“The most important thing for real estate tech is attracting talent,” according to EG Tech Bridging the Gap Award winner Lee Butz.
The founder of workplace community app District Technologies adds that in the war for that talent; compassion, trust and kindness could be the driving forces behind bringing the right people on board and, ultimately, bolstering a company’s bottom line.
“Bringing tech people and entrepreneurs into real estate is so important,” they said before adding that the best way to attract the right people starts with company culture. “I truly believe that the real estate sector, and plenty of other sectors too, need to change their attitude. It is not just about profit optimisation and capitalism but about giving back. Companies that stand for this and have a culture focused on employee experience and the workplace will make people feel more confident. If you are able to drive this kind of culture I think that will make you money. It drives the triple bottom line.”
Butz said they launched a wellbeing budget at District 18 months ago when Covid hit. Every employee is given £100 a month to spend on something that enhances their mental health or wellbeing. Small things like this could be the key to a sector-wide culture shift, said Butz. The hope, they added, would be that the best talent in the market considers real estate a compelling industry rather than automatically disregarding it in favour of “the Facebooks and Googles”.
“We need to get these people into our industry instead,” they said. “Real estate needs to hire people who understand technology and this new digital world we live in because software is eating the world.”
See more: EG Tech Awards winners
Watch an interview with Lee Butz
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