All In Session – How to Implement Action 3 – Social Mobility

Last week, the first of three All In Action Plan sessions took place. This session focused on Action 3 – improving the experience and representation of talent from Working Class backgrounds in our industry, and it provided some sobering insights that were unearthed in the All In Census back in March. There were over 16,000 responses to the industry-wide survey, making it the largest ever survey response recorded for our industry. 

Here are some key takeaways from the session: 

The ad industry has significantly more employees who come from professional backgrounds (64%), those from a working class background are significantly under-represented (19%).

When it comes to social background, there is much less working class representation,  specifically in London.

20% of the All In respondents attended a private or independent school, this is a huge over representation in our industry, compared to the wider national average of 8% attending a private or independent school.

Outside of London, the number of survey respondents that attended a private or independent school falls to 14%, suggesting that there is more socio-economic diversity outside of London.

There is evidence to suggest that this pattern is changing and younger cohorts joining the industry are less likely to have attended private school.

A key factor that is underpinning the lack of socio-economic diversity within the industry is the tendency to recruit graduates, 72% of people in the industry have an undergraduate degree compared to a national average of 48%.

Find out more by either downloading the full report or watching the event here: Improve the Experience & Representation of Talent from Working Class Backgrounds – Advertising Association (adassoc.org.uk) 

James Hillhouse, Co-Founder of Commercial Break gave us 5 reasons why social mobility should matter to businesses… 

1. A greater diversity of people, produce a greater diversity of ideas and therefore the better your business performance will be. 
2. Class is one of the ‘golden pillars of diversity’ because it breaks the middle class monopoly within the industry. With diversity of class, it means that the people you are getting are of a complete mix of backgrounds. 
3. When we’ve been diverse in the past, we’ve really mattered to the UK. 
4. The things that the industry view to be important are completely different to what the public sees as important. 
5. Recruiting more working class people will result in work that resonates with everyone. 

Paula Kemp, Head of Employer Engagement from the Social Mobility Commission talked us through how to use their new social mobility toolkit which has been designed specifically for the creative industries. 

The toolkit has been designed to progress social mobility within the industry from the initial commitment such as making the Social Mobility Pledge, to becoming an industry leader like those ranked in the Social Mobility Employer Index and those celebrated at events like the Social Mobility Awards.  There is lots of practical advice contained within the Building Blocks section and it can be downloaded here: Improve the Experience & Representation of Talent from Working Class Backgrounds – Advertising Association (adassoc.org.uk) 

The session finished with positive changes that can be made to help increase socio-economic diversity within our industry. Huge thanks to all the speakers and attendees, we hope to see you all again soon at the next All In session on 25th November, focusing on Action 2 – improving the experience and representation of disabled talent.