are able to see the value of the groups.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Definitely, a 100 percent. Brittnee, I'd love to allow you to chime in on this question as well, of you know how are you measuring what is Mass General Leadership and Mass General as a whole really want to see these groups being able to contribute to the business. So, you know obviously we've had some great responses here from Jesus and Karla, feel free to piggyback on those Brittnee, but would love to give you an opportunity to chime in on that.
43:42 ERG Metrics and KPIs (with examples) contd.
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, with our ERG platform as Jesus kind of mentioned we are able to now finally track and measure the success of the increase ERG membership, the engagement through events, our announcements, offerings, and then important data about employee populations that are represented in each group in terms of what entity they belong to, what are their job positions, what are their leadership roles, titles etc and how this builds out for each ERG. This is helping us build the ERG story for our organization and we really aim to have ERGs represented in our new employee orientations, help people our employees aid and their professional development, help employees feel like they belong and can also be allies as well as trying to recruit and retain talent throughout our system.
Since we've only had Communities since July of 2022, we are just beginning to see these trends and we're able to calculate the projections based on ERG membership and leadership. So, the metrics like event attendance, number of clicks on announcements and newsletters, and ERG member increases, really allow us to show
the increased importance of employee resource groups and employee engagement as a whole so that we can start to tell that story and make it known that Mass General Brigham is proud of their Employee Resource Groups.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect, thank you so much Brittnee. Alright so, we're just going to tee up the last question here before we go into some questions in the chat and this is really all about future state, right. So, all of you have a tremendous experience managing these groups from a very long duration of time but then of course you're always looking like hey what's next, right? What's the next 12 months, 24 months, five years look like for these groups? So, I don't want to put any constraints on the question because every company you know has forward-looking challenges at
different intervals but you know if you really think about like hey where do you want to take your groups 18 months from now, 36 months, five years from now, what does that really look like? I'll start with Jesus just because we just wrapped up with Brittnee but maybe we'll wrap this up as sort of our final question here before we go into some of these Q&A questions but really just thinking about future state and what does that hold for your organizations. Jesus, would you like to go first?
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, that's it's a bit of a tough question for me and I'll tell you why. I just want to give you a little bit of backstory. So, Labcorp is actually in the process of spinning off roughly about 20000 employees into its own organization called Fortrea which is public knowledge now and I'm excited to say that is literally in wholly going to be a drug development business and it's going to be operating on its own. What's great is that we're mirroring the footprint that we have within our ERG space so that Fortrea starts with a DEI program and all eight ERGs from the start which is difficult to say about any company or organization starting out right away with ERGs. So, I'm really excited to kind of work through that but in that same token, Labcorp will be losing a decent amount of members and leadership within the ERG community. So, for us it's kind of a level set perspective right now so that we can understand where we are in the footprint of the organization leaving the organization staying and how we can establish the growth of the ERG going forward and maintain all eight ERGs going forward within the organization So, that's a big part of what I'm focusing on in the next year, year and a half but I'd say long-term growth is really getting out the education of why ERGs is important but to the point where everyone in the organization understands that. You know we're roughly 80000 globally we're going to go down to about 60000 but we still are having Mergers and Acquisitions. So, it's not to say that we wouldn't be back up to that head count at some point.
So, it's always going to be trying to grow one - the education the training and everything that's needed behind employee research groups and why they add value to the organization and once we can actually shift that that that's the full culture within the organization I think that's when we'll start to really make an impact and I think at that point I can hopefully say I don't have too much work to do then but until then there's a lot to go around you know. An 80000 global company it takes a lot to communicate to all of those employees when a lot of their focus is driven on the work that they're doing day to day. So, to get that attention out in the forefront, we want to make sure that everyone understands that these groups are here and they're here to support they're also here for allyship. So, if you want to learn and understand what those Employee Resource Groups do what they you know what they're about we don't restrict any of the information within our ERG space to any of our employee population.
