The Lord Mayor’s Appeal has launched a new campaign to promote social mobility in the UK. The move has been endorsed by a number of professional services firms.
The Lord Mayor's Appeal supports each Lord Mayor of the City of London to raise funds for the Appeal's chosen charity partners. For decades, the organisation has raised millions of pounds for charities, while also bringing the City of London together, and providing excellent learning, development and engagement opportunity for employees through its numerous initiatives, including Power of Inclusion, This is Me, She Can Be and City Giving Day.
Now, as the organisation has launched new storytelling campaign entitled ‘Change Starts Together,’ in the hope that it can help boost diversity in the Square Mile and beyond. Created with businesses, the initiative brings companies together to highlight and tackle the issues around social mobility in business.
According to the Social Mobility Barometer in 2021, 56% of the public think the pandemic has increased social inequality in the UK. As such, the campaign hopes to illustrate how addressing the challenges and opportunities of social mobility need to become a priority for businesses.
Commenting on the campaign, Lord Mayor Alderman William Russell said, “Change Starts Together is an excellent new storytelling campaign. It has been proven that inclusive workplaces are more productive, with improved performance and our storytelling campaign encourages businesses to create a culture of belonging and acceptance for those from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Change Starts Together starts a much-needed conversation between individuals and businesses to increase diversity and inclusion in the City.”
The campaign kicked off with the release of a collaborative video titled ‘Change Starts Together - The Power of Inclusion.’ In the film, viewers are told the stories of those from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, looking at their personal journey into work in the professional services sector. It features testimony from staff across the industry, from law professionals to accountants and consultants, with participating firms including Standard Chartered, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Fidelity International, Legal and General and PwC.
Speaking in the film, Ryan Grimes, a Senior Manager at PwC, noted, “I spent most of my life living in and around East London with people that were very much just like me, and so I never noticed any difference… In the first few weeks of my career in the city, I did find it daunting, I had to deal with clients that were from a very different place… and I felt quite lost as to what to do… Seeing role models in the workplace stand up and talk about the journey they’ve had has made me think about doing the same myself, and encouraging those underneath me as well... I would encourage everyone to speak out about their background, because you never know what someone else is going to relate to.”
Sourced from Consultancy.uk