Accents in recruitment and employment

For better or worse, the UK has different attitudes to its regional accents. What are these attitudes, and what impact do they have on employment? Facilities management company DCS Multiserve has provided us with this research…

Accents affect employability

Research has shown that a strong accent can affect how employable a person is – and how they are treated at work.

Eight in 10 employers admit to making discriminating decisions based on regional accents, according to a report by law firm Peninsula.

For example, a teacher from Cumbria was advised to "sound less Cumbrian" by employers, according to a Guardian report. The same report also noted that a school in the West Midlands recently banned pupils from speaking regional slang to improve their chances of getting a job.

Some accents are more ‘employable’ than others

Research by Professor Lance Workman of the University of South Wales discovered that employers favour some accents over others, as reported by Recruiting Times.

Workman discovered that people who speak the Queen’s English, or RP, are more likely to be recruited – despite being spoken by only 3% of the population. This was linked strongly to perceived levels of intelligence associated with a Queen’s English/RP accent, ahead of other regional accents – the Yorkshire accent was also discovered to be associated with intelligence.

Workman commented: “Despite changes in attitudes of the general populace to RP, when it comes to recruitment to the elite professions, it is clear that many of those with regional accents are still hitting a class ceiling.”

The Birmingham accent, alternatively, was discovered to be less intelligent – according to the research. 16% of Brummies have attempted to reduce their natural accent in job interviews.

The views on different regional accents

Whether they are positive or negative, different assumptions are made based on accents in Great Britain. In 2013, ComRes and ITV interviewed 2,006 adults in early August, 2,014 adults in mid August and 2,025 adults in September to determine the attitudes to different regional accents. They discovered that…

28% of Brits feel discriminated against because of the way they speak. 14% feel accent discrimination in the workplace and 12% in job interviews.

Discrimination in different situations varies, with 20% also feeling discrimination in social situations and 13% when being served in shops or restaurants too.

Devon accent is perceived as the most ‘friendly’ regional accent

The top five ‘friendly’ accents, as voted by survey respondents, were:

Devon (65% of votes as ‘friendly’)
Newcastle (56% of votes as ‘friendly’)
Edinburgh (51% of votes as ‘friendly’)
Cardiff (51% of votes as ‘friendly’)
Cockney (49% of votes as ‘friendly’)

Liverpool accent is perceived as the most ‘unfriendly’ regional accent

The top five ‘unfriendly’ accents, as voted by survey respondents, were:

Liverpool (26% of votes as ‘unfriendly’)
Belfast (24% of votes as ‘unfriendly’)
RP/Queen’s English (23% of votes as ‘unfriendly’)
Manchester (21% of votes as ‘unfriendly’)
Birmingham (21% of votes as ‘unfriendly’)

RP/Queen’s English is perceived as the most ‘intelligent’ accent

The top five ‘intelligent’ accents, as voted by survey respondents, were:

RP/Queen’s English (62% of votes as ‘intelligent’)
Edinburgh (38% of votes as ‘intelligent’)
Devon (28% of votes as ‘intelligent’)
Belfast (23% of votes as ‘intelligent’)
Cardiff (23% of votes as ‘intelligent’)

Liverpool accent is perceived as the most ‘unintelligent’ accent

The top five ‘unintelligent’ accents, as voted by survey respondents, were:

Liverpool (37% of votes as ‘unintelligent’)
Birmingham (33% of votes as ‘unintelligent’)
Cockney (32% of votes as ‘unintelligent’)
Newcastle (26% of votes as ‘unintelligent’)
Manchester (22% of votes as ‘unintelligent’)

RP/Queen’s English is perceived as the most ‘trustworthy’ accent

The top five ‘trustworthy’ accents, as voted by survey respondents, were:

RP/Queen’s English (51% of votes as ‘trustworthy’)
Devon (51% of votes as ‘trustworthy’)
Edinburgh (44% of votes as ‘trustworthy’)
Cardiff (37% of votes as ‘trustworthy’)
Newcastle (36% of votes as ‘trustworthy’)

Liverpool accent is perceived as the most ‘untrustworthy’ accent

The top five ‘untrustworthy’ accents, as voted by survey respondents, were:

Liverpool (29% of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)
Cockney (24% of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)
Belfast (20% of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)
Birmingham (17% of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)
Manchester (17% of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)

In terms of accent discrimination itself, the survey respondents were also conscious of doing it – 6% admitted to discriminating against someone’s accent in the workplace and 4% in a job interview.

How to combat accent discrimination as an applicant

There are a number of different (and somewhat conflicting) approaches that can be taken to accent discrimination. Some of the approaches recommended include:

Stay clear of using regional slang, but don’t hide your accent – advice from Francesca Turner, a National Careers Service adviser.

Don’t change your accent or the way you speak – advice from Brian Staines, Senior Career Adviser at the University of Bristol.

Embrace your accent – back in 2014, Liverpudlian jobs minister Esther McVey advised people from the North West not to feel pressured to change their accent. McVey argued that people make a variety of judgements when looking for employees and that ‘we just need people who reflect other people’ and that her accent hadn’t held her back in her career. McVey also added: “I think it can be a colourful accent."

How to combat accent discrimination as an employer

For employers reading this article who want to avoid making choices based on accents, there are a number of preventative measures you can take – according to HR Daily Advisor and HMR. Some of these include:

Make sure those with accents are not singled out in any way.
Make sure all parts of the interviewing process do not discriminate.
Try to avoid placing individuals with certain accents in certain roles.
Avoid questioning the suitability of certain accents for roles over others.

Sources

Comment by Keith D. Halperin on September 28, 2017 at 12:27pm: Thank you, Jake. I think this interesting. Do attitudes toward regional accents seem to be changing? I notice that on the BBC you no longer hear just RP.