Hines Linkedin Diversity Posts...
Hines is the biggest real estate company I follow on Linkedin that always participates in making a huge show of Black History Month, Pride month, womens day or whatever....
Every single employee they highlight is always not a real estate investment professional / not front office. Work in IT, HR, accounting or some BS.
I don't know if they have any URM development professionals in the US. I know a decent amount of their office staff nationally as I'm at a big LP of theirs.
Just calling this out because their Linkedin posts piss me off and I hope their phony comms/HR departments sees this.
Its almost like 70% of adults over the age of 45-50 in the usa are white.....
shocking the leadership looks like that too....
Didn't take any stances, just sharing info bruh....
I don’t think this visual is useful because you’re basically trying to define diversity solely on the basis of skin color where in fact there are a ton of different parameters that fall under diversity.
btw, not a slam at you mr intern, you're just posting something without comment, my comments are directed at whoever created these categorizations
shit like this is why I think categorization is retarded and should end altogether
what is "asian?" is punjab asian? what about russian? what about turkish, they're literally asia minor...
what about black cubans? black brazilians? white mexicans? criollos? mestizos? melungeons? mulattos? what about someone from syria or lebanon who would otherwise be "white" yet likely has as different a mindset from a WASP as someone from nigeria?
how is "hispanic" defined? that's not a race, and totally excludes the non-spanish speaking latin world like brazil, suriname, and others, so you could be someone from the favela but if your dad was white, you're just white, not hispanic.
also, what's the threshold? say you were raised in an italian american household and your family is from somewhere tuscany or south and you find out you're 10% african by way of a dna test, are you black? how do you classify shaun king and gk butterfield? what would frederick douglass put down? before you answer "black," his mom was native american, white, and black, and his dad was "almost certainly white." so by simple math you can conclude "black" isn't even his majority race...so what is he? I'd argue he's american, plain and simple, and in many ways embodies the american dream, yet if he checked his majority race....it'd be white (GASP)
you show me an african american (I'm not talking about people who came to USA freely and didn't have slaves in their family) or latin american that's "pure" and I'll show you a liar who hasn't taken a DNA test. plenty of us are mutts, the EEOC and others just want to check boxes and make people continue to feel different.
now, I'm all for increasing things like mentorship so that employees who aren't country club bros get a fair shake, and also expanding recruitment efforts to include schools that are a better representation of the entire country not just the 1%, but I think the entire idea of racial classification, if you apply any scientific rigor to it, sits on a house of cards
"say you were raised in an italian american household and your family is from somewhere tuscany or south and you find out you're 10% african by way of a dna test, are you black?"
lol no
Looks like Asians are over represented
You aren't actually calling anything out, though.
And good on them for highlighting all the people you refer to as working in "BS" positions. Those front office folks can't do their job without IT or accounting - just because those roles aren't as sexy doesn't mean they aren't integral to the working of the company. Trust me when I say the back office folks make my life a hell of a lot easier - I can go out and hunt for deals or spend time on site running projects because I don't have to spend hours of my day dealing with accounts payable, or sorting out my own tech issues.
Plus, Since Hines had vertically integrated property and facilities management, those back office jobs vastly outnumber the “front office” jobs.
Ok, but patting yourself on the back for hiring a Hispanic facilities manager / HVAC tech is still pretty obtuse
Not if you weight by £££
I think the point OP is trying to make is that the company is essentially virtue signaling by bragging about how they help URMs and have a “racially diverse” workforce when in reality those URM candidates are being funneled into 40k/year accounting jobs, not the higher paying client facing roles. It’s almost like once those candidates get to the firm there’s some discrimination going on behind the scenes.
Sure. But for lots of shitty reasons, there aren't a ton of minorities who have the skill set to step into a development PM role. Hopefully Hines is doing something to foster those skills so that won't be the case down the road, but for now I'm not sure what else they can do? Also, there is a small (very small, but it exists) amount of hopping from back office to front office, so really anything helps.
I just don't see the reasoning behind letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Applaud them for making an effort and make sure to keep them accountable for continuing to do so. If we were all saying "okay, problem solved" and walking away I'd agree this is meaningless, but it's one step on a longer road.
Also, on a slightly separate note, I'd again make the argument that highlighting the back office folks is just a nice thing to do. As I said, it's relatively rare to find people of color in CRE roles, especially at development shops, and those folks tend to get a lot of press because of it. Giving some love to the essential support staff who don't get profiled in the Commercial Observer or Crain's is a nice thing to do, regardless of gender or ethnic background or whatever
You have to agree to be in those LinkedIn ads. Some people may feel like they are being highlighted not for their skillset or achievements but because they are a member of X group that is being celebrated during that certain month.
Most high level people at Hines have been there 30+ years, shocker that they aren’t the most diverse set. Plenty of diversity at the managing director level and lower and Laura Hines is going to be the CEO soon.
We iz da realest ez-tate
It is definitely not perfect, but I applaud companies for trying to be more diverse and highlighting people that are sometimes hidden/ignored.
When you are part of one of those minority groups, it can sometimes feel like you are being pushed out there as a "poster child" for the company (I'm one of the few LGBT investment professionals at my company so I get asked to participate in all of the LGBT diversity events), but showing up and representing is also how you bring about change.
Former “Hines employee here… can absolutely attest to this being the case. My managers would not coffee chat, interview, or hire folks if they did not fit the right mold. Echo above sentiment that this might be a regional thing, but can think of many instances where women and minorities were not promoted as quickly/often as white male counterparts. Hines does do a good job of seeking underrepresented talent for their internship programs but I noticed a very poor retention rate among women and minorities at all levels of the company. Just my observations…
The most interesting part of this thread is that the original poster is reportedly a large LP of Hines and yet the Company hasn't fully communicated their diversity initiatives. Hines has been very active in D&I initiatives for a few years now. As others have pointed out, this is going to take time. Most of the leadership has been with the Company 40+ years and historically real estate hasn't been the most diverse industry. But some quick examples that are fairly public are:
I'm sure there are many others that aren't coming to top of mind at the moment. The reality is they have a lot of D&I talent at the Analyst, Associate and Director level. It will take time for this talent to grow and filter to the top to reflect a more diverse organization. It isn't a light switch, it's a funnel and the more diverse talent they can add at the broad end of the funnel, the more will come in at the narrow end of the tunnel - over time.
Shoutout to Laura Hines for grinding it out…
You don't often see a rags-to-riches story like this one play out. Good on her.
This is what progressives call "performative action" - only putting up appearances instead of implementing diverse people into important roles. That said though another poster did correctly identify that it'll take time for diverse employees to reach leadership roles given that diversity initiatives have only begun to get serious with nonperformative hiring for a decade at most companies. If Hines doesn't have any diverse leadership in 5-10 years then that's when it becomes obvious that it's all a PR stunt
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