Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month & NM’s Hispanic ERG
Northwestern Mutual’s eight award-winning Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) help build community, inclusion and a vibrant culture. During Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15) we thought we’d reach out to some members of the Hispanic ERG for their perspectives on the value of the ERG and NM’s overall culture of belonging.
How has your involvement in the Hispanic ERG (H-ERG) impacted your personal and professional growth?
“Being a member of the H-ERG has really helped me in my own professional journey. When I started at NM, I was very early on in my professional career and I was new to doing things like public speaking, leading meetings, leading projects, a lot of things. And so joining the board of the H-ERG gave me an avenue to work on those things and execute them and bring them back to my own team. So it's been a major part of my own professional journey and I'm so grateful to have been on the board of the H-ERG for the last four years… my leadership has just been incredibly supportive of everything I'm involved with in the Hispanic ERG, and that's a great feeling.” --Breanna
“Being a member of the Hispanic ERG means the absolute world to me. I get to work with great folks who not only advocate for themselves, they advocate for others in the community. I get to be in a location with other members who come from similar backgrounds, similar culture, similar tradition, that helps me battle the stigma of imposter syndrome. It breaks down the feelings of isolation.
“Networking and meeting various people on various levels, hearing different career paths and journeys, helps me to mold my own. I also have had a connection with these fine folks on a personal level where it makes things more exciting to come into work.” --Marco
How has NM supported you in expressing your cultural identity?
“I've been able to express my identity at Northwestern Mutual by being able to dress for my day Everybody knows about dress for your day. So I'm out here wearing my guayaberas. I'm out here wearing my Chivas jersey I'm doing what I love to.” --Cristofer
“I've never felt my time here that I've had to hide my identity or not bring my authentic self. Not only through the support for the ERGs that NM provides, but the work culture here has been embedded into the environment. It makes me feel comfortable not having to have to hide myself or water down my identity. I feel like I can express myself and be my authentic self, thanks to not only the resources and the space, but the encouragement to do so.” --Marco
Are there Hispanic ERG activities that have been particularly meaningful to you?
“We collaboratively worked with the African-American ERG and PRIDE ERG and focused on how we can work together on our utilization of AI's functionality, how you can use it to wordsmith your professional goals and development, and we had the outlook from HR folks going over some do's and don'ts and how to utilize that, what to look for, how to be careful when using the AI. I love it because of the collaborative efforts.” --Marco
“An effort that I've really enjoyed has been the spotlight on Hispanic talent in our H-ERG Slack channel. We get to see all those great accomplishments when people get promoted and have personal accomplishments or reach milestones on projects. So it's really cool that we all get to celebrate that together and get to see what people at all different levels of the company are doing.” --Breanna
At Northwestern Mutual, we believe that when employees are able to bring their authentic selves to work every day, we build a more creative, engaging and collaborative culture. Learn more about our culture of belonging.