Brent Obleton, vice president, diversity and inclusion, at Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. (NYSE: HPP), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworks: 2023 Conference in Las Vegas on June 28-29.
Obleton discussed the type of data that companies should be capturing and measuring as it’s related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). He noted that in addition to demographic data, companies should also capture what they are seeing within the business—in retention and attrition for example—and the factors that are impacting that.
As for strategies to effectively use the data that has been captured, Obleton stressed the need to interpret the data and understand what it is actually saying, how is it impacting employees, and how it shapes the ways that the company is viewed in the community.
Obleton also underlined the need for “storytelling,” noting that companies often don’t tell the right story as to what the data actually means. He stressed that corporate leaders need to articulate what DEI means to them and use the collected data to back up those assertions.
“Embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion within the business is the ultimate goal,” Obleton said.