Rostrum becomes a supporter of Progress Together

Rostrum has joined government-backed socio-economic diversity organisation, Progress Together in order to address the imbalance around this issue within the financial services sector.

UK financial services – one of Rostrum’s key markets – has one of the worst socio-economic diversity rates for employees within leading roles. Progress Together was created in order to address this disparity.

• Socio-economic background is more likely to affect a person’s career progression in financial services than gender or ethnicity
• Women from working class backgrounds have a significant ‘double disadvantage’, progressing 21% more slowly than their peers from more advantaged families
• White men from higher socio-economic backgrounds are more than 30 times more likely to succeed in financial services than working class ethnic minority women
• People from higher socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to make it into a senior role than working class ethnic minority women
• 20% of senior employees attended an independent school – more than triple the national average of 6.4%
• Half of all senior roles in the sector were held by white people from a higher socio-economic background
• Men from higher socio-economic backgrounds were 4 times more likely to be in senior roles than women from a lower socio-economic background

As a supporter of Progress Together, Rostrum will work to promote socio-economic diversity in the sector as well as offering pro bono support to Progress Together’s communications and marketing team in order to raise the profile of the issue facing the industry.

Mark Houlding, CEO at Rostrum, said:

“We are committed to promoting socio-economic diversity within financial services, professional services and the communications sector. The UK has one of the poorest rates of social mobility in the developed world. In this country, people born into low-income families – regardless of their talent or hard work – simply do not have the same access to opportunities as those born into more privileged circumstances.

“Rostrum strives to provide the best service to our clients, offering diversity of thought to create innovative solutions to our clients’ communications challenges. We are only able to do this by hiring the best people from a diverse range of backgrounds and providing an environment that empowers everyone to succeed.”

Sophie Hulm, CEO of Progress Together, said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Rostrum on board as an official supporter. By signing up, Rostrum is committing to help Progress Together to level the playing field at senior levels in UK financial services.

“Together with our members and supporters, we are working towards building a sector in which all employees have the opportunity to thrive and progress, regardless of where they started out in life. We’re looking forward to developing our partnership with Rostrum.”