💼 The Impact of Longer-Term Engagements

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

Welcome to our newly branded employer newsletter, Beyond the Skyline! Where I talk all things social impact, DE&I and early talent attraction in real estate (if you’re a careers lead at a school, you may want to stick around too!).

It’s incredible that it’s already the beginning of August and we’re heading into the start of yet another one of our programmes! Summer is exceptionally busy for us as an organisation, as it’s when most of our community members have finished school, college and university and have the time to dedicate to our engagements and initiatives.

However, despite this busy period, it’s also a great time to reflect a little bit on the past seven or so months and how we’ve pivoted as an organisation over time.

At The Land Collective, we’ve always aimed to do things a little bit differently and engage young people in more memorable ways and in this edition, I’ll share with you how we’ve been doing that using our programmes.

In August of last year, we delivered our pilot programme for teenagers called Black Girls in Property. The core aim for the programme was to encourage young Black girls from across London with no connection to property to learn about career pathways available and eventually for them to take up an apprenticeship or degree within the built environment.

Following an engagement and marketing campaign with secondary schools across London and a thorough application process, we selected 16 girls onto the programme that lasted five days.

Following the programme, we reconnected with one of our programme partners, RED Construction to organise a repeat engagement initiative alongside Aviva Investors. You can see some of the fantastic testimonials from some of the girls who took part below!

The programmes that we deliver are all underpinned by a four-step approach that will support young people from diverse backgrounds into the real estate sector.

I believe that longer-term and hyper focused engagements can really move the dial forward when it comes to diversifying the talent pipeline. While short-term engagements have their place, I believe that many companies focus on these over the long-term investment it takes to truly see change take place.

Short-term engagements include activities such as a presence at a careers fair, talk at an assembly or an insight day.

What’s most important is the follow-up that comes afterwards.

I reckon the occurrences where one talk or conversation has changed our lives are few and far between. This is where our step around repeat engagements with the same groups or cohorts come into play. With each cohort, we follow-up with another opportunity to engage every six months for up to two years. This is alongside them being part of our existing community already.

With the above example of our Black Girls in Property programme, the timeline went like this:

Trust can only be built over time and taking the time to establish real connections with your potential future workforce, will only be appreciated in the longer-term.

In July, we were welcomed to Bloom, a BtR development based in Nine Elms, Battersea by Greystar for a development tour.

Our members gained valuable insights into the world of real estate through a tour of the development and a panel discussion. The panel was supported by Smarter Services Ltd and Curlew Capital and allowed Greystar team members from across the business to offer a well-rounded perspective on career paths, company culture, and the diverse opportunities available at Greystar.

Why do we do this?

It’s one thing to learn about property or read about deals online, but it’s another to go out on-site and see it for yourself! These tours also do a brilliant job of connecting the future workforce to the industry, rises aspirations and allows them to develop their commercial awareness in a supportive environment.

We are looking to host our first-ever Real Estate Law conference towards the end of the year aimed at students and graduates from diverse backgrounds interested in law.

If you know of any law firms that may be interested in working with us or hosting, please introduce us!

For employers, our two programme pathways focus on:

• Early Talent Pipeline Development
  Helping employers to attract early talent from diverse backgrounds through awareness, immersion and recruitment.
  

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

If our work is of interest and you’d like to sponsor one of our upcoming programmes or would like us to support your business in developing your own, please get in touch by scheduling a call.

Thank you for reading, have a lovely weekend! ☺