Don t miss out on the best. Your guide to Social Mobility in recruitment

Transcription

1 Don t miss out on the best. Your guide to Social Mobility in recruitment 1

2 Let s talk about social mobility Far too many employers are, unknowingly and unintentionally, using recruitment and selection methods that present barriers to candidates from less privileged backgrounds. Social mobility is all about knocking these barriers down. Make no mistake; social mobility in recruitment is not an exercise in good citizenship. It is best practice, and it offers clear business benefits. Social mobility opens you up to a far deeper talent pool, and brings you into contact with driven, ambitious people with talents you would otherwise miss out on. In the following pages, we ll look at how social mobility is measured, its key foundations, the steps you can take to remove barriers and then keep the momentum going. Contents Measuring social mobility 4 The top 10 reasons why social mobility should matter to you 5 Putting it into action 6 Looking in the right places 7 Keeping it going 8 Find out more 9 3

3 Measuring social mobility This is not easy. People can be disadvantaged in many ways and there are just as many measures used to gauge it. Previous research has focused on the provision of free school meals, where the student lives and whether they are the first member of their family to attend university. Data is not always easily accessible, so we recommend that you sample a current group from your intern or graduate intake to work out how you are currently performing in terms of social mobility. Creating this benchmark will help you identify areas where you can implement measures for the future application forms, interview questionnaires and surveys, for example. Your benchmark will also help you compare your performance against others in your own industry and beyond. 4

4 The top 10 reasons why social mobility should matter to you As we said earlier, there s more to embracing social mobility than just doing good (although this is a strong reason to do it). There are many compelling reasons why social mobility is good for business too. Here are ten of them. 1. It opens up a larger talent pool If you re recruiting predominantly middle and upper class candidates, you re missing out on a pool of talent that current selection methods may be screening out. 2. It increases your skills base Hiring people from different backgrounds will bring new skills, talents and perspectives to your business. 3. It reflects your client base It s likely that you ve launched diversity initiatives aimed at women and BME communities. The same should apply to social mobility. After all, only 7% of UK students attend independent or private schools. If this 7% is where you re finding many or most of your candidates, your employees may be out of touch with your client base. 4. Internships help identify quality graduate hires With the rise of tuition fees, paid internships have become even more important to students. Running paid internships means that you ll be reducing a candidate s financial burden. This means that they will be able to focus purely on the job and the challenges you set them. 5. It maintains international competitiveness All businesses have an obligation to recruit the most talented people for the job, irrespective of background. This will support the UK s economic growth and international competitiveness. 6. It will increase future diverse applications The better you embrace social mobility, the more diverse applications you ll attract and the greater choice you will have. You ll open the door to many candidates who may not have otherwise thought about trying to get into your industry or business. As you gain a reputation of being an accessible employer, this will only grow. 7. It demonstrates Corporate Social Responsibility We know that CSR is high on most of your agendas, and it s important to prospective candidates too. Many look for a strong commitment to CSR, and a diverse workforce that believes in social mobility is a good way to demonstrate yours. 8. It strengthens employee engagement Graduates who are joining your organisation from less privileged backgrounds will appreciate a more collaborative environment. Engaging current employees to take part in development programmes such as mentoring schemes will help create this type of supportive working atmosphere. This in turn may improve employee retention rates benefiting both graduates and employees. 9. It encourages a culture of change Embracing social mobility shows a freshness of thinking that can bring a positive feeling throughout an organisation. It shows employees that things can be done differently, and that positive change can happen. 10. It will build your public profile In challenging economic times, the perception of your business in the minds of wider society will be enhanced as you begin to embrace and feel the benefits of encouraging social mobility in your recruitment. 5

