Social mobility

Social issues are often interlinked and don’t exist in isolation. We’re committed to taking actions which create positive outcomes within abrdn, within our industry and in our communities, for people who face multiple barriers in society.

Our social inclusion action plan reflects best practice recommendations from the Social Mobility Employer Index and the Social Mobility Commission.

Our areas of focus

Improving social mobility outcomes in abrdn

We ensure our recruitment process is inclusive to those from different backgrounds, including removing university names from screening questions in our early careers application forms. We create innovative and intersectional events and learning materials, global DEI Summit events, and support our employee-led networks. All of this has helped us continue to raise awareness of social inclusion and promote social inclusion role models and speakers across our business.

Improving social mobility outcomes across our industry

Across our supply chains, procurement and our investments we encourage and promote positive social impact in our engagements. We require our global suppliers to meet any Living Wage legislation in the territories that they supply services to us, or, if there is no legislation in place, they must commit to paying their employees a fair and equitable wage.

We also work collaboratively externally with organisations and groups including ShareAction, Living Wage and the City of London Socio Economic Diversity Taskforce, and we signed up to the Workforce Disclosure Initiative for the first time in 2022. These collaborations help us share best practice, encourage cross-industry collaboration, and promote sharing of resources.

Improving social mobility outcomes for our communities

Within our social inclusion partnerships, we aim to partner with charities globally which help to support groups facing multiple barriers. As part of this there is a continued focus on fair and inclusive economic recovery from COVID-19, such as providing a secondee to the City of Edinburgh Council to support its work on employment recovery.

In 2021 58% of the £2.6m charitable donations from the abrdn Charitable Foundation contributed to improving social welfare and education.