At RICS we have always believed that our hardworking employees are the drivers of our success. In a year that has seen significant change for the institution, our employees’ unwavering commitment to deliver has been awe-inspiring. It has enabled us and our members to continue to effect positive change in the built and natural environment around the world.
Our colleagues matter to us, and we remain focused on shaping an inclusive workplace where they feel supported to be at their best and thrive.
Putting our people’s well-being first
We know that we can only succeed by putting the health and well-being of our people at the heart of everything we do.
This year, we partnered with well-being specialists The Wellbeing Project to introduce three tiers of targeted support for employees:
A global network of mental health first aiders and well-being champions: over 40 employees will receive extensive, accredited training to ensure they can provide the best support to our people.
Training to support our global people managers to lead and enable greater mental well-being in their teams.
Improving employee awareness of mental health so they can not only look after their own mental well-being, but also support other colleagues. This year, we hosted a mental health awareness webinar, and mental health toolkits are available for all employees to access.
We also believe in the importance of time away from work so that our people can maintain a healthy work–life balance, recharge and spend more time with loved ones. For this reason, we offer all our employees the opportunity to take a well-being day each year to do something that they enjoy and that will benefit their mental health.
Investing in our people
Ensuring our people succeed helps us succeed, and over the past year we have accelerated our approach to learning and development.
Our goal is to create a learning organisation where employees are actively encouraged to engage in their personal and professional development. As part of our commitment to this, this year we launched the Inspire programme. The course aims to build a distinct RICS way of leadership and ways of working, and a coaching culture to foster performance and growth. Employees who participate in the programme receive a combination of self-directed, interactive and group learning, alongside manager coaching.
We also encourage self-directed learning for all our people, and this year launched our brand-new MindTools platform. It empowers employees to seek out and engage in their own developmental learning wherever and whenever they need it.
Celebrating successes
When our people accomplish great things, we notice and celebrate. Over 900 e-thank you messages have been sent on our recognition platform this year. Meanwhile, our quarterly recognition awards, nominated by employees and decided by a global judging panel, celebrated exceptional individual and team achievements with RICS rewards.
Recognition is awarded across all our behaviours:
Making it safe to speak up
Creating an open, honest and transparent culture, where our people feel able to confidently raise concerns, is extremely important to us, and is an area we know we needed to improve on following Alison Levitt QC’s Independent Review.
In July, we launched a new whistleblowing policy, in collaboration with UK charity Protect, to support our employees in speaking up about any wrongdoing at work in the safe knowledge that they will be protected and that their concerns will be dealt with effectively.
Hearing our employees’ voices
We feel strongly that creating a positive culture built on trust starts with listening to our people. In June, we launched Employee Voice, a network of elected colleagues from across RICS. They represent all employees on issues directly affecting their working lives, working together with the Executive Team to enact meaningful change.
The group has already begun prioritising areas that matter most to our people, and where we can make improvements, including around reward, retention, leadership and policy.
Championing an inclusive culture
Our staff-led Inclusion Group continues to grow among colleagues, reflecting the importance that staff place on creating an inclusive culture at RICS. From a handful of employees, we now have a group that represents our people from many areas of the world and across most functions in the organisation. They meet monthly to champion different areas of inclusion, host external and internal speakers on different subjects, and inspire and empower colleagues to learn, understand and value our differences. The group was set up and is co-chaired by Marie-Louise Collard, Head of Brand, and Adeola Ajayi, Global Communications Lead.
Achieving gender equity and closing the gap
Our 2021 gender pay gap report shows that, like too many organisations, we still have a lot of work to do to achieve gender equity within RICS. We have a healthy process for recruiting women into the organisation, but we are still lacking in our recruitment and retention of female leaders in our most senior positions. We are prioritising efforts to fix this. Inclusion and diversity are fundamental to our success, and we are passionate about creating a work environment that supports women – both current and prospective female employees – to contribute and maximise their potential.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) taskforce
A DEI taskforce was established to evaluate RICS content, information, training and events by looking at team practices and processes to identify gaps and areas for improvements. The taskforce’s aim is to provide relevant adaptations to ensure that accessibility and DEI are at the forefront of all RICS activities and services.
Since its inception, the DEI taskforce has:
- incorporated closed captions to eLearning modules and
- started to increase diversity of thought, background and expertise in research, collaborations and delivery of CPD offerings.
Carbon reporting
RICS is fully committed to understanding and reducing our carbon footprint. This is done in conjunction with our environmental and energy management system’s accredited certification to the ISO 50001:2018 and ISO 14001:2015 international standards. Our overall performance is shown below, and shows a rise in our carbon emission resulting from staff going back in to offices.
The scope of the carbon footprint covers the following participating sites:
UK & Ireland: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Parliament Square London, President’s flat London
Asia Pacific: Beijing, Shanghai, Kowloon, Singapore, Sydney
EMEA: Gurgaon, Dubai, Frankfurt, Milan, Brussels
- Americas: Toronto, New York
Offices have been occupied on a variable basis since 23 March 2020 due to local restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall carbon performance 2008–2022
Achievements associated with our carbon management during the RICS 2021–2022 financial year are:
recertification of our environmental and energy management system to the ISO 50001:2018 standard for all RICS
UK activities under the scope of The application of an energy management system for the use of energy within occupied premises to support the design, consultancy and commercial use of rooms, facilities and activities, and Management of energy used in company transport by road
managing flexible workspaces to meet the requirements of RICS and our members.