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From Neural Networks to Social Mobility: Reflections on Progress 

This article dives into the challenges of driving and measuring social mobility in today’s workforce.

Article written by David Allison – CEO & Founder of TheTalentPeople.

This year I’ve passed through one of those milestones in life. One of those birthdays. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it at the time but having survived the big day, it would appear I’m still going, although not every part of me works as well as it used to. 

Of course, when we pass through these big milestones it’s natural to take a moment. A point of reflection. At the start of my career, my first job was with Ford Motor Company – in Dagenham, where we used to make the Fiesta. I joined Ford at the age of eighteen, on a sponsored engineering programme. Ford was a great employer, so as part of my training, I had a placement in HR and immediately fell in love with organisational development. Working to help people – and therefore the organisation – achieve their full potential was incredibly engaging.  

So, as I reflect on my career and the changes I’ve seen, it’s interesting to see how innovative ideas and concepts can become mainstream. It was as long ago as 1996 when I first started working with primitive neural networks – artificial intelligence as it’s now known. Whilst our interest back then was very geeky, twenty years later it’s a topic that everyone is talking about and increasingly using in their everyday lives. 

One of the other topics which appears to have fundamentally shifted at the same time is the approach to equality, diversity and inclusion. I remember a time when it (EDI) was very much a fringe activity – undertaken by a central team – with much of the organisation unsure exactly what they did, or in some cases why. 

Much like AI, this niche line of thought has become mainstream, also with good reason. But just like AI, the way in which different organisations, cultures, or even countries have adopted their approaches to EDI have differed too. 

In the US – often the global leader in technology and management practices, a very direct approach was developed. This went as far as the application of quotas. Certain under-represented groups had to make up a fixed percent of a certain part of a workforce or board. California, for example, imposed legal quotas for women and ethnic minorities. 

The imposition of quotas created a wide range of questions and debates. It led to challenges regarding the appointment of individuals, and in some cases appears to have been used to undermine their appointments. For Harvard University, as an example, questions were raised about the appointment of their 30th President, and they fell foul of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling about affirmative action in college admissions. 

In the UK, we have followed a slightly different path. The Equality Act of 2010 built on previous legislation to set out what is allowed as ‘Positive Action’. However, the best of intentions can easily become ‘Positive Discrimination’. These may sound similar, but one is legal, the other not.  

Why is this a point of reflection as I enter my 50th year? Well, the industrial practices of even 30 years ago have changed. Mainstream corporate and organisational thinking tends to include a far more informed view about the need for inclusion in every team, and the genuine benefits this can bring. Report after report makes clear the benefits – financial, societal and ethical – of inclusion. For instance, a study by McKinsey found that companies with greater ethnic and cultural diversity are 33% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability. 

 

In recent years, TheTalentPeople has supported a wide range of organisations as they develop programmes to support those who need it. To help inspire individuals to apply for roles they may not have seen themselves in. To help ensure that people are provided with support based on their individual needs. To help ‘level-up’. Adverse impact analysis allows ongoing and careful management of every stage of an inspiration, attraction and selection cycle. 

 

But…. I do have a concern, and this is the conclusion of my reflection. In recent years, we’ve seen an unprecedented number of job vacancies, and similarly low levels of applications. At the same time, many organisations undertook some amazing work to address challenges associated with under-representation, particularly in areas such as social mobility. These programmes and their achievements were celebrated, and rightly so. But they were also vital to ensure that empty roles were filled. As we return to a more ‘normal’ jobs market I hope that we don’t lose sight of the need for a fundamental focus on Social Mobility and widen the implications of EDI in future talent programmes. 

In the US, companies have already responded – headlines such as ‘DEI efforts are under siege’ (CNN) or ‘Is Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officially Dead’ (Forbes). This is one trend I hope does not cross the Atlantic. Whilst we have made progress in recent decades, there is still much to do, and a retreat to those days when EDI was simply something people did in Head office, would be the opposite of progress. 

If you’d like to find out more about how TheTalentPeople can help you drive and measure social mobility, let’s talk! Book an Insight Session | The TalentPeople

 

For more information on how your organisation can get involved, visit: www.getmyfirstdigitaljob.co.uk or contact us at info@thetalentpeople.co.uk

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