It was great to welcome almost 200 people to our most recent masterclass, ‘The art of using storytelling to build inclusion’!
Don’t worry if you didn’t manage to join us – you can find our recap and recording below, and there’s still time to sign up for our next masterclasses on Accent Bias and Outreach.
If you want to make sure you’re always up to date on what’s happening at the Social Mobility Commission, you can follow us on LinkedIn for all the latest updates.
If you have an employer social mobility story to share, or you’re looking for a member of the Commission to speak at your event, you can always get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading,
The SMC Employers Team
Upcoming events:
Employers’ Masterclass: Accents in the Workplace
Thursday 27th April 2023, 12-1pm
Without visible indicators of socio-economic background, accent has become one of the primary signals of socio-economic status in the UK, creating a hierarchy of accent prestige.
Join us at our April masterclass to explore how you can raise awareness of the issue of Accent Bias in your own organisation and what steps you can take to ensure that your focus is on the knowledge and skills of the employee or candidate, and not their accent.
We’ll be joined by Professor Devyani Sharma from Queen Mary University London, who co-authored recent Sutton Trust research into Accent Bias, and will share her findings and their implications for social mobility.
We’ll also be joined by Antoinette Willcocks from FleishmanHillard who will be discussing how they have highlighted the issue of accent bias in their organisation and what steps they have taken to drive change.
Find out more and register for our Accent Bias masterclass.
Employers’ Masterclass: Outreach and social mobility
Tuesday 16th May 2023, 1-2pm
Our May masterclass will cover how employers can use Outreach to build an inclusive recruitment pipeline from the ground up, reaching and attracting a wide pool of talent.
We’ll be joined by Career Ready, a national social mobility charity supporting employers and educators to kickstart a rewarding future for young people.
We will also be joined by healthcare provider Bupa, and Be-It, a small recruitment business operating in Glasgow. Both will share how they have built Outreach into their early talent strategy.
Find out more and register for our Outreach masterclass.
Hear more from the SMC:
Recap: The art of using storytelling to build inclusion
At the heart of every organisation is its people – all with a personal story to share. On 5th April we were joined by Simon Arrowsmith from Iambic Creative and Odo Noel, tri-chair of the Social Mobility Network at Santander, for a fascinating discussion about how powerful using personal stories to drive change can be.
If you weren’t able to attend, or just want to remind yourself, you can find the recap and recording on our website.
You might also like to check out our blog, written by our colleague Shannon Miller, which contains even more tips for using storytelling to support social mobility.
ICAEW’s ‘Background should be no barrier: Strengthening social mobility in the accountancy profession’
John Craven, Director of the Social Mobility Commission, will be delivering the keynote speech at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England & Wales’ (ICAEW) next event ‘Background should be no barrier: Strengthening social mobility in the accountancy profession’.
You can book a free ticket for this event on the ICAEW website.
In case you missed it:
- Career Ready and Bupa, who will be joining us at our Outreach masterclass in May, talked about how employers can use outreach to build an inclusive recruitment pipeline from the ground up, reaching and attracting a wide pool of talent. Read the full article here.
- FT Adviser reported on a former Bank of England governor calling out the lack of social mobility in Britain, particularly in professions such as financial services. Some of his top tips for improving social mobility in organisations include a focus on company culture and retention, not just recruitment.Our Financial and Professional Services Toolkit provides actionable advice on how to make sure that you’re not just recruiting a more diverse workforce, but also helping people to progress.
- The Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index is open for entries until 9 June. The Index is a benchmarking and assessment tool that analyses eight areas of workplace social mobility and every entrant receives personalised feedback on how to improve. Find out more here.