More data needed to tackle industry-wide social mobility challenges

Although data collection delving into diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the insurance sector has improved in recent years, empirical figures around social mobility are an industry-wide “underrepresented” area, according to Mark Lomas, head of culture at Lloyd’s.

Advisory government body the Social Mobility Commission defines social mobility as “the link between a person’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents”.

This socioeconomic connection can have broad ramifications on today’s job market.

For example, research commissioned by the Co-op – which was published in June 2023 – found that 17% of the 8,500 UK adults polled believed they had missed out on a job due to their background, accent or social status.

The study further confirmed that 41% of respondents thought that what they could achieve in life was determined by their socioeconomic background, while 35% noted that certain careers were not open to them because of their background.

More than a quarter (29%) added that their accent and the way they speak had reduced the career opportunities available to them.

Rebecca White, a researcher at Amnesty Tech – part of human rights organisation Amnesty International – explained: “Data shows that where you’re from has the biggest influence on where you’re going to end up and so we need to take [social mobility] seriously.”

Speaking at the insurance industry’s annual diversity and inclusion festival – Dive In – on 25 September 2024, White commented that turning socioeconomic background into a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 would “make a real difference” in terms of the industry’s D&I agenda.

This is because there would be “more onus on organisations to act” to improve social mobility if information on socioeconomic background was legally required as part of a firm’s monitoring and reporting requirements.

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation that is based on characteristics such as age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or pregnancy.

The Co-op’s aforementioned research is linked to a campaign operated by the retail organisation – mirroring White’s perspective, the firm is pushing for socioeconomic background to become the 10th protected characteristic included in the Equality Act.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of its respondents supported this proposed change in the law.

Getting to grips with data

According to Lloyd’s 2024 Culture Survey, published in March this year, only 25% of the marketplace’s firms currently collect social mobility data.

However, Lomas believes there is appetite across the Lloyd’s market to explore what can be done to bolster social mobility.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Lomas said: “One of the areas that people have a lot of interest in – but at a firm level, they don’t have a great deal of data [on] – is around socioeconomic background.

“What we see in the market is an increasing number of firms monitoring socioeconomic background, to get a picture of the state of play and what can be done about it.”

Looking to improve this baseline of socioeconomic data, the Social Mobility Commission launched its financial and professional services toolkit in November 2020.

This includes a guide for businesses that details questions to ask market participants, how to analyse and interpret results and how to compare and benchmark data.

For example, questions underpinning data collection could ask the occupation of the main household earner when respondents were 14-years-old, or quiz respondents on the type of secondary school they attended.

Upon the toolkit’s launch, the Social Mobility Commission revealed that the composition of the financial services workforce consisted of 45% coming from a professional background, 21% from an intermediate background and 34% from working class backgrounds.

Sarah Atkinson, chief executive at the Social Mobility Foundation, added that “talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not”.

She continued: “When companies act, it makes a huge difference – especially when in conjunction with the views of their employees.

“We’d urge employers not currently looking at socioeconomic diversity to get started.”