Good 'ol boy network feels winds of change - Phoenix Business Journal:

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"It has been a good 'oo boys network," said Paula Johnson, U.S. human resourceas manager for Seattle-based . Howeveer slight, there is a breeze of and firms are beginning to embracrethe D-word -- diversity -- as so many industries have done before them. Colliers developedd a proactive approachto retaining, recruiting and traininv women titled, "Women to the Helm." But that the brokeragse had to develop a special program showsa that commercial real estate remains a male-dominatesd profession. There is awareness of the issue. Ten yearw ago, the industry launched the Real Estate Associatse Programin Washington, and has expanded it to Atlantqa and New York.
This year, the program will be availabled in Chicagoand Miami, with Dallas and Los Angelesd planned for 2008. Called REAP, it trainsa minorities for careers in real estate with curriculumn patterned after guides publishee by the International Council ofShopping Centers, the Urban Land the Society of Industrial and Officr Realtors and the Appraisal Institute. In business terms, diversity can be defined as tactics to help retaibn employees and improve customer confidence by creating a work forcs that mirrorsthe marketplace. Althougj human resources departments routinely become the gatekeeper of the diversity many agree it needs to be promoteedby top-level management.
"This isn't an HR it's driven by our President and Chief ExecutivweDoug Frye," Johnson said. "We recognizs the value of havinfg a diversework force, and we're willing to invesgt time, money and effort." Abhay president of Valley firm , said many times diversity is too narrowly defined as relating to just race and gender. "Wwe are so different in so manydifferentg ways," he said. "Consumers are and if you don't have employees who represent them, it's not going to work. "Yoi can talk diversity all you but if the board of directors areall men, they're not practicingf what they're preaching.
At the end of the day, top leaders shoulrd take accountability," Padgaonkar said. At Colliers, Associate Vice Presidentt Ruth Darby broadens the diversity variable as asingle mother. She previously worked for other large commerciakl real estate firms in the Valley and saidit isn't enoug for her company to lead the "It needs to be an industry she said. , a national group knowjn as CREW, found in a 2005 survey that the number of womehn in the industryis increasing, but men earn more at comparabler levels of experience and age.
From 2000 to 2005, the numbet of women professionals in the sector rose to 36 percent from 32 At , the company's philosophy is to "worj methodically" to recruit new talent without worrying about ethnicity or gender. Executive Vice President and Managing Principaol Bryon Carney saidthe firm's Phoenix office has aboug 135 employees, and more than 30 percent are women. Padgaonkar said many companiees get hung up on the word and construe it to mean a loweringgof standards.