5 Putting it into action Social mobility barriers can be encountered at every stage of recruitment processes, from the initial application right through to hiring and beyond. As such, there is no single action to take or answer to suggest. But it is useful to look at the most common barriers some of which could be addressed merely through training your hiring managers or interviewers to adjust their expectations. Social mobility is something we can all benefit from thinking about. And we would be more than happy to work with you to share ideas and find solutions. Here are just a few of the most common barriers currently in place Unpaid internships. So often a first step on the ladder, these internships can restrict graduates from less privileged backgrounds. Candidates who cannot afford to work unpaid will miss out on invaluable experience, putting them at a clear disadvantage. Reducing the emphasis on these in your application questions would be a positive step. Nepotism. It is likely that graduates from less privileged backgrounds will lack the good contacts and networking skills of other graduates, which may exclude them from employment. Educational Achievements. Alan Milburn recently expressed alarm at how often UCAS points were being used as a sifting criterion, as it can be unfair on those graduates who took a less traditional route into university. In addition, stipulating degree classification may also be a potential barrier. Psychometric testing. Less privileged candidates may not have sat these tests before, so they become a barrier. If candidates do not have access to the internet, they won t be able to gain the practice they need to increase their performance in the future. Financial situations. The problems that make unpaid internships a barrier can arise elsewhere. Less privileged graduates may find their entry to recruitment hindered by the cost of travelling to interviews or buying clothes for an interview. Reimbursement for travel expenses is an easily taken step that can make a big difference. Choice of university. Although they ve clearly achieved the grades needed to go to university, less privileged graduates are less likely to have been able to attend the more prestigious universities. Also, they may have had to opt for a university nearer to home to save costs. If you re targeting only a select few universities, you re ruling out these graduates altogether. Flexibility. Less privileged graduates may need flexible hours to incorporate care responsibilities at home, but feel unable to ask for these in a tough and competitive recruitment market. These are some of the barriers that less privileged graduates face, but it s far from a comprehensive list. It is worth noting that these factors rarely stand alone. Graduates from less privileged backgrounds may encounter them as multiple barriers. 6

6 Looking in the right places In the previous section, we briefly discussed how the choice of university could present a barrier to social mobility. Here, we ll broaden out the discussion to look at how social mobility can be supported and incorporated in the ways you target schools and universities. Broadening your search means opening up your opportunities to a far deeper pool of talent. Start by researching your target list of universities focusing on their position in the rankings, their entry requirements and their tuition fees. This will help define a broader range of institutions from which to source graduates. A similar search can be carried out on the schools you focus on for engaging with school leavers. Your own CSR activities may offer opportunities to support social mobility. There s a good chance that you re already running projects or schemes within your local communities. Look at these, and see if there s anything you can do to extend your current work to include social mobility focused activities. Providing mentoring, advice and aspiration, and holding insight days for students from less privileged backgrounds are just some examples you could consider. Remember, your graduate programme is not the only place where you should embed social mobility principles. If you re involved in running internship and apprenticeship programmes too, take time to reflect and see how you could cast the net wider. It s definitely worth doing, because ultimately you ll be opening your doors to a far greater number of talented candidates many of whom will have perspectives and skills that you would have otherwise missed out on. 7

7 Keeping it going If you re to experience the full benefits that come from embracing social mobility, it s vital that you keep it alive beyond recruitment, application and selection. Once your candidates have been hired on to your internship and graduate programmes, there is still much more you can do to help them. Finance is one barrier to social mobility. Any help you can provide your recent joiners with, such as travel costs and advice about repaying tuition fees will make a big difference. Introducing flexible hours for candidates with caring responsibilities and demanding family situations will also make a big contribution to increasing social mobility within your organisation. Unfortunately, equal opportunities legislation has led to a box-ticking approach to diversity. It may be possible that, while your working culture is open and accessible to some groups, candidates from less privileged backgrounds may still feel excluded. The allocation of buddies and mentors will help counter this, as will the provision of training to managers. Hiring candidates from less privileged backgrounds will increase your understanding of their situation and the challenges they face. Carrying out focus groups will allow you to build up the insight you need to target and engage with this group more effectively in the years ahead. 8

8 Finding out more Social mobility is a complex and important area, and we know that we haven t covered everything in this document. You ve probably got some questions, and there is much to find out and discuss. You ll find a wealth of information through the following links: upreach Inspiring Futures Social Mobility Foundation Access Professions 9

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