Accentism - let's talk about it!

Accentism - let's talk about it! (Discrimination or bias brought about by someones accent)

I recently posted some pointers on how to ensure during interview that you are not discriminating - on a further deep dive looking at policies to ensure non-discriminative workplaces, I found reference to race, ethnicity, age, gender and religion however accentism was not mentioned, it’s not something we typically remark or question around however it can have a huge impact on the impression we form of someone.?

The 1st time I became aware of accentism was before lockdown and I was being tasked with opening a new region and leading the hiring strategy, I became aware I was relying on a wider hiring team in areas where they might not have interviewed and might not be aware of the unconscious biases we can form so to avoid this I created material to train and educate on hiring locally referencing cultural difference but also I made sure I covered accent too.

We are in this wonderful time where more and more business are committed?to creating inclusive and diverse workplaces and I have found whilst interviewing more and more via Zoom that we often listen to the accent without taking in the other areas we previously might’ve done. When meeting someone F2F for the 1st time, we pick up on so many unconscious signals from the way someone presents themselves - that could be the outfit, the way they are sat, the interaction they are having with their environment ahead of the actually introduction, this plays a huge part of our absorption. Now we take all those additional factors away and our 1st 30 seconds of the impression we receive and in turn, impart, has changed - 1st - camera on or off, the dreaded “you’re on mute” and then the next points in quick succession - attire, environment and accent!?

We consciously or unconsciously start to presume this person(s) gender, their social class, their community and we are straight away stereotyping. We are assigning them and it comes down to - “Is this person the same as me?”

I have experienced this bias 1st hand and still do to this day - I was brought up in America - I had a strong American accent then at the age of 9 I relocated to rural boarding School in the Cotswolds, I was instantly bullied, I thought at the time it was because I was the year ahead of myself and on scholarship (Not mentioned for gloating purely to highlight my perception was wrong, continue reading…) but actually it was down to the reality I did not look or sound like my peers. I was an anomaly, a threat, a danger to the norm that was everyday life at a boarding school.?

Now in our current environment, we are naturally aware of the unconscious biases we make and either self correct or luckily have ally’s around to help when these unconscious biases start to raise their ugly head but there still remains this distant, twice removed, back sheep cousin - the accent bias.?

So how do we correct this?

Anyone can speak up.

If you hear accentism happening, challenge it. It doesn’t always look like discriminating behaviour, it can be “banter” on accents, it can be someone asking an inappropriate questions, it can be sharing memes and GIFs which may look inappropriate.?

To make this more granular to my industry, as recruiters we are at the forefront of making an impact, we can openly discuss the positives of candidates before the next step of meeting with a hiring manager / panel!

• Ensuring we / people ops hold interview training to ensure no conscious or unconscious bias is happening and include accentism. Have people sign a pact to commit to non boas hiring.?
• Committing to interview plans of what a great candidate must be able to achieve and have the confidence to challenge rejections as and when they happen! “Can this person do the job?”, “Do they have the skills?”, “Will this person bring skills to the team which are lacking?”

I highly recommend reading the Britain Report (2020)?where they compared analyses conducted 50 and 15 years ago, their study found that public attitudes to accents and their related stereotypes have remained largely unchanged over time.

This is a huge opportunity for change!?

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