Action on Workplace Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Sponsored by

Winner

Driving Socioeconomic Diversity at Hanover

Summary of work

Hanover began focusing on social mobility in 2021 because the business recognised the vital importance of ensuring socioeconomic diversity for its staff and organisation. Since then, Hanover has delivered a targeted and thorough programme, driving consistent improvements to enable talent from all social backgrounds to get ’in’ and get ’on’ in the business. This has involved building partnerships with other organisations to deliver:
  • Remote internships, together with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) – providing opportunities to people from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds who might not otherwise have had the chance to break into the communications industry.
  • Mentorships, jointly with Patchwork Foundation - involving members of the Healthcare team spending approximately two hours every month to provide their mentees with guidance on their professional and personal development.
  • An apprenticeship programme - producing several members of permanent staff (who are already flourishing within the business) across the Healthcare and Finance teams.
This work has shifted Hanover’s statistics in a meaningful way, with the agency leapfrogging almost 50 places in the Social Mobility Employer Index in just two years. Hanover was subsequently recognised as a top 75 employer in the UK by the SMF - the only healthcare public affairs agency featured in 2022.

Judges’ comments

Hanover’s presentation was superb. Their leadership is clearly engaged and it was particularly pleasing to see members of their senior and middle management teams actively and passionately involved in planning and implementing their DE&I activities in social mobility, an area that definitely needs addressing in our industry. Impressive!