Diversity and inclusion remains firmly at the top of the corporate agenda for property firms across the UK. While the industry may have changed dramatically over the past 50 years, there is still plenty to be done to create what could be considered as true equality.

So what is standing in the way of achieving this goal? The simple answer is you and me. Unconscious bias is something that has been talked about for years. Regardless of gender, race or social standing, everyone is guilty of making assumptions and snap judgements of others. However, made in a corporate setting, these judgments have the potential to influence our decisions when it comes to promotions or who is picked to pitch for a specific project, which could prove detrimental without us even realising.

Quite often we are drawn to the people who are most like ourselves, whether that be a similar background, skin tone or sexuality, there is comfort in the familiar. For example, figures published by the Association of Women in Property show that females still represent only 15 per cent of the property and construction industry workforce, which starts to make sense when men are almost exclusively in a position of power.

So how do we break this self-perpetuating cycle? There are four things in the workplace that commonly trigger unconscious bias:

Tasks

We often associate certain jobs with a specific type of person.

Numbers

When looking at a group you are more likely to use biases to identify those that do not immediately fit the mould.

Clarity

When information is lacking, our brains tend to fill in the gaps.

Distractions

Tiredness, hunger, anger and stress can keep the conscious mind distracted.

All things considered, how then can we proactively tackle the problem? Google has estimated that at any point in time our brain is processing some 11 million bits of information, meaning our conscious mind handles only a minute fraction of what our unconscious mind is thinking, so even just being more aware that we are prone to making these snap judgements is a step in the right direction. On a more practical level, an organisation can undergo training to help unlock the more logical side of our brain.

What’s more, it’s important to set diversity goals. When it comes to hiring for example, standardised interviews and sample testing can indicate future job performance on a predetermined scale, rather than an unstructured interview, which could be led by preconceived notions.

Unconscious bias is nothing to be ashamed of. We are guilty of it everyday across all facets of our lives. However, by implementing a top-down approach we can start to tackle the issue head on. The World Economic Forum reckons that we are set to achieve worldwide gender parity in approximately 170 years, but with the first wave of employees undertaking this training, it’ll be interesting to see how the corporate landscape, and in particular the property industry, changes in the meantime.

Further information

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