Case study
Supporting A Diversity & Inclusion Strategy At CBRE
CBRE is a global property services company and a leading player in the Asia-Pacific region with around 30,000 employees spread across all the major markets. Although the global organization has a longstanding commitment to Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), the regional industry tends to promote senior leaders from an expatriate background and reward male rather than female talent. YSC Consulting supported the company as they developed and rolled out their D&I strategy for the Asia-Pacific region. Key objectives for the project aimed to:
- Develop leaders’ self-awareness, particularly around their strengths, blind spots, and effectiveness of their leadership.
- Increase the pace of change around the diversity and inclusion agenda despite pockets of skepticism within the organization and a lack of knowledge of cutting-edge research and practice.
- Facilitate D&I in the very different business, social and cultural contexts of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
YSC designed a two-day workshop for the regional D&I champions, with the following objectives:
- Deepen insight into what diversity is and why it matters to a business.
- Identify how to develop into more inclusive leaders.
- Honestly discuss diversity and inclusion in the organization to identify areas for actions.
- Bring them together as a team, and help them decide on key regional priorities.
YSC then designed a half-day program on objectives 1-3. The interactive program was delivered to the country executive teams of the eight largest markets / regional business units across APAC, the high potential regional talent group, and the regional HR leadership team.
The program included cutting-edge research into D&I and focused on creating a psychologically safe environment, taking a systemic approach to D&I and how to make a personal and a business case for why diversity matters.
YSC drew on regional consultants experienced in D&I who were able to facilitate in a way that was sensitive to the local market contexts.
The regional D&I team have made considerable progress on their agenda for change and established an internal and external communications strategy to promote awareness. At a local and business unit level, the leaders are much more engaged in the D&I strategy and there have been a number of focused initiatives arising from this engagement.
YSC are currently partnering with the company to identify the next stage in furthering the D&I strategy.
“It was great to have you amidst us to work with the India leadership team. We all enjoyed the session and I believe that your sessions have helped us further the cause of D&I in a big way. Thank you.”
“It was really a fruitful session and I believe everybody enjoyed the session as it was a good opportunity to think deeper about the importance of accelerating D&I in Japan.”