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This section examines aspects of the recruitment process as a lens to think about the ways in which ideals of professionalism, prestige, meritocracy and diversity are taken up by the Firm and engaged with by employees. The Firm is a large employer and recruits approximately 18,000 graduates each year to its graduate training programme from an application pool of around 21,000. The recruitment process takes place in three rounds. First, a long completed application form is submitted electronically. Applicants who pass that hurdle are given a telephone interview, followed by electronic psychometric testing. If successful, the next stage is an invitation to a day of group exercises and one- to-one interviews with a member of human resources and one of the Firm’s partners. Successful applicants are subsequently offered a training contract by letter.

The graduate training programme consists of a three-year training contract during which time the Firm pays for them to complete the exams necessary to become an Associate (ACA) of the Institute of Accountancy in England and Wales (ICAEW). The three year programme takes a ‘learn as you earn’ approach and consists of attending a six week block in a college where the course is taught by ICAEW accredited lecturers for the first two years, followed by exams. The third year allows them to ‘time qualify’ (ICAEW,

2010). Trainees are on a starting salary of £26,000 (London weighting) plus benefits, and work in multi-level teams ‘on jobs’ with the Firm’s clients outside the blocks of formal learning at a college. This formal accreditation process, referred to as a training contract, forms the literal aspect of becoming a professional; meanwhile, the Firm’s induction sessions, on the job training and other training sessions, such as the development of so-called competency based skills, aim to furnish trainees with knowledge about other aspects of professional life. The development of trainees’ professional selves through competency based skills refers to their capacity to display and perform a range of embodied skills, such as looking and sounding competent and professional, learning to work with others in small and large teams, ability to reflect on one’s own work and the work of others in a fair but critical manner, deploy empathy and coaching, and other communication skills. As other studies have shown (cited above) the recruitment process calls for applicants already to be able to demonstrate their awareness and ability to perform key competencies. Nonetheless, their development remains an area of focus during the three-year training period. The Firm has sought to build a reputation as an excellent and leading provider of professional services in both senses of the word. The concept of the professional is therefore highly visible as a descriptor of the Firm’s services, and there is much emphasis during recruitment and induction phases on trainees’ ability to be or embody professionalism. The term professional is used in three main ways: one, to signify possession of specific technical knowledge through acquisition of the title ‘ACA’; two, through the deployment of a range of appropriate competences such as time management

skills; and three, through the development and deployment of embodied signifiers of professionalism, such as looking and sounding right. The term professional is frequently cited by the Firm to describe its services, ethos and people – especially in its recruitment literature. Aspects of the Firm’s graduate recruitment campaign of 2007/08 will now be examined – not only because participants in this study were subject to it, but also because it offers a window into the rhetorical space of the Firm in relation to its professional values.

Providers of accounting and professional services are by far the biggest recruiter of graduates in recent economic times, both good and bad, recruiting more than double the whole of the public sector, according to some sources (High Fliers, 2012)5 The Firm is routinely placed and places itself as the number one provider of professional services in the UK and globally. The (re)production of its own prestige is front- and centre-stage as the main thrust of the 2008 graduate recruitment campaign: prestige is concerned with conveying a sense that the Firm is number one. Number one choice for graduates, number one in the graduate employers’ survey, one whole firm from which is supposedly enjoyed a commonality of experience; but, as we will see,

5

Whilst this organisation has been gathering data for some time, their research should be used with caution. High Fliers is a private for profit market research organisation which takes its figures from the demand side of the graduate labour market (i.e. employers). When they contact undergraduates, they only do so from pre-1992 universities, and so their data are partial and reflect the practices of traditional, blue chip organisations and a subset of pre-1992 university graduates.

it is done in such a way that encompasses diversity. At recruitment fairs the Firm has an enormous inflatable ‘N1’ with the Firm’s logo outside the fair’s site; smaller balloons with the same logos are freely handed out to students outside and inside the event; all of the sports societies that the Firm sponsor carry the same branding. The theme continues on the front cover of the 2007/08 recruitment brochure which depicts a very colourful cityscape with number ones inserted on to buildings in neon lights, parading the message that the Firm is ‘One For All’ alongside the word ‘Experience’. Inside the first page are some facts about the Firm which serve to reinforce the sense that it is a site of excellence in three main ways: first, through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – the environment (recycling and CO2 reduction), diversity (race, equality, disability) and communities (fair trade coffee, volunteering person hours); second, through the high achievement of its employees (three Olympic medallists); third, by its historic relationships with clients who enjoy a high public profile and are not for profit organisations. The second page lists all the awards that recognise the Firm as being ‘the best’ at various HR related things as well as industry specific awards, again reinforcing the Firm as a centre of excellence for clients and employees alike.

