Anneke Blair-Aparicio doesn’t seem the least bit surprised that one of T-Mobile’s largest Employee Resource Group is the Women & Allies Network, but she’s honest about the strides it’s taken to get there.

“It all began as something called the Women’s Leadership Forum in 2008 where female leaders were simply invited to get together and talk,” the T-Mobile senior inclusion and diversity strategy partner recalls of that gathering at T-Mobile headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. “It couldn’t have had more than 500 people.”

While an important step, she’s very clear that it never felt like it was enough.

And so, in 2014, that small group of women looking to support each other in their professional endeavors at T-Mobile started one of the company’s official Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), known then as the Women’s Leadership Network (WLN).

类似的火花看到了2008年在堪萨斯州欧弗兰公园（Overland Park）创作的Sprint Excelling（Wise）的妇女。Sprint ERG的目标是促进一个专业的网络，指导和教育机会的环境，以支持该公司的女性领导职业发展和发展。ERG的会员资格在六个月内超过1,000。

“Legacy T-Mobile had a strong presence among employees with the WLN pre-merger, and it was also that way at legacy Sprint,” says Rachael Wohletz, a senior copywriter for Employer Brand Marketing in Human Resources and a former communications and operations officer for WISE.

When T-Mobile and Sprint merged in April 2020, the two women’s networks came together under the new name of the Women & Allies Network (WAN), which today boasts the second largest membership — 16,801members — of all six of the combined company’s ERGs.

现在，随着妇女历史月的结束和合并临近两周年，妇女与盟友网络的支持和社会联系比以往任何时候都更为重要。

Covid-19危机期间的支持系统

Timing for the launch of WAN could not have been more important.

随着2020年大流行成立，工作妇女（就像这些ERG中的那些人一样，以及全国各地的许多工作领域中的许多人 - 都感到受欢迎。当照料负担沉重时，四分之一的人甚至考虑过降低他们的职业。

例如，仅在9月，据报道有些妇女持有的865,000个工作丢失, compared with just 216,000 by men. And every single one of the net140,000 jobs lost2020年12月由妇女持有。2020年妇女的最终失落人数是2.3 million。

Over the last two years, WAN’s influence has helped T-Mobile respond to these changes with new initiatives big and small — with an eye to the future.

布莱尔·阿帕里西奥（Blair-Aparicio）说：“由于WAN的影响，多年来取得了重大进展。”“我想到，在校园内包含母亲房间以及诸如女性峰会，例如女性峰会，包括母亲的房间，从我们的房地产团队中扩大了父母的福利和身体更新，例如技术X返回船and WAN Connections. All focused on learning and highlighting opportunities women might not have known were available to them.”

T-Mobile的全球护理运营总监兼WAN现任教育主席Tiara Moten补充说：“ WAN为妇女和盟友提供的教育和动机需求很高，尤其是在过去的几年之后。”“我很荣幸能成为一个负责建立希望和妇女和盟友的希望和联系的团体的一员，最终使可能性和团结重新融合。”

合并，运动

在合并之前，沃尔茨（Wohletz）从2020年至2022年担任WAN的通讯负责人，他说Wise凭借配制的通讯和计划大步前进。她说，在两家公司的集成过程中，在库维德初期，这是在两家公司的整合过程中复制的步伐。但这确实使两个传统的ERG能够弄清楚如何作为一个。

“We really felt we were stalled just like the rest of the world simply by not being together during the pandemic,” Wohletz says. “While it was a strange experience, I think it truly forced us to start over in a way that would have been difficult otherwise. We had to get re-established, and I think that was ironically fortunate because we built a stronger foundation from scratch with members from both sides who were fully integrated when it comes to our strategy.”

When T-Mobile and Sprint united as one, Holli Martinez, vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, emailed employees of the newly formed company. She explained work her team was doing to combine both legacy companies’ benefits with renewed efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion. And that the aim of the newly combined WAN was to bring the best of legacy T-Mobile’s WLN and legacy Sprint’s WISE to form an ERG that would educate and empower women employees, as well as the allies who are committed to helping them succeed.

