The value of diversity to an organization is something that I’ve touched upon numerous times over the years, with a particularly influential paper from MIT highlighting the commercial benefits of a diverse workforce.

A lot of the time diversity looks at things like race, gender and religion, but class diversity is also important.  In a post earlier this year I highlighted the value of class diversity, based upon a fascinating new study from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

The study focused particular attention on what the authors refer to as ‘social class transitioners’, who are people that have managed to progress between socioeconomic classes during their life, and it emerged that those who were able to do that brought particular value to the workplace.

“People who transition between classes can learn to relate to people in a more skilled way, and they are incredibly helpful in groups, as they can understand people from all walks of life,” the researchers say. “However, it can also be an exhausting and even isolating experience for that person.”

Social diversity

The topic has been returned to in a new paper from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.  The paper argues that whilst many organizations today have diversity policies in some shape or form, precious few consider the angle from the perspective of one’s social class.

“Although most organizations now embrace diversity and inclusion practices tailored toward salient individual differences (e.g., race, gender, age), few organizations consider how one’s social class background might affect workplace experiences, especially during the hiring process,” the authors explain.

In the beginning

The impact of class can be felt very early on, with evidence of bias existing during the recruitment process, especially in prestigious industries such as law, banking and consulting, where those from upper middle class backgrounds are heavily favored.

The paper highlights how beneficial it can be to have a more class diverse workforce, whether in terms of enhanced collaboration, a diversity of perspectives and a more balanced leadership team. Despite these advantages however, the authors believe that most organizations today use hiring practices that actively disadvantage those from working class backgrounds.

The author goes on to make a number of recommendations for how recruitment processes can be improved so that working class applications are encouraged rather than discriminated against. These include:

• Expanding and improving talent acquisition efforts – especially by broadening your search out from the most selective colleges and universities, as the authors argue that academic performance is no real predictor of performance on the job.
• Reduce opportunities for selection bias – with a particular emphasis on the information that is truly relevant for hiring, and the elimination of information that is not relevant and may introduce bias into your decision making.

They also recommend a number of practices that you should avoid if you’re trying to build a diverse workforce, including:

• Excessive emphasis on organizational fit – recruiting according to cultural fit is increasingly common, but if most of your current workforce are of a certain background, this can easily result in homogeneity rather than diversity. Instead, focus on the applicant’s ability.
• Anchoring pay on previous salary – organization’s pay practices can easily cause systemic inequality, and indeed such is the risk that many places now outlaw recruiters from asking about previous salaries to try and avoid low anchoring during negotiations.

“We believe that by implementing the suggested steps in this white paper, organizations will benefit from increased socioeconomic diversity, and employees from lower SES backgrounds will be afforded more opportunities to succeed professionally,” the authors conclude. “Moreover, we propose that by implementing the steps suggested in this white paper, organizations, which are sources of income and employment, will also become more meritocratic and play a significant role in enabling social mobility, which is the movement of individuals from one social class to another.”