Being number one or first is primarily about telling potential applicants that they will be applying to ‘The Best’, which, once they have succeeded in their application, presumably confirms that they are one of the best too. Excellence is a form of elitism, but the Firm counters unpalatable forms of elitism with a meritocratic form in which the labels of ‘best’ and ‘excellent’ are teamed with

meritocratic terms such as ‘talent’. The Firm offers graduates a share in its prestige from the beginning; moreover, it suggests that the prestige and high status offered to successful applicants has been earned rather than arbitrarily conferred, as it once was through birthright:

We’re the one firm for all talented graduates. Graduates who shine in one way or another. And if we could bottle the qualities that make them special we would. The problem is, there isn’t a [Firm] type. Everyone here is different, with different backgrounds and aspirations. Which is just the way we like it. It’s our combined strengths as individuals that make us succeed as a firm: a firm that, for the last four years, students have voted us number one. (Firm Brochure. Graduate opportunities 2008 bold in original, italics added)

The above quotation is a good example of the way in which the Firm seeks to identify excellence with heterogeneity or diversity rather than homogeneity or sameness. This is an interesting and significant way in which elitism and prestige – terms historically associated with exclusion, snobbery and unfairness – have been democratised or re-written through a discourse of meritocracy and diversity. The Firm’s commitment to diversity within a context of meritocracy is reinforced by the maintenance of high entry requirement. Applicants need a strong academic background, which translates into the following entry requirements. Applicants should have at least 280 UCAS points at A Level (this could be made up of any combination – for example, B, B, C or A, B, D

grades) and be on course for a 2.1 or above in any subject. The Firm’s minimum entry requirements are interesting as they claim to be of a high standard. However, put simply, the majority of graduates from the elite Russell Group (RG) of universities would easily meet and exceed the entry requirements (which, in terms of UCAS points, are at the lower end of entry requirements for most of the universities, where the most competitive courses routinely require 340-360 points – A, A, B and A, A, A respectively). The national picture shows that 61% of full time UK domiciled undergraduates graduated with a 2.1 or above (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2010), and the picture at RG universities is much higher. So the minimum requirements of the Firm are in fact the average requirements and expectations for students at RG universities. The Firm’s academic requirements do not serve to exclude very many students from elite HEIs which, despite the government’s and universities’ own widening participation agendas, continue to derive most of their students from privileged social locations (Reay et al., 2005). In turn the entry requirements do serve to exclude potential applicants from universities with lower academic entry requirements who then graduate with lower degree classifications. On top of this the Firm has a policy of targeted recruitment which does not stray from Russell Group universities, students from less privileged social backgrounds are over-represented at non-Russell group universities (Reay et al., 2005). During interviews, members of the graduate recruitment team told me that the Firm’s widening participation agenda was largely carried out in schools before pupils have selected their GCSE choices, and that it spends most of its recruitment resources at RG universities. From

this we can see that the Firm frames itself as demanding academically high standards through which it furthers its reputation for excellence; however, their recruitment solely from RG HEIs undermines their claim to attain diverse employment goals. Maintaining a reputation for excellence and fairness through meritocracy is a key way in which the Firm is able to maintain an outward discourse of diversity and inclusion, without having to lower its entry requirements (which would be one sure way of diversifying its employee demographic).

