It all started in west London 29 years ago with a vision to change the common perception of Estate Agents. Expanding rapidly since 1993 with over 70 offices across the capital, including 12 in prime central London. However, this impressive growth hasn’t caused Dexters to lose sight of its initial vision.
“I think one of the common perceptions of Estate Agents used to be that of slick young men in expensive suits and flashy cars, and Dexters have certainly helped to quash this view over the years,” says Sarah. “The company has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to gender equality and maintaining balance in the workplace.”
“The property industry is traditionally male dominated at senior levels,” continues Sarah. “We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far as over 50% of our colleagues are female across the company and at managerial level. “Our belief has always been to recruit or promote the best person for the role and to apply equal opportunity to all stages of someone’s career with us. It’s fantastic that many of our most successful and highly valued colleagues are women,” says Sarah.
“We strive to create workplaces that are vibrant, fun, and fulfilling. At the same time, they must be diverse and inclusive. We recruit from a pool of talent across London and succeed due to our local teams who are passionate about consistently delivering excellent customer service.”
“Our people are the key to our success, and we pride ourselves on the way we treat one another. We start from the principle that we want people to spend their careers with us, we do this by investing over 10 times the industry average in coaching and developing our talented teams,” explains Sarah. “We also offer flexibility that comes in many forms such as informal time off, job shares, flexible working patterns to manage family needs, and our popular career break programme. Sometimes people need to take a break and this is mutually beneficial, it gives them security and means that we can retain our most talented and loyal colleagues.”
The result of this relentless focus on our people is that over 90 per cent of Dexters Managers have grown up within the company, having started as trainees. Impressively, 40 per cent of all colleagues have served between 5 and 20 years in the business, far exceeding the average employment tenure in the UK.
Dexters is very conscious it maintains its traditional independent agency approach, hence the way the company is run. Where other firms in our industry have migrated to call centres and a fully digital approach, we continue to deliver the very best service through our people. After all, we are a people business.” There is no head office. Instead, Managers run their offices as if it is their own business: they are the local experts in their area and can focus solely on providing the best and most appropriate service to their clients.
Key to delivering our principles is the outstanding training and development of colleagues at our industry-leading Dexters Training Academy in Pimlico. It is run by our exceptional Managers and Directors and offers ongoing coaching to colleagues at all levels. Dexters is a unique place to work as the UK’s first Estate Agency employer provider. Professional accreditations include Apprenticeships, Propertymark, ARLA and RICS. This allows us to provide opportunities to anyone regardless of their previous experience, whether they are a school leaver, a graduate, or someone looking for a complete career change. “We actively promote diversity and inclusion so there are no barriers to entry to join us. The Academy was set up to ensure that our standards always exceed even the highest expectations” says Sarah.
In addition to the great work of our teams, we have a longstanding commitment to contributing to the wider community and have supported Thames Reach for over eight years, a charity helping those who are suffering homelessness. This year we have introduced a Dexters Making a Difference Day where colleagues can volunteer and fundraise for a chosen charity and Dexters will match the donations received.
“We create engaging environments that encourage both growth and responsibility, with equal opportunities for all,” says Sarah. “Our fantastic local teams love what they do every day in service of our clients and customers. Dexters is, without a doubt, the very best Estate Agent to spend your career with!”
