Talent Centric
Nick Clegg addresses Alexander
Mann Solutions’ clients in April
SEVEN STEPS TO ACTION
WORK WITH
YOUNG PEOPLE
Connect your work with
young people to your graduate
recruitment, apprenticeship and
school leaver pipelines. Target
outreach work at schools or areas of
the country most in need of support.
ROUTES INTO
EMPLOYERS
Challenge your current
definitions of talent – do your
minimum grade requirements predict
in-role performance? Track the
progress of employees from
non-graduate routes. Do your
apprenticeship or school leaver
programmes offer genuinely
comparable progression?
ATTRACTION
Visit a broader range of
universities beyond the
usual five to ten many top employers
focus their efforts on.
Source: Social Mobility Employer Index 2017
alexandermannsolutions.com
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RECRUITMENT AND
SELECTION
Is your recruitment process
accurately predicting potential
to do the job rather than past
academic performance or polish?
DATA COLLECTION
Collect and publish
socio-economic background
data for the current workforce as
well as new employees, and on
each stage of the recruitment
process to analyse whether
particular demographics are
struggling in certain areas.
EXPERIENCED HIRES
Collect data on retention
and progression using
socio-economic metrics.
INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL ADVOCACY
Talk to employees about
why social mobility is important –
encourage open discussion and
transparency. Encourage your supply
chains to take action too.
practices need to
change.
“People are being
ruled out in the
interview room
because of their
accent, or outfit, or
the way they interact
if these don’t marry up
with effective ‘middle-
David Johnston
class’ expectations,”
he says. “This is about
getting employers
CEO, Social Mobility
to question whether
Foundation (SMF)
you are really judging
potential, or judging
David is Chief Executive of
polish.”
the SMF, a charity which
He is frustrated
runs a range of programmes
that most recruitment
to help young people from
processes tend
low-income backgrounds
to judg e past
enter universities and
professions.
performance, rather
than future potential.
socialmobility.org.uk
“It’s not about the
university you went
to, nor the online test,
nor the grades you got. When you have senior people
at the top of organisations saying ‘I wouldn’t get into
my organisation now, I didn’t go to uni or get the grades
we ask for now,’ it’s clear that something has gone very
wrong in our assessment of who the best people are.”
Topping the Social Mobility Employer Index this
year, consulting firm Grant Thornton has made various
changes to its selection process recently, including the
removal of academic barriers to entry and reducing
the emphasis on relevant work experience and extra-
curricular achievements. The firm also records data
on social background of applicants and has invested
in providing ongoing coaching and peer-to-peer
networking for continuous development.
A true indicator of diversity
At a macro level, Johnston would like to see social
mobility become the number one focus for employers,
and for that to translate into a significant change in
the way businesses recruit. “If you can introduce a
selection process that genuinely predicts potential,
it should mean you have a much more diverse
workforce,” he says.
For organisations that want to be better at
social mobility, Johnston is clear that getting
buy-in from your senior leaders is crucial. “If
social mobility is stuck within corporate social
responsibility, it’s seen as fluffy. It’s important for
the whole business to understand what we are
talking about when we say 'social mobility'.”