Written by Hannah Pini, member of the Access Accountancy Event Committee and PR Manager at BDO.
October 2018
Access Accountancy hosted its fourth annual event on Wednesday 3 October. More than 70 attendees filled a bustling conference room at KPMG Number Twenty to discuss how the UK’s accountancy profession is seeking to lead the way in improving workplace socio-economic diversity.
Opening the event, keynote speaker Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport and Civil Service Social Mobility Champion, told attendees that, rather than preaching, she was keen to share her experiences to provoke conversations about best practice across industries.
The Civil Service has been at the forefront of improving diversity and inclusion within the workplace, but Social Mobility feels like a relatively new conversation, she said. “We simply find it uncomfortable to talk about class.”
A further complexity is that Social Mobility is “an invisible aspect of diversity and inclusion” Bernadette Kelly added, so it can be easy to overlook. People often find that they simply have to “fit in to get on”, for example by dropping their regional accents or pretending to share middle-class interests.
Bernadette Kelly was in agreement with her co-panellist, Nik Miller, Chief Executive of the Bridge Group, on the importance of data gathering to improve diversity. This enables businesses to assess the composition of their workforce in order to benchmark and set meaningful, measureable targets. “Good practice starts with properly understanding the problem – and data really matters here,” Nik Miller said. “It turned the dial on gender pay last year.”
He further reminded attendees that the work of Access Accountancy must not just be about who gets in, but who gets ahead. And getting ahead shouldn’t be at the expense of employees not being able to be themselves in order to be accepted. “Do we want people to fit in with the dominant cultures, or to challenge the dominant cultures? The cost of having to fit in is expensive for the individual and for the business,” Nik Miller said. “Diversity of perspective adds real value to business processes.”
This sentiment was reiterated by the evening’s guest speakers Jessica New and Samuel Imie, Access Accountancy alumni who joined a concluding Q&A session chaired by Rachel Hopcroft, Access Accountancy’s Patron Group Chair and Head of Corporate Affairs at KPMG.
Jessica, a tax associate at Grant Thornton who joined the firm as a school leaver via Access Accountancy last year, explained that many young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds feel intimidated by the prospect of working with “high class accountants” and don’t feel as though they will find it easy to get on if they haven’t been to university or can’t ski.
Samuel, a third-year technology consultant at Deloitte, who also secured his job through Access Accountancy upon leaving school, agreed that one of the biggest barriers to entry is a lack of awareness about the opportunities available. “Young boys at state schools in Peckham don’t tend to think about working in the city because they don’t even know it’s an option for them,” he said.
Having benefitted from the support of a teacher who encouraged him to undertake work experience at Deloitte, Samuel stressed that schools really need to play an important part in raising awareness to dispel the misconception that a job in professional services isn’t a viable path for a school leaver from a lower socio-economic background.
The evening provided an invaluable opportunity to share insights, network, and most importantly to learn from former students who have benefited from the programme.
Opening the event, keynote speaker Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport and Civil Service Social Mobility Champion, told attendees that, rather than preaching, she was keen to share her experiences to provoke conversations about best practice across industries.
The Civil Service has been at the forefront of improving diversity and inclusion within the workplace, but Social Mobility feels like a relatively new conversation, she said. “We simply find it uncomfortable to talk about class.”
A further complexity is that Social Mobility is “an invisible aspect of diversity and inclusion” Bernadette Kelly added, so it can be easy to overlook. People often find that they simply have to “fit in to get on”, for example by dropping their regional accents or pretending to share middle-class interests.
Bernadette Kelly was in agreement with her co-panellist, Nik Miller, Chief Executive of the Bridge Group, on the importance of data gathering to improve diversity. This enables businesses to assess the composition of their workforce in order to benchmark and set meaningful, measureable targets. “Good practice starts with properly understanding the problem – and data really matters here,” Nik Miller said. “It turned the dial on gender pay last year.”
He further reminded attendees that the work of Access Accountancy must not just be about who gets in, but who gets ahead. And getting ahead shouldn’t be at the expense of employees not being able to be themselves in order to be accepted. “Do we want people to fit in with the dominant cultures, or to challenge the dominant cultures? The cost of having to fit in is expensive for the individual and for the business,” Nik Miller said. “Diversity of perspective adds real value to business processes.”
This sentiment was reiterated by the evening’s guest speakers Jessica New and Samuel Imie, Access Accountancy alumni who joined a concluding Q&A session chaired by Rachel Hopcroft, Access Accountancy’s Patron Group Chair and Head of Corporate Affairs at KPMG.
Jessica, a tax associate at Grant Thornton who joined the firm as a school leaver via Access Accountancy last year, explained that many young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds feel intimidated by the prospect of working with “high class accountants” and don’t feel as though they will find it easy to get on if they haven’t been to university or can’t ski.
Samuel, a third-year technology consultant at Deloitte, who also secured his job through Access Accountancy upon leaving school, agreed that one of the biggest barriers to entry is a lack of awareness about the opportunities available. “Young boys at state schools in Peckham don’t tend to think about working in the city because they don’t even know it’s an option for them,” he said.
Having benefitted from the support of a teacher who encouraged him to undertake work experience at Deloitte, Samuel stressed that schools really need to play an important part in raising awareness to dispel the misconception that a job in professional services isn’t a viable path for a school leaver from a lower socio-economic background.
The evening provided an invaluable opportunity to share insights, network, and most importantly to learn from former students who have benefited from the programme.