Standing up a New Employee Resource Group for Families
What started as a chat thread of parents and caregivers popping in for advice, resources, or to share experiences during the first days of Covid grew into a community of people coming together for support in navigating the challenges that working parents face. From that organic community, the fifth CapTech Employee Resource Group (ERG) was established last summer. With a mission of providing a forum for parents, caregivers, parents-to-be, and all interested employees to help each other through workplace issues – such as taking leave, managing benefits, juggling obligations, and handling different caregiving obstacles – our Families ERG has created a network of awareness and support for its members.
“With the events that occurred over the last couple of years, we realized that our parents were dealing with changes at home, and they were facing family situations between the hours when they may have traditionally been in an office. We felt there was a need to get together to learn from each other, to make sure people felt supported, to make sure they had a voice, and to try to make life a little easier for those trying to balance family and work,” said Managing Director, Human Resources, and CapTech Families executive sponsor, Katy Apostolides.
Echoing Katy’s sentiments, and instrumental in standing up the Families ERG were Chad Hilliger, Sr. Manager, Management Consulting, and Joe Nelson, Manager, Data and Analytics. CapTech has always been a place with a flexible mindset, appreciating the need for work-life balance for everyone, so creating a space for parents and caregiver colleagues was a natural fit with existing ERGs. Understanding what is most important to parents and caregivers has been key in providing true benefits for members.
“We try to be low-touch but high-impact and make the most of the time we have this group come together,” said Chad Hilliger, speaking to the connectivity of the Families ERG outside of the continuous member chat threads happening daily. Making sure rich content was offered for its more than 200 members, the ERG has hosted “fireside chats” for open discussions and sponsored guest speakers to share expertise around difficult topics such as education, cybersecurity issues facing children, and wills and estate planning. The ERG has also relied on benefit providers such as ReThink and Modern Health to provide education sessions specific to family and caregiving needs.
Built on the foundation of providing a network of support, Chad, Joe, and Katy envisioned a group that would be a safe space to foster connections and contributes to the different parental and caregiving stages and challenges. “I think empathy from other people, who have gone through or are going through the same things, and just the knowledge exchange, can help you find people or resources that help us bring our whole selves to work,” said Joe Nelson.
CapTech is proud to have employee-founded and led ERGs that help carve out room for everyone, upholding the company’s core values, and enriching the culture. To learn more about our approach to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and our other ERGs, please visit our Inclusion page.