“I’m proud of WAN and the WAN Board for the work they did to bring the strengths, legacies and spirit of WISE and WLN together,” Martinez says. “Moving forward together was critical in creating a united vision and building a solid foundation for inclusive advocacy across the new company.”

随着WAN的会员资格猛增，T-Mobile首席通讯官Janice Kapner被评为该网络的执行赞助商，进一步增加了公司内部和外部的个人资料。

卡普纳说：“投资妇女的职业发展和机遇会为T-Mobile带来更大的成功。”“我们的使命是使所有妇女和盟友能够领导，成长和利用自己的声音来消除任何性别差距，并确保每个人的公平工作场所。”

The Making of a Mindset

“当是妇女领导论坛时，这是非正式的，目的是帮助更多的女性担任领导角色，” T-Mobile商业的高级经理，WLN前主席克里斯蒂娜·韦伯（Christina Weber）说。“当它成为妇女领导网络时……我们使用了标语'来自每位主席的铅'，因为我们想要促进的心态是您是领导者，无论您的头衔如何。这不仅仅是在桌子上坐下，这是关于您在那里时所做的事情，以及如何选择每天出现。”

The message resonated with Weber, who says the goal was to increase awareness and grow the ERG. And it did, from around 5,000 to 12,000 in 2016.

随着会员资格的增加，下一个目标是增加参与度。董事会成员，DE＆I章节和委员会成员都开始组织计划，这些计划针对特定问题，阻碍了成员发挥全部潜力。

韦伯说：“我们启动了女子峰会，圈出了圈子，并放大了技术亚组的女性，同时也发布了每月的通讯。”“他们有机会将更多的听众聚集在一起……听听外部演讲者的鼓舞人心的故事，并听取我们的高管有关他们的领导道路，经验教训以及她们如何支持工作场所中的女性的信息。”

That messaging continues to evolve today with new initiatives and the expansion of established programs. WAN Connections is a safe space for women and allies to share experiences, learn new skills and act on important topics. There’s also Intersections, a recurring event that invites speakers to highlight the importance of the intersectional experiences of its members as women, including women of color or women within the LGBTQ+ 188bet网址怎么打不开community.

布莱尔·阿帕里西奥（Blair-Aparicio）说：“增长太多了，重点始终是实现个人发展的新方法。”“ Wan Connections实际上是倾斜的最新进化，主要是在总部和呼叫中心举行，现在在我们所有的DE＆I章节中提供。”

Wohletz补充说，这些补充集中在不同的方式上，简单地向会员说他们永远不会孤单。

她解释说：“这为参加这些活动的人提供了了解总会有资源的机会，这条道路不是以前没有旅行过的。”“路径在那里，我们只是有意义的，无论是否有意。”

这种关注ERG内事物的交集及其从其盟友中利用的倡导是WAN的重要新（也是下一个）步骤。

WAN的四分之一成员目前是男性，成员说这些成员在T-Mobile外面和餐桌外进行了学习的事实，不应轻轻地拍摄。随着妇女继续与大流行期间在工作场所加剧的性别罪恶作斗争，莫滕说，盟友的新受众成为了变革前基础问题的支持系统。

Moten说：“历史仍在为T-Mobile的女性创造，并且需要扩大开拓者和盟友的需要是Wan可以改变的地方。”

这种差异是实时产生的。

“Another transition I’ve seen as the ERG evolved is from lamenting the challenges we were facing to creating awareness of what has to happen to be in charge of our careers,” Blair-Aparicio says. “This level of empowerment is seen when our members say what they need from the workplace, not just talk about what the workplace is doing to them.”

Wohletz adds, “Accompaniment shouldn’t be undervalued. It’s good to know you don’t have to do it alone.”