Member bodies outline plan to improve industry diversity

Six key industry membership organisations from across the built environment have laid out their plan of action to improve diversity and inclusion across the sector. The plan follows a signing of an MOU in April by the Chartered Institute of Building, Institution of Civil Engineers, Landscape Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Royal Town Planning Institute to work together to drive forward the creation of a more diverse, equitable and inclusive sector. That MOU saw the bodies agree to collaborate on data collection across their 350,000 members, understanding the disparity between the diversity of students that start on institute-accredited courses and the talent that makes it into the workforce and developing understanding and guidance for the sector, supporting organisations, individuals and institutes to improve and maintain professional standards. The plan outlines exactly how they plan to achieve those objectives over the next three years and includes deadlines on agreeing consistent data points to collect from their memberships and consistent messaging about why that data is being collected, key targets on working with students to understand more about their experiences on accredited courses and the transition to the workplace, and collaborating across the bodies to develop consistent and gapless EDI CPD across the whole sector. Click here to read the plan of action >> By 2024, the bodies plan to publish member data across each of their websites, have an agreed recommendation on inclusive academic practices and have a consistent core EDI curriculum for their collective membership. Sybil Taunton, head of diversity, equity and inclusion at the RICS, said: “This action plan reassures people that it was not just a hollow signing of a charter and helps manage expectations. It takes time to change a culture and we need people to be patient with us.” Alongside patience, Taunton asked for support from the wider industry and business leaders especially. “We as EDI leaders need to push hard on this, but all leadership teams need to back this for everyone to get on board,” said Taunton. “We recognise that this is a priority area and now we are getting after it and putting our money where our mouth is.” Diversity and inclusion was one of a number of issues raised in Lord Bichard’s review of the RICS earlier this year. He said: “At the moment, although diversity and inclusion is identified as a priority by some firms, this is not the case across the profession or at headquarters. Only 19% of all members are women and it is difficult to obtain reliable data on ethnicity. This is worrying and needs to change.” In his report, Bichard outlined a number of expectations on the RICS in how it should be working to improve the sector’s diversity, including creating a clear strategy and annual plan with measurable milestones. To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@eg.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @EGPropertyNews