The Quality Mark (IEQM) will put RICS at the heart of the profession leading on rewarding and sharing best practice, and recognising the work of firms of whatever size who are striving towards creating a fully inclusive work force for our sector.

What is the Inclusive Employer Quality Mark?

The Quality Mark drives behaviour changes in the membership by encouraging all firms, large and small, to look carefully at their employment practices and have inclusivity at the heart of what they do.

The Mark is voluntary and self-assessed. When a firm signs up to the scheme it means they are:

• committed to improving inclusivity according to the six key principles
• committed to monitoring performance: by completing a bi-annual self-assessment, which will mean gathering specific inclusivity data, and submitting it to us

The self-assessment returns will deliver to each firm an individual dashboard giving details about how they are performing compared to others in the profession in each area of the Mark — from leadership to recruitment — and will help them benchmark against peers and establish where more work needs to be done.

Signatories to the Quality Mark will be able to use the tag line “signatory to the RICS Inclusive Employer Quality Mark”.

Sign up

How will this benefit you?

• A competitive advantage through increased visibility of their brand in their community due to the outreach work the Mark incentivises (schools adoption, work experience)
• A competitive advantage in gaining clients who look to employ firms with inclusivity standards, eg public sector clients
• A differentiator providing competitive advantage in recruitment through clear signalling to candidates on the quality of their staff practices and promotion opportunities
• Talent will be retained through observation of best practice
• Rich mine of best practice case studies for members large and small to learn from. Individual firms large and small have the opportunity for national showcasing
• Publicity opportunities to support recruitment and retention, as their best practice and case studies are celebrated externally at a national as well as regional level.

The Six Principles

The six principles that define our aims and the values we expect the industry to practise. Each principle has a series of proof points (the criteria) which show members what best practice and success looks like for this industry, and forms the framework of their self-assessment.

Leadership and vision

• Demonstrable commitment at the highest level to increasing the diversity of the workforce.

Recruitment

• Engage and attract new people to the industry from under-represented groups; best practice recruitment methods.

Staff development

• Training and promotion policies that offer equal access to career progression for all members of the workforce.

Staff retention

• Flexible working arrangements and adaptive working practices that provide opportunities for all to perform at their highest levels.

Staff engagement

• An inclusive culture where staff engage with developing, delivering, monitoring and assessing the diversity and inclusivity of the workplace.

Continuous improvement

• Continually refreshing and renewing the firm’s commitment to, and activities to support, being an inclusive employer; sharing and learning from best practice across the industry.

Sign up

Join industry leaders and be part of our Inclusive Employer Quality Mark campaign. Either complete our sign up form and a member of our team will be in touch, or complete the self-assessment process below.