Landsec delivers social mobility activities across the UK, and since 2011 has run a series of employability programmes for people from less advantaged backgrounds. In 2023, they won the prestigious Organisation of the Year Award at the SOMOs, following a major commitment announced in May 2022 to improve social mobility in the real estate sector.
Landsec Futures, a £20m fund to be invested over 10 years, was subsequently launched in April 2023, with the aim to enhance social mobility at Landsec and the wider real estate sector through a combination of industry and local programmes.
This year, Landsec are championing the Pre-Recruitment Programme of the Year Award.
What has the 2023 SOMO award done for Landsec? And what are their key learnings from the Landsec Futures programme?
Here, Head of ESG and Sustainability Jennie Colville gives a fascinating insight into all of that, and more…
How has partnering with the SOMOs positively impacted Landsec as a company?
As the proud winners of 2023’s Organisation of the Year, we were so delighted that our Landsec Futures Programme was recognised as best in class. It has really reinforced the work we’re doing to enhance social mobility and create opportunities, enabling us to celebrate more the work we’re doing. This has helped build pride within our own workforce that the work we’re doing really is making a difference.
Why is social mobility important to Landsec?
Landsec is a UK real estate company and the real estate sector, you could argue, is at the heart of the British economy. Not only do we build and manage buildings, but we create places that we spend 90% of our time living, working and socialising in. Our sector is also the fourth largest employer in the UK so we have an unrivalled opportunity to offer a range of opportunities all across the country.
Unfortunately, when you look at the diversity of the sector we’ve had a long challenge, specifically around social economic diversity. In 2020 we took part in a study done by the Bridge Group, which found that 45% of real estate employees were from an independent school or a state selected school. This compares to 6.5% of the UK average.
We believe at Landsec that for us to be a successful company we need to make sure that the people creating the places that we spend time in, reflect the rich tapestry of diversity that our country boasts. Also to be a successful company, we need to make sure we’ve got thriving communities around our places, so we need invest and offer opportunities in our local communities. Landsec wanted to do something about this and so last year we launched our Landsec Futures Programme where we’re investing £20m over the next 10 years to not only enhance social mobility in our workplace but also play our role in enhancing social mobility in the wider sector.
What positive impacts have you seen as a company since increasing diversity and offering opportunities for less-advantaged young people?
As part of Landsec Futures we offer Landsec internships – running six-month placements for young people from underrepresented socio-economic backgrounds every year. Since we launched the programme last year, we’ve already welcomed 15 interns into Landsec, and the impact has been profound.
From our regular sessions with our interns, we’ve learnt so much from them including how to create a more inclusive culture – holding events with a range of activities, food and drink on offer, for example. Landsec Futures has also fostered better collaboration between Landsec teams. Within a real estate company you’ve predominantly got an operations team that manages the buildings and you’ve got a development team that are building our new assets. Landsec Futures has brought all different functions and teams together to really rally around a common cause.
Lastly, it’s opened up a new channel for us to recruit talented people. For our internship programme, we recruit through our charity partners enabling us to reach more people that we wouldn’t previously access. We’ve had 15 interns at Landsec, four of those are now in permanent roles with us and four of those have been offered extensions to their contracts, so we’re creating career pathways in our industry.
How can other organisations come together to advance social mobility?
Share what you’re doing, share stories, share the challenges you’ve had in your social mobility journey, share what’s worked well and what hasn’t worked. I think a great way to do this is all attend the Social Mobility Business Seminar. I think we all need to work together; we can’t address the social mobility issue alone; we need to work together and by sharing experiences will really help us to achieve this.
