Social Mobility - why it should matter to organisations?

This week it was announced that we were included in the The Social Mobility Foundation 2022 Employer's Index.  This is a significant achievement for us and recognises our commitment and progress for taking forward this important initiative.

But, why should organisations be concerned about Social Mobility?  The latest research from  "The Social Mobility Barometer" (published by the UK Government) unveils public attitudes to social mobility in 2021.  These are just a snapshot of some of the views:

• Four in five adults (79%) now believe there is a large gap between different social classes
• Three-quarters (74%) of people think there are large differences in opportunities across Britain
• On average 39% of the public think it is getting harder for people from less advantaged families to move up in British society. 42% of those aged 25 to 49 think it is getting harder
• An increasing number of people think that employers should have to take action to improve social mobility – 42% in 2021 compared with 31% in 2019. Ethnic minorities are more likely than average to say that employers should act (58%)

We strongly care about social mobility in AMS.  These are some of the initiatives that we have adopted to support this important initiative:

• Collecting social mobility data so that we can assess how socially mobile our candidates and employees are
• Delivery of targeted work insights programmes to schools and colleges in social mobility cold spot areas
• Targeted attraction in cold spot areas for our entry level hiring programmes
• Working in conjunction with our clients to raise awareness of the importance of social mobility

We are making good progress, but we know we have a long way to go, but we remain committed to making a difference.  Personally, as someone who was brought up in a working class environment, this is also important to me!