Fidelity National Financial (FNF) announced this week its plans to expand its Cultural Competency Training Program throughout California to meet the demands of the growing populations of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans in the state. The program will help to to improve employees’ understanding of key demographics in the area as well as their communications skills with the multicultural communities.
“For real estate professionals, cultural competency training is more important than ever,” said Pablo Wong, senior vice president of market development for FNF. “Increasingly, today’s home buyers come from diverse cultures and speak different languages. It is imperative to understand how to better serve these communities which have been underserved in the past. Beginning with education and training, FNF is creating a company that better embraces all cultures.”

The Cultural Competency Program is being lead by FNF’s Multicultural Marketing Division. The group expects to educate approximately 1,000 FNF employees by the end of this year. To date, 400 San Francisco Bay Area employees and 65 Sacramento and San Joaquin County employees have completed the training. After the program has been successfully implemented throughout California, the company plans to extend service into other states.
“Culture plays a special and significant role in the communities we serve,” said Jeff Woo, president of the Chinese Real Estate Association of America. “Having the ability to truly serve the communities to the best possible extent is a most meaningful and rewarding experience.”
FNF’s Cultural Competency Program is designed to raise cultural awareness and improve communication between its employees and customers. According to U.S. Census data, Latino and African American home ownership is gradually increasing.
“We at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) applaud FNF’s commitment to serving multicultural communities,” said Jorge Carcamo, president of NAHREP’s San Francisco chapter. “It is gratifying to see the industry paying attention to diversity training. We at NAHREP look forward to working more closely with FNF in the years ahead to empower more multicultural families to realize their dream of home ownership.”
For more information, visit www.fnf.com.