The art of building an engaged parent & caregiver ERG

ERGs have exploded in popularity over the last several years as companies look to be more inclusive and supportive.

Data shows that this strategy is working: 

A recent study found that 71% of employers say that ERGs positively impact employees’ sense of inclusion and 47% of employees who participate in ERGs are more likely to stay with their employer.

So what goes into launching an ERG? How can you boost member engagement and design programming that appeals to different communities?

Gloria Jackson, senior director of customer service and global lead for the Parents and Caregivers ERG at Verizon, joined us today to help answer these questions.

Gloria has been with Verizon for nearly two decades, where she became a mother early in her career. She’s a passionate advocate for working parents and believes it’s possible to balance a successful career and parenthood with the right support and mindset.

In this episode, she shares advice for those interested in launching a caregiver ERG, including how to build a community that welcomes parents from all walks of life.

We also talk about her personal experience as a high-performing employee and single mother, and how she navigated the challenges of balancing her career and motherhood.

‍

Allison: Glo, thank you so much for joining me today on the False Tradeoff podcast.

Glo: Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Allison: Why don't we start with a really easy question, which is I'd love for you to share some context around your path to working parenthood.

Glo: Absolutely. So I will tell you, my path was not a planned path whatsoever. So I remember almost like it was yesterday when my son's father and I at the time found out that I was pregnant. I remember feeling so excited, right? And then almost immediately I thought about work right away and I don't know if anybody else has had that experience.

At the time, my career was just taking off. I knew that I was doing really well in the role that I was in, and I had my eyes set on another role. And then I found out that I was pregnant. And so I just remember, I don't even think I told anybody. I was pregnant until about six months. Being a former athlete, I didn't really show for some time. And when I finally shared with my boss at the time that I was pregnant.

I just remember feeling like, my God, what are they going to say? But he was so welcoming and encouraging and probably as excited out as I was when I first found out. And, you know, and the rest was kind of history. I had my son a short time later, went out for eight weeks and working in the sales environment at the time, I jumped right back in it during the holiday season.

Allison: And at that point in time, it's interesting that you talk about the excitement immediately turning to fear. I felt the exact same way with my first child. And to a certain extent with the second and third as well.

You had been at your company for a while at that point, right? And so it's interesting to me that you had that feeling. Were you able to get past that fear as you were pregnant or was that a pervasive feeling throughout the entire pregnancy?

Glo: You know, I think with any first time mothers, right, you know, there's the fear that exists about, you know, motherhood and kind of the unknown. But then, you know, again, still thinking very much about my career, I just didn't know what would happen, right? Like I knew that I had these dreams to promote. And I will say that I was very much mobile, right?

So if the company would have told me, hey, Glo, we have this great opportunity, you know, in Texas, at that time I was willing to go. And I knew that me being pregnant, it would, you know, kind of lower my mobility. And so I thought about that, right? Didn't even have an offer in another state, but that was a concern of mine. And so eventually the fear began to subside a little bit because I just really realized, I feel like I can have both. And I just knew I needed to figure out how to successfully merge career as well as motherhood.

Allison: How was the return experience after eight weeks coming into a sales role, which is notoriously very difficult to step away from and then come back to.

Glo: You know, my return was pretty good. So at the time I was working in a role that I had multiple stores, right? So my territory kind of spanned, you know, multiple areas. And so I remember I would go visit my first couple of stores in the morning and then I would go back home and visit my son for my lunch. And then I would go back out and visit my territory. And then once he actually started going to daycare, I couldn't do that anymore, right? It kind of changed up the dynamic a little bit.

And so I remember, you know, just feeling like I miss him, right? I miss him. And throughout my day, I would, you know, look at videos and things of that sort. But for me, you know, I just figured out what worked, right? Going home for lunch at the time, it worked for me. And then by the time he went to daycare, I was just very, you know, kind of strict about my schedule a little bit so that I knew that I could get him in time.

Allison: And then at some point you became a single working parent. How did that change the way that you showed up at work?

