Summary

• Flatiron Health needed a better way to manage & measure their ERG program, ultimately showing the positive impact these employee communities had on employee experience.
• Flatiron Health worked with Verbate to centralize their ERG processes, capture historical knowledge and data, and save time on administrative tasks.
• After working with Verbate, they were able to streamline critical tasks such as budget management, reporting, and goal-setting, unlocking a stronger strategic understanding of the program. 

The Story of Flatiron Health

Flatiron Health is reimagining the infrastructure of cancer care. Healthcare professionals from clinicians to researchers to regulators rely on Flatiron’s tech to provide smarter care for patients. The revolutionary HealthTech company has established itself as a leader not just in its external practices, but also in its internal practices. 

Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chante Butler and Program Managers Avisha Sanassie and Carlie Joseph have built an exemplary foundation for their ERG program, consisting of nine Employee Resource Groups to support Flatiron’s diverse and distributed team. These groups contribute to employee and company success in a variety of ways, from building community for folks and allies, living Flatiron values embedded in their culture,  to supporting career development for community members through peer support and training. 

Flatiron’s ERG Program demonstrates their commitment to creating an inclusive workplace for all of their employees, especially as the team continues to grow and evolve in the hybrid new normal. 

The Opportunity for Flatiron

As Flatiron Health looked to double down on their ERG efforts in 2022, they realized that their lack of consistent systems & centralization was a challenge.

Their pain points could be seen in three main areas:

1. Driving Collaboration across Communities: Every ERG had a different way of organizing and completing efforts, making it difficult for ERG leads to stay organized and collaborative, and preventing program managers from keeping track of groups and understanding their progress.
   
   
2. Capturing Historical Context: Because systems were not streamlined, there was no consistent way to capture learnings over time, such as what was working well for groups, and what had room for improvement.
   
   
3. Streamline Administrative & Strategic Tasks: Managing budgets took a lot of time and manual effort, which often slowed progress and work across the board. Goal-setting was unclear and difficult to track. 

Why Flatiron Chose Verbate

As Flatiron sought out a platform to help them address these challenges, they were looking for a team that deeply understood their pain points.

They discovered the Verbate team through one of their ERG’s co-leads, who suggested they meet with the Verbate team to see if the platform could help streamline & improve their ERG processes.

After speaking with Verbate, Avisha, Carlie and Chante felt that when they talked with The Verbate team they “knew exactly what we were going through and what our pain-points were.”

Verbate recognized the problem was at an infrastructure & guidance level. The Flatiron team didn’t need  a new place for these groups to live, but instead the tools for them to thrive.

How Verbate Responded & The Results

Once Flatiron Health onboarded with Verbate, they felt the impact of a centralization and organization tool for their employee communities. 

Their budgeting pains went away as ERG leads began using Verbate’s tooling to submit budgets and the DEI team could easily review them. They could take advantage of more nuanced features such as splitting the cost of ERG initiatives, tying each submitted item to a company goal and measuring utilization through time.

This led them to have the ability to set and track goals for the program at large. Now, each ERG could tie their efforts to Flatiron Health’s pillars or anchors so the ERGs could easily align and contribute to company goals.

Verbate’s platform allows the team to move quickly, track progress and capture historical knowledge along the way.

“Partnering with Verbate to have our vision for our ERGs come to life was really, really invaluable."