Accents not only help us to distinguish where someone may originate from, but also influence how we perceive their character and their capabilities. For instance, research has shown that we tend to rate salespeople less highly when they speak with an accent. Indeed, we may even be less inclined to nominate someone for a promotion if they have a foreign accent.

Interestingly, this discrimination seems independent of whether we find an accent pleasing or not, with researchers suggesting it is largely because of the role our accent plays in signifying whether someone is a member of an ingroup or an outgroup.

Socioeconomic status

Accents are also a significant factor in judging someone’s socioeconomic status. A recent paper from the Sutton Trust highlights how this can be problematic in terms of equality and fairness.

“There is a hierarchy of accent prestige entrenched in British society, with ‘BBC English’ being the dominant accent of those in positions of authority,” Sir Peter Lampl, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Sutton Trust, explains. “This is despite the fact that less than 10% of the population have this accent.”

The research looked at the impact accent bias has throughout one’s life and the implications it can have on social mobility. The results show that attitudes among the public towards different accents have largely remained unchanged over time, with accents from industrial cities in England, such as Manchester and Liverpool, looked down on, just as ethnic minority accents, such as Indian and Afro-Caribbean are.

Rather depressingly, nearly half of the employees surveyed reported that they had been mocked for their accents in social settings. This resulted in understandable levels of anxiety about one’s accent. The researchers believe this could have a particularly strong impact during the mid-life stage of our career as social class differences become more prominent, but they nonetheless believe that it’s a factor throughout our careers.

“For those in senior managerial roles from lower socio-economic backgrounds, 21% were worried their accent could affect their ability to succeed in the future, compared to 12% from better-off families,” the report explains. “Similarly, 29% of senior managers from working-class families said they had been mocked in the workplace for their accent, vs 22% from a better off background.”

Beyond prejudice

Research from Royal Holloway signifies that this isn’t a simple matter of prejudice at work, however. The study shows that we can sometimes struggle to process speech when it is spoken with a foreign accent, which in turn influences how we perceive it, as we’re less likely to believe information if we find it harder to process.

When volunteers were asked to listen to various trivia-related statements, they tended to rate the statements as more believable when they were spoken by a native speaker than when they were spoken by someone with a Polish accent.

Nonetheless, it is perhaps worth employers considering how our accents are handled in the workplace so that people from working-class backgrounds aren’t discriminated against. The Sutton Trust researchers provide a number of recommendations for recruiters and HR teams to consider.

• Include it in diversity processes – The first step is to accept accent bias as a diversity issue in the first place and ensure that it’s considered alongside more traditional forms of discrimination, such as sexism and racism.
• Examine what you think professionalism “sounds like” – The researchers believe that there can often be an implicit expectation that professionalism has a certain sound to it. This middle-class bias creates explicit barriers to those outside of that perceived norm.
• Social settings matter – It’s important to remember that work-related social settings often see accent-related biases come to the fore. For instance, people might be teased or mocked about their accent, and given that these settings are often crucial to forming a sense of belonging, it can quickly result in people becoming ostracized.
• Provide training to tackle accent biases – Employers should then consider providing training to reduce any accent biases they may have. For instance, they suggest the following text should be circulated to all personnel involved in recruitment or assessment decisions in the workplace, as they believe that exposure to this text can be enough to reduce accent-related biases.

Recent research has shown that, when evaluating candidates’ performance, interviewers in the UK can be influenced by the candidates’ accents of English. In particular, they tend to rate candidates who speak with a “standard” accent more favorably than candidates who speak with “non-standard” accents. This is an example of so-called “accent bias”. The focus should be on the knowledge and skills of the candidate, not their accent. Please keep this in mind when assessing the suitability of candidates.

There’s a growing appreciation that class biases do exist in the workplace, and the way we speak is perhaps the most evident indication of our social class. The report provides a timely reminder that if we are to create inclusive organizations, that this is something to keep in mind.