Article posted by on Oct 24, 2022
Cobalt Recruitment hosted their first event in a series called Cobalt Conversations in September, with a view to starting conversations about the challenges they face when driving diversity and inclusion within real estate. The well attended event was an interactive discussion hosted by Cobalt’s Charlotte John, Director of Client Solutions, and guest speaker Sophie Walker – a prominent campaigner, activist, founding leader of the Women’s Equality Party leader, and former Reuters journalist.
The discussion focused on gender equality, challenges facing workers who provide care alongside 9 to 5 jobs, the gender pay gap in real estate, flexible and hybrid working practices, and how companies can build trust when collecting data about people.
Many insightful conversations came out of this, including what some businesses are doing to create a genuine increase in representation amongst their staff and in applications for job vacancies. There were questions asked around the role of language used within job descriptions, adverts and on a wider company level, and the impact that has on DE&I.
Cobalt has been making changes to improve representation through an inclusive hiring workshop. With this workshop, we are giving our consultants the tools to understand intersectionality and the role it plays, and reduce bias throughout the recruitment process. We know that this workshop gives our team the skills to give every candidate the best possible recruitment process and by default, we are in the best place to support the Real Estate industry and our clients representation goals.
Charlotte John comments, “I loved hosting this event and I’m excited to see where we can take the conversation next to really start driving change in the way we do things. I am currently working with our clients to develop tailored recruitment solutions that support them across their resourcing needs and ensuring that representation and inclusion is considered throughout the process with a seamless transition from Cobalt to clients. It is really important that this is not treated as an afterthought, as it has for so many years.”
Cobalt is planning future Cobalt Conversations with our clients, as well as potential roundtables or workshops, with an aim to explore some of these topics on a deeper level. Cobalt will share more about future events soon, but if you’re interested in attending the next event, please contact Megan Bond to be kept up to date.