Can Your Accent Impact Employability?

There are a lot of accents in Britain, and everyone has different attitudes toward each one. What are these attitudes, and what impact do they have on employment?

Does your accent have an impact on your employability?

Depending on how strong or weak your accent is, research has shown that it can determine whether you’re more or less employable to an employer compared to other candidates. Facilities management company DCS Multiserve has provided us with this research.

A report from a law firm stated that eight out of ten employers have openly admitted to being discriminative to a candidate in the interview stages of recruitment based on their accent, which is something that they can’t necessarily change.

“Sound less Cumbrian!” one employer said to a teacher who was, in fact, from Cumbria. 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.

You might be more employable though. Recruiting Times reported that some accents were more employable than others.

Only 3 percentof the population speak the Queen’s English or Royal Pronunciation – mostly those who were born into aristocratic families or news presenters who are trained to speak in that way. 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.

 “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,” Professor Lance Workman, of the University of South Wales, commented.

According to the research, 16 percentof Brummies have attempted to reduce their natural accent in job interviews as it was discovered to be less intelligent.

The Views on Different Regional Accents

People have preconceptions on people with certain accents. 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 percentof those born in the UK feel discriminated against because of the way they speak. 14 percentfeel accent discrimination in the workplace and 12 percentin job interviews.

• 20 percent also feeling discrimination in social situations and 13 percentwhen 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 percent of votes as ‘friendly’)

• Newcastle (56 percent of votes as ‘friendly’)

• Edinburgh (51 percent of votes as ‘friendly’)

• Cardiff (51 percent of votes as ‘friendly’)

• Cockney (49 percent 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 percent of votes as ‘unfriendly’)

• Belfast (24 percent of votes as ‘unfriendly’)

• RP/Queen’s English (23 percent of votes as ‘unfriendly’)

• Manchester (21 percent of votes as ‘unfriendly’)

• Birmingham (21 percent 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 percent of votes as ‘intelligent’)

• Edinburgh (38 percent of votes as ‘intelligent’)

• Devon (28 percent of votes as ‘intelligent’)

• Belfast (23 percent of votes as ‘intelligent’)

• Cardiff (23 percent 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 percent of votes as ‘unintelligent’)

• Birmingham (33 percent of votes as ‘unintelligent’)

• Cockney (32 percent of votes as ‘unintelligent’)

• Newcastle (26 percent of votes as ‘unintelligent’)

• Manchester (22 percent 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 percent of votes as ‘trustworthy’)

• Devon (51 percent of votes as ‘trustworthy’)

• Edinburgh (44 percent of votes as ‘trustworthy’)

• Cardiff (37 percent of votes as ‘trustworthy’)

• Newcastle (36 percent 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 percent of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)

• Cockney (24 percent of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)

• Belfast (20 percent of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)

• Birmingham (17 percent of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)

• Manchester (17 percent of votes as ‘untrustworthy’)

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

Combatting Discrimination on Your Accent

These are just some of the measures you can take when feeling discriminated against due to your accent:

• 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.

Esther McVey, a jobs minister from Liverpool, said that people should embrace their accent. She 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 Being a Discriminative Employer

If you’re an employer who is wanting to make the move and become less discriminatory, we can help you. There are a number of preventative measures you can take – according to HR Daily Advisor and HMR. Some of the advice includes:

• 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.