Property must open up to the unconnected

COMMENT: In the property sector, the majority of roles are still held by white, middle-class, privately educated individuals, which is not reflective of society. Yet, in a rapidly changing market, our clients are increasingly diverse. We therefore need to better equip ourselves to recruit from a broader range of skills, backgrounds, attitudes and experiences, both to meet our clients’ needs better and to stop overlooking talented individuals from less traditional backgrounds. The Social Mobility Foundation’s 2019 Social Mobility Employer Index ranked 75 UK employers across 18 sectors on the actions they are taking to open up access and progress talent from all backgrounds. The SMF responses indicated there is cross-sector desire for change, with 85% of respondents saying their clients wanted them to be more socio-economically diverse. Property as a profession has historically been heavily built on “who you know”. As a result, those without industry connections have rarely been granted access to the work experience that could open doors for them later down the line. Casting a wider net To make meaningful change, companies must seek to hire beyond their immediate circle of candidates. Initiatives such as the SMF’s One+1 work experience programme, which we have adopted, are one such way to achieve this. For every young person with connections to the industry, employers in the programme also offer experience to a young person with no connections to real estate. The industry should also look to widen entry routes into the profession by offering a greater number of apprenticeships, in line with graduate schemes. The current focus is on hiring real estate graduates, thus limiting the applicant pool to those who come from a small, select number of universities and perpetuating the problem of a lack of social mobility. Young people, and the industry itself, would benefit from alternative entry points equal to the traditional academic route. There is a mantra in diversity and inclusion: you need to see it to be it We need to move away from the falsehood that education is a proxy for intelligence, a notion which has been disproved by numerous efforts to expand and diversify the talent pool. At JLL, we request additional information on candidates using the Rare Contextual Recruitment System, which helps us to better understand their academic achievements within the context of their socio-economic background. The SMF Index showed that more than 30% of employers now remove the name, university and/or school grades of candidates, demonstrating how a successful hire can be based on potential, rather than a finished article. However, opening up such entry routes is only viable on the premise that a career in property is a real consideration for a range of young people, and seen as an attractive one. More can be done to expand careers education programmes, to allow prospective talent to move beyond some of the negative and misinformed perceptions about the industry, and make it more accommodating to candidates from a wider range of backgrounds. Career open days, for instance, should seek to inform both parents and young people about the realities of the property sector and the different career paths open to them. Moreover, these suggestions all rely on businesses concurrently changing their everyday working practices and culture. There is a mantra in diversity and inclusion: you need to see it to be it. While we need to encourage a more diverse pool of people into real estate, we must also put effort into making it an industry in which varied groups of people feel comfortable and able to be themselves. I believe that a diverse workforce makes JLL a more exciting and interesting place to work, but it also has a real impact on business operations. Research has shown that the UK’s most diverse workplaces are 45% more likely to financially outperform their industry average. I ask you: what board would refuse the opportunity to make improvements like that? Claire England is director of diversity and inclusion UK at JLL Photo: Daniel Lynch/Shutterstock