Are You Likely to be Hired Based on Your Accent?

Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try to dispute it, regional accents come hand in hand with an attitude towards them. For better or worse, the UK has different attitudes to its regional accents. But the question is: do these attitudes affect how employable you are? The simple answer is yes. However, industrial cleaning company DCS Multiserve has provided us with this research to uncover how attitudes differ on different regional accents.

Do employees hire based on accents?

It seems that a strong accent can influence an employer’s decision to hire you during recruitment. Research has shown that a strong accent can affect how employable a person is – and how they are treated at work. In fact, eight in 10 employers admit to making discriminating decisions based on regional accents, according to a report by law firm Peninsula.

For example, a teacher from Cumbria was advised to “sound less Cumbrian” by employers, according to a Guardian report. 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.

Which accent is the most employable?

Research by Professor Lance Workman reveals that employers favour some accents over others, as reported by Recruiting Times. Workman discovered that the Queen’s English or RP is considered the most employable – 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.

Alternatively, research also revealed that the Birmingham accent was discovered to be less intelligent. 16% of Brummies have attempted to reduce their natural accent in job interviews.

How do attitudes differ?

Attitudes towards different accents differ whether we like it or not. 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 Devon accent

Respondents voted Devon as the friendliest accent. The top five ‘friendly’ accents 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

Survey respondents voted Liverpool as the most unfriendly accent. The top five ‘unfriendly’ accents 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’)

RP/Queen’s English

Voted by respondents, RP/Queen’s English was considered the most intelligent accent. The top five ‘intelligent’ accents 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

Considered as the least intelligent accent, survey respondents voted for the Liverpool accent. The top five ‘unintelligent’ accents 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’)

RP/Queen’s English

RP/Queen’s English was also voted as the most trustworthy accent by respondents. The top five ‘trustworthy’ accents 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

The most untrustworthy accent voted by respondents was Liverpool. The top five ‘untrustworthy’ accents 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’)

In terms of accent discrimination itself, 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.

How to tackle accent discrimination

As an applicant, you want to be hired based on your experience and capabilities, not your accent. There are many different (and somewhat conflicting) approaches that can be taken to accent discrimination. Some of the approaches 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, it is important that you consider applicants based upon more than just their accent. You should 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: