New videos introduce Queen’s Employee Resource Groups

A new video series, called Stories of Belonging and Social Connection, is helping Queen’s employees learn about eight staff-led networks that connect colleagues through shared identities, backgrounds, and experiences, as part of the university’s broader work to strengthen its organizational culture.

Employee resource groups, commonly called ERGs, are voluntary communities where colleagues can build relationships, exchange advice, and identify barriers affecting their members. Each video explores one group’s purpose, the people it serves, and how employees can become involved.

“Our Employee Resource Groups do incredibly important work, but visibility matters,” says Danielle Dias, Employee Wellness and Engagement Coordinator with Queen’s Human Resources. “You cannot connect with a community that you do not know is there. We wanted to amplify the voices of ERG members and help people across Queen’s discover these communities and make that first step towards belonging a little easier.”

Connecting employees across Queen’s

An introductory video narrated by Chancellor Shelagh Rogers explains the role of ERGs and how employees can connect with them. Eight further videos feature networks for Indigenous employees, international employees, military members and veterans, Muslim employees, parents and caregivers, queer employees, women, and women working in science.

An introduction to Queen's Employee Resource Groups.

In each video, members discuss their group’s history, purpose, activities, community impact, wellness supports, and ways for employees to take part. The series will serve as an ongoing resource for employee orientation, recruitment, and retention, wellness and inclusion programming, and ERG outreach.

Queen’s and UWC exchange ideas on workplace belonging

Queen’s developed the project with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa through a Matariki Engagement Grant. The funding program supports staff from Matariki Network of Universities member institutions in developing joint projects, sharing what they learn, and producing work that can benefit the wider network.

Together, Queen’s and UWC shared approaches to employee well-being, belonging, community-building, and engagement. The partners explored how staff networks operate in different institutional and culture settings, including the common challenges they face and their shared goals for supporting employees.

The exchange showed both universities the value of using personal stories and lived experiences to explain how these communities help employees build connections and find support. It also strengthened relationships among students, staff, and project teams and created opportunities for future collaboration on employee wellness, equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

At Queen’s, Film and Media students Ataa Amoah-Bediako, Sophie Gill, Claire Judice, Elliot Norman, and Cherry Zhang supported the filming and editing of the Queen’s video series.

UWC is developing its own video content on a separate production timeline. Its work will reflect the university’s own context while contributing to the project’s shared aim of strengthening employee engagement and belonging across both institutions.

The universities unveiled the the Queen’s video series during a hybrid event at Mackintosh-Corry Hall on August 18, 2026. Participants joined from Canada and South Africa to screen the videos, hear perspectives on the Matariki partnership from each university’s teams, and learn about the Queen’s students’ experience helping to produce the series.

View the full Stories of Belonging and Social Connection video series.