ERG leaders are some of the most committed people in any organization.

They show up early, stay late, plan events, build community and advocate for their colleagues, often on top of a full-time job, without additional compensation and without the professional development that would actually help them do it better.

Most organizations celebrate their ERGs, far fewer invest in them, and there is a significant difference between the two.

What ERG leaders are actually doing

ERG leadership is real leadership. It requires project management, stakeholder engagement, budget oversight, event planning and the ability to build consensus across a group of people with different priorities and schedules. They are not social committees. 

These are skills that translate directly into organizational performance. ERG leaders are developing capabilities that make them stronger contributors, better collaborators and more effective advocates for the business.

The problem is that most organizations are not recognizing or developing that potential in any structured way.

What most organizations are missing

The ERG leaders who burn out are not the ones who lack commitment. They are the ones who were given responsibility without resources, visibility without advancement and a platform without the tools to use it effectively.

When organizations treat ERG programming as a check-the-box exercise rather than a genuine development opportunity, they lose twice. They lose the ERG leader who eventually exits due to burnout or lack of recognition and they lose the organizational value that a well-supported ERG could have delivered.

Compounding this is a problem most organizations don’t talk about openly: the work ERG leaders do rarely translates into visibility in their day-to-day roles. The skills they are building, coalition building, stakeholder management, program design, go unrecognized in performance reviews and talent planning conversations. Because ERG impact is rarely measured with the same rigor as other business functions, the contribution is invisible to the people making decisions about advancement.

That invisibility is expensive for the ERG leader who eventually stops raising their hand and for the organization that loses them without ever understanding why.

What investing in ERG leaders actually looks like

It starts with treating ERG leadership as a development opportunity, not a volunteer assignment. That means giving ERG leaders access to career advancement training, self-advocacy tools, and leadership development programming that is relevant to their experience and their goals.

It means creating visibility pathways: ensuring that the work ERG leaders do is connected to their professional brand and recognized in talent planning conversations.

It means measuring the impact of ERG investment the same way you measure any other people strategy: through engagement, retention and performance outcomes.

The return on investment

Organizations that invest in their ERG leaders see stronger engagement across the groups those leaders serve. They see ERGs that function as genuine business partners rather than social committees. They see employees who feel valued enough to stay and grow rather than leave and take their talent elsewhere.

ERG leaders are not asking for much. They are asking to be developed with the same intentionality they bring to their work every single day.

The organizations that answer that call are the ones that will build the cultures worth staying for.