Co-op social mobility study reinforces ad industry drive

The advertising and marketing industry’s commitment to attract people from working class backgrounds has been backed by a new study which reveals the UK economy could create an additional £19bn in GDP growth annually by tackling the systemic failure to promote greater social mobility in the workplace.

The Opportunity Effect from Co-op and think tank Demos highlights that improved social mobility could generate £6.8bn in yearly tax revenues from additional economic activity; equivalent to funding more than 170,000 teachers or 884,000 school places.

The report also featured the results of a survey of 2,000 UK adults which found that 29% are more likely to purchase from a business promoting social mobility; this rises to more than 40% among young consumers aged 18 to 34.

Meanwhile, a separate survey of business leaders found that three in four (76%) feel promoting social mobility would help attract and retain staff while 71% believe it would help achieve business results.

The report also suggests that if employers were to adopt key strategies supporting greater social mobility, this could lead to a £1.8bn rise in private-sector business profits.

It outlines several recommendations for the Government and businesses to promote social mobility, including giving Skills England a statutory responsibility for increasing social mobility, creating a Government-backed Better Opportunities Fund to co-invest in social mobility projects with the private sector, and encouraging businesses to ask job applicants to voluntarily share socio-economic information.

The advertising and marketing industry’s drive to attract more diverse talent has been gathering pace in recent years, with initiatives such as the IPA’s Advertising Unlocked programme, the annual cross-industry open day, where hundreds of agencies welcome in around a thousand school children to give them an in-depth understanding of agency life.

The IPA also recently signed a partnership with TikTok, designed to showcase the opportunity that a job in the industry has to offer and engage and inspire young people from all backgrounds.

Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said: “This report marks an important moment in the UK’s productivity debate and puts social mobility at the heart of that discussion. It shows that breaking down barriers to opportunity can be a much-needed boost for the UK’s economy and for business performance.”

And, Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies has also backed the report. She told Chronicle Live: “As someone who is proud to have Northern working class roots, I really believe that socio-economic background should never be a barrier to success.

“The opportunities that greater and improved social mobility would have are plain to see, not just for our economy but for all of the communities and the people that contribute to it. There’s really no better time than the present to take action and tackle this issue head on so that everyone has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential.”