Gender report shows the way forward
A groundbreaking report released this week maps out pathways for removing gender barriers in the property industry by growing the talent pool with new recruitment and workplace policies.
More than 3800 people across the property industry participated in the development of the Grow the Talent Pool – Insights on gender representation in property , released this week by the Property Council of Australia and EY.
The report takes the pulse of the people in our industry and looks at their motivations, and the career barriers and challenges they face working in our industry.
The report also features in-depth interviews with seven of the industry’s most senior female leaders.
Anne Edwards, Charter Hall’s head of group finance, was one of those interviewed, and she says the industry is losing women “at the juncture where they start their families, which is often around the point they have sufficient experience to step into a leadership role.
“The issue is how to retain and keep growing careers at this point.”.
She cites workplace flexibility policies and active recruiting from outside the industry as key drivers for change.
“I think we should also create opportunities for job sharing roles at more senior levels and take these people seriously,” Edwards says.
Doug Bain, EY’s market segment leader for Real Estate, Construction, Leisure and Hospitality, says workplace flexibility is an important issue across the sector.
“The study finds that 49 per cent of women and 45 per cent of men in the industry believe that attitudes to working flexibly need to change in the industry. Workplace flexibility is not just an issue for women employees, it is also a major issue for men,” he says.
Grow the Talent Pool finds that leaders tend to be promoted from within the property industry and their own organisations – a practice that disadvantages women who tend to “fall into” property.
Mirvac’s chief executive officer and managing director Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz (pictured), argues that hiring based on experience rather than aptitude is a “big structural problem” for the industry.
“It’s such a trap to look at what people have done in the past, rather than what they could do in the future,” she says.
Lloyd-Hurwitz says it may be time to “force the issue”.
“At Mirvac we have a mandate that, over a certain job grade, per cent of any shortlist has to be female. You don’t have to hire women, but you do have to find them,” she says.
Alison Harrop, chief financial officer at DEXUS, agrees that companies are limiting their options by insisting that new recruits have property experience.
“For some roles we probably need people who’ve done some of that before. But there are so many roles where diversity of thought would be really useful. I fight this battle all the time.” While women account for 52 per cent of industry employees, the report finds they hold just 28 per cent of leadership roles.
Property Council chief executive Ken Morrison says an industry at the heart of the nation’s economy must attract and retain the most talented people.
“We must unashamedly say that we want to be an industry that attracts the very best employees at every level – and that means outperforming every other industry,” Morrison says.
Grow the Talent Pool features a framework for action developed by the Property Male Champions of Change to address the issues raised in the report. The framework is also a useful tool for others in the industry looking to deepen their talent pools.