What is Social mobility and how can it be improved?

What is Social mobility and why is it important to your business ?

Social mobility may be seen as?just another buzz word however statistics have proven that a diverse workforce is more dynamic, with increased out of ?box thinking . Different people = different ideas = innovation !

What is social mobility ?

It is a scale of diversity of your workforce when looking at their economic background, this often aligns with someone’s opportunities within the work force . Social mobility is the link between a person’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents. Where there is a strong link, there is a lower level of social mobility. Where there is a weak link, there is a higher level of social mobility.

A recent report found that employees from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to progress their careers at the same rate as their colleagues. One in five employees from low-income backgrounds are promoted once every three years, compared to one in 4 of their colleagues. This means an estimated 700,000 employees from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have missed out on promotion in the U.K.

?Points to remember

• IQ or cognitive ability is not affected by your social standing or economic background.
• People from less privileged economic backgrounds often have life skills?applicable to your business, they normally have strong resilience and problem solving skills , as they have needed to adopt these in their everyday lives, mainly due to not having the same resources as those from more privileged backgrounds.
• Many of your clients are focusing on social mobility and therefore it’s a great selling point and shows synergies between you and them.
• People from different backgrounds have different ways of looking at things, new ideas and in many cases a fresh pair of eyes
• Your customers are from different backgrounds, so should be the people creating solutions for them
• People from more challenging economic background are less likely to have attended higher education and have degrees. Despite recent government efforts to improve access to education for disadvantaged young people, the gap between those being offered university places is now the widest ever recorded – a difference of 16.7 percentage points. Working class students make up less than 18% of our red brick universities .

?Where does it start ?

Many graduate schemes are prioritising those from red brick universities attendees who received a 1st in their degree, this is mostly populated by students from more privileged economic backgrounds, many feel from the beginning of their career they are less likely to be taken on by employers.

?A close friend of mine who has beaten the statistics and is currently?working at C-suite level , held down an evening bar job and a weekend retail job in order to support herself during her studies ( it’s a myth that student loans are enough to cover rent and living costs ) . She spent most of university being exhausted , she didn’t get the grades she wanted,?the grades she could of achieved should?she have had more time to study during her degree. She missed out on many of the top graduate schemes because of her grades and therefore feels the odds where against her.

Apprenticeships are mainly populated by those from low socio backgrounds, most apprenticeships are within lower paid roles. It is time to offer apprenticeships in higher paid roles for example software development . Most entry level software developer roles require a degree , even the coding schools.

So what can you do to improve social mobility within your work force and your executive population ?

• ?Drop the degree grade and red brick university policy ; focus on communication , commerciality,?business creativity, emotional intelligence, solutioning , collaboration , leadership , resilience , ability to work in ambiguity , interpersonal and problem solving skills?.
• Adopt an exec mentoring scheme
• Collect the data , where do you stand currently in your workforce?
• Highlight it to your management teams , make it a talking point and integrate it into your HR strategy
• Allow people to have their own L&D budget , enabling them to fill any gaps in their learning.
• Look at implementing voluntary skillset training , things that may be missing for those who didn’t go to higher education, presentations , project management , business case training etc.
• For roles that require someone doing a similar role with work experience drop the?degree criteria from your job spec, they are already doing the role for another business why do they need a degree ?
• Look at their years of work/ life experience in the same way you look at their education
• Implement crisis loans, for those who may need to leave your company due to a change in circumstances in their personal life.
• Change your expenses scheme: For many of those coming from lower economic backgrounds they are often supporting not just themselves but also their families, when they occur expenses from working within your business and have to wait a month to receive them it can put them under financial strain.
• Implement apprenticeships / A-level schemes within your business?
• Add social mobility within diversity and inclusion to your HR KPI's
• Create a D&I committee, who meet once a month to look at topics in line with this, collate new ideas around diversity and inclusion with social mobility being?discussed as part of this .

?Some stats

Occupational and income mobility: Those from more privileged backgrounds are almost 80?per cent more likely to be in a professional job than their working class peers

? Social mobility has remained virtually stagnant since 2014. Four years ago 59?per cent of those from professional backgrounds were in professional jobs, rising to 60?per cent last?year.

? Migration: moving regions can often help social mobility, but those from working class backgrounds move regions less and are less likely to move to London, where the largest proportion of new jobs are created.

? People from more affluent backgrounds are 70?per cent more likely to move region than those from working class backgrounds and are three times more likely to move to London.

? The class pay gap: those from working class backgrounds earn 24?per cent less a year than those from more privileged backgrounds, predominantly due to the jobs they end up?in.

? Even when those from working-class backgrounds are successful in entering professional occupations, they earn on average 17?per cent less than their colleagues.

? Double Disadvantage: class, disability and gender. Just 21?per cent of people with disabilities from working class backgrounds enter the highest occupations.

? Even within professional jobs, women from working class backgrounds are paid 35?per cent less than men from more affluent backgrounds.

? Unemployment and economic inactivity: people from working class backgrounds still face higher levels of unemployment, despite overall increases in employment.

What do people think about Social Mobility ?

• 50% of people from middle class backgrounds think their background gave them an advantage in their education compared to 22% of people from working class backgrounds
• 30% of 18 to 24 year olds think that everyone in Britain today has a fair chance compared to 48% of those aged 65 and over
• 50% of people think central government should be doing more to impact social mobility and to ensure opportunity for all whilst 38% thought local government should do more and 37% thought schools should do more
• 44% say that where you end up in society is largely determined by who your parents are – compared with around a third (35%) who say that everyone has a fair chance to get on regardless of their background.
• Just 30% of 18-24 year old's think that everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their talent and hard work will take them, in comparison to 48% of those age 65 and over.