This month, we hosted our first annual Employee Resource Group (ERG) Summit – a day dedicated to building our ERG network's Inclusion and Diversity capabilities through connection and fellowship. The day-long summit was attended by leaders across multiple functions and business units.
The event began with a discussion on our progress against the aspirational gender and race and ethnicity targets we set for the US/UK earlier this year. We then moved into our Keynote address with Ted Talk speaker and Brand Strategist, Jayzen Patria, who led an interactive session highlighting the importance of finding our true voices to accelerate our development, bring our authentic selves to work, and elevate our personal brands.
The Summit served as a mechanism to network and share success stories from our employee resource groups: highlighting the impactful work of our ERGs and the sharing of best practices from our partners across the organization.
The Summit ended as powerfully as it began with an inclusive chair exercise and meditation session set to old school R&B and a discussion highlighting ViiV HC’s impactful and nationally acclaimed podcast Being Seen. In addition, participants had the opportunity to learn about culture through food with fun and interactive cooking demos by nationally known celebrity chef and award-winning cookbook author Chef Katie Chin.
“The pandemic changed our ways of working and the socio-political landscape of the world, which has made the last 18 months quite challenging in many respects. This group of colleagues has persisted and has been consistent in their efforts to continue to shape the culture of GSK to one that is more diverse, inclusive and equitable. As the leader of the US ERG network, it was important to me that we took time to recharge, build our capabilities and have some fun. In my culture, it’s referred to simply as refilling our cups.” Samantha Warren, US ERG and Outreach Lead.
Hear more from our Keynote speaker.
