Changing recruitment processes could ‘unlock social mobility deadlock'
Job interviews are a "middle class selection tool" that are more likely to exclude certain backgrounds, panellists revealed at a recent Compass event.
Compass held its ‘Changing One Million Lives' conference on 21 June to mark the anniversary of the launch of ‘Our Social Promise', the foodservice giant's commitment to impact 1 million lives by 2030.
Representatives from Career Ready, Bright Blue, Direct Line Group and Deloitte revealed how businesses can "unlock the social mobility deadlock" by changing recruitment processes to make opportunities more accessible for people of all backgrounds, pointing out that job interviews are a "middle class selection tool".
They also stressed the importance of building a welcoming culture where all employees can thrive.
It comes after research from KAM and Hospitality Rising showed that nearly 80% of 18 and 30-year-olds wanted to see innovative ways of submitting applications, while another 67% stated that writing a CV or cover letter was ‘tedious'.
Other topics raised at the Compass event involved Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation, highlighting the importance of decent wages in accelerating social mobility.
She spoke of how some operators have implemented a "living hours" scheme to promise workers a healthy work-life balance, as well as the possibility of a "living pension" scheme to combat "post work poverty".
The event was also an opportunity for Compass to assess its progress over the past year. It revealed that it has set over 1,000 people on "career pathways"; supported 330 clients move to Real Living Wage; and grown its partnerships with industry charities, such as Springboard and Ambitious about Autism, to draw a wider demographic into employment.
Robin Mills, managing director of Compass Group UK & Ireland, said: "Improving social mobility is not something that one group can solve overnight. By working together with our clients and partners, I believe we can drive real change and we can learn from one another along the way."
