Employee affinity groups can help diversify workplace

While affinity groups form naturally in the work environment, a March 2009 article by Carmen Van Kerckhove explains how employee affinity groups can be aligned around an affinity for diversifying workplaces and charged with helping achieve business goals related to diversity.

Although Van Kerckhove has since moved on to other projects, as explained in her May 2010 farewell post on the Racialicious.com blog she founded, Racialicious.com continues and Van Kerckhove's article, titled "How Employee Affinity Groups Can Help You Recruit and Retain a Diverse Workforce," is worth a read. The full article is reprinted below.
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How Employee Affinity Groups Can Help You Recruit and Retain a Diverse Workforce
By Carmen Van Kerckhove

It isn't surprising that employee affinity groups are a popular diversity tactic. They are easy to set up and inexpensive to run. And when they work well, they can help companies recruit and retain top diverse talent.

Affinity programs: Breaking out of the hairball

It’s easy to get caught up in formulaic activities of what those in our professions refer to as tried-and-true affinity programs. Some of us even have bosses who are keen on tossing into our inboxes that latest print piece or link or email message of a major competitor's making with the attitude of 'we need to emulate them.' There can always be a place for monitoring what our industries or fields see as best practices; however, we can't have blinders to new ideas that come with risk.

Pitching a new concept for your affinity program is hard enough; however, one must first have a boundary-poking idea to pitch and an environment in which one can do so. At a recent gathering of artists and their supporters, a community in which cutting-edge views and unique perspectives are their mainstays, I spoke about a book that addresses this issue.


Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie provides concepts that can be applied to any profession. A highly entertaining and quick read, the book is filled with hand drawings on nearly every page and real-life jaw-dropping stories about how the author single-handedly changed his company by coloring outside the lines.