Glo: So I will tell you, so when my son's father and I decided that, you know, the relationship was no longer working, you know, now we have this co -parenting schedule, right? And so by this time I have returned to the actual retail store environment. And so, you know, retail hours and it's not the same, right? There's no such thing as a set schedule. And this was probably one of the most pivotal moments for me, right?

Because you think about it as often mothers, we try to, you know, make it look like we have it all together, right? And so having this schedule that was constantly changing, I knew that it wasn't working for me. Mentally, I was just exhausted. You know, I would leave for work. By the time I get home, my son's asleep. And I said it wasn't working.

And so it was about me finally being vulnerable and trusting my leader enough to say, hey, you know, I'm no longer in this relationship and I need some type of accommodation, right? And so oftentimes we don't like to share our business or we don't want to feel like, you know, we don't have it together, but I knew that it was so important for me to share that with him. And once I shared it with him, he immediately, right?

And this is the leader, he didn't have any children of his own, right? But he was like, okay, Glo, let's figure this out. And so together we sat down and we came up with a schedule that worked for me and that worked for the rest of the store. And I was able to kind of manage through at that time. And I think often, again, it comes down to we don't want to appear like we don't have it together.

But I think by sharing that, we give people an opportunity to assist us. And so me being vulnerable in that moment ultimately has given me the courage to continue to be vulnerable about what I need, as well as what other parents or caregivers may need in the workspace.

Allison: You know, when we first created our career coaching program years and years ago, we realized shortly after we released it that we had not been as inclusive as we could be in the language that we were using in our program.

For example, we built it to be gender neutral by design. So, you know, that we did a good job on. But what we realized when we reflected on the materials is there was an assumption that there was another human involved, right? That there were two co -parents, that there were two active co -parents, whether they were together or not.

And in fact, when we did a deeper dive into sort of like the inclusivity of the language of our programming, we realized, if we're being honest, like we are kind of assuming that there are two parents in the same household. So when childcare falls through, you know, talk to your partner about who's gonna do what throughout the day.

And so we did this whole review where we went back and we revised all of that to be more inclusive and reflective, not assuming that there's another partner. I share that example because I'm curious, you've now become a very vocal advocate for mentoring and supporting single parents. Are there certain things that you feel companies need to do or focus on to be super supportive to the single parenting journey?

Glo: Absolutely. I think the way that you framed it up, you all noticed that your language was more geared towards the assumption of two people in the household. And so I think it ultimately comes down to inclusivity. So when you're thinking through support, when we're thinking about creating these communities and companies, we have to make sure that we think about all facets of it. So you think about employee resource groups. We cover so many different types of individuals, right, different demographics.

And so one of the most important demographics in the workspace in the country is the working parent, right? And then when you think through, you know, well, who are the working parents? Well, they're couples, they're men, they're single moms, right? And so I think it's important just to include all of those pieces. And then the other part of it is, and I think this was the Bureau of Labor Statistics last year, it's like 73 % of mothers are in the workforce.

And so that's a huge number. And if we don't have support and we don't have resources available for this group, then what does that mean to the business? Right. What does that mean to your bottom line? If we don't make it easier for these people to be successful and productive and even efficient in the workplace.

So we know that more engaged workers, you know, tend to lead to better results. And so that's why I think it's so important that we do create a space and a community for single mothers, mothers, fathers, or whoever it may be. But I just don't think that we can forget about this particular dynamic.

Allison: How do you personally make space to work with parents within your organization? Because I find that a lot of people who are passionate about this subject struggle to figure out in what way should I be involved? Because this could take up your entire day and night, right?

So I'm curious about how you think about personally, what is the best way for you to drive impact? Whether it's at work or even with other women outside of your organization to support them, how do you think about what is most appealing to you?

Glo: You know, for me, ultimately it comes down to being passionate about it, right? I think anything that you do from a volunteer aspect that may take your time, you have to feel passionate about it. And so I always think about how I felt, right? When I first became a mom, here I was this, you know, this young woman and I was very, you know, excited about career possibilities. And then this great thing happens to me and I'm concerned about if I have to choose one or the other.