I will look at the issue of diversity through more closely drawing on interviews with senior members of the graduate recruitment team; I then explore in more detail the relationship between the Firm’s recruitment practices, participants, and the Firm’s status and prestige. The issue of diversity and talent is not confined to the above quotation, but forms a significant part of their recruitment strategy: both through their recruitment literature and through specific workshops targeted to encourage and support ‘non-traditional’ or diverse applicants. At the beginning stages of fieldwork I interviewed a senior member of the graduate recruitment team, with whom I explored the issues of recruitment, diversity, meritocracy and elitism. The Firm’s literature and recruitment workshops are full of language that explicitly demonstrates its legal commitment to being an equal opportunities employer, and its wider aim to recruit diversely. The Firm explicitly celebrates and promotes its number one position in a poll as a top place where ‘women want to work’. The Firm’s various diversity and equal opportunities statements highlight that the Firm

values the principles of meritocracy and fairness through hard work and achievement, while recognising some of the structural limits to this position in relation to certain social groups. This is reiterated throughout the recruitment and application process. For example, the Firm is explicit about its academic entry requirements (equality and fairness) and makes no exceptions; the Firm details the whole of the application process and at the same time takes lots of opportunities to support the application process (diversity and inclusion) through hints and tips pages, application workshops, and employability questionnaires, and provides lists of the required key competencies. Here is an extract from their Employability Booklet:

At [Firm] we like to take people further. Which is one of the reasons why we’re so committed to helping people get here in the first place. And it’s why we’ve come up with this employability booklet. The [Firm’s] guide will take you through the different competencies you’re likely to need to become part of our global organization. You might have developed many of your skills through your studies. Others could have come from part-time work or summer travel. Or from somewhere else altogether. What’s important is that you can recognize the skills that we are looking for, and then come up with a good example (or two) to evidence them. And this booklet should definitely help you along the way. The journey starts here. (Firm’s online Employability booklet)

Being an equal opportunities employer is simply stated in stand-alone text at the bottom of all its recruitment literature. This is where their commitment to ‘diversity’ is given more detailed attention:

The basis of our diversity strategy is recognising all the ways in which people are different, both visibly – for example in gender or ethnicity – and subliminally, in ways such as social or educational background, or personality. Our diversity is our strength, driving business performance and success. It is an integral part of our strategy for competing in the current and future marketplace. (Firm webpage, careers/diversity)

The above extract seemingly acknowledges difference as what one might recognise as a result of the stubborn persistence of structural inequalities (gender, ethnicity, social, educational background), but it also reduces differences to the individual (personality). The Firm does not rank them, or say which may have more of an effect, or recognise the multiple ways in which an individual’s differences may make a difference to their ability to compete in the labour market, or what the Firm would do to ‘equalise’ the situation. In this way the language of Equal Opportunities is replaced by diversity, enabling the Firm to construct it as a positive force to be harnessed through their recruitment of diverse employees. An explicit and detailed commitment to diversity underlines the Firm’s commercial imperatives (i.e. diversity somehow equals commercial strength) and makes this its focus rather than a (necessarily more complex) response to inequality. Therefore, despite its repeated commitment to CSR, the Firm justifies its diversity strategy here not through a

reiteration of its commitment to social justice or social corporate responsibility, but with a commercial imperative. This echoes the prevailing orientation of diversity policy in the USA known as ‘the business case’ for equal opportunities, despite a lack of hard, empirical evidence that such a policy improves commercial outcomes (Omanovic, 2011).

The section on diversity comes under a wider section on social corporate responsibility which sees the Firm pledge to serve its communities ethically by doing the right thing, thus providing further evidence of its commitment to the professional values of integrity and commercial excellence. Despite the Firm’s clear commitment to diversity on commercial grounds, I spoke to a number of members of the human resources and graduate recruitment teams who recognised that there were three main reasons why the Firm had a diversity agenda within its recruitment strategy. Helen explained the Firm’s commitment to a diversity strategy in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well as legal and commercial imperatives:

It’s all about projections – what do we want the form to look like in 5 or 10 years’ times? A: we think it’s the right thing to do; B: it’s a legal requirement; and C: from a competitive perspective in our field within our market, we need that diversity because of the clients that we’re going to. (Helen, senior manager within Graduate Recruitment)

They argued that the Firm’s diversity strategy was directly connected to the Firm’s commitment to an understanding of its own history. Bea was a senior

member of the Graduate Recruitment team with a specific sub-role and interest in issues of diversity. I interviewed Bea prior to my interviewing trainees, and she articulated that the Firm was aware of its history and the wider legacy of social inequalities. She also affirmed that the Firm was aware of the impact that formal and informal barriers had on recruitment, such as those which excluded women (through the marriage bar) and ethnic-minority racialised groