Diverse representation and positive, stereotype-defying images in marketing is an essential key to our success. Ever since our founding, we have mandated that any content produced and promoted by the company would always endeavor to reflect the diversity of California and the United States. (For demographic information, see results of the 2018 American Community Survey.) As CEO John Graff has explained, people “‘are especially mindful of the presence (or absence) of folks like themselves in corporate advertising material. . . . [and] it’s powerfully affirming to be able to see . . . someone like yourself reflected in the world around you’” (quoted in Benzinga, 2019). The goal, as described in INvolve’s profile of Graff, is for “everyone who encounters the Ashby & Graff brand [to] instantly know they are welcome and can count on being provided the same effective, honest, and ethical service afforded all clients. John, who is openly gay, says his own personal experiences with discrimination and feeling unrepresented motivated his decree’” for diverse and inclusive representation in marketing materials (2019).

People deserve to see themselves reflected accurately in society. And since the vast majority of our advertising is geared toward recruiting new agents, these efforts have undoubtedly succeeded in presenting countless potential hires with reflections of themselves in a sea of whitewashed or stereotype-enforcing marketing. As a result, Ashby & Graff® Real Estate has seen 1150% hiring growth over the past 36 months. Indeed, one agent with the firm, Sunita Muhamad shared that she was doing research on various brokerages to join stating, “and when I came across Ashby & Graff, I loved everything that you stand for. Right away it felt authentic and comfortable. In addition, I appreciated how dedicated you are in creating a diverse workplace environment for ethnic minorities.”

By the end of 2020, we plan to add more language diversity to our website and marketing material, with some text in languages other than English. We will also provide information about the availability of sales agents who speak languages other than English as well as those with specialized knowledge about housing that serves populations with diverse needs. In addition, we will provide more accessibility features on our website for people with diverse abilities and disabilities, such as audio in addition to written text. And we plan to post more information about access to A.D.A. compliant and/or Universal Design housing for people with disabilities as well as access to high quality and affordable housing for those with moderate to low income. We plan to also include information about public and supportive housing in California. Finally, we will regularly review our website and marketing material to ensure that it is representative of as many members of our communities as possible.

Ashby & Graff® Real Estate employs a blind hiring process. A potential agent applies to our firm through an automated, online process and if their license is active per the Department of Real Estate, they are approved to join our company. We do not need to speak with or see the person to hire them. If the State of California determined that a person is qualified to practice real estate, we are confident in their ability to succeed and our ability to support their success through training and supervision. All actively licensed agents who want to commit themselves to our core values of providing effective, honest, and ethical service are welcome at Ashby & Graff® Real Estate.

This blind process has resulted in the hiring of a diverse group of agents in an industry that tends to be overwhelmingly white and male (Kim, Brenzel, & Bockmann, 2017; O’Regan, 2020). Through self-reporting in a July 2020 survey of approximately 45% of our brokers and sales associates, we have determined that our company’s sales staff is diverse, though there is room for improvement. Of our agents, approximately 45% identify as White; 21% as Hispanic/Latino*; 16% as African-American/Black; 6% as East Asian; 5% as Middle Eastern; 2% as American Indian/Alaska Native; 2% as Pacific Islander; and 2% as Southeast Asian. In terms of gender and sexual identities, our company is less diverse. In response to the question, “What is your gender identity?” 47% identified as a woman and 53% as a man, with zero identifying as nonbinary or agender. And in response to the question, “What is your sexual orientation?” 87% identified as heterosexual or straight, 8% as gay, 3% as asexual, 2% declined to answer, and zero identified as bisexual, lesbian, pansexual, or queer.

In addition to sales agents, our company’s leadership and staff are similarly reflective of our communities; and our advisory board is equally divided among males and females, with 75% people of color.

In terms of our employee’s perceptions, in the July 2020 survey, the majority reported confidence that Ashby & Graff® Real Estate hires agents from diverse backgrounds and the majority reported a feeling of belonging at the company.

All agents’ perception of Ashby & Graff’s diverse hiring practices.

And people of color (those who did not identify as white) were more likely to say they found our company to be diverse, compared to the group as a whole that responded at a lower rate.

People of color were more likely to perceive Ashby & Graff’s hiring practices as diverse.