And I come from this space of you can have it all, but you just define what all looks like for you. And so, you know, as I was continuing to grow in my career, women actually started to seek me out first, right? And they were like, hey, I know you have this kid, like, how are you doing this? Like you moved from Chicago to Detroit for a job and took your child with you. Like, how did you do it? And I'm like, wow, it has to be a space for the conversation.

And so, and just thinking about others and wanting other people to have some of the same opportunities that I had, that's where I just decided to kind of lean into it a little bit, right? And so I've been fortunate enough to be at a company that has allowed me the space to serve as an advocate for this particular group of people. And I just really enjoyed it. And to see people continue to progress in their careers while still having their version of it all, right? Family and all of the things in between, I can't help but want to be a part of it. I did it.

First of all, let me just say this. Community is everything, right? And so I know I mentioned about, you know, me moving with my son for a job opportunity. And so I'll take you back. So my son is 11 now, almost at 10. He would have gotten me for that. He's 11 now.

Allison: How do you answer that question of how did you do it?

Glo: And I remember that this great district manager opportunity popped up. And so, you know, and I mentioned that I had a parenting agreement. And so if anybody knows when you have a parenting agreement, you just can't pick up with the kid and go, right? Like you have to go to court and you have to, you know, mediate what does that new agreement look like? And so I was doing all these things and I was like, what am I going to do when I get there? Right? Like, you don't know anybody. I'm going to have to get a sitter the whole nine. And I went to my mom.

And my mom was still working at the time. And I said, look, I really, really want this job, but I need you to come and help us get us settled. And so my mom agreed to come to Michigan with us for two weeks. And so I jumped right into work and she helped us get settled. Right. She was a familiar face for my son. Here he is and pre -K at the time. And she helped us get settled. Right. And then I think to my girlfriends, you know, cause there's a social aspect for me as a mother too. Right. Like I left a bunch of people behind and they would just show up on the weekends to spend a couple of days with us.

And so the community, right, was really essential in aiding me in that space. And so my son's father, again, while we aren't together, right, you know, he would show up for some moments as well, but it ultimately goes back to asking for help, right? And being vulnerable enough to say, I don't have it all together and I can't do it all by myself.

Allison: Mm-hmm.

Glo: And then that was, you know, that's what really helped me be able to kind of navigate through certain situations.

Allison: Has your definition of having it all changed over the past 11 years?

Glo: I think it's always changing, right? And I think it really depends on what it all means to you, right? And I think sometimes that you can't have it all at the same time, right? And so, you know, for me, all at one time was really about the career journey and moving really fast. And then it turned into, I wanna be able to spend more time with my family, right? And so I think it's an ever -changing thing. And I think it makes you feel good, if it makes your family feel good, then I think that's what's most important.

Allison: Let's talk a little bit about your involvement with the ERG. You are part of the Parents and Caregivers ERG at your employer. And it's something that's very, very important to you. You've mentioned already why that is important, but I'm curious, what impact do you think it has? Like what concrete deliverables or impact are you going for with the ERG aside from community? Like are there other things that you're hoping to achieve via your personal involvement in the ERG?

Glo: Absolutely, you know, ultimately we're all here because we do want to have, you know, really strong careers. And so for a long time, and I believe this across, you know, many, many companies and things, people would come to work and you kind of leave your personal self at home, right? You come to work and you handle business, but the reality is that that's impossible.

Right? When you're going through things at home, you're bringing that to work. Right? And then there are sometimes where we're bringing work home. So how do we create a space where we can have these real conversations about the two? Right? And so when you think about the work that we do, we have these conversations that make people feel more comfortable to ask for the additional support. Right? So I talk about when I knew that my schedule was too much and I went to my leader and I gave him the opportunity to assist, everybody isn't that comfortable, right? And so when you create a space where you're having these conversations on a larger scale, it makes people feel more comfortable, and takes best practices that they can then use in their own workspaces in order to do it, right? We often talk about transferable skills.

