Social Mobility and Accent bias

We were incredibly lucky to be joined by Imogen Carr of the 93% club who hosted a session for our members today on Social Mobility and Accent Bias.

On the panel was Jenn Barnett, head of Inclusion, Diversity and ESG at Grant Thornton UK, Helen Dallimore FRSA, head of training for byrne·dean and Winona Chan, legal counsel for Moneybox.

As well as looking at the negative impacts these issues have on individuals, including a class pay gap of 6k a year and reduced chances of promotion, we also looked at the negative impact on teams and businesses who ignore the competitive advantage of embracing diverse opinions, skill sets and experiences.

We also looked at what we can proactively do about the issues with ideas including -

📶 Use organisational data to tell the story of what's going on - who is getting in, and importantly, who is getting on - because this isn't just a recruitment issue!

🏦 Consider your organisations social events. Are formal dinners unnecessarily intimidating and off putting? Are there ways you can adapt things to be more accessible and welcoming?

❓ Be curious about biases - you can be an ally by challenging yourself, and by challenging what is going on around you - what assumptions do you make when you hear a foreign or regional accent? Who is being spoken over in meetings? Can you encourage more equal dialogue? Are questions about where you went to school or what hobbies you have putting people in awkward positions if their answers don't "fit"?

💡 You don't have to wait - a lot of the change can be done by each and every one of us!

Thank you to all of our wonderful speakers, it was an excellent session.

You can view the recording here.