The diversity of our agents and their reported perceptions of feelings of belonging demonstrate that efforts at diversity and inclusion do work; and companies benefit from employing a workforce that reflects the communities they serve.

In addition to tracking information on hiring, retention, and attrition by demographic category, we plan to distribute and analyze entrance and exit surveys to learn what factors influence attrition and what supports and interventions might assist with retention. We also plan to track how our rates compare to the real estate industry in California and the United States.

All of our brokers and sales associates are offered the same compensation plans to choose from when they first join. This removes the potential for bias. As a result, in the July 2020 survey, 89% of our brokers and sales associates reported agreeing with the statement, “I feel that my compensation is fair, relative to similar roles at Ashby & Graff Real Estate.” It should be noted that the remaining 11% responded “neither agree nor disagree” and 0% disagreed.

As the employing brokerage, it is our responsibility to ensure that our agents understand how people in our industry perpetuate(d) racist housing policies and how those policies of exclusion continue to impact contemporary life. For management and agent staff, we require mandatory implicit bias training; and in our annual agent compliance training, we include a module regarding the history and lasting effects of racist housing policies. We require that all agents watch documentaries about racist housing policies. This required viewing must be completed annually.

We will continue to provide free access to engaging educational materials for clients, industry colleagues, and the public in our online news magazine, A&G Lifestyles. (As examples, see Learn About Fair Housing videos and Black Lives Matter.)

The aim of producing educational content is to address the lack of common knowledge about these issues. At the same time, we will continue to advocate for schools, licensing authorities, and trade associations to provide quality education and training now and in the future.

In the long-term, we may develop additional tools to assess learning after our sales agents complete education and training; as well as tools to assess if and how they use the information in their professional life. In considering recent trends, we may also develop fair and equitable methods of rewarding staff for achievements related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as including related criteria in job performance reviews and compensation plans.

CEO John Graff has served in leadership and management roles for presidential campaigns, members of Congress, and the Democratic National Committee; he has also served as a Policy Director for the Board of Education in the nation’s second largest school district. His combined experience in real estate and public policy makes him an effective advocate for diversity and inclusion in the real estate industry; and an effective mentor for sales agents in developing leadership capabilities. It is important to note that any person in leadership can employ similar strategies to support reform on local, state, and national levels.

Graff previously served on the board of the National Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors where he worked to promote minority homeownership, especially among the Black community which has the lowest rate of homeownership of any group in the United States (Falcon, 2020). At the national level, he serves as an unpaid policy advisor to national fair housing organizations; and on the Multi-Cultural Leadership Advisory Council, which convenes the leaders of the various multicultural real estate organizations in the United States including the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals (NAGLREP), the Asian Real Estate Association, and the Women’s Council of Realtors.

If we are to work toward true and lasting change, then we cannot just limit our efforts to the real estate industry or the workplace. Change is also made through our government. So it is imperative that we engage with elected leaders and legislators at all levels to advocate for policies that address the history of systemic inequities in housing; and support the fair and equal treatment of all. To that end, Graff recently attended the 2019 LGBT Housing Policy Summit hosted by the NAGLREP at the Human Rights Campaign Equality Center in Washington, D.C. as well as a working breakfast hosted by Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (Svoboda, 2019). The focus of the summit was The Equality Act, which would amend existing civil rights laws and provide nondiscrimination protections in areas such as employment, housing, and education to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics (Human Rights Campaign, 2020).

To advocate for reform in government, Ashby & Graff® Real Estate also submits comments and letters to regulatory bodies seeking public input on issues that affect our industry and workforce.

Ashby & Graff® Real Estate plans to develop mentorship programs that support agents in developing capabilities in leadership and advocacy; and offer incentives for association membership and event participation as well as taking on leadership roles and responsibilities.

At Ashby & Graff® Real Estate, we are committed to using our platform as a thought leader in the real estate industry. First and foremost, this means we communicate to acknowledge and respond to the pain of injustice and trauma. After the murder of George Floyd, we silenced our social media accounts to amplify the voices of organizations working on racial equality and published a statement in support of Black Lives Matter: “We all have the power to speak up in the face of wrong and injustice, and we are challenging businesses across America to stand in solidarity with minorities in our country who are fighting for survival. Our company is and always will be committed to action” (2020). Any company within or outside the real estate industry can use social media and other platforms to publicly acknowledge and embrace the difficulty of the current moment; and locate themselves within it.

