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Employee Resource Group: Women in Norton Rose Fulbright
Employee Resource Group: Women in Norton Rose Fulbright
Olivia McDonnell, Co-chair of the Women in Norton Rose Fulbright (“WiN”) network, discusses its importance and how to keep up the momentum.
Employee Resource Groups (“ERGs”) have been around for many years. I remember when I first became acquainted with the term “ERGs”. I was in the earlier days of my career as a paralegal at global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright where I am now an associate. A colleague suggested that I joined Women in Norton Rose Fulbright (which we call “WiN”).
WiN is one of eight ERGs at the firm in the UK, and it was in full swing at the time I joined. Some of things it offered at the time were training sessions tailored to women on topics such as imposter syndrome, public speaking and financial planning, as well as social events such as yoga in the office. It was, and remains, a fantastic way to meet peers across the firm.
Seven years on and it is still thriving. I am lucky enough to have chaired the network for the past four years together with an excellent group of co-chairs. We have achieved a lot although despite the network’s past successes it has taken time to continue to build traction. Why is that? Because ERGs need to adapt with their organisation and the needs of their people.
What are ERGs and why are they important?
ERGs are employee-led groups that focus on characteristics or life experiences that they share, although they are open to all. Their aims include building awareness, providing development and networking opportunities, supporting the practice’s business development and increasing our interaction with the wider community. ERGs help improve employee experience and drive engagement. As a result, ERGs complement the work that an organisation is undertaking through its DE&I teams to increase inclusivity.
ERGs also help to alleviate any feelings that employees have a lesser voice in their organisations because they act as tool to bring employees and management together in creating a workplace that they all want to be a part of.
Research undertaken by McKinsey1 found that employees who rated their ERGs “effective” or “very effective” were much more likely to say they feel included than employees who rated their ERGs “ineffective” or “very ineffective”.
What have we achieved as an ERG?
WiN has accomplished a great deal in recent years to support women at our firm and in the wider community. This includes: working with senior leadership to improve our family policies; hosting high-profile speakers such as Baroness Helena Morrissey DBE and, in partnership with Legal Women, Emily Thornberry MP; roundtable discussions with an executive coach
for our senior associates; fireside discussions with female partners highlighting their career stories; speed networking sessions for female junior associates; working with writer Laura Bates to improve the existence of male allyship; establishing a book swap highlighting female authors; opportunities for our female associates to network with clients at the Royal Opera House and with Jo Malone London; and celebrating International Women’s Day 2024 with an expo on female entrepreneurship.
We are particularly proud of the work we have done to improve our family policies around fertility support. Our firm now offers 10 days paid fertility leave and greater support to those undergoing fertility treatment.
What challenges might ERGs face?
One of the biggest challenges we face is ensuring that we can engage the right people and reach all those who want to participate in the network. To address this, we have to do two things; keep our ears to the ground in order to understand what women in the organisation want to see from us and not be afraid to ask “big” – and ask for the support we need from our sponsors in order to deliver it.
Our sponsors are senior stakeholders in the business who are willing to listen to our ideas and can act as a voice for the ERG. These sponsors have been instrumental in what we have been able to achieve, and I encourage everyone in a similar position in their organisation to think about how they can support ERGs.
What does the future hold?
Staying relevant is not easy, it takes many hours of strategic planning and having the right conversations across our organisation, but it is absolutely worth it. We can see that ERGs can have a direct impact on employee satisfaction and in turn, become critical to our business.■
Olivia McDonnell
Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright
1Catalino N and others, ‘Effective Employee Resource Groups Are Key to Inclusion at Work. Here’s How to Get Them Right’ (McKinsey & Company, 7 December 2022) accessed 20 June 2024
