Has COVID-19 been a net positive for property industry diversity? The Property Council’s Jane Fitzgerald asked three members of the Property of Champions of Change for their take this week.
Last year marked a decade since the Male Champions of Change was formed to step up action on gender equality. The Property Champions of Change Group, formed in 2015, rapidly gained traction and today includes 24 members who lead some 35,000 employees.
Jane Fitzgerald, the Property Council’s chief operating officer, moderated an online discussion with three members of the Property Champions of Change this week: Bob Johnston, Carmel Hourigan and Phil Rowland.
In March, a steering committee was established and is chaired by Bob Johnston, chief executive officer and managing director of The GPT Group, to help guide the Property Champions of Change governance, agenda, membership and performance. The work of the Property Champions of Change has recently been focused on normalising flexibility and caring, growing the talent pool, closing the gender pay gap and building an inclusive industry.
Last year, the Champions of Change Coalition dropped ‘male’ from its name – a move that Johnston says acknowledges the important role of female leaders in driving change. Success “starts from the top,” he said, which is why the Property Champions of Change had made such significant progress.
Johnston pointed to several standout programs that had catalysed change. 500 Women in Property, launched in 2016 with 100 participants, had supported the careers of 2,500 women, while the Panel Pledge had challenged the industry to consider the gender balance at events. Johnston noted that these initiatives sent important “signals” and made the industry more attractive to those “on the outside looking in”.
But, as Carmel Hourigan, Charter Hall’s CEO of office noted, “success hasn’t happened overnight”. Results have been achieved over “years” and after sustained effort to build a pipeline of female talent.
The group’s activities are diverse, and Hourigan said “it sometimes it feels like we are working on 12 or 20 things”. Not each activity is relevant to each organisation or sector of the industry, but universally property leaders now recognise the importance of diversity, Hourigan added.
CBRE’s chief executive officer Phil Rowland agreed. Diversity is “becoming a really important part of how we measure our performance and our success,” he said.
Rowland observed that some “pockets” of the industry still need some help with cultural change and unconscious bias. “The DNA of the industry in some of areas, like leasing and capital transactions, have been male dominated,” Hourigan added.
Earlier this year, the Property Champions hosted a series of roundtables to understand the “tough spots” and are now zeroing in on several strategies to increase women’s representation in those areas. A new ‘pitch pledge’, for example, is set to replicate the success of the panel pledge, to ensure diversity on both sides of the table when companies are delivering and receiving pitches.
A working group is examining disparities in rewards and recognition in capital transactions and leasing, and another group is identifying strategies to help more women start careers or return after parental leave. The group is also exploring an industry-sponsored cadet program for capital markets and leasing.
Has Covid been a net positive or negative for gender equality, Jane Fitzgerald asked?
“Net positive,” was Hourigan’s response, although she noted the alarming statistics around domestic violence. Covid had been a “great equaliser” that allowed entire industries to “test” and change attitudes to flexibility, she said.
While applauding the “acceleration” of flexibility, inclusion, and focus on health and wellbeing, Johnston stressed the benefits weren’t always uniform. “Home isn’t always a safe place for women,” he said. A comprehensive new Champions of Change report and toolkit, Playing our Part, was launched this week to support workplace responses to domestic and family violence.
But there could be no doubt that workplace flexibility, something predominantly adopted by women prior to the pandemic, was now being enthusiastically embraced by men, Johnston added. COVID changed “the notion of what can be done remotely,” while also elevating the value of inclusivity, empathy and the “whole person”.
“Connectedness” had been challenging in the COVID-19 era, Rowland added, making the ability to onboard, sponsor and mentor talent “really difficult”.
But Rowland was heartened to see a rapid increase in the number of men taking parental leave, for example, and the “enormous realisation that success doesn’t have to come at a massive personal cost”. The Great Resignation of 2021 had been “completely overplayed,” he added. Instead, Australia was facing into the “great realisation” that people wanted successful careers and healthy, balanced lives. A focus on increasing diversity can deliver both.