Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are grassroots groups formed by employees across all demographics—race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, education, geography, military status, occupation, energy field, etc.  ERGs are established by submission and approval of an Employee Resource Group Charter Application by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and/or the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, and those National Nuclear Security Administration offices with delegated diversity and human capital responsibilities. View the list of current groups here.

Please use the guided questions below to create your Employee Resource Group’s Charter, which should be attached to the ERG application.  The purpose of the charter is to outline the structure, goals, and guidelines of the group.  The attached ERG Charter template provides required language to be incorporated in each ERG’s charter.

Mission Statement: What is the mission of your group?  What is the ERG’s purpose?  What values motivate that effort? What opportunities or needs exist that your group can address? How does the ERG’s mission serve DOE’s mission? Your mission statement should be no more than five sentences long.

Organizational Structure: What positions of leadership exist in your group?  What are the responsibilities of the people in those positions? How does your group conduct elections and choose new leadership?  How does it handle the transition between leadership? How does the group ensure that institutional memory is retained within your ERG? Please do not list names of individuals in this section.

Meetings and Events: How often will your group hold meetings and what will be the purpose of the meetings? What events will your group organize?  What activities will you engage in?

Membership: Open to all DOE employees. How does one become a member of your group?

Miscellaneous: Not everything an ERG does will fit neatly into the above headings. Other sections can be added that help explain a particular ERG, but will require approval from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. 

APPLICATION

To be recognized formally as a Department of Energy Employee Resource Group, each individual ERG must complete and submit an ERG Charter Application.  If accepted as an ERG, a representative of the ERG Leadership Team will be required to attend ERG Leadership Training provided by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Field Diversity Office. The ERG shall be considered established only after the Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has approved the application. The Director will notify the ERG of DOE’s final decision.  If approved, the ERG has the responsibility of maintaining contact with the Office of Diversity and notifying the office of all group activities and initiatives.  Reporting requirements will be issued to the ERG upon its establishment. 

Please complete and submit the Employee Resource Group Charter Application (download below) along with the requested attachments to the Office of Diversity & Inclusion. 

CHAMPION

To bring heightened awareness of the ERG and to provide advice and ideas about effective leadership within the context of DOE’s culture, an ERG Champion is advisable for each ERG.  The Champion will be a senior executive who supports an ERG. The Champion will hold a group accountable to add value and contribute to the Department.  The Champion acts as an advocate at leadership and management meetings.  The Champion is also expected to learn about the constituency’s issues and concerns and to share that information with other executives.  A Champion will be requested and assigned to each ERG, as available.