Plenty more needs to be done to make a career in property more appealing to candidates from a wider pool and more representative of the make-up of the UK population. However, the bigger challenge is how to encourage a more diverse range of employees to stay and thrive in the industry into management and beyond.
“We have been trying not to pay too much attention to an applicant’s CV,” he said. “What we found was people especially from hospitality backgrounds really worked out for us. One of the guys working for us worked at McDonald’s while going to university. As a result, we got someone who has amazing customer service, great attitude and is good on their feet. They might not have the background to get into one of these big corporations, but they have this really raw talent.
This approach has been a great way for us to organically get engaged, hard-working people, from all sorts of backgrounds.”