National Grid is one of the UK’s largest energy distribution networks, connecting millions of people and businesses every day.
However, beyond its core operations, National Grid have committed to advancing social mobility as part of their pledge to support their communities. National Grid’s flagship Grid for Good programme aims to support 45,000 less-advantaged young people by 2030 through training and employment opportunities.
Their Hinkley Connection Project, which provides funding and resources to support less-advantaged young people into employment, also saw them become proud winners of a 2022 UK Social Mobility Award for Community Programme of the Year.
In January, Making The Leap announced National Grid as Headline Partners for the 2024 UK Social Mobility Awards, continuing their commitment to accelerating social mobility.
Ahead of this year’s SOMOs Awards Fundraising Gala, we sat down with Chief People Officer Will Serle to discuss National Grid’s approach to social mobility and its involvement with the SOMOs…
Why is social mobility important to you and National Grid?
If you were born into a less-advantaged background or born into a home in an area of the UK that’s not particularly well off, the chances are you’ll go to a school that’s got lower expectations, a school that’s not able to attract the same type of teachers, or a school that’s got a different pupil mix. That somehow seems to set out the path for your future? That’s not fair. People are born with potential and there shouldn’t be things that impact your ability to realise that potential.
When somebody somewhere – and that could be an organisation like Making The Leap, that could be an employer, it could be an individual – makes the effort to intervene and do something and make a change, even if it’s just for one person, the difference to that one person is huge. There are literally millions of people in the UK alone that need help, so that’s a good reason to get involved in this topic. You can actually make a difference in all sorts of different ways.
From the employer’s perspective, just imagine all the ability and talent that’s sitting out there that’s untapped because nobody’s bothered to look or nobody’s bothered to fish in those pools or nobody’s bothered to develop that talent. In a business like ours, we’re actually growing. We’ve got great challenges ahead of us, we’ve got to grow our workforce and we need to find really good people. We also need to find people that are representative of the communities we serve. Why wouldn’t you, from a pure business perspective, even if you care about nothing else? Why would you not embrace the widest possible talent and then do something with it? It just makes good business sense.
Whichever way you look at it, on a macro basis right down to the micro individual, you’re all looking for the same thing and that’s really what makes the difference. That’s what’s really great about social mobility; it’s one of the few things you can get involved with where there isn’t really a downside in doing something constructive and positive about it.
What are your opinions on the current state of social mobility in the UK?
There’s such a long way to go. I’m a person that’s always interested in what the impact of something is, so if you’re going to do something, what’s the impact?
I think it’s interesting when people talk about social mobility, they normally talk about it as a part of diversity, equity and inclusion, which is fine. But it’s way less advanced and sophisticated than some of the discussions, thought leadership and actions that are happening on issues like gender or ethnicity. Yet the crossovers are huge in those different groupings.
So, I think there’s a long way to go in terms of our thinking and, more importantly, our action to actually address some of these imbalances. And they’re really, really difficult structural problems that you come up against. There are real fundamental structural economic issues there, education issues that are not easy to solve but, you can start small and make big differences as you go along.
Why did you get involved in the SOMOs?
I’ve been involved with this for several years now, in previous organisations as well as National Grid. So, it was quite an easy decision to encourage National Grid to become part of SOMOs and actively support them. It tied in with what I believe we needed to be doing as an organisation.
I also think the event itself is really professional, and really well run. It’s the sort of thing that showcases the great work that’s being done, so it’s an easy thing to choose to get involved with. The SOMOs Awards are a really effective showcase of some of the things that are happening in that area.
Why are the SOMOs so important to highlighting social mobility within the corporate world?
I think partly because we celebrate and recognise a lot of things out there in the diversity space that are making a positive difference, but not so much in terms of social mobility. I think that’s a great opportunity, and Making The Leap have actually seen that.
I also think that if your organisation is really into social mobility and it’s trying to make a difference, then the SOMOs are what you want to be recognised at. Then what ties into that is the idea of recognition. It’s really nice for organisations to be recognised; the ones that are actually trying to make a difference, trying to make an impact on this challenge.
The last point really is one about learning. If your organisation’s not at the forefront of social mobility yet, and you go along to the SOMOs, you cannot help but be inspired by the people that you see and the stories that you see. It can inspire them to action.
The awards themselves are a really good way of encouraging other organisations to get involved because they will see the positive impact it has on individuals and organisations.