I mean, it's some things that you can do as a parent from a multitasking standpoint that we don't often think about  in terms of how that translates into a skill set that you can bring in at work, right? So those are other things that we bring forward as well. In addition to, you know, we have those career conversations, right? You know, you know, how do you interview at work, right? How do you interview after you have an interview for a while? Maybe you've been out of the business for some time. So we do touch on multiple parts of, you know, that whole parenting journey and tying it back to career.

Allison: What have been some of the most successful or fun things that you have done? Whether it's speakers you've brought in or events you've created. I'm just curious, like, tangibly the things that have been really surprising to you in how well they were received.

Glo: Gosh, it's been a couple. So this is not a singular event, but I think this is something that's important. Oftentimes we volunteer in the workspaces, right? And I'm sure again, we're not unique to being the only people that volunteer, but we've been very conscious about having family volunteer events, right? And so now you're enabling parents to grab their kids and do a back to school litter cleanup, or maybe we're collecting books, and we're donating them to other people.

Allison: That's cool.

Glo: Maybe we're, you know, putting together care packages, right? So anything that we've done where we've been able to include the family unit, I think it's important, right? Being involved in Take Your Child to Work Day and giving children the opportunity to see exactly what their parents are doing, right? It enables them to feel a little bit more excited about what mom and dad does, right?

I remember I asked my son, and this was years ago, I was like, what do I do? And he was like, you work on a computer all day. I'm like, do you think that's what I do? And I was able to kind of explain to him, again, this was years ago what I do. And then you fast forward six years later, and two weeks ago before school let out, I was at his career day. And he could tell his friends exactly what I do verbatim. So anytime you can kind of blend the two, I think that's important.

Allison: Yeah.

Glo: But when I think about other events, we've talked about grief. Right, so you think about Mother's Day and Father's Day and those are difficult times for people. And so instead of taking the approach of, you know, like having this fun mother's conversation, we actually went against the grain and we talked about coping with grief, right? Like how do you deal with your own personal grief of losing your mom when maybe you're still a mom yourself, right?

So you imagine you're celebrating with your family, but then you're going through this grief process. And so we had a great panel of speakers. We brought in a therapist, right, to also assist in that conversation. And so those are the ones that have kind of stood out for me that we've gotten really good feedback on because again, you don't typically see this in the workspace.

Allison: I'm so glad you shared those examples because it is making me think. I mean, these are great, really tactical things that people can do that are, I don't wanna say easy, but they are very straightforward and the impact is really what happens afterwards. It's not, just this time that we're gonna talk about this. It is, you're right, making it a safe space for people to talk about it and then take things back into their world and actually implement what they learn there.

What would your advice be? We have so many people who come to us and say, we want to start an ERG at our company, but it feels very overwhelming to them. Like, my gosh, I have to represent all parents and caregivers and what should I do? How should I structure it? Who should I work with? If you had to boil down like your top three pieces of advice for how to think about building or running an ERG, at a medium or large company, what would that be?

Glo: tell them to engage with existing ERGs. Right. And so often we always think we have to build things from the ground up. But if you have a successful existing group at your company, go talk to them. Right. You can take that framework foundationally and you can build from there. So, you know, I think about how we launched here in the U S first a year later, we expanded it to the UK, right? The basic framework of what we had already built here in the U S. we were able to transition to the UK. And so that's what I would tell anybody looking to do it.

The other part, I would say, look for people who are equally passionate about the same work, as well as people who understand that it's gonna take time, right? And so I think about, you know, one of the young ladies that I work very closely with, and her and I often laugh on Sunday evenings, which is usually the time when we get going, right? Because again, it's not.

It's more from a passion project standpoint. And so you have to be willing to put the time in in order to do the work. And then the third thing I would say is talk to your members and talk to your fellow employees, right? We don't build anything without surveying the masses to understand what's the need, right? What do they want to hear? What organizations would they like to see us volunteer with in order to make sure that it's something that they're going to engage with, that they're going to participate with. And it's not just a one man show as far as what we're putting out there from a content perspective. That's great advice.