So, I know before you kind of mentioned, you know, what's the difference between employees and contingent workers, contract workers and so forth. We allow everyone to view the content, you know it's shareable to everyone within the organization but some of our leadership roles we do restrict that to only employees because we want to make sure that we maintain the continuity of the ERG within the leadership space going. So, some of those roles we dictate depending on you know the needs of those roles but we open up all the information to everyone and I think that's information that we also share can share with other companies as we're doing now today and I think that this is a lot of value add to for others to understand what you know big companies are doing, little companies are doing across the not just the US but the world. Because we can take some of that knowledge and really use it in our own spaces. So, I'm really thankful for you know bringing us here and being able to share you know what our company is doing.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Yeah, definitely Jesus and we definitely got a challenge out for you. So, we'll be there to support you through your journey and yeah sort of cross that finish line. But yeah, I think that's actually a really good point you brought up, right. So, with corporations they're like organisms, right? They're going to dissolve, they're going to grow, they're going to expand, they're gonna you know f kind of tighten and things like that and you gotta have to be ready for any one of those particular scenarios, right. So, I actually really appreciate you sharing that insight because it's not always hey what's two years out, what’s three years out, we might need to step back and like level up the entire thing again and then regrow again. Every tree has to be pruned, right? Alright so, yeah keeping on this question, just future state, what doesthat look like. Love to toss it over to Brittnee and then we'll wrap up with Karla on what does future state look like for your ERGs. Don't constrain yourself to a timeline but whatever that looks like from the future state of today. Brittnee, if you want to chime in there?
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, thanks Maneet. So, what we have kind of established is a five-year rolling plan and you know it's all fluid, right. It all moves at a different pace but for us the future really looks like our engagement with talent acquisition how important it will be for employees to know or future employees to know how important Resource Groups are in our system and how they can really help this employee satisfaction portion of our metrics. Also, making ERGs as a pillar of excellence within our organization. How do people really talk about our ERGs? whether that's in the employee system or outside in the community, on ERGs helping with community-based organizations and events. It also looks like, you know, the idea of giving rewards and recognition to our leaders and active ERG members. Part of that is ERG leader compensation how are we looking at making sure that our ERG leaders feel engaged enough and are passionate enough but also are getting paid or recognized for the hard work that they're doing within these resource groups. And that also looks like promotional opportunities and career development. So, trying to fold that in into annual reviews for performance and understanding that this is really a stepping stone to being a leader in other spaces throughout the organization in terms of promotion So, there are many different ways we're looking at these plans for the future but I think most of all it's really what Jesus said and in making sure people know the ERGs story, no matter who they are. We still get people who don't know what Employee Resource Groups are within in our system and that's something we want to challenge, right. We want people to know that there are these communities for them, there are places where they can engage with people like themselves, with similar lived
experiences and also learn because I think that sometimes that cultural acumen piece needs to be here within this ERG space so that people can learn about other cultures educate themselves and not tokenize the people who are actually part of these affinity
groups. To allow them to learn about other cultures and other affinities.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you so much Brittnee and we'll wrap up here with Karla - future state what does that look like for Takeda, Karla?
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: Yeah, I would say one word our future looks evolution, as an evolution. We were in this transformation first process now we are evolving our group So, three things that we have in mind, allyship campaign which leverages our Takeda Resource Groups in a sense that everyone knows how to leverage the groups; active allyship because there is not such a thing as a passive allyship. So, looking for allyship from everyone in the business and how they leverage our groups.
Secondly, also the Rewards and Recognition program where they feel value and that could take in different ways right, it could be from the manager's perspective how do they embed in they are not performance reviews, their role and impact that this this this leaders have, as well as leaders in general from their professional debate development looking at promotions. So, and rewards as well right for their time we are looking at some out of the box ways that we can start rewarding our groups. So, that's coming.
And lastly, expansion I would say, the expansion of our groups across continue growing chapters and across the globe and the moving the evolution goes into continue having a business impact through all these three packets that we are setting up for the next few years.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect, thank you so much Karla. So, with that said we're right on time here we have a few minutes left on the call. We have a bunch of questions in the chat just for our attendees. We probably won't be able to get through all of them, definitely just want to be respectful of our panelists time here. But maybe we can go through a couple of these and just to see if anyone wants to weigh in. So, the one we always get on these webinars is budgets how do you do budgets is it you know do you give them a blanket dollar amount in the beginning of the year is it up to their discretion to use it how they want are there constraints on the budget? Is it you know dollar per member for each group? How does this work? It's probably one of the biggest questions we get all the time and every customer is going to be different. So, if there's anyone who wants to chime in on that first, Jesus, Karla or Brittnee, again feel free to share to the extent that which you can share. Of course, this is a public webinar but it's just a question that we always get. So, I do think the attendees here would really like to answer anyone want to chime in first here?
