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Cobalt’s exclusive report on Diversity in Real Estate & Construction Recruitment

2023 (6)

Article posted by Sara Burton

A tool to provide a greater understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion in Real Estate and Construction

At Cobalt, we know that diversity should be a priority for all organisations in the real estate and construction sectors. That's why in 2022 we developed a new diversity survey sent to candidates, capturing as much detail as possible about those who are job-seeking in these sectors. Now, we can harness this data to produce quarterly reports to share with all those focused on improving DE&I. Our goal is to provide clients with the understanding and analysis they need to improve their diversity and create more inclusive workplaces.

We are proud to say that our survey is the first of its kind in real estate and construction and gives exclusive insight into the presentation of job seekers across these sectors. By taking part in our survey, candidates have had the opportunity to contribute to the conversation around diversity and provide data to those involved in recruitment, enabling real-world action to be taken. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who have already completed our survey. Their contribution is invaluable, and we hope to encourage even more candidates to complete the survey in the future. By doing so, we can ensure that our findings are as representative as possible.

Our first Diversity in Real Estate & Construction Recruitment Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the representation of those job seekers in terms of age, sex, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnicity, disability, caring responsibilities, and marital status. Since creating our survey, we’ve learnt more and had feedback directly from candidates, which has led to us adding a question about gender, in order to differentiate between gender and sex as well as a question focused on socio-economic indicators. These two aspects will feature in our future reports.

The data-led report is an invaluable tool for clients looking to build a diverse and inclusive workforce, providing data for comparison and benchmarking against their own targets and ambitions. It provides insight into diversity of applicants throughout the recruitment process from registration to CV sends, interviews and offers, and what representation looks like in different sectors such as real estate, construction, accountancy, and business support. Finally, by cross-referencing our diversity data with our salary data we see diversity across seniority levels in the sectors.

We hope this powerful report provides a useful tool for those across the real estate and construction sectors who are serious about improving diversity in their business. They can identify areas for improvement, implement best practices, and make meaningful changes that will have a positive impact on diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplace.

We are committed to playing our part in creating more inclusive workplaces and helping clients achieve this. As an important step towards this we have made our Diversity in Real Estate & Construction Recruitment Reports available to all for free, so download your copy of our exclusive survey by clicking below, or request a copy from your consultant today.

If you already partner with us for your recruitment, you could also benefit from reporting that is specific to your recruitment processes. If you are interested in seeing this data for your organisation then please contact Charlotte John to find out more.

Download your full copy of the 2022 Diversity in Real Estate & Construction Recruitment Report here.