'Why Should Sex Or Skin Colour Matter?' How To Stop A DEI Campaign Putting People Off

In January 2023, RICS posted on LinkedIn about a campaign with Black Women in Real Estate, the aim of which is to highlight the barriers to making the real estate industry more inclusive and diverse. The response was not the usual platitudes found on the business networking site.

“How is it healthy endeavouring to stamp out any lingering traces or outbreaks of racism to always be whipping up division where there needs to be none, with bandwagons such as Black Women in Real Estate?” one comment read. “Why should sex or skin colour matter?”

The post sparked several responses. Not least, that “an insistence to social blindness won’t change things”. Another said that “our current reality is that discrimination and bias still very much exist”. 

Such exchanges show diversity, equity and inclusion is a subject that can still split the real estate industry. While many people support the need for better representation of people from all backgrounds, others are tired of the word diversity. Bisnow spoke to people active in DEI groups to find out why diversity matters and how organisations can do better at engaging the entire sector.

DEI is important in real estate because of its function as an industry, Landsec Investment Manager Ally Reid said. As one of the UK’s largest developers, Landsec has a significant influence over society as a whole since “properties provide humans with the power to achieve their potential,” Reid said. However, diversity across the industry does not reflect society. 

“Are we appropriate custodians of the cities we’re creating?” Reid said. “In real estate, a leader might walk across an office floor and it seems diverse, but in a meeting where we are actually changing the city skyline, that diversity of faces is removed.

“But for decision-makers to be from a particular subset in society, that means buildings are not assisting people in achieving their potential. That can be because it’s intimidating to enter a space where you’re not reflected, or because structures are not suitable.”

Currently, the real estate sector is a long way from reflecting society, JLL’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Workforce Advisory, Blessing Buraimoh said. This is why groups such as Black Women in Real Estate are important, providing vital support people need to pursue their career. 

“If I walk into a room of say 10 or 20 people and I’m the only Black woman, I’m going to notice straight away,” she said. “One of the first things that comes to mind is, do I belong in this space? We need to have groups that support each other to learn and grow.”

Hanna Afolabi, founder of Mood and Space, said she created Black Women in Real Estate because she felt isolated as she pursued her career as a surveyor. She sought the support of other Black women and the success of the group turned it into a more formal organisation.

So if diversity is so important to creating great spaces and places, why do some people stop listening at the mention of DEI? Reid said it can at times be a reaction to being challenged. 

“Where you’ve been in a situation where you felt comfortable and that you were doing the right thing, it can be jarring to come up against the idea that others’ experience hasn’t been the same as yours,” she said. “They may feel wronged by that, which will trigger a defence mechanism.”

Buraimoh said that others turn off because they don’t believe they need to be part of the conversation. While it is important to have groups to provide support, one of the key factors holding back DEI initiatives is that senior leaders are not represented in conversations. 

“DEI is about including everyone but often, when discussions around these topics are held, certain groups are left out — typically the white, straight, male demographic,” she said. “Since most senior leadership teams are mostly made up of this demographic, it means we are leaving an important group of people out of the conversation, a group that is highly critical in making any progress. We can’t keep having conversations in an echo chamber with only the people who know it’s the right thing to do in the room.”

If these leaders don’t drive the need for inclusivity throughout a business, it won’t be successful, Canary Wharf Group’s Managing Director of People, Culture and Customer Experience Jane Hollinshead said. The worst thing a company can do is use a third party affinity group rather than approach diversity in-house.

“Fundamentally, companies go wrong when they don’t integrate the thought process behind inclusivity into their corporate strategy,” she said. “Even using the word ‘initiative’ puts it into a silo; it should be an integral part of doing business. You need to work out what levers you need to pull to get different parts of your organisation to listen and change.”

To get to the point of having conversations, a business needs to start by understanding its existing workforce demographics, Hollinshead said. By mapping out data, a business can “make hard-edged business decisions about pay and progression to make sure we include and encourage all demographics”. 

Afolabi also said that collecting data is the only way to understand what needs to be done in terms of diversity and inclusivity. 

“You need to understand what the baseline data looks like,” she said. “Then you can have a real objective to improve on that data. At the moment, in many cases diversity feels qualitative with no structure.”

Black Women in Real Estate is working to create a data platform for the industry to use to report employee information as part of their annual report, just as companies now report their gender statistics. It will provide an industrywide oversight of the demographic makeup of organisations, including information such as LGBTQIA+ and ethnicity. 

Breaking down information on a granular level, such as by job position, will highlight where organisations need to encourage particular groups to apply for positions, Reid said. People from those groups might be encouraged to apply for positions, while those who don’t appreciate the need to encourage diversity will be faced with facts about why something needs to be done.

“We need to ask the gatekeepers to pay a little bit more attention to the decisions they’re making,” she said. “I support the idea of using data to disconnect the emotion of the challenge from what needs to be done to achieve the goal. Then I’m hoping this becomes more of a conversation about collaboration and moving towards a better, more diverse, more inclusive industry rather than igniting a defence mechanism.”

Buraimoh said that once data is collected and understood, this can lead to the next step in ensuring the success of a DEI initiative: targets. While setting targets for representation can be divisive, she said, without targets, it’s hard to measure progress. Some of the client’s of JLL’s workforce advisory team are setting representation targets linked to financial incentives.

“We have seen a lot of progress particularly on gender targets,” she said. “What organisations now need to do is begin to replicate this for other demographics, whether that’s age, neurodiversity, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+ or another area.”

Data and targets aside, an important factor in engaging a workforce is listening to people, Buraimoh said. Her consultancy works with senior leaders from across real estate, who are keen to work on diversity. 

“Very often, people say to me ‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t want to make a mistake’,” she said. “Often I create a safe space for senior leaders to come together where it’s OK to make a mistake and just have a conversation. They can be corrected in a secure and supportive environment.”

Sue Brown, managing director of Real Estate Balance, said that she sees a high level of engagement with DEI among senior leaders as the gender balance has improved over the years. However, it will take more time for the real estate industry to be fully representative. 

“You’ve got to keep having conversations,” she said. “Every time someone raises an issue or holds an event to push forward gender, race or social mobility parity, it’s about making sure people are aware of what you can achieve. We need to make people realise that it does apply to them.”

Conversations need to lead to someone within an organisation taking the lead on diversity, Afolabi said. To broaden the industry, champions need to encourage people of all backgrounds to not only join, but to stay within the industry as their careers evolve. 

“Industry representation is extremely white male dominated, which can be offputting,” she said. “There is lots of value in focusing on new entrants to the industry but the best way is to get ambassadors within the industry, a diverse set of talent who are happy to promote the industry. People are far more likely to join a company if they know someone who has had a good experience.”

Reid said that her decision to speak out on diversity matters wasn’t taken lightly, but that she has determined to use her position to provide a role model that she has lacked in her career. And while there is some way to go in all aspects of diversity, the progress that has been made in terms of gender balance should be inspiring. 

“It gives me hope,” she said. “The problem with the lack of women has been a known problem for a much longer period and we have made progress. Yes, there’s still a way to go but we shouldn’t be shamefaced about that. We need to be less shy about the potential for criticism.”

Bisnow has launched The Rise Initiative to highlight the DEI initiatives that are making a tangible difference in the industry. Although there’s a long way to go, those that are seeing results need to be celebrated. As Brown said: “It will take a while for it to play through, but that doesn’t mean we should stop.”