This post is a part of our series, Culture Champions — Spotlighting the actionable advice, tips, tricks and learnings from top ERG leaders who are making a difference in their workplaces and communities.

Meet Courtney Clavon (she/her/hers), Senior Technical Recruiter at Chime. As a recruiter, Courtney partners with hiring managers to source, interview, and hire candidates to grow Chime. Courtney is also a co-lead of Chime’s Chimer Resource Group (CRG) for Black and African American Chimers, AfroChime. “I have to embody the Be Human value in my role as a co-lead in order to lead with empathy and make it through what has been a deeply challenging year for our community,” Courtney shares.

As a Senior Technical Recruiter at Chime what has best prepared you to be in this role and why? 

I’ve been working as a Technical Recruiter for nearly eight years, and throughout that time, I’ve worked with many different people from all walks of life. Throughout my career, I’ve witnessed various forms of bias, whether it be towards me or my candidates, and it always fueled me to want to make a difference, not only for myself but for my community and other underrepresented groups in tech. With joining Chime, our leadership was already bought in and the ERGs were established, so it was only natural for me to take my passion for bridging the gap between diversity and tech in recruiting, and take it to AfroChime. 

What was your journey to becoming the co-Lead of the AfroChime employee resource group (ERG)? 

Last year was a lot, to say the least, for many people due to the pandemic, but it was especially hard for the Black community. With my outspoken nature, I was approached by leadership on what we could do to empower the AfroChime community and they were looking for ways to support employees. I had been new to Chime early in 2020, but I was given a platform to use my voice and educate on topics of systemic oppression, anti-racism, and I joined Chime ready to speak up. I was empowered to be unapologetically myself and the other leads of AfroChime had asked me to join them in building community because I was already chiming in, so I jumped at the opportunity to lead!

What are the goals of AfroChime? (i.e. internal, external, community, professional development, recruitment, inclusive product design, programming) 

Our mission is to uplift and nurture the Black community at Chime through action, service, and development opportunities, and to champion Anti-racism efforts across the company. We are committed to growing a resilient and thriving Black community that seeks to educate, embolden, inspire and develop employees within Chime, and we do that through a five-pillar structure of Diversity, Equity, Belonging, Education, and Community. In each of these areas, we look at how every part of Chime continues to be an inclusive and equitable place through education, empowerment, and we also devote a lot of time to giving back to our community to achieve a greater social impact. 

In your opinion, how do you define ERGs and what’re they not? 

Oftentimes I think some companies may see ERGs as the end all be all, but inclusivity and belonging doesn’t stop at employee resource groups. What I like about Chime is that we’re focused on improving diversity and inclusion from end-to-end through the employee experience. ERGs are about community and giving your employees a platform to use their voice, especially when there are many underrepresented groups that never had one. 

What are some of your accomplishments over the past year in the employee experience and how would you measure your impact? 

In AfroChime, we’ve done a lot of great work to educate and empower our community plus our allies. We showed the benefit of making Juneteenth a Forever Chime holiday, and it successfully became one of our days off starting in 2020. We also led an Anti-Racism workshop to educate Chimers on how to be actively anti-racist vs. non-racist, showed Black history through the Lens of Black Superheroes, reflected on Black Lives Matter and what needs to change, and established community safe spaces for AfroChimers. There are so many more accomplishments I can say that my Partners in Chime and I have been able to execute, but the biggest way we’ve been able to measure our impact is through listening to our community. We try to engage with them in all of our conversations and planning processes because this is an evolutionary opportunity for all of us. In AfroChime, we all identify as Black, but we all come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, so there’s so much to consider when sharing the “Black experience” and we couldn’t do any of it without listening and learning.

How are you celebrated and compensated as an ERG leader at Chime? 

We call our ERGs - CRGs (Chime Resource Groups) and at Chime, our CRG leaders are compensated monthly, which was an executive decision that recognized our hard work. We also have Values Awards and recognition often throughout the company through our All Hands meetings, Chimer shoutouts, and various CRG celebrations!

What advice do you have for folks looking to start or lead an ERG within their organization?

If you’re going to start an ERG, have a plan and a vision. You may not have many people in your organization who identify with a certain group but align with your executive team to understand their views on diversity and what their plan is to grow your organization with diversity in mind. From there, when you are deciding to lead it, stand together - never alone. ERGs can only be successful with support, so make sure you feel that others are bought in to your vision, because you can’t do this alone, and nobody should have to.

What is your call to action for leaders about how to support the work of ERGs? 

Listen to their experiences and advocate across the company for them. Pay your ERG leaders because the work that they’re doing is providing your employees with a place of belonging. Provide them with resources to execute on their ideas and give them a seat at the table! This work shouldn’t go unnoticed and they should also be celebrated, so if you can’t pay them, please find creative ways to celebrate their success!

What is one of your proudest moments and why? 

Making Juneteenth a Forever Chime holiday. At the time, I wasn’t a lead of AfroChime yet, but I always knew the importance of this day. Juneteenth is a day where my father would yell across the house “It’s Juneteenth!” and dance, so the day has always been special to me. Being mixed, I often celebrated Independence Day and Juneteenth, but I realized later in life that many people had never heard of Juneteenth before. With the platform I was given at Chime to use my voice, I shared with leadership the importance of giving Chimers the day off and how important the day was to the Black community, and before I knew it, our leadership team too understood the importance and gave the day off to all Chimers!

Is there anything else you’d like to share? 

To other ERG leads, keep up the good work and know that your work isn’t going unnoticed - we see you and we appreciate you!