You need to hire the 'poor'.

Diversity and inclusion. These are, generally, positive words to hear. Someone who talks about diversity is usually someone who recognises that we benefit by drawing on a wide range of expertise and experiences.

So, what is meant by having a ‘diverse workforce’? Well, it seems to be that one gives specific attention to hiring marginalised demographics. Companies make a large, much needed, effort to bring in more women, people of colour, and those from the LGBT community. But I feel that there is one group we need to make more of an effort to include.

We need to hire more ‘poor people’.

I don’t like the phrase ‘poor people’, because wealth is about more than just money. But let me explain.

One’s economic capacity dictates a lot in life. It dictates whether one can afford a university education, the number of meals eaten per day, whether parents were home to help with homework and the housing you grow up in.

These are experiences that many won’t ever have and these experiences shape who you are as a person and how you think and operate.

Look at our industry of PR and Communications. It’s an industry full of young people with various degrees, professional qualifications, and internships. Few of which are available to those with lower economic capacity. We’re an industry of people who could afford that move to London, even if it did mean living in shared housing. But I fear that this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a communications agency tasked with handling comms for a homeless charity. Your remit isn’t just to reach donors, but to reach service users. You sit down as a team and begin to craft your campaign.

Do you have anyone on your team who experienced homelessness? Do you have anyone who knows, first-hand, what that population looks for? Sure, you’ve got some studies and your client has hundreds of support workers that know. But who on your team knows?

I feel that this lack of economic diversity is part of the reason that the PR industry can often seem detached from the real world. It’s why many view us as ‘spin’ rather than communicators. It’s why we’re usually viewed as trying to change your mind or cover something up, as opposed to offering the service of clearly outlining services that can be beneficial. It’s why, too often, we produce communication and campaigns that just really miss the mark.

In a previous role I was tasked with community outreach for a large developer. This involved putting on events to help build a community in a huge new development. Looking at the development, one would imagine that it’s wealthy yuppies who work in fancy Shoreditch start-ups. The reality was different. A large proportion of the community were in social housing, rehomed there following the demolition of their previous estate.

This community spoke of what they missed, not what the new development gave them. They spoke of knowing your neighbour, small shops, neighbourhood aunties who watched your kids for you when you had to go to work, playing football in the fields.

I recognised this as I, too, came from a less well-off family.

My parents didn’t do bad, but they were far from monied. Occasionally we’d be served cauliflower for dinner. Just cauliflower. I spent most of my play time in a field, by a tree that had fallen over and acted as a good den. When I played up, it was a local Auntie that got called on to come round and discipline me. It was a friend from church who paid for my joining of a drama club, that really brought me out of my shell.

If my job was to encourage community in this development, then these were the residents I needed to reach. One doesn’t reach these with fancy farmers markets and expensive chain pubs.

One Halloween I decided to do something differently. We put on a free cinema for the kids. It sounds simple, but it was high impact. Have you been to a London cinema recently? It’s at least £6 for a kids ticket and much more for an adult. A single mum of 2 is going to be paying close to £40 by the time you factor in transport and snacks. That’s not viable and I knew this, from my own childhood. I knew the feeling of going to school and being the only kid who hadn’t seen the latest film, unable to join the conversations and playground games.

When we hosted the free cinema it was packed. The restaurant we used gained a sense of a village hall. Parents turned up with their friends kids, giving someone a much needed rest for the night. Kids made friends with others and parents could just sit back for a few hours. At the end, groups paired up and went off trick-or-treating with their new friends.

This wasn’t just an event, this was community building and I’m proud of it.

Sure, the farmers markets and fancy bars make for good marketing and attract your home-buyers. But it’s these other events, PR, that change people’s lives.

As PRs we love to champion diversity and inclusion, rightly so. So will we champion those who didn’t get a classic Comms education? Will we draw on their knowledge and experience, invest in them and upskill them?

Someone took a chance on me, invested in me, and I now thrive because of it. I believe that I also, because of my upbringing, can deliver a very different perspective.

Let’s make sure diversity is about more than just gender or race. Let’s start looking for those who lived in social housing and those on benefits. Let’s hire someone that can’t afford a suit.