Karla Zevallos [Takeda]: Maybe I can just chime in something quick because I also would like to hear from from Jesus and Brittnee. Transparency is very important. The transparency and also the equitable aspect of it. So, we do have and thanks to our and we had our head of D&I, prior to the person that we have now, who set up this concept of having equitable like an annual if you will, a salary that you have like a minimum and then after that you know you help the groups that are more advanced in their maturity to have more access to those funds that are aligned with events and initiatives that are aligned to the business impact. So, I would say transparency, equity and also the the intentional aspect of having a business impact having an impact with utilizing that budget.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: thank you Karla. I really appreciate you chiming in there. Brittnee, would you like to chime in on this particular question of how does Mass General look at budgeting for ERGs? How does that come from any type of insights that you can share from your end?
Brittnee Bleau [Mass General Brigham]: Yeah, so, prior to April 2020 or 2022 it was all over the board because they existed at each different institution but now that they're all being run by our D&I department, we are looking to kind of unify this throughout the organization of ERGs. So, mainly people have been granted the budgets that they had when they were at their entities and we're hoping to this year implement action planning and making sure people from the ERG leadership can really task out their year and see what kind of budget projection they could use for the events the activities the swag etc. So, that's a really good way for us to kind of start the zero-based budgeting and see what we could use for all of their events, activities and allow them to flex throughout the year because we know that not all of this action planning is going to end up in your final year review of your ERG So, really making sure that people have the flexibility to do what they need to do and tap into our resources. So, currently our women's ERGs are doing an international women's day event and they have all done that as an ERG. So, they have taken it out of their ERG budgets. But when it's a system-wide activity and D&I takes the lead, we use all of our ERGs to kind of influence that event, that offering and then we end up taking the pay so that they don't have to take that out of their own budgets. So, that's similarly how we do it, yeah.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Excellent. Perfect, alright and we'll wrap up here with Jesus. Jesus any final commentary from your end on budgets, ERG budgets and how that's done within Labcorp.
Jesus Morales II [Labcorp]: Yeah, I will say kind of similar to Mass General. So, a little bit early on we've only been really having budgets in the last two years that we've had We Belong platform. So, for us it's enabled us to track the usage and we've kind of backed into that some in some cases because we found that some ERGs were not using the budget, you know. So, we would reallocate that depending accordingly, you know, to other ERGs. Our ERGs also help with a lot of different sponsorships and partnerships. So, some of that those budgetary funds come with some of those sponsorships and partnerships because they enable us to you know connect with those similar to like out in equal we also do a partnership with HBA which is Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association being part of healthcare. So, those partnerships enable the ERGs to gather more information, be able to share more content, plan more events and it and it creates some space for members to become more active participants enjoying some of these different sponsorships and opportunities. So, that's another way for us to kind of defend the budget as well because some of the sponsorships are not cheap. So, we have to make sure that we're getting enough and we also align all of the budget accordingly based on a percentage of how many chapters each of the ERGs have. So, that way at least at the chapter level they have some monies and funds so that they can utilize to build up their chapters locally.
Maneet Sarai [Teleskope]: Perfect. Thank you, Jesus. Alright, so, that does conclude our webinar. For the folks who ask questions in the chat what we'll try to do is copy those down and provide answers to that as a follow-up when we send out the recording for the webinar. But let me just take a second to thank our panelists here, Jesus, Karla and Brittnee, thank you so much for taking time out of your Friday just to spend some time with the audience and the community to share your insights. It's always much appreciated. And for our attendees on the call thanks a lot for taking some time out of your Friday to listen to our panelists hear their insights and as I mentioned we will be doing more of these throughout the year. It's a series that we will be running across different industries including food and beverage, CPG as well as retail and a handful of other industries that we get to work with. But once again thank you to our panelists for attending and we will wrap this up here and send out the recording shortly. So, thanks a lot everyone, really appreciate it, enjoy your Friday and enjoy your weekend have a good one, bye.