A persons socioeconomic background impacts their access to opportunity throughout their lifetime. This can be mapped across their education, job hunting experience, chances of gaining work experience, access to employment and, ultimately, their success in the workplace. The latest report from Totaljobs and the Social Mobility Foundation investigates this in detail, and provides employers with a checklist of key actions they can take in order to boost social mobility in the UK. Your socioeconomic background shouldn’t determine your opportunities in life, but for many people in the UK, it still does. That’s why our latest research takes an in-depth look at the impact a person’s socioeconomic background has on their education, access to employment, career confidence and salary potential. Along with our partners, the Social Mobility Foundation, we’ve packaged up our findings into a guide for employers, full of insight, advice and actions businesses can utilise to boost opportunity for candidates and their current staff.

What is social mobility?

Social mobility is about understanding the difference between where someone started in life, compared to where they are now. In particular, the jobs and income of their parents, compared to their own. Boosting social mobility is about the importance of creating opportunities for individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, to enable them to become more economically successful. The Social Mobility Commission suggests that geography, education and employment are the three buckets we need to focus on in the UK in order to improve opportunity. In a society with low rates of social mobility, like the UK, the family you were born into significantly impacts the type of job and income you will have. This means that if you are born into a low-income family, you are at a disadvantage, and you’ll face more barriers when it comes to your career, your education, or your access to opportunity in general – regardless of your talent.

Barriers in the job seeking process for people form lower socioeconomic backgrounds

Some of these barriers can be seen in the job seeking process, where a range of factors are at play which negatively impact the job seeking process for people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These include:

• There are limited jobs in the local area that are relevant to the candidate’s skillset/experience (19%)
• The candidate’s qualifications don’t meet the requirements of the roles they want to apply for (16%)
• The candidate isn’t confident in writing a CV (15%)
• The candidate can’t travel outside of their local area for work (13%)
• The candidate can’t find a job that matches their skillset (12%)
• There is a lack of secure jobs in the candidate’s local area (12%)

Key findings from the employer’s guide to social mobility

Download the employer guide to find out more about the impact socioeconomic background has on a person’s access to career opportunities, including:

• How confident people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are about being able to eventually secure the job they want after full-time education.
• How access to financial support from family members during the job seeking process differs across socioeconomic groups.
• How appealing remote working is to people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and some of the barriers that could impact their ability to thrive in these roles.
• The difference in salary between people from professional backgrounds, compared to those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
• How access to work experience differs depending on your socioeconomic background.

Delve into the complete guide to discover more key findings and advice on how businesses can boost social mobility.

Checklist: actions for boosting social mobility in the workplace

If you want an at-a-glance look at the key focus areas employers can drive change in across their attraction, recruitment and retention strategies, take a look at the employer checklist, developed by Totaljobs and the Social Mobility Foundation:

Looking to diversify your talent pool?

Sometimes it can be difficult to connect with talent, especially when it comes to reaching people who might not currently be active in the market. We know that people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds put themselves forward for 35% fewer roles than their more privileged counterparts. If that’s the case, it makes sense to bring your roles to them. You can target your recruitment efforts at social mobility ‘coldspots’, or areas with a high number of Free School Meal recipients, to get your jobs in front of people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who may otherwise not know your opportunities exist. With this in mind, Equality Boost is a practical way to make your diversity, equity and inclusion strategy a reality, by creating targeted display advertising campaigns to improve the socioeconomic diversity of your applicant pool. Our technology harnesses a blend of data science which pinpoints when, where and how to reach the talent your business needs by demographic, location and interest information. This means the right ad is served at the right time, to the right audience – whether they’re actively looking for roles or not.