Cracks emerge in financial services’ “class ceiling”

by Personnel Today

Cracks are starting to form in the UK financial service sector’s “class ceiling”, with the number of people from lower socio-economic backgrounds in senior positions showing a small increase.

New research from Progress Together revealed the figure rose from 26% in 2023 to 28% this year, but highlighted more work needs to be done to reduce the industry’s class divide.

The Shaping the Sector Report discovered that socio-economic diversity reduces with seniority, finding 58% of senior level employees are from a higher socio-economic background, compared with 45% in junior roles.

According to the research, the number who studied at independent schools is also greater among senior staff, at 21% versus 6.5% nationally.

Additionally, white men from higher socio-economic backgrounds are 33 times more likely to hold senior financial services roles than ethnic minority women from a lower socio-economic background.

Sophie Hulm, CEO at Progress Together, said: “Senior leaders in this critical sector create organisational cultures that shape societal standards about the ownership of capital — and guide the investment of personal and business assets. Appointments to these roles should be based wholly on competence and efficacy — rather than on factors related to background.”

The membership organisation, which represents 55 companies, is urging the FCA and PRA to make collecting and reporting socio-economic background data mandatory. It has also set out a list of recommendations which it believes will help create a more socio-economically diverse sector.

This includes: setting goals and being accountable for change, exploring the relationship between socio-economic background and performance, developing talent and leadership programmes, implementing policies and approaches that measure and ensure greater equality in work/client/project distribution by socio-economic background, exploring the experiences and perspectives of employees to help inform action and engaging with executive search firms.

Hulm added: “Achieving lasting change in this important area is a marathon, not a sprint. We are grateful to our members for submitting their data and for their continued efforts to improve access and opportunities for everyone in one of the UK’s most strategically important sectors. However, there is still a huge amount of work to do to ensure that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are not excluded from progressing to the highest levels of the UK financial services sector.”