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Employee groups are key to inclusion at Manitoba Hydro

To celebrate Black History Month 2024, Manitoba Hydro reached out to employees to provide ideas and support in coordinating a full month of events. The programming proved innovative, and included a charity drive, a Black Cultural Market featuring Black-owned businesses, and a potluck where participants brought in cultural dishes from around the world to share.

It was a milestone celebration, and it led to the creation of a new employee resource group (ERG) at Manitoba Hydro focused on supporting its Black community. The Black Employee Resource Group, or BERG as it is popularly known, was officially launched last fall.

“Employee resource groups are an opportunity for people to come together, to share their experiences, their values, their insights,” says Jon Ryman, director of people, planning and strategy at Manitoba Hydro. “It’s important that we support the opportunity to have that cultural inclusion. The end result is a more diverse, equitable workforce, which is a great thing.”

Currently Manitoba Hydro operates six ERGs, including BERG. The first was the Indigenous sharing circle that started in 2012 and is now joined by groups for 2SLGBT+, dubbed Hydro Pride, Asian and Pacific Islanders (API), and two women’s ERGs, including one for women in trades. A seventh ERG based around employees with disabilities will be launching this year.

Ryman says that ERGs aren’t something that Manitoba Hydro leadership plans or directs. The groups are conceived, created and run completely by employees with company support. “In circumstances where it makes sense, where employees are willing to come forward and put in the time to develop and foster a resource group, we’re happy to support them,” he says.

Lindsay Craig is work management learning team lead for Manitoba Hydro, supervising a group of learning specialists on the operations side of the business. She volunteers as an ally with two of the company’s ERGs: as co-chair of Hydro Pride and as a member of Women in Trades.

“I hang out in one and I organize things in another,” she says. “It’s an opportunity for me to use my own influence and privilege to advocate, to speak up a little more and push a little harder. I have 23 years of experience working in a lot of different departments; I know the corporation and the employees quite well and that helps.”

Craig says ERGs give employees who may be dispersed through the company a chance to connect in a common community. “For example, we have a lot of women in trades here, but they’re not out there working with other women. They are sometimes the only woman in their department. By getting together, they can organize events for women across the corporation, to say here’s what we want you to learn and understand about us. And for Manitoba Hydro, that means having employees who feel empowered, connected and heard.”

The power of ERGs hit home to Craig this past November when Manitoba Hydro raised a trans flag and held a reception as a result of the Hydro Pride efforts she co-chairs. “It was a beautiful moment for me,” she says. “I suddenly realized how far we’ve come, and I’m just an ally who thinks we need change.”