Richard
Weller, one of our two managing directors at Alpha IC GmbH, recently became an
official "Male Ally" of "FRAUEN
!N FÜHRUNG" (F!F), the
leading diversity network in the real estate industry. This initiative was
founded by Anne Tischer in 2019 as a non-profit association and aims to make
the real estate industry more innovative, sustainable and future-proof with
more women in management positions and mixed management teams.
The network includes numerous companies from all areas of the real estate industry as well as committed individuals as members. In addition, F!F cooperates with leading associations (such as gefma), clubs and think tanks in the real estate industry as well as with universities and foundations. Klara Geywitz, Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Construction, has taken over the patronage of "Frauen !n Führung" in 2023
For us, the topic of equality and diversity is important every day, but with a "Male Ally" we are additionally motivated and sensitized to further advocate for it. Nevertheless, on International Women's Day, we want to draw attention to F!F's "Male Ally" campaign and report on our contribution to a more diverse company. With our attitude and our measures, we want to inspire others to critically scrutinize their own corporate culture and structure from a diversity perspective. Equal rights do not stop within the company, but it is also necessary to actively promote them in the social and family environment.but it is also necessary to actively promote them in the social and family environment.
Why is this initiative needed in the real estate industry?
Currently, in facility management and consulting, only around 11% of the 120 leading real estate companies in Germany have women on their management boards and boards of directors. According to a study, the top 3 obstacles to greater gender diversity in the real estate industry from the perspective of women are "male networks", "male communication" and "male personnel decisions" (source: IREBS Real Estate Academy University of Regensburg and Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, 2022). This is why it is so important to establish a male network with "Male Allies", which communicates and makes decisions differently. (Source: "How can the change to more women in leadership in the real estate industry succeed?" IREBS Immobilienakademie Uni Regensburg and Carl-von Ossietzky-Universität Olden-burg, F!F 2022).
Anne
Tischer, Chairwoman and initiator of the initiative, and our Managing Director,
Richard Weller, are in a lively exchange on this topic. According to Richard,
women have a different view of real estate, the different needs of users and
requirements for buildings. It is important that these perspectives are also
incorporated into decisions in companies and that they are given equal weight,
as this gives decisions a higher quality. Women in leadership have also been
proven to have a lasting positive impact on corporate culture and
communication.
What can men do to promote more women in leadership? And what is Alpha IC doing to promote more women in leadership?
We enthusiastically support this initiative and have been working for several years to make ourselves more sustainable in the areas of diversity and equality. Several years ago, we realized that there were no female managers, so-called partners and leads, at Alpha IC. We then worked consistently to gradually increase this proportion, not by setting a quota for women, but by talking intensively with our colleagues with leadership potential and creating opportunities for them to take on this leadership role part-time, for example. We are proud of the fact that almost 1/3 of our managers are now women. This has enabled us to significantly develop our management culture and further improve the enjoyment of management work. This has enabled us to significantly develop our management culture and further improve the enjoyment of management work. We are continuously working on creating the necessary freedom for individual situations through our already very flexible working time models. In this way, we want to make it easier for our colleagues to achieve a better work-life balance. For women in particular, who still perform the majority of care work, it is fundamentally important that they continue to have the opportunity to develop in their job after parental leave, for example, and that they are also given the opportunity to be responsible for a team as a manager while working part-time. At the same time, we encourage our male colleagues to take on family work. We are a member of the Bavarian Family Pact and actively promote family-friendly working time models.
I am a partner in a team of five at Alpha IC and I think it's great that this responsible role is possible for me on a part-time basis. It is important to me to create a trusting environment in which everyone is allowed to express themselves, where we can meet on an equal footing and where I can inspire and support with my experience.
Equal rights and diversity do not stop at the management level, however, but are a central component of our corporate culture. We implement numerous measures to achieve this. In our corporate communications, for example, we make sure that we address our employees in a gender-equitable way, communicate openly and treat each other with care and respect. Our feedback culture and our coaching leadership ensure that we are in regular contact with our employees in order to continuously improve and develop. In 2022, following an internal employee vote, we decided to internally disclose our salary ranges per profile level, differentiated by gender. This disclosure shows that we do not have the usual gender pay gap.
We are pleased that, with around 80 employees in a more technically oriented professional environment, we currently employ 41% women and create a balanced ratio between younger and older colleagues. Through a diverse approach in our employer branding - internally and externally - we are constantly working to achieve greater diversity - be it in terms of professional experience, age, gender or origin.
Nevertheless, we still have potential that we want to actively address in this area and hope that our participation in the initiative will provide us with helpful impetus on how we can further increase the proportion of our female managers and achieve a more inclusive approach to all groups of people. Anne Tischer worked with thirteen male allies of "Frauen !n Führung", including our Managing Director, Richard Weller, in a joint workshop in Berlin on 22.03.2024 to provide input and impetus. You can find the results in the pdf file linked above.
