Property companies are lagging behind in addressing diversity, report finds

Real estate companies believe they have made progress on improving gender diversity in their firm while their employees report a more damning reality, new research finds. According to PwC and Real Estate Balance’s Fast-Tracking Gender Balance Across Real Estate, 2019 report, companies have made a “slow pace in change” in improving their culture and behaviour to increase gender diversity. Of the 52 property employers surveyed (49 of which were Real Estate Balance members), 41% believed the most successful step they had taken to improve the business’s gender imbalance was through implementing cultural and behavioural changes within the business. Although 41% believed this initiative had been the most successful, only 18% of the 844 employees surveyed agreed. In fact, changing the company culture and behaviour concerning gender diversity to get women into more senior positions was what employees most wanted to see introduced into their company. Around half (51%) of employees thought this would make the most difference in addressing the gender imbalance within their company, closely followed by board-level commitment (47%). The report also revealed that real estate companies feel their CEOs are more committed to narrowing their company’s gender gap than employees believe they are. On average, companies scored their bosses higher in terms of their commitment to diversity than their employees did. The most significant disparity in opinion was concerning chief executives’ personal engagement with diversity, which was also the area in which companies ranked its CEO most highly. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of all chief executives believed they interacted with a diverse range of the workforce to broaden their perspective, compared with 39 per cent of employees who agreed. Furthermore, while 63% of chief executives said they promoted and shared best practice concerning diversity and inclusion in the groups of which they were members, only 40% of employees agreed. Research also showed that, in general, the proportion of women in middle management positions and upwards has dropped since 2017. Although there was a slight increase of three percentage points in the number of women in boardroom hot-seats since 2017 (22% of industry directors are female compared with 19% in 2017), the number of women in senior leadership and middle management positions has dropped. Around 30% of senior leaders are women compared with 32% in 2017, and the number of women in middle management positions has dropped from 43% to 42% over the same comparable period. Real Estate Balance managing director Kaela Fenn-Smith said there is a “gap between what leaders are promoting and think is happening within their businesses” compared with what their employees are experiencing in reality. She added: “[The report] also shows that, in order to change culture and behaviours, gender balance needs to be viewed as a strategic priority driven from the top and implemented with a structured framework set out with measurable actions and accountability throughout the organisation.” PwC UK real estate leader Sandra Dowling said boosting gender diversity is “vital for current businesses to survive”. She said while diversity and inclusion is “moving in the right direction”, it “isn’t always reflected in the workplace”. To send feedback, e-mail lucy.alderson@egi.co.uk or tweet @LucyAJourno or @estatesgazette