Second, this means speaking out and speaking clearly in support of real diversity, equitable treatment, and inclusive representation. Brokers can engage constructively in the conversation by posting credible and verifiable facts about the legacy of discrimination in our field as well as strategies for addressing it (Christoffer & Wood, 2020). As Graff has said, “‘Speak out on this . . . We can’t leave it to the few Black people who are in the real estate industry to make statements. We have to take that burden off of them and talk to fellow white people about this issue. Especially . . . given the real estate industry’s ties to upholding racist housing policies and the lingering effects of those housing policies, it’s really, really important that leaders in this industry not just put out statements, but talk about concrete steps that they’re going to take to change the tone and direction of this conversation’” (quoted in Falcon, 2020).

One of the most effective ways to inspire positive action is by discussing these issues directly within our professional communities. This includes calling out instances of inequity and exclusion and standing up for our employees, clients, and colleagues. For example, when realtor associations and groups organize panels with majority white and male participants, it is important to explain why this is unacceptable and advocate for more diversity. (As a case in point, a 2020 panel in Southern California had 21 speakers, 15 of which were male and all of which were white.) When we witness something wrong, we must call it out.

This is why in January of 2019, Ashby & Graff pulled the plug on our Facebook advertising budget after months of missteps in Facebook’s handling of bigotry, anti-semitism, lack of privacy protections, and other matters. We are proud to be an early supporter of the #StopHateForProfit Campaign which began in the summer of 2020 to pull together a conglomerate of advertisers willing to withdraw advertising until Facebook adequately addresses concerns raised by civil rights organizations (The New York Times, 2020). Recently, we took the added step of actually deleting our presence from Facebook entirely. As Graff explained at the time, “‘Do we get value from having the page and does that value mitigate the dangerous seeds of discord being sown by Facebook? The answer to both is ‘no’. . . . And even if there were enormous value to us, how could we possibly value our business more than the cohesion of our United States?’” (quoted in Joseph, 2020). Facebook is not a platform we are comfortable participating in given their unwillingness to seriously mitigate the problem of hate speech on their site. As Graff has expressed, this is not a political position but an accordance with basic human values: “‘I don’t think that demanding the truth about the holocaust is political. . . . I don’t think that demanding Black lives be treated with the same respect as white lives is political. I don’t think that insisting that publishers treat facts as facts is political. These are just things that we hope to be self-evident. I don’t think it’s taking a political stand, I think it’s just standing up for what should be basic human values’” (Falcon, 2020). Just as important as direct action is the need to communicate the reasons for taking that action.

In addition to identifying and actively resisting what is wrong, it is equally important to communicate the value of diversity and inclusion in the quest for greater recognition of civil and human rights. As John Graff explained during Pride Month in 2019, “‘At Ashby & Graff, we embrace and value our differences because it is diversity of thought that strengthens us. Diversity and inclusion aren’t just a corporate policy, they are the fibers that weave the durable fabric of our organization. We are proud to celebrate diversity and the contributions of the LGBTQ community during Pride Month and throughout the entire year’” (Velt, 2019). That year, Ashby & Graff produced and promoted a video called Holding Hands, Holding Dreams to highlight the importance of home ownership in the LGBTQ community. As Graff explained, “The LGBTQ community has taken incredible strides toward true equality but there is still progress to be made. . . . We celebrate the gains but recommit to fighting for a better and more equal future on behalf of our employees, clients and their families” (Velt, 2019).

We recently pledged to make more strategic investments in Black-owned businesses. As a result of that decision/action, our investments now include business with founders that are 52% people of color; 39% Black; 23% women; and 8% LGBTQIA. As we make new outside investments we will make sure to continue the progress already made with a particular focus on increasing our investments in women-owned businesses to bring that allocation closer to 50%.

Total may exceed 100% due to respondents’ ability to self-identify within more than one group.

We are also shifting some of our charitable giving to organizations working on racial justice issues, such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Ida B. Wells Society, among others.

We are also analyzing our vendor relationships to identify how to increase diverse and inclusive representation. For example, we currently partner with Black-owned businesses in the areas of human resources and public relations; we will continue to diversify our vendor relationships.