19 September

Power of Inclusion discusses inclusive hiring practices with Grace Osborne

Ahead of our next Social Mobility Workshop on ‘Inclusive Hiring Practices’, Power of Inclusion talks to Grace Osborne, Senior Social Mobility Manager at Browne Jacobson LLP about the steps they are taking to ensure inclusivity throughout the hiring process.

Sign up now if you would like to reserve a space at next week’s workshop on the topic.

Can you tell us about your role and why social mobility is important to you?

I create our dedicated social mobility strategy, ensuring we are moving the dial through our outreach, access to the profession, people processes, our culture and how we advocate for social mobility with our clients. We’re the first dedicated social mobility team in a law firm so we are playing in an important role to highlight social mobility not just in our own business but within the legal sector as a whole.

Tell us about something your organisation is doing to demonstrate inclusivity in your hiring practices.

Over the last eight years we have significantly changed our hiring practices to improve the recruitment of those from lower socio-economic backgrounds into our early careers programmes.

In 2016 we removed academic requirements from all of our programmes; dropping the need for a 2:1 in university degrees or ABB+ at A level. We introduced contextual recruitment tools to help us consider the backgrounds of candidates and additional barriers they might face.

Browne Jacobson also switched its focus to hiring from a broader range of universities, working with widening participation teams outside of the Russell Group.

Over time this strategy has evolved, using the socio-economic data we collect to further adapt the process. We use our contextual recruitment tools to take a “second look” at candidates who might have faced significant barriers which might impact their performance in the process. We analyse our data intersectionally by socio-economic background, gender and ethnicity to ensure each part of our process has equitable outcomes.

We’ve also changed our careers pages; providing example tasks from our assessment processes; making the process as transparent as possible to help those who might not have professional networks to support them. We are also transparent about our salaries, not just once you’re in the process. We put our early careers salaries on our website and job roles so that students can apply with confidence about their earning potential and plan financially.

Have you faced challenges in implementing this change? What tools and resources have helped you?

We are a bit of an outlier with many of the things we have done – sometimes students don’t believe that we specifically come to their university, that they don’t need to have studied law to get a role with us or that they don’t need a 2:1 to receive an offer.

Putting salaries on job adverts always feels risky because you worry that talent will self-select out of the process to go to a competitor; but we’ve found that students are positive about the transparency we provide. It gives them an idea of the kind of culture we have as an organisation and that’s more enticing than a higher initial salary.

What impact have you observed and how have you measured it?

We have some brilliant data which shows us we have moved in the right direction and are leading the way for the legal sector.

When it comes to removing academics – 47% of those who got an offer in 2024 wouldn’t have been eligible for our programmes if we still asked for ABB+ and a 2:1 – that’s a LOT of talent to be missing out on. We also hire around 60% of our graduates from Non-Russell groups each year.

We can track how that is impacting our socio-economic data:

• In 2019 24% of applicants had a social mobility flag; this is now 49%.
• Almost half of our applicants are the first in their family to attend university.
• We attract 30% more people with care experience than the legal sector average and seven and half times more than we did in 2020.
• Over half of our offers went to socially mobile students.

Its also had an impact on our other recruitment processes. We now remove academic information for all CVs at every seniority in the organisation. Hiring managers now feel comfortable that applicants’ previous experience and their potential is what really matters, not the university they went to.

What are your key takeaways and tips for other organisations aiming to create more inclusive hiring practices?

Students want transparency and authenticity when they are applying to their first graduate role or apprenticeship; share as much information as you can about the salary, locations, training pathways and what progression looks like.

Find every opportunity to widen your talent pool; explore new routes into your profession like apprenticeships or adult training pathways. Remove academic requirement and work with universities outside of the Russell Group – there isn’t a “war for talent” you just aren’t looking in the right places.

Find more conversations like this on the Power of Inclusion Hub here

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