COMMENT As leaders, we all have a responsibility to ensure that diversity never reverts back to becoming a tick-box exercise.
As an industry, we have made huge strides to understand how critical it is to our future success and apply this to our businesses so that everyone feels safe and belongs.
Yet for such a fast-paced industry, there is definitely more we could all do to accelerate this to truly foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. Real estate is largely behind other industries, and while progress has been made over the past decade, we still have a long way to go.
Studies have long shown that diverse teams outperform their peers by fostering a broader range of ideas and solutions. Diverse teams bring a breadth of perspectives and experiences that challenge the status quo. At CBRE, we recognise that a diverse workforce enhances our company culture and enables us to better serve the clients and communities in which we operate.
Early talent
It is the responsibility of leaders to ensure that diversity is championed across all facets of the business. At CBRE, one way we aim to increase diversity is our focus on early talent. We have partnered with Career Ready since 2021, which has supported 145 young people through mentoring and paid internships. We also have our Next Generation Programme, which facilitates graduate, intern and placement programmes across the UK, and includes our apprenticeship programme.
CBRE’s EG Future Leader, Michael De Los Santos Samson, shared his insight into CBRE’s apprenticeship programme at EG’s recent Real Estate Futures event. He explained his perspective on starting a degree apprenticeship straight from sixth form, without a network or support system – an incredibly daunting prospect but one that Michael tackled head-on. Like Michael, I joined the property industry straight from school at just 16 years old, so I can really relate to the experience he shared.
Our apprentices receive mentorship from our most senior people, access to industry-leading training and the opportunity to work on real-world projects that challenge them to think creatively and innovatively. It helps us to develop the next generation of leaders.
Most importantly, our programme targets under-represented groups, particularly young people who may not have had access to traditional pathways into real estate. As a relationship-focused industry, individuals with family or personal connections within real estate often have a significant advantage over others. Our apprenticeship programme aims to give young people equal opportunity to develop a career with us and thrive.
What more can you do?
What particularly resonated with me from Michael’s presentation was a question he posed to the audience, centred on what is being done to break down barriers to entry. This is important because it is a question that business leaders should be asking of themselves, and their colleagues, every single day. Diversity requires all of us to really consider what more we can be doing to enact real change in our workplaces and, more broadly, the real estate industry.
One way we can do this is by increasing representation and visibility. It is important for us to showcase successful colleagues from diverse backgrounds, who represent different career paths and journeys. EG Future Leaders plays a critical role in this. We have now put forward three people for this programme, and they have all used it as a springboard to excel in their careers. Their passion for helping to drive the industry forward shines through, and I have seen first-hand how invested they all are in sharing their unique stories and continuing to inspire others.
Another way we can increase diversity is through the hiring process. There are so many elements involved in making sure recruitment is opening up the opportunities to a wider talent pool. Through our Next Generation Programme and apprenticeship scheme, we aim to provide equal opportunity for young people to build their careers with us. But it goes further than this and is something we must approach collectively across the industry.
As Michael rightly said at EG’s Real Estate Futures event: “We need to make sure that every single young person in the country has a level playing field.”
Ciaran Bird is divisional president for advisory services and UK chief executive at CBRE
