ERG Effectiveness and Leadership Support Survey

Use it if you run one or more employee resource groups and want feedback on whether they are creating belonging, visibility, and career value. It is especially useful for ERG leaders, HR, DEI teams, and executive sponsors who need input they can turn into action. Because the survey is anonymous by default, it also works when employees may hesitate to give candid feedback directly to ERG leaders.

Most organizations should run it quarterly or semiannually, depending on how active the ERG is and how much change it can absorb. Quarterly works well for fast-moving ERGs with regular programming and leadership touchpoints, while semiannual or annual timing is better if the group has fewer formal initiatives. Avoid sending it too often if the ERG is small, because response fatigue can reduce response rate and blunt the signal.

It measures the parts of ERG performance that usually matter most: belonging and inclusion, alignment to stated goals, leadership support, access to sponsors and decision-makers, allyship, community building, and career advancement impact. The survey also includes open-ended follow-ups for low ratings so you can understand why a score is low, not just that it is low. That makes it more useful than an ad-hoc feedback form that collects opinions without revealing what to do next.

Typically the survey should be owned by HR, DEI, or an ERG program manager, with ERG leaders helping interpret the results. That separation helps preserve the anonymity guarantee and reduces the risk that members feel they are answering directly to the people being evaluated. Senior sponsors should see the results, but they should not control the wording or the collection process if you want honest feedback.

Keep the core sections intact, then tailor the activity questions and open-ended prompts to the ERG’s mission, such as community building, mentoring, advocacy, or career development. You can also adjust the relationship question to match your audience, for example member, ally, leader, sponsor, or non-member participant. If you add demographic questions, place them last and keep them optional to avoid undermining trust.

Use 5-point Likert questions with clear semantic anchors such as Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, plus open-ended follow-ups for ratings of 3 or below. That format is easier to answer than raw numeric scales and gives you the why behind detractor responses. Include one final Anything else? question so respondents can raise issues you did not anticipate.

A general engagement survey tells you how people feel about work overall, while this template isolates the ERG’s specific contribution to inclusion, leadership connection, and career growth. That distinction matters because ERGs often succeed or fail on different drivers than the broader employee experience. If you want to decide which ERG activities to keep, stop, or expand, this focused survey gives cleaner input than a company-wide pulse.

Yes. Most teams export results into HR analytics, DEI dashboards, or survey reporting tools so they can compare ERG feedback over time and across groups. You can also route open-text themes into action plans, sponsor check-ins, or leadership reviews. The key is to keep the survey itself simple and anonymous, then handle follow-up outside the response collection flow.