There are no excuses. The industry is clear. Our businesses are… out of balance

COMMENT: While I followed the Future Female Leaders initiative with great interest, it was only as it neared its conclusion that I spent some time with our future leader, Kathryn Cripps, to understand a little more as to the benefit – and just as importantly, the issues – that the programme has brought into sharper focus. Kathryn has been candid about the experience and, as much as anything, learnt most from the interesting and diverse group of female leaders that have been introduced to each other as the initiative has developed. The different perspectives from a broad group representing occupiers, investors/developers and advisers has been of benefit. Kathryn has undoubtedly got value personally from this interaction, while also developing her personal thoughts about the key issues where change might be influenced to greater effect. At a time when Knight Frank is putting more and more resource into introducing balance and improving diversity, Kathryn’s learnings will definitely help in our focus. There are no excuses. The industry is clear. Our businesses are generally out of balance and as we introduce better balance it is now accepted that this is not just right, but that it will improve performance. Taking action We’ve developed a number of initiatives, some more advanced than others, and we are learning week by week. There is no doubt diverse teams are better for business. Getting to where we want to be will take more time than any of us would like, but we are committed to increasing the pace of change. Recent additions include a new training programme across the firm on unconscious bias. We have completed a survey to understand the reasons behind women having resigned from Knight Frank over the past few years. The results will help inform our agenda. We’ve engaged with an external consultant, which will result in a radical change in our engagement with potential candidates for early careers at Knight Frank, and help guide those who begin with the firm in a very different way. Having identified that our extensive range of benefits, particularly those linked to paternity and wellbeing, are not as understood or as accessible as we had thought, we have committed to a programme of better engagement with everyone at the firm for greater clarity. The group executive board has just agreed a pilot under the heading Dynamic Working to see how teams across the business might respond to having greater flexibility in their working day. Not, as is often the misconception, to reduce hours, but rather location and times. All of the above goes hand in hand along with a re-emphasis of support to our teams championing wellbeing, ethnicity, LGBT+ etc. With others we continue to engage with the RICS to ensure their resources and reach can be galvanised to assist the industry’s endeavours – especially in improving accessibility and promoting the depth and breadth that our industry offers. Sadly this is something not promoted in the title chartered surveyor, which I suggest still leaves most people exploring real estate uncertain as to the depth and breadth offered by our industry. For real estate to become mainstream, to ease the understanding as to what the industry offers, has to be a priority. Alistair Elliott is senior partner and group chairman, Knight Frank