Fighting the Postcode Lottery

This week I have been reflecting on a conversation I had in episode #10 of my Why Care? Podcast with Andrew Fairbairn from SEO London. We discussed the disparity of access to corporate careers and the reasons behind SEO London’s mission to address inequity for young people from low socio-economic and ethnic minority backgrounds. This led me to consider the ‘what next’ of facilitating this social mobility. For me, it ultimately comes down to consciously inclusive leadership to enable people from underrepresented groups to thrive, feel like they belong and are valued for their uniqueness.

Climbing the social mobility ladder

Those who believe staunchly in meritocracy argue anyone who works hard enough can climb the social mobility ladder and ‘make it’. However, this ignores the barriers that people from minority groups face on this climb due to the systemic inequity in our society. This unequal playing field starts from birth and is exacerbated through our education system where those in Britain’s most elite professions are 5 times more likely than the general public to have gone to private school, as highlighted in a study by the Sutton Trust.

The Centre for Economic Performance recently released a paper highlighting concerns that the ‘Covid generation’ will have even worse social mobility due to a worsening of economic and educational inequality which are two key drivers of low social mobility. History can offer many examples of this ‘postcode lottery’. One of the latest that springs to mind is the decision to base the A Level grades of pupils on metrics including their school’s historical data to maintain grade distribution. This discriminated against pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds and highlighted disparities and barriers for young people in a system supposedly based solely on merit. And these weren’t the only barriers that COVID came to highlight this year, with shocking statistics highlighting economic status disparities and truly sad stories of those struggling to access the technological means to education.

It’s not what you know… it’s who you know

So how can we create social mobility if the lucky few are still afforded extra rungs on the ladder due to their economic status or belonging to a certain societal group? Even outside of educational opportunities, parental networks that offer informal work experience and career advice further the gap owing to that phrase ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’.

In our podcast episode, Andrew suggests the 3 key barriers to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds to be:

1. Less access to informal networks and work experience.

2. Less information about opportunities.

3. Less self-belief and self-confidence when in role.

In our conversation, we discuss how SEO London work to directly combat these three issues to create social mobility through; sharing information, creating contact and encouraging self-worth and grit.

The Importance of Inclusive Leadership

I was particularly taken by this notion of building individuals’ ‘grit’ for when they are in the workplace as it highlights the daily battles that people from minority groups face (as micro as they sometimes can be). This got me thinking about the importance of building inclusive leadership that allows individuals to not only access careers but thrive once they’re ‘in’. Within our workshops at Avenir we aim to do this by encouraging leaders to:

• Build self-awareness of their privilege and bias: It is important for leaders to acknowledge their own social mobility and any actions they may have unconsciously taken in the past that blocked equity at work.

• Take accountability to remove social barriers: Leaders have a responsibility to model equitable practice, from using inclusive language to creating equality of opportunity.

Overall, for leaders within organisations, it is important at the very least to acknowledge societal inequity and not shy away from the problematic nature of ‘it’s not what you know, its who you know’.

I am in full support of the work SEO London do to help bridge the gap for underrepresented individuals and I hope that our work at Avenir can add further rungs to the social mobility ladder of underrepresented groups facing barriers to progression within the workplace.