City urged to hire more working-class managers

White professional men account for 45% of senior roles in the finance industry, compared to 23% of their female counterparts while just 13% of senior roles are taken by white men from working class backgrounds, according to a new report.

The UK government-sponsored report has said the UK’s finance industry should set “stretching targets” for appointing people from working-class backgrounds to senior positions and address diversity in all its forms.

The report comes from an independent taskforce commissioned by the government and led by the City of London Corporation. It puts a focus on socio-economic inequality, saying that 49% of all levels of seniority in the finance industry are from a professional background rising to 64% for senior leaders. For the UK population as a whole, 37% of working people are from a professional background.

“This data provides a robust baseline by which the sector can begin to track its progress on socio-economic diversity and address gaps,” said Catherine McGuinness, who chaired the taskforce. “We urge firms to collect data, set stretching targets and ensure they provide a level playing field for all.”

The taksforce was set up in 2020 after HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) commissioned the City of London Corporation to look at improving socio-economic diversity at senior levels in UK financial and professional services.

The Taskforce conducted hundreds of hours of roundtables and interviews, consulted extensive literature and engaged firms at various stages of the socio-economic diversity journey. It says it was clear firms wanted and needed support to address this. As a result, an independent membership body Progress Together was created to drive socio-economic diversity at senior level across UK financial services.

The report urged firms to join, Progress Together, launched in May, which sets out best practice guides and benchmarking to drive changes in socio-economic diversity.

Meanwhile, ONS data shows the finance industry is seeing its worst job vacancy rates on record. The sector had more than five vacancies unfilled for every 100 jobs between April and June 2022, the highest since records began in 2001. The Financial Services Skills Commission says the skills shortage has been caused by digitisation in banking, investing and insurance and more firms requiring employees to have new skills, and is compounded by people leaving employment during the pandemic. It adds that the shortage of talent is causing employers to shift to a reskilling approach, particularly in areas such as machine learring.

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