Study on How Accent Can Influence Recruitment

May 30, 2017 Contributor

Despite an applicant’s best efforts, it seems employers allow attitudes towards regional accents to influence their hiring decision in the recruitment process. Without doubt, he UK has different attitudes to its regional accents. But the question is: is your accent a hindrance on your employment? Facilities management company DCS Multiserve ran a study on recruitment to hep provide some answers.

Does your accent affect an employer’s decision to hire you?

The simple answer is yes. According to research, some employees had admitted to letting an applicant’s accent influence their decision to hire them. In fact, eight in 10 employers admit to making discriminating decisions based on regional accents, according to a report by law firm Peninsula.

What does an employer think of your accent?

According to research by Professor Lance Workman of the University of South Wales, employers can be seen to favour some accents over others during the recruitment stages. 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.”

Unfortunately, the Birmingham accent is one of the least favoured by employers – it was discovered to be less intelligent – according to the research. 16% of Brummies have attempted to reduce their natural accent in job interviews.

What does your accent mean to others?

Some accents appear to have a stigma attached to them. 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.

The RP/Queen’s English is 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’)

The Liverpool accent is 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’)

The RP/Queen’s English is 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’)

The Liverpool accent is 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’)

The Devon accent is 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’)

The Liverpool accent is 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’)

It’s not just recruitment employers that had admitted to accent discrimination, 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.

Ways to avoid accent discrimination

As an applicant, you’ll want employers to decide to hire you based on capabilities rather than your accent. There are a number of different (and somewhat conflicting) approaches that can be taken to accent discrimination. Some of the approaches that are 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.”

As an employer reading this article who wants 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.

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