Elite law firms passing over qualified candidates whose accents don't fit.
Some elite London law firms are passing over well-qualified, white working-class job applicants in favour of middle-class graduates from elite universities who they think they are better for their image, new research says. The firms studied had successfully recruited ethnic minority candidates as part of diversity programmes, but rejected able working-class students because their appearance or accent was not thought ‘smart’ enough.
Dr Louise Ashley of the Centre for Professional Service Firms at Cass Business School, which is part of City University London, interviewed 130 staff at five prominent London law firms, many of them in senior roles. Her findings are detailed in the Work, Employment and Society journal due to be published this week by the British Sociology Association and SAGE.
Dr Ashley said that though the firms were publicly committed to diversity in the workplace almost all of their lawyers came from more privileged backgrounds. More than 90 per cent of lawyers who took part in the research at the five firms had fathers who had been managers or senior officials, and at two of the firms more than 70 per cent of lawyers were privately educated.
The elite firms told her that they didn’t recruit students from less prestigious universities because they believed they were less academically gifted. However, Dr Ashley found that the firms turned down candidates who looked or sounded working-class in order to preserve the up market brand, even when they were well qualified.
Is it really any of our business, aren’t we the ones as recruiters who are meant to stay objective, impartial.
Candidates apply to which companies they wish, that is their prerogative, now sorely that has to go both ways, it is then the prerogative of companies to choose who they wish to employee, they are paying at the end of the day.
Just my thought’s ?
Some elite London law firms are passing over well-qualified, white working-class job applicants in favour of middle-class graduates from elite universities who they think they are better for their image, new research says. The firms studied had successfully recruited ethnic minority candidates as part of diversity programmes, but rejected able working-class students because their appearance or accent was not thought ‘smart’ enough.
Dr Louise Ashley of the Centre for Professional Service Firms at Cass Business School, which is part of City University London, interviewed 130 staff at five prominent London law firms, many of them in senior roles. Her findings are detailed in the Work, Employment and Society journal due to be published this week by the British Sociology Association and SAGE.
Dr Ashley said that though the firms were publicly committed to diversity in the workplace almost all of their lawyers came from more privileged backgrounds. More than 90 per cent of lawyers who took part in the research at the five firms had fathers who had been managers or senior officials, and at two of the firms more than 70 per cent of lawyers were privately educated.
The elite firms told her that they didn’t recruit students from less prestigious universities because they believed they were less academically gifted. However, Dr Ashley found that the firms turned down candidates who looked or sounded working-class in order to preserve the up market brand, even when they were well qualified.
Is it really any of our business, aren’t we the ones as recruiters who are meant to stay objective, impartial.
Candidates apply to which companies they wish, that is their prerogative, now sorely that has to go both ways, it is then the prerogative of companies to choose who they wish to employee, they are paying at the end of the day.
Just my thought’s ?
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