Assess and monitor your organisation’s progress on social mobility.

The 2021 Social Mobility Employer Index is now open for submissions until 28^th May 2021, 12pm. To register your interest and access the questions, please sign up here. All submissions must be completed via this online survey.

Now in its fifth year, the Employer Index has become the leading authority on employer-led social mobility.

The Index is an important bench-marking initiative that ranks Britain’s employers for the first time on the actions they are taking to ensure they are open to accessing and progressing talent from all backgrounds and it showcases progress towards improving social mobility.

Research has consistently shown that people from more affluent backgrounds take a disproportionate number of the best jobs and that employers tend to disproportionately employ graduates who went to private schools and elite universities.

The aim of the Index is to encourage firms to share their initiatives and progress in becoming more inclusive employers and to reveal which sectors and companies are taking the issue of social mobility most seriously. Whilst Covid-19 has undoubtedly caused setbacks for many, among the hardest hit will be young people from low-income backgrounds. The effects on social mobility could be catastrophic, meaning it is vital that employers prioritise socio-economic diversity going forward.

The 2020 Index highlighted that some sectors of the economy – law, public sector and financial services – as a whole have made some positive strides to improve social mobility in the workplace, but overall progress is too slow. The SMF is calling on those sectors which have benefited most from the Covid-19 pandemic, especially major tech, gaming, or pharmaceutical companies, to make a public commitment to social mobility in 2021.

The key findings report for the 2020 Index is available to read here.

For more information, please see the FAQs below.

The Top 75 Social Mobility Employer Index rankings (click to enlarge)

FAQs

• Why take part?
• How do I submit to the Index?
• Can organisations enter anonymously?
• What is the Employee Survey?
• Can I view a Word version of the Index questions?
• Is there guidance available on completing the Index?
• 2021 submissions
• Mailing List

Why take part?

Benchmark your work

The Index assesses your work on social mobility by asking a series of questions across different sections – work with young people, routes into the organisation, attraction, recruitment, progression, culture & experienced hires and internal & external advocacy. Regardless of how far you have got with tackling social mobility, the Index can help guide your work.

Guide your social mobility approach

Entering the Index helps employers to build an action plan for social mobility within their organisation. All organisations receive a feedback report highlighting areas they performed well, where improvements can be made and how they performed compared to other Index entrants in each section.

Show your commitment

By taking part in the Social Mobility Employer Index, you are demonstrating your organisation’s commitment to accessing and progressing talent from all backgrounds.

How do I submit to the Index?

The Index is free of charge to enter. Organisations are asked to complete an online survey covering 7 sections. Organisations are not required to answer all questions or all sections in order to enter and to receive their individual feedback report. The 2021 Index is now open for submissions and closes at 12pm on 28^th May 2021. To register your interest and access the questions, please sign up here. All submissions must be completed via this online survey.

Can organisations enter anonymously?

Yes, you can make an anonymous submission to the Index and we will only publish the Top 75 organisations. If you chose to enter anonymously but make it into the Top 75, we will contact to ask you if you would like to be published.

What is the Employee Survey?

The employee survey provides a cultural context to the data in submissions. Organisations can send the survey of 8 questions to their employees and we will analyse the results and share this with you with a comparison to the average from other entrants.

Questions are focused on whether employees feel that their workplaces are inclusive of all social backgrounds and we ask employees to anonymously self-identify their class background so that organisations can compare responses across different class groups.

It is not a requirement of submitting to the Index to also take part in the Employee Survey, however we do reward organisations for their involvement in this in the overall scoring.

Can I view a Word version of the Index questions?

Yes, once you have registered your interest in submitting to the 2021 Index, you will be able to download a word version of the questions from the online survey.

Is there guidance available on completing the Index?

Yes, organisations can download guidance notes from the online survey after signing up here.  

If you have questions that are not covered in the guidance notes, please email employerindex@socialmobility.org.uk.

2021 submissions

The 2021 Social Mobility Employer Index is now open for submissions until 28^th May 2021, 12pm. To register your interest and access the questions, please sign up here. All submissions must be completed via this online survey.