RICS Diversity, equity and inclusion progress report 2024

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith FRICS, RICS Board and DEI Chair with Sybil Taunton, RICS Head of DEI

Following our progress report for RICS diversity, equity and inclusion activities, published at the end of 2023, we are proud to share updates on what has been accomplished in 2024 with our employees, members and wider stakeholders.

The headline is that a tremendous amount of progress has been made both internally and externally to improve processes, increase knowledge and understanding, and deliver meaningful change for all our stakeholders.

So, we are delighted to present a summary of what has been accomplished over the past 12 months and what to expect in 2025.  

DEI strategy and web hub

Our biggest accomplishment early in the year was the delivery of the RICS DEI strategy, which covers our aims and priorities through to 2026. As resource continues to improve and needs continue to evolve, we will review and evaluate our strategy to ensure it effectively meets the needs of RICS employees and members alike, wherever they are based.

We have also improved our DEI Hub found on the RICS website to showcase insights and member stories, signpost industry networks supporting surveyors, and keep you updated on the work we’re undertaking, aligned with our strategy. This is still a work in progress so if there is more you would like to see in this area or would like to contribute content, reach out to us at dei@rics.org.

Global DEI Forum

There was much discussion in 2023 around the DEI and Sustainability panels as recommended in the Bichard Review. We made the decision to not form a panel in the first year to ensure it was developed in an effective format that properly bridged the gap between our members, stakeholders, Governing Council and the RICS Board. We also wanted to ensure that this group represented our global membership and all areas of diversity could be addressed. Ultimately, we felt more resource was needed to deliver the envisaged programme of work.

Resource came forward in 2024 and from there we launched a DEI Forum, allowing DEI representatives from RICS World Regional and Regional Advisory Boards to agree priority areas for collaboration and drive localised activities that are relevant to members in their regions. This approach was approved by Governing Council in Q1. Terms of Reference were agreed and representatives from our World and our Regional Advisory Boards have been meeting successfully via Teams.  

This Forum has demonstrated its value in representing the diverse needs of our membership and is now playing an important role in evaluating and refining RICS policy and business planning. A case in point was the input into the member subscription concessions debate for 2025.

In our final meeting of the year, the group agreed on priority topics that we will align on throughout our global regions through member engagement activities and events in 2025. These topics were agreed because of their intersectional ties across other demographic groups and include:

• gender equity
• mental health
• social mobility
• disability inclusion.

Best practice will be explored and specialist speakers invited to join specific DEI Forum meetings to share knowledge and insight so this can be cascaded throughout the membership.

Data and insights

We continue to gather membership data through individual member profiles but frustratingly response rates remain low in many key areas. This prevents us from being able to share aggregate reporting that reflects the make-up of our membership beyond the basics of age and gender. Every member plays a role in helping us improve our data, so if you are a member and haven’t already updated your profile, please help us improve how we address DEI issues and take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire in your member profile.

In 2023 we conducted a follow-up survey on the back of our first-ever insight report focused on women in surveying. Throughout 2024 we engaged with numerous women’s networks that support surveyors and expanded our reach into more of our global regions to improve our insights around the experiences of women working in surveying outside of the UK. This has taken a tremendous amount of engagement and work. We still have more regions to engage with as we refine and improve our second insight report, which we hope to publish by the end of Q1 2025.

This year we also partnered with Anita Phagura Ltd. to launch the built environment’s first survey focused on the experiences of professionals in the industry through the lens of race, ethnicity and culture. We will also host focus groups with members as we work to gather as many responses and insights as we can to shape a detailed and meaningful insight report that will be published in 2025.

Finally, to establish stronger layers of comparable data to shape more accurate and sector-specific targets and objectives, we partnered with Action Sustainability to bring RICS-regulated firms into the industry’s largest DEI survey and benchmarking report in the UK. This year we saw tremendous improvement on the number of RICS firms taking part in the survey, with the real estate sector joining the survey for the first time. The full benchmarking report is expected early in the new year.

Training and events

After nearly 18 months of hard work in collaboration with the Standards team, RICS members and DEI experts, we launched a robust offering of free guidance for members that is now embedded in the RICS Rules of Conduct. This placement is deliberate and ensures DEI grows as a core competency of surveying professionals as we strive to shape a more inclusive industry together.

During 2024, six webinars were produced and made available, at no charge, in member CPD support packs to align with the six core areas of guidance now available within the Rules of Conduct. The RICS Products team also continues to improve the CPD offering around DEI to grow member knowledge and confidence in this area.

Over the past year we delivered a range of training sessions including two major DEI events for the surveying profession, and partnered with the BE Inclusive bodies on two further events for built and natural environment professionals. To build stronger relationships all events were collaborative efforts that elevated the work of industry networks and partners.

• International Women’s Day: Advancing Inclusion for Women Surveyors
• Racial Equity in the Surveying Profession

RICS were also proud to sponsor the Women of the Future Awards Programme, Black Women in Real Estate’s inaugural International Women’s Day Gala and ‘Phenomenal Women’ campaign, the Black Professionals in Construction Awards, and AbilityRE’s International Day of People with Disabilities event. We also partnered with Building Equality for Birmingham Pride and marched alongside our BE Inclusive partners in the London Pride parade.

Policy and practice improvements

Throughout 2024 we made significant progress in improving internal policies and practices for RICS employees. This included a new reproductive health and baby loss policy, enhanced parental leave policies, as well as guidance for managers and colleagues to support inclusion for transgender employees.

We also made improvements on or our employee data collection and recruitment practices, and saw a significant improvement in our external audit score with Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion. Of note, recruitment for the new RICS Executive Leadership team was completed this year and the team more diverse than ever before, with 50% women and 30% global ethnic majority representation.

In addition to these activities, we also signed on with RSM’s RACE Equality Code, where we underwent a detailed audit of our practices and policies with expert analysts who then generated an extensive report on areas where we can improve our DEI strategy for more meaningful and sustainable impact.

Finally, after a year of collaboration and consultation with external experts, we delivered a robust Disability Inclusion Framework to increase knowledge and understanding and improve support for RICS employees and members. This framework not only includes a reasonable adjustments policy for employees, but we also developed and delivered a policy focused on our members as well. Through focused training and continuous improvement, RICS strives to be a fully disability inclusive organisation.

What to expect in 2025

Next year we are shifting slightly away from standalone products and events, to make more deliberate efforts to embed DEI across all other products and events for members to ensure these important topics and discussions are reaching as many members as possible.

This year we started work on a project to examine what we are calling the ‘Inspired to Hired Gap’, looking at what more needs to be done beyond school visits and career fairs to help get more talent into the industry. Over the coming year we will deliver outputs from this project that will help showcase organisations and programmes in this space and help both early career talent and RICS-regulated firms understand who they should be partnering with depending on their needs.

We will also be putting greater focus on how the industry can do better when it comes to retaining existing talent, especially when it comes to mid-senior talent development and retention. Part of this work will also include collaborating with our members to support professionals returning from career breaks to feel confident and ready to return to the workplace.

In summary, 2024 has seen us build on the work of the previous year. We believe we have made an effective and discernible difference to the way RICS addresses DEI issues. There will always be work to do, but the DEI team has worked hard to lay the necessary foundations to ensure long-term sustainable change in the industry, and we are confident we will continue to make progress and meaningful impact over time.

Together with our members and our stakeholders, we will shape an industry and an institution that is rightly accessible and inclusive for all.