Brokerages Commit Personal Resources To Hiring Diverse Talent

SAN FRANCISCO—Last month, Cushman & Wakefield San Francisco hosted 11 college students from the University of Southern California who made the northbound trek to learn more about the commercial real estate industry. On November 14, a core team of Cushman & Wakefield leaders and experts across multiple service lines and departments along with key members of the firm's employee resource groups including Future Leaders and Women's Integrated Network were on hand to speak with the eager students from multiple grade levels. Students also had an opportunity to meet with the speakers as well as other stakeholders in the firm.

The following day, in a separate but related event, Cushman & Wakefield representatives also conducted a series of interviews with nine different candidates from the firm's Professional Real Estate Program/PREP, a rotational development program for aspiring commercial real estate professionals. The interviewees represented colleges including the University of California Berkeley, Cal Poly, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Hawaii, University of Indiana, University of Southern California and Lafayette College of Pennsylvania.

Established in 2013 on the East Coast but launched last fall on the West Coast in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cushman & Wakefield's PREP is designed to reach institutions of higher education that provide either coursework and or campus organizations with commercial real estate-focused curriculum. PREP has partnerships at 15 target universities and colleges.

"One of our main goals in targeting college campuses is to meet with students who are most interested in pursuing a career in commercial real estate," says Amanda Camera, Cushman & Wakefield campus recruiter who helped lead both San Francisco events. "We find visiting and spending time with prospective talent face-to-face on campus and having a chance to really engage them is a more effective process. It helps go a long way for us as a company to learn more about them, and certainly for them to learn more about us and possibly jumpstart their careers. It is fun, exciting and very rewarding to participate in these interpersonal collegiate events and have the opportunity to share our knowledge about the industry to help better prepare students for their future as real estate professionals. We hope they can become valuable members of the Cushman & Wakefield team one day."

PREP Associates go through five different service line rotations during their year-long program. Rotation durations are approximately 10 weeks and are pre-planned based on a series of conditions and associate interests. Notably, all associates have obtained their real estate licenses and are ready to rotate within all business functions.

"A value-add process, the training curriculum incorporated throughout the program year provides development opportunities in financial analysis, lease terminology, advanced proficiencies in Excel, presentation skills and much more. PREP Associates are assigned a mentor, a business development buddy and a marketing ambassador to support integration into our firm, workload support and industry exposure," says Christina Urwand, program manager for Cushman & Wakefield's talent acquisition team. "Among the greatest benefits of PREP is that it serves as a fast-track in helping navigate the business. The program gives associates an insider view into multiple service lines while also helping them develop new relationships and connect directly with our stakeholders and industry members—many of whom might not otherwise have had such opportunity. Furthermore, associates obtain a much greater understanding of the commercial real estate industry receiving in-depth, first-hand market knowledge."

Adding to its arsenal of educating and attracting prospective talent, Cushman & Wakefield also offers a national internship program that similarly provides interns real-world exposure to the firm and the industry through work projects, networking events and mentorship by colleagues. Cushman & Wakefield's recent summer national internship program supported a total of nearly 270 talented interns who work in the firm's US offices to assist across a variety of service lines and functions.

"Our talent has many faces and our innovation many shapes. We work hard to develop and empower a culture that unleashes what's possible in every person we hire," Kaitlynn Koeppler, Cushman & Wakefield recruiting team lead, tells GlobeSt.com. "Through our diversity recruiting initiatives, Cushman & Wakefield strives to build a foundation that ensures diverse candidates are considered for every open role. In our industry, information and relationships are critical, and all of these targeted programs provide a great rooting system for participants to grow and hopefully then flourish in these and other areas. We hope that by continuing to proactively visit with college campuses and host in-office student tours and events together with internship opportunities throughout the year, we will create desirable career opportunities for students while also continuously feeding PREP, which in turn will feed our pipeline of diverse talent across Cushman & Wakefield, from entry level to executives."

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Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.