As a candidate in today’s current hiring environment, with as many open opportunities that exist, you want to make sure that an employer fits all of your needs, not just a fit to a specific position. If you’ve ever felt like an employer didn’t align with you past the actual role, then feeling connected as your whole self and finding an employer that supports this connection is highly important.
Schellman decided to build this valuable community aspect into our company culture. Thus was born our ERGs. Schellman’s Employee Resource Groups exist to benefit individual team members but also to align group members and our firm as a whole. They promote leadership and development, act as a support system, and foster diversity and inclusion.
As part of the Talent Acquisition team here at Schellman, I’ve spoken to hundreds of candidates, and in order to make sure that a new role parallels their values as well as well as their background and experience, some of the consistent questions they ask are around our ERGs.
In this article, we will describe all of our different ERGs and explain how they support our employees. By the end of this article, you’ll have a solid understanding of our different groups and how important they are to our firm.
What are our Employee Resource Groups?
Under our ERG umbrella are Employee Advocacy Groups and Employee Resource Groups, which are all part of the Schellman Cares program.
Schellman created these special groups to bring together employees that find a connection with their core values.
Our EAGs are meant to encourage diversity and multicultural awareness. Our ERGs are meant to increase development and leadership.
Our Employee Advocacy Groups:
1. BRAVO 
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statics report titled “Employment Situation of Veterans- 2019”, a little over 6% of the US labor force is comprised of veterans. As Nick Rundhaug, the group Chair states, “We need to ensure that we not only meet this industry standard but strive to find ways to surpass it and make Schellman a desirable destination for the veteran workforce.” BRAVO helps to accomplish this goal by evaluating the needs for our current Veteran employees as well as the benefits for our Reserve members.
BRAVO stands for Bringing Resources and Awareness to Veteran Opportunities. The group seeks to promote inclusiveness and opportunity for veterans in our (or other) workforce. BRAVO accomplishes this by participating in job fairs and social meet-ups for Veterans. They also offer charity suggestions to the firm for Veteran Appreciation month in May, and volunteer for Hire Heroes USA. The group’s members meet every other quarter in order to plan their initiatives throughout the year.
2. PRIDE
PRIDE’s charter is “Come As You Are, Be Who You Are”. With the goal of enabling every team member to bring their authentic selves to work while fostering an inclusive environment, PRIDE is an initiative that champions LGBTQ+ equality and rights. Their Co-Chairs meet every 6 weeks and their overall membership is around 50. PRIDE coordinates quarterly events or initiatives such as fireside chats, newsletters and zoom meets ups. Their Fall Newsletter highlighted two significant months: October (LGBTQ+ History Month) and November (Trans Awareness Month).
Ryan Meehan, Pride group member, states “Despite progress made, there are still many parts of the country, and the world for that matter, where members of the LGBTQ+ community face discrimination on a daily basis. The PRIDE group at Schellman seeks to change this starting with our Firm and then, hopefully, our communities.”
3. PRISM
PRISM stands for Promoting Racial Inclusion and Supporting Multiculturalism. One of their big strategic objectives is to create awareness through dialogue to increase the level of education and inclusivity of our firm’s members. There are currently 7 members who meet weekly and plan initiatives, such as the 2022 Annual Black History Month Newsletter. Attendance of more than 80 members is typical for the panel discussions they host.
Ryan Buckner, one of the founding members of PRISM, echoes that objective in the following: “We hope PRISM will allow for and facilitate opportunities to educate ourselves, our families and our clients on how important it is to offer resources and support to people who matter.” Through initiatives such as the Newsletter, we increase our goal in education by providing information on Black History and Contributors to our firm and networks.
4. WIN
WIN is our Women’s Influence Network. The group strives to empower women by offering a support system that includes strategy, advice and mentorship to help our firm’s female members achieve both personal and professional success. WIN meets weekly and organizes a quarterly initiative. This quarter’s focus was “Go Red For Women” in conjunction with the American Heart Association. Under WIN’s direction, our firm has raised almost $5,000 with matching to date. There are four co-chairs that head up the group but almost 70 members have participated in past events like “Go Red”.
According to one of WIN’s founders, Nisha Sunadham, “SchellmanWIN creates a safe space for everyone at Schellman to share their thoughts and insights. The goal is to foster deeper connections between coworkers while encouraging women to speak up and be more confident in themselves.”
Our Employee Resource Groups:
1. YPN
Our Young Professionals Group was created with the intention of supporting our earlier career team members. The group serves as a business resource network targeted at young professionals and aims to create connections within the firm to increase conversation, skills and reflection around career enhancement. The group of 5 meets monthly to discuss upcoming initiatives, including an Enneagram Personality Test, and check in on team members’ goals.
James Delage, the founder of YPN, said he created the group as “Schellman places an emphasis on professional development and this idea was meant to align with that objective in a format targeted at the people with the most to learn.”
2. WELL
WELL’s charter is to “Ignite Wellbeing”. The purpose is to encourage employees to take control of and improve their lifestyles on the road to a healthy, active, and long life. The group has a quarterly meeting and also posts on our Yammer pages often, offering information on wellness that would be beneficial to all members of the firm.
Adam Bush, one of the three Chairs of WELL states, “Our mission is to create opportunities for employees and their families to progress in their physical, emotional, social and financial wellbeing.”
Supporting Our Employees Matters
At Schellman, as we strive to meet our goal of support, our groups continue to grow and expand. We will add new ones in the future and roll out initiatives that go hand-in-hand with the groups throughout the year. Our Employee Resource Groups continue to be a valuable part of our employee experience and a part in which we hope aligns with our candidates’ values as well.
We’ve walked you through our current ERGs and how they have helped impact our employee culture here at Schellman. We know how important it is to create an environment of inclusion, for both our team and talent that is considering a position with our firm..
Schellman is a leader in offering additional enrichment that enhances an employee’s position and overall support system.
Now that you know all about our ERGs, here’s an excellent article about our benefits and how they have evolved over the past years.