In today's race for talent, your image is key. The perception of a company in the market is often led by those representing it; staff, HR, internal talent teams and workplace – read my previous blog on Smart Buildings. Recently, more often than not, people are looking to a company’s diversity and inclusion programs to make an informed decision on the reputability of said organisation. 

Now I won't be the first or last to say there is a notable shortage of talent within the property market, companies are heavily investing in staff retention and brand image. People are naturally looking to the board for guidance, but unfortunately in our market, these are predominantly male-dominated. Will this change anytime soon?

For those companies who have recently published their Gender-Pay-Gap reports and how they wish to fix this, I salute you. Staring a problem this big in the face in today’s age shows great maturity and belief in your systems moving forward. But, will this lead to people being hired to tick a box? Or to meet a diversity target. I personally hope not. The whole idea around diversity and inclusion is to level the playing field, as businesses we should be looking for the best person for the role and for the company - irrelevant of their gender. 

We also can’t expect this to be a quick fix! The overarching goal should be achieving a level playing field, not favouring one over the other. Many are concerned that this push to place more women in high-ranking positions, could leave some qualified candidates left by the way-side. Poaching other firms senior female leaders will only cause a bigger issue for another firm. There is NO QUICK FIX. Stats however, are looking bright for the future, companies are releasing data showing that over 50% of graduates on their schemes are females. Nurturing and ensuring a diverse graduate pool is definitely a long-term beneficial and robust way of growing an equal board for the future. 

How can the Talent & Diversity champions of some of the biggest Property firms get together and implement the changes now?

As a business, we need to ensure that the best people are in the roles they deserve on merit alone. As consultants, we are seeing more and more clients asking for CV’s to be sent without names attached, or removing any information that eludes to gender, race or religion. Clients are asking for an equal split between men and females, however, the stats simply don’t allow that to be a true representation of the market.

I am a true believer of equality and I am excited to see what the new wave of talent will bring in the next 10+ years. As a market, we need to be changing the face of property, with a more diverse talent pool available to recruiters we should start to see the results of these implemented efforts..

If you’re a Talent, Diversity and Inclusion specialist within your company please reach out. As a company, we are getting involved in more and more STEM work with our clients to help tackle this problem. We’d be more than happy to advise you on how to achieve your goal market image and allow you to step away from the stats and just look at what talent is available.

*No longer works for the company*

I joined Mattinson Partnership in December 2017. Prior to that, I worked for a Property Specialist Recruitment firm, primarily focussing on Property Management. My background and education revolving around coaching gives me a unique consultative style of recruitment. Outside of work I can be found in 3 places; the rugby pitch, the gym or anywhere that sells good food!