Leading property consultancy CBRE has celebrated the tenth anniversary of its UK Women’s Network with a special event last night in the Blythswood Hotel in Glasgow.
The CBRE Women’s Network is a ground-breaking initiative to help support and develop women in the commercial property arena. The Network hosts regular networking events throughout the UK, targeting CBRE’s female clients with a variety of talks and seminars.
The evening event featured a talk from Lindsay Law, head of Assurance at RBS. Lindsay has an academic and professional interest in gender diversity in the workplace and used the event to discuss her career as well as her research on ‘Imposter Syndrome’. She regularly speaks at internal and external events to raise awareness and advise how employers and educational institutions can help remove barriers to female success.
Virginia Beckett, director in CBRE Scotland’s Capital Markets team and head of the Women’s Network in Scotland, said: “Lindsay is passionately committed to ensuring that everyone understands the barriers that even high-achieving women face, and that they need to do more to support women in overcoming them. She is a brilliant speaker so I was thrilled that we managed to secure her for our special event. She is another perfect role model for the Network and has gone down a storm with our guests this evening.”
Focusing on three key areas; recruitment and retention, networking and professional development and community spirit and philanthropy, the CBRE Women’s Network aims to support skills development and aid women’s success both within the company and in the real estate industry as a whole.
Within CBRE, the Network has already made good progress in terms of improving family friendly policies such as maternity benefits and arrangements for paternity leave and flexible working; shared parental leave and adoption leave are on the radar for review. The Network aspires to make CBRE a more rewarding place to work, not just for women but for everyone.
Virginia Beckett added: “We are proud that CBRE is employing more women than ever before; there is such a wealth of female talent within what has historically been considered a very male dominated industry. At CBRE we are dedicated to attracting and developing those candidates, for the benefit of both the company and the industry in general.
“By looking at our own policies and ways of working, as well as giving something back to the community and offering professional development talks, events and seminars for our female colleagues and clients, we have been able to create a brilliant network that can really make a difference and support women in real estate.”