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36| RICS Awards
THE INDUSTRY CAN’T AFFORD TO BE
COMPLACENT WHEN IT COMES TO DIVERSITY
By Tracy Flannigan FRICS , RICS spokesperson in Northern Ireland
As I write this, the RICS
Headquarters team are
busily preparing for a major
conference which will be full
of practical examples and case
studies on how employers
across the UK are embracing
inclusivity. It is RICS’s second
annual Diversity and Inclusion
Conference and, as statistics
show, it’s a highly pertinent
and entirely necessary subject
to be both exploring and
implementing.
Of the 80,000 qualified
surveyors in the UK, only 14%
are female. Ethnic minorities,
disabilities, socio-economic
diversity, all are lacking in a
profession where the average
member is currently a 58-yearold
white male. The statistics
in Northern Ireland specifically
will be no better. But things are
changing– there are pockets
of good practice and, more
importantly, there is a growing
understanding of the business
need for a more diverse
workforce.
Companies with greater female
board representation have
been seen to outperform the
mono-culture boards financially:
with 42% greater return on
sales; 53% better return on
equity and 66% higher return
on investment capital[1]. And
then there is the issue of skills
shortages, which is having a
considerable impact upon the
property and construction
sector. Lack of trained people
is forcing many companies to
put aside their assumptions
about the “right” candidates
for the job, and so they are
beginning to seek out talent in
new places.
There has been progress made
with some good practice
emerging from Northern
Ireland. A reflection of this
is shown in RICS’s recent
appointment of two new
female board members and
it has also been growing its
pool of female spokespeople.
Furthermore, last year, RICS
also held a visible women
event in Belfast at which senior
women from the construction
and property sectors engaged
with senior female journalists
on the issue of diversity in
the sector. While the general
consensus was that we had
come a long way, the group
also acknowledged that there
was much still to be done to
address the imbalance and be
a more attractive profession
for new talent pools.
So, as the professional body for
the industry, what else is RICS
doing to help? We established
that the question is not simply
one of opening up to a wider
talent pool, but of retaining
these non-traditional candidates
once they are recruited. Indeed
recruitment is just the beginning
of the work to reshape the
workforce, the key issues rapidly
become how to retain staff who
don’t necessarily see role models
in the senior management, nor
opportunities for promotion
and career development. To
combat this RICS introduced
the Inclusive Employer Quality
Mark to effectively and practically
address these issues in the long
and short term. My company,
Colliers International is one of
a growing list of organisations
signed up. Employers pledge their
commitment to adopting and
seeking out best practice with six
principles:
• Leadership and Vision
commitment to increasing
the diversity of the
workforce
• Recruitment – engage
and attract new people to
the industry from underrepresented
groups; best
practice recruitment
methods
• Staff development–
training/promotion
policies that offer equal
opportunities for career
progression
• Staff retention – flexible
working arrangements/
adaptive working practices
• Staff engagement – an
inclusive culture where
all staff engage with
developing, delivering,
monitoring and assessing
the diversity and
inclusivity policies
• Continuous
improvement – continually
refreshing and renewing
the firm’s commitment to
being the best employer;
sharing and learning from
best practice across the
industry
Over 90 companies have
signed up to the Inclusive
Employer Quality Mark so far,
and the number is growing
weekly. It is good to see
so many making a genuine
commitment to change. The
future is looking much brighter
than the past.
To learn more about RICS
Inclusive Employer Quality
Mark or the forthcoming
conference, go to http://
www.rics.org/uk/
about-rics/responsiblebusiness/inclusiveemployer/
Tracy Flannigan is Director of
Professional Services at Colliers
International. Tracy became a
Fellow of the RICS in January
2013. She was also the first
female arbitrator in Northern
Ireland and sits on the panel of
arbitrators maintained by the
President of the Law Society of
Northern Ireland.