Last year Mears was proud to be ranked as one of the Top 75 employers in the Social Mobility Employer Index 2019. This is the top 75 UK employers who have taken the most action to improve social mobility in the workplace which ranks Britain’s employers on the actions they are taking to ensure they are open to accessing and progressing talent from all class backgrounds.
Mears is a business literally rooted in the communities where we work. Whether that’s by interacting with people as customers or by being large community employers. We take our responsibility to social mobility very seriously and hope that wherever we work we contribute to that society as an employer, as a local partner and as a driver of opportunity.
2019 now seems a very different world. Since we were awarded a place on the index, we have seen the worst collapse in employment in our lifetimes – a devastation which has made every recession pale into insignificance. We already know that the communities who will suffer most will be those communities where social mobility matters most.
Against this dystopian backdrop we wanted to reflect on something more positive for those communities and our colleagues. At Mears we are lucky. We have strong partnerships with local and central government, and we have employees with a skill set which will always be in demand. In fact dueto the backlog of work created during the lockdown we will be offering more positions – not less.
The Social Mobility Pledge
Last year Mears began working with the Social Mobility Pledge led by former Cabinet Minister Justine Greening. Justine is originally from Rotherham so knew all about our impact in the town – as a major employer to the sponsor of the town’s annual job fair. We were asked to sign the pledge alongside 24 major UK businesses, including 12 of the FTSE100 and 15 Universities to create a network of employers committed to social mobility. In October Justine will be delivering the outcome of our work in Rotherham – and we wanted to celebrate not just what we have achieved but to publicly say to communities like Rotherham – we are still here and we will still offer anyone the path to an amazing skillset and career.
Have a look at our video with Justine Greening visiting her home town of Rotherham explaining why this is so important:
