Multicultural Conundrums - On-site Staff
Cledor is an equal opportunities employer.
We source, employ and otherwise engage members of on-site staff based on their ability to do the job exceptionally well, so whether they are white, black or brown, LGBTQ, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh…it matters not. The Cledor team – in head office and dispersed over residential and commercial sites in London and the south east – is proudly multicultural.
Much has been written about the merits of assembling a multicultural team irrespective of the organisational make-up. A generation or two ago, a culturally diverse team was much harder to build, however now – thankfully – the world is a much smaller place, so a multicultural workforce is commonplace. In our view, organisations, their employees and their customers, are better off as a result.
Studies have shown that a multicultural team will outperform its blander rivals! A broad spectrum of educational backgrounds, languages, family histories and so forth means team are naturally challenged to ensure they are delivering the right service – particularly when it comes to culturally-sensitive customer service issues.
On a residential development of scale in London, you are likely to have buildings containing culturally diverse residents, and if Cledor sites are to go by, an increasingly multicultural on-site team too. London is incredibly diverse, ethnically and culturally. That means we have a diverse pool of candidates from which to select the best staff for our customers. Most of the properties we recruit for are residential – long leasehold blocks of flats and build to rent schemes – where first class customer service skills are essential, so having the whole of London’s pool of talent to choose from makes recruiting top-notch staff relatively easy most of the time.
For anyone who has managed residential property for many years, you will know that it’s not always as simple as that. Just in the same way as a managing agent will always be mindful of recruiting people who will ‘fit in’, developers or RMC board directors may have particular opinions as to what the ‘right fit’ looks like. That can be challenging for a managing agent and companies like Cledor, as such ‘fitting in’ not only means reducing the pool of available talent but there is the possibility of straying into positive and negative discrimination territory.
What would you do in these scenarios?
Scenario 1: An Isle of Dogs block of flats is largely sold off plan to Asian investors and it becomes clear that many of the residents (tenants) are to be Chinese speakers. Is it fair and reasonable for the developers to insist of the managing agent that all concierges are Chinese speakers?
Scenario 2: A high-end building of apartments in Mayfair each worth upwards of £10 million is home to an extended middle eastern family. They make it clear to the freeholder that they do not wish the site staff to be able to understand Arabic as they don’t want their private family business to be understood. Could that be seen as unfairly excluding Arabic speakers? It is awkward/difficult to ask a candidate if they speak Arabic as if they do will be viewed negatively?
Scenario 3: A share-of-freehold client of a West End block of flats made very clear to their managing agent that their new concierge should be a ‘native English speaker’. With plenty of bilingual candidates available in London, this requirement seemed to be excluding most of them. Was the client simply making first class communication skills a requirement or where they inadvertently engaging in indirect discrimination?
The Cledor Way
These scenarios are close to real life case studies that we’ve had to deal with. They were challenging and they made us think hard about the day-to-day application of our equal opportunities policies. With each challenging situation, we find a way to ensure we protect our client (a managing agent, RMC, developer) in the pursuit of recruiting fairly and within the law.
We recognise that there are differences in the staffing requirements of a high rise in Poplar compared to a Grade II listed period property in Mayfair, no disrespect to Poplar. We recognise that the staff being able to communicate, effectively, with the residents is of utmost importance so language skills are highly sought after in certain circumstances. We appreciate that cultural differences are to be embraced and it’s crucial that we are aware of them and our staff conduct themselves appropriately.
It’s worth noting that the client requiring a native English speaker actually meant a ‘fluent’ speaker of English. It was pleasing to be able to coax them into that ‘clarification’ and place a trilingual Portuguese concierge for their block!
The Cledor way means welcoming and encouraging diversity, and being able to finely tune into what/who will work best on a given residential scheme. By understanding and knowing London’s local communities and who lives in the flats, our nuanced approach to selecting the right fit helps to navigate areas to which many recruiters would apply templates. And that’s the right fit within the site team and the right fit with the residents. Lots of fitting in!
Racial discrimination in the workplace
I hope that most if not all of you reading this blog will embrace multiculturalism in the workplace as we do at Cledor. Not everyone feels the same, and although it is, thankfully, rare in our experience, discrimination based on race does happen. It can be enormously hurtful for the individual and far from straightforward to resolve, whether racism is exhibited by a resident, a visitor or even a colleague.
All our staff are required to read and absorb the staff handbook before they commence their employment. The ‘Equality, Inclusion and Diversity’ section of the handbook is purposely right at the front(!); so there should be no doubt as to our stance on celebrating diversity, our zero tolerance policy on discrimination, and the ease with which any form of discrimination can be raised – directly with me. Every support is available to those who are victims of racism, working hand-in-hand with the property owner or managing agent as necessary.
To end on an entirely positive note …
Nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing a multi-cultural team I brought together, working harmoniously with each other, collectively dedicated to the residents. I treasure their stories, their camaraderie, their work ethic, and their dedication to self-improvement through training, and I take great pleasure in seeing their careers develop in our busy and rewarding sector.
Nick Regnier, Founder