Allison: That's great advice. How often do you do things with other ERGs? Do you do, do you host events together? Do you combine forces?

Glo: We do. We do. You know, when you think about it, so many of us intersect across, you know, multiple things, right? You know, I'm a Black woman, right? I'm passionate about the work that happens in the African -American space. And so often, right, we may partner with BOLD, which is our Black employee resource group. And then you think about, right, we have a lot of veterans. We recently just did a volunteer event with our veteran organization.

And so there are a lot of people that are members across multiple ERGs. And then I think it's equally important. We're all raising children who, we don't know what our children will become. And we're trying to raise these happy, healthy children who are very accepting and welcoming of other people. So many of us exist in other groups as allies, right? Just so that we can understand and we can be educated in certain areas.

Allison: I love that. I'm trying to think of where I wanna take this next. You know what I wanna ask you? What are you most proud of having accomplished inside or outside the ERG as it relates to supporting working parents?

Glo: My gosh, my gosh…

Allison: And it could be totally outside of work. It could be in your personal life, anything.

Glo: The thing that, yeah. So I would say I'm most proud that we have men involved, right? So oftentimes when you think about the parent and the caregiving space, we always think about moms. And so the one thing that we were very intentional about was engaging with men. And some men have shared some amazing stories with us of their journeys, right?

Do we not think about the widowed men? Do we not think about the single fathers that exist? So to be able to build a community that is not, you know, this mom group, but that it's truly, you know, inclusive of all, right? And then I would add to that, right? You know, there are people with two moms, there are people with two dads, right? You know, we have people with special needs children, but to be able to create a space where everybody can feel seen and validated in their parenting journey. I think that would be the biggest piece for me.

Allison: I, that is such a good answer. It's something that I feel so passionately about is that we are probably the first generation where there is more. I mean, as time goes on, there's more and more equality. And so I think for a lot of folks, whether you're a father or a mother, you are struggling with and enjoying the same types of things. And the roles of, you know, by gender are in terms of what we're doing with caregiving at home, it's just, it's so radically different now than it was 15, 20 years ago, you know?

And so I love that because I think that that has been a huge shift in the workforce as well, is really like employers recognizing that there are caregivers and that all caregivers need to have a certain amount of flexibility. All caregivers have to pick up their children or relieve the nanny or the babysitter at a certain point in time. And so I think that's a really great point.

Glo: It really is. Yeah. And Allison, I would just throw in there too, right, as we're kind of mentioning the caregiver piece, we're living in what's been the biggest sandwich generation that we've seen in a long time. So you have people who are taking care of their parents while simultaneously raising their children, right? And if you know anything about when your parents get a little bit older, in some cases, you're kind of helping out a little bit in raising in that space as well.

Allison: Right.

Glo: And so it's so important. Again, when we talk about how many parents and caregivers exist in the workforce, what can we do to lighten that load to ensure that they remain, right? Because we need them in that space. And so it's just so important to be, you know, knowledgeable again about the caregiving space, right? Like what, what resources do we have for someone whose parents might be going through dementia, right? Because events around that as well. So it's just making sure that we cover, you know, both parts of that spectrum.

Allison: Yeah. What strikes me in talking to you the most is that I think where you've been very fortunate is you've worked at a place that has been able to meet and match your flexibility or your evolving desires in a way that also gives you a lot of professional achievement and accomplishment. Like I think, oftentimes when people think about asking for a change at work, they assume it's going to sort of knock them down the career ladder.

And I think, you know, what I have seen at least in our conversations before this is that you've been able to really successfully navigate asking for the things that you need, but still focusing on your ambitious career. And that again, back to the false trade -off, it's not neither or. And I think so many people think if I start asking for these boundaries or these changes or whatnot, it means that something else will suffer.

I don't know if you would agree with what I'm saying, but that's kind of what I've heard from you over the last few weeks.

