Manitoba's Top Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 36
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MANITOBA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Employee groups are key to inclusion at Manitoba Hydro
T
o celebrate Black History
Month 2024, Manitoba
Hydro reached out to
employees to provide
ideas and support in coordinating
a full month of events. The programming proved innovative, and
included a charity drive, a Black
Cultural Market featuring Blackowned businesses, and a potluck
where participants brought in
cultural dishes from around the
world to share.
It was a milestone celebration,
and it led to the creation of a new
employee resource group (ERG)
at Manitoba Hydro focused on
supporting its Black community.
The Black Employee Resource
Group, or BERG as it is popularly
known, was officially launched
last fall.
“Employee resource groups
are an opportunity for people
to come together, to share their
experiences, their values, their
insights,” says Jon Ryman, director
of people, planning and strategy
at Manitoba Hydro. “It’s important
that we support the opportunity
to have that cultural inclusion.
The end result is a more diverse,
equitable workforce, which is a
great thing.”
Currently Manitoba Hydro
operates six ERGs, including
BERG. The first was the
Indigenous sharing circle that
started in 2012 and is now
joined by groups for 2SLGBT+,
dubbed Hydro Pride, Asian and
Pacific Islanders (API), and two
women’s ERGs, including one for
women in trades. A seventh ERG
based around employees with
disabilities will be launching this
year.
Ryman says that ERGs aren’t
something that Manitoba Hydro
leadership plans or directs. The
groups are conceived, created and
run completely by employees
with company support. “In
circumstances where it makes
sense, where employees are
willing to come forward and put
in the time to develop and foster
a resource group, we’re happy to
support them,” he says.
Lindsay Craig is work
management learning team lead
for Manitoba Hydro, supervising
a group of learning specialists
on the operations side of the
business. She volunteers as an ally
with two of the company’s ERGs:
as co-chair of Hydro Pride and as a
member of Women in Trades.
It’s an opportunity for me
to use my own influence
and privilege to advocate,
to speak up a little more
and push a little harder.
— Lindsay Craig
Work Management
Learning Team Lead
Manitoba Hydro provides integrated electricity and natural gas distribution services throughout the province.
“I hang out in one and I organize
things in another,” she says. “It’s
an opportunity for me to use my
own influence and privilege to
advocate, to speak up a little more
and push a little harder. I have
23 years of experience working
in a lot of different departments;
I know the corporation and the
employees quite well and that
helps.”
Craig says ERGs give employees
