💼 Building a Diverse Graduate Talent Pool

A bit of a spiky subtitle I know! But for many it’s the truth, unfortunately.

I commonly hear that at the early careers stage, companies have diversity, equity and inclusion all figured out. That diversity is the best we’re going to get at junior-level.

I’m afraid that I strongly disagree. I believe there’s still a lot of work to be done in this sector, especially when we are still seeing:

• Work experience schemes filled with the children of employees and clients only.

• Majority White, male graduate cohorts for firms headquartered in London.

• Employers visiting the same universities year in and year out to attract talent from.

But despite the disappointing things we’re seeing across the industry, there are quite a lot of small changes and actions to take to work towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.

After participating on our inaugural Black Girls in Property programme in August 2023, I never would have thought that just over a year later, one of the programme participants would be hosting an event of her own; talking to her peers about the property industry!

Destiny, a current Year 13 student and part-time estate agent didn’t know much about the property industry over a year ago when she first joined our programme. After connecting with a broad range of employers and undertaking different work experience placements, she decided to properly set her sights on the sector in the hunt of an apprenticeship.

I went along to her event last Saturday to speak alongside Rod Hotton, Founder of Londinium; Paul Modu, Associate Partner at Knight Frank; Claire Fletcher, Early Careers Advisor at Knight Frank and Onye Davis; to speak to students in Year 12 and 13 about careers in the industry.

I was absolutely blown away!

You can never underestimate the seeds that can be planted through employability programmes and exposure. I’m looking forward to see more updates like this from our community members.

Although our sector continues to face challenges in attracting and retaining diverse talent, it's crucial to acknowledge that change is necessary for growth, despite the discomfort it may bring.

While we may appreciate the concept of change, it often introduces friction into our daily lives and professional environments. However, not all friction is detrimental; it can serve as a catalyst for introspection and deeper analysis. When we embrace the right kind of friction, we can refine our processes and challenge assumptions, ultimately leading to more thoughtful and effective decision-making in talent attraction practices.

The more I speak to early career leaders across the industry, the more I learn about the large cracks that students from diverse backgrounds are falling through when it comes opportunities. While the emergence of these cracks aren’t always the fault of employers (universities have a huge role to play in this as well), there is a lot more that employers could be doing to help make these cracks smaller.

Let’s walk through a few examples:

Attend Different Universities

Ah, yes - good ol’ careers fairs!

When I was a student at the University of Nottingham (many moons ago), I remember seeing most of the large real estate consultancies going to the same universities year in and year out to speak to students. As my university didn’t offer real estate as a course, none of them attended mine; but they were all going to Nottingham Trent University down the road. I remember having to email Nottingham Trent asking them if I could attend, despite not being a student at the university and after many back and forth, them begrudgingly saying yes.

I tell this story, because as an industry, we are finally moving away from the cognate requirements for entry into graduate schemes. For a lot of the roles in the sector, a specific degree isn’t required. As employers, there is a lot that can be taught in partnership with educational providers.

Switching up the universities that you attend as employers is very important, in order to reach different demographics. Going to a university lower down in the league tables doesn’t mean that those students are any less capable.

A 2019 survey of graduates by the Milkround, 83% believe that recruiters favour applications from Russell Group alumni. This also shows in where employers visit during the year. Now, I know you can’t be everywhere at once! But trial out attending different universities during the recruitment season or send some volunteers to support you in this! There are many universities that aren’t as well connected to employers, in comparison to the Oxbridges, Readings’ and Oxford Brookes’ of the world - so try somewhere else!

Think local.

This suggestion is fairly unconventional but I suggest this because a lot can get missed at university. There are students that can’t attend careers fairs’ because they are working, for example. There are many students that don’t directly connect to their careers services because there’s little to no requirement to do so.

So how else can you tap into these groups?

Think local.

Can you go to the local shopping centre and set up a stall to talk to students?

Can you get in touch with a church or religious institution with a large student base and host an event alongside your Faith Network?

Meeting people where they are, especially in local communities can be a super effective way to get more eyes on your company. 

For one of our most recent programmes, I changed the way that we marketed the programme to attract new applicants by collaborating in this way, this change enabled 12 new schools to join us.

This suggestion also speaks to the point of digital exclusion. While the media likes to portray Gen Z and Gen Alpha as digital natives that are chronically online, there are still many that are digitally excluded from a lot of information and activities because of a lack of consistent access to a device or internet.

Diversity attracts diversity.

Perceptions matter.

Candidates from diverse backgrounds also want to work in diverse companies, or at least ones who are seen to be trying.

This isn’t to say you should focus on persuading the one person of colour in your office to get involved in the photoshoot for the recruitment page on your website.

But you should be willing to share the ways in which you are fostering an diverse and inclusive environment, with the proof to back it up [because applicants will absolutely check].

Take content seriously.

People aren’t flocking to social media profiles like TikTok for no reason, unfortunately! Take the opportunity to showcase some of your employees doing great things, to give viewers a taste of what working in these roles can be like.

Graduate job descriptions tend to be extremely vague when it comes to the actual work they will be doing day-to-day which can often put candidates off from applying and succeeding throughout the process.

Don’t be afraid to actually show them! It’s also important to note that apps like TikTok aren’t just for young people and there’s much more than dance trends happening on the app.

People are increasingly starting to use TikTok like a search engine, making it a growing source for life advice such as: how to invest, career advice for graduates, how to negotiate a salary and more. The #CareerTok hashtag currently has over 92,000 posts!

As an example, a post on TikTok we created well over a year ago, that has over 25,00 views and is still getting engagement till this day, is a post about… cover letters.

@thelandcollective

How to write a stop-scrolling cover letter so you can apply to more job openings. #coverletters #coverletteruk #jobapplications #coverlett... See more

Another post about considering careers in facilities management got over 19,000 views. It’s an incredibly powerful platform!

Note: This isn’t a role to outsource to an intern! It does take a lot of time, consistency and learning!

@thelandcollective

There’s so many career paths you can follow in the built environment, including facilities management 🙌 #career #facilitiesmanagement #bui... See more

For employers, our two programme pathways focus on:

Early Talent Pipeline Development

• Helping employers to attract early talent from diverse backgrounds through tailored career preparedness programmes aimed at secondary school students [for entry into apprenticeships] and university students [for entry into graduate programmes]. If you’re interested in learning more about this, get in touch below.

Social Value

• Based around major projects and developments, we develop and deliver localised employability programmes to support local youth engagement and provide work experience opportunities.

I also provide consultancy services on early talent attraction and marketing strategies. If our work is of interest or you’d like to sponsor one of our upcoming programmes, please get in touch by scheduling a call.

Thanks for reading, catch you on the next one! 🙂