Glo: Yeah, so let me tell you this. I would agree with it, but something that I often tell people that I mentor in the workspace, if you're asking for a certain provision, you should be offering up a solution too, right? So I'll go back to when I had that conversation of like this schedule and not having a set schedule. So what I gave up was I said, hey, if during the week, right, if I can have two days off, you know, consecutively, because you know, retail that you could be off on Sunday, Thursday.

I said, I'll work weekends. Nobody's gonna argue with you about working weekends, right? Like, who's gonna say, Glo, we don't work weekends, right? But that was me saying, hey, if you do this for me personally, this is what I'm willing to give, right? So you talk about the trade -off. I knew that that was gonna allow me to get that. And so often over the course of my career, as things would come up, I would think through like, okay, what can I do though, right?

Allison: Yeah, seriously.

Glo: So I do believe in, if you're going to ask, for certain concessions, right? You should be bringing your best work every single time, right? And then you also should be offering something back because typically if you're on a team, if you're getting something, somebody else during that moment may be giving up something, right? So then how do you still be, you know, a great contributor to the team in order to keep the culture of what it is that you guys may have established. So that's the only part that I would add there, but yeah, I've worked.

Allison: I think that's a great ad. I think that's a great ad and it's a really good point. And I think also, cause I was thinking of this more as your ambitions haven't, you know, it's not like you've taken a step away from things because you've tweaked, you know, some of your scheduling or your roles or whatnot, but it's a really good point. And I think the other thing that I've seen a lot of people do is like, you're right, is that oftentimes there's this, there has to be alignment in what everyone thinks is happening, right? It's like, we need to make sure that everyone's happy in this situation.

And so if you're gonna go, and I've seen this personally, even at Parentaly, we've had some people who've realized, I don't wanna have a full -time job. And the problem was that I needed someone to have a full -time job. There's a full -time amount of work that needs to be done here.

Glo: Absolutely.

Allison: But because they come and they say, I don't want to work full time, now we're able to come up with a solution. And we've done this with several people. Many of them have rolled off into 1099 and then they get to pick their schedule and we figure out another way to fill those gaps. And it's like, because we're on the same page here and we're open and we're honest about this, we're able to find a solution where it can be problematic is if there's someone who doesn't really want the full -time job, but like they're not going to address it.

And so then it becomes this bad tension where no one's happy. And so, yeah, I guess it's just, I think that is such good advice to say if you're gonna ask, and I don't know if even concession is the right word, but like, it's a good point though, of like, if you're gonna ask for a change, how can you frame up this as being like, here's this other thing that we can do to make sure it's a win -win for everyone.

Glo: Yeah, and then Allison, I'll just share too. There were moments, especially when my son was a little bit younger. So I talk about my career from the standpoint of, you know, at the beginning, I was moving like every 18 months, two years, like new job, new job, right? And then once I had my son, you know, again, I talk about the mobility aspect and now I have to think a little bit more, you know, from an hour standpoint. And then I started to sit in, you know, in positions, maybe it was, you know, two to three years.

Right? And so I continued to move, but the pace, you know, I did have to slow it down as I started to think through, okay, what does this mean for him? Where before when it was just me, it was like, Hey, you know, let's do whatever. But you know, it did slow down. But then that's where, you know, again, where I spoke before it was like, but I still want this. Right. And how do I still get this career that I've always dreamed about? Right? Like I want to walk fast with a briefcase. Cause that's what I associated it with, you know, when I was younger…people in Chicago walking fast downtown.

And so, you know, for me, it's just about, okay, how do I figure out how to do it while still being able to be a great mom? And so that's where, you know, I was having the conversations and trying to figure out how to make this work for me in order to still be able to be a mom and then ultimately be an executive.

Allison: Thank you so much for your time today. I loved hearing more from you. I think you've done such an incredible job of navigating your career over a very long period of time at Verizon. And I think, you know, I'm very impressed with all of the work that you've done with the ERG. And I think you've just provided a lot of very tactical recommendations as well as advice here. So thank you so much for your time.

Glo: You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

‍