To be anxious about my work's lack of diversity?

[hellokitty67]

I work for a listed firm - we are well known and respected in our field.

Our specific department is quite elitist and we do our own independent hiring (60 people in my department). They hire mainly from Oxbridge and a few London universities.

We have a huge issue with diversity, there are 3 women. We have a few Asians but they are all international students from wealthy backgrounds. 90% of the department are white males.

I knew we had an issue with private school hiring, as I think there's only a few of us who went to state school. However, I looked through our graduate intake for September... our biggest hiring to date, every single one of the 15 went to private school.

I feel really sad. I'm in charge of coming up with a scheme to improve our diversity. How do I broach this subject - we have a class issue surely? I just think it's shocking.

I do not believe that out of every person who did the relevant degree and applied that only private school educated grads were the best.

I am the token pupil premium, BAME girl.

Thanks.

Well if everyone that is hired have been known to you beforehand, there's the answer to your problem!

Oxbridge doesn't necessarily produce ideal candidates for every job, that's ridiculous, surely? And it doesn't sound like a top company in the OP if it hasn't audited for diversity until now- it appears to be a complete dinosaur, in fact.