The last year has highlighted the need for and the importance of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the corporate world. But as organisations build their ED&I strategies, how often is social mobility on the agenda? Referring to the ability of individuals to move across socio-economic levels, social mobility is fundamental to ED&I. Internally through their decisions around employee recruitment, development and progression, as well as externally through their products and services, organisations play a powerful role in influencing social mobility.

On the 11th of November 2021, In Diverse Company hosted a virtual roundtable discussion on the topic of Advancing Social Mobility in the Finance Sector globally. Through this event, we sought to understand why the finance sector predominantly comprises of employees from wealthier backgrounds and why individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are under-represented. A key goal was to understand why even ED&I mature organisations are inadequately focusing on social mobility.

Industry experts from the US, India and the UK joined us to share some of the unique challenges they face concerning social mobility within the industry, initiatives their organisations have taken to solve these, and what they think needs to be done further and better.