April 1, 2024

The Resource: Employee Stories About Building Internal Communities of Empowerment

Writer Sinead Chang
Designer Aodan Reddy

April is Celebrate Diversity Month. To honor it, we brought together leaders of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)—a core part of who we are at Day One—to interview each other about the important work they do to champion diversity, inclusion and belonging as they lead their group.

Individual ERGs were launched in September 2022, branching out to cover more ground than our initial all encompassing group, Belong, could accomplish on its own. Now, we have six ERGs: Kinship (parents and caregivers), Mi Gente (Latine), She1A (women), Slay One (LGBTQQIP2SA+), The Get Together (Black) and The Round Table (AAPI), which were all employee-initiated. Leads have done everything from choosing the type of group and crafting its mission statement, to creating the logo, branding and coming up with its name. In less than two years, we’ve had 50+ successful programs, events and initiatives and as of April 2024, 95% of our total employees are in at least one ERG.

While each ERG has its own focus and mission, members are always finding ways to connect with others, like through agency-wide events and collaborations between ERGs. In these one-on-one conversations, Mi Gente and The Round Table found similarities in the ways their personal experiences inspired them to lead their group, She1A and The Get Together discussed challenges that Black women face in the workplace and Kinship and Slay One shared how they hope their groups will transform the workplace experience.

Scroll on to watch three edited conversations between six of our ERG leaders:

Mi Gente x The Round Table

Bryan Lezama, of Mi Gente, and Becky Wentworth, of The Round Table, discuss how they ensure their groups represent the diversity of their members.

Mi Gente’s mission is to create an engaged community of Latine talent within D1A that sparks conversation and creative ideas all while creating cultural awareness and celebrating the Latine culture.

Round Table’s mission is to facilitate an inclusive and safe space for members to gather, discuss current events and celebrate their AAPI heritage.

Video Editors: Nnamdi Nwigwe, Brendan Cook; Producers: Darian Carpenter, Brent Pritchett, Randi White, Keaton Savage; Creative Direction: Sinead Chang, Carolyn Cutrone; Videographers: Yohance Barton, Ethan Newmyer Izzi Snieder

She1A x The Get Together

Carolyn Cutrone, of She1A, and Tyniece McKelvey, of The Get Together, discuss the importance of having a community to turn to for support at work and the intersectionality between their groups.

She1A’s mission is to build connections, develop careers and foster support among women employees.

The Get Together aims to foster a supportive work environment for the advancement of our Black employees through activities that encourage professional development and efforts to attract, retain and empower Black talent.

Kinship x Slay One

Jesse Hicks, of Kinship, and Kristi Gramlich, of Slay One, discuss why feeling comfortable being your whole self at work is so important.

Kinship aims to promote an inclusive place of safety and belonging for parents and caregivers, helping to attract, develop, retain and promote their advancement.

Slay One's mission is to provide LGBTQIA2S+ employees a community by which to attract, develop, retain, and promote their advancement… and just “slay”.