After the murder of George Floyd, the management at energy multinational ENGIE put out a public notice taking a stand against racism. In addition to that external memo, the company sent an internal memo to its 6500 employees in North America stating that it would begin re-evaluating internal processes for things like promotions to make sure it was being inclusive. In addition, the company hired a new diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) head in North America, who subsequently invited all employees to submit ideas for employee resource groups (ERG) within the region.
In response, six different people from different parts of the organization told him they would like to start an ERG for people of color. Ashley McLenan, a tax advisor in the corporate finance team at ENGIE, was one of those six and explained in an interview that oddly, none of the others even knew each other.
ENGIE, like most major international companies, has a low representation of African American employees, McLenan explained, and so unless someone of color is on your team, your interactions may be limited. Armed with the knowledge that they each believed an ERG devoted to race would be an asset to the company, the six strangers put together a charter and presented it to the C-suite. With that, the Black ENGIE Employee Network (BEEN, pronounced with a hard “e”) was born.
As a European company, diversity has primarily been focused on gender not race so it took a little convincing that the North American office needed a group focused strictly on race, said McLenan.
“Our mission was to create a safe place where employees of color could come together to network and feel safe and encourage each other,” she said.
Today, BEEN focuses on having representation at the top because the group believes that the lack of diversity in the energy industry is due to a lack of representation. She said people naturally gravitate to people with whom they have common interests; one of the first things you notice about a person is “the way you look.”
“Having more people of color in leadership roles we feel helps diversify our organization. And that’s really what we try to focus on,” she said.
The group finds opportunities for its members to have speaking engagements or do webinars to “get their face in front of leadership as well as develop leadership skills,” McLenan explained.
BEEN has formal monthly meetings centered around a topic, such as wellness. But it also comes together informally to check in with each other, as for example after the verdict in the George Floyd murder case was handed down. Sometimes, they invite outside speakers to give a presentation, she said.
One BEEN event celebrated the appointment of a Black VP, she said. Part of that celebration included an “ask me anything” session where others could ask the new VP how he earned his promotion and if he could offer advice and encouragement to others.
McLenan said the group does a company-wide Juneteenth Celebration. Last year, BEEN invited Black-owned food trucks to the event.
“A lot of African Americans have been celebrating Juneteenth all our lives. To welcome our white colleagues into the celebration and just talk was really cool,” she said.
McLenan encourages other companies to consider setting up ERGs to support employees. She cautions that it’s best to let employees take the lead.
“I think it works best when employees are in control and they build the mission and values,” she said.
ENGIE has seven ERG groups — Asian and Pacific Islanders Network, Black ENGIE Employee Network, Hispanic and Latino Network (launching in March), Pride Network, Veterans Network, Women in Networking, and Young Professionals Network — and each of them, in addition to supporting each other, also serve as a voice for senior management to get honest feedback when they need it.
“We try to allow HR and our head of DE&I to handle the business side of diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said.
“We put on events that we think are good for us,” she said, adding “for me, BEEN is what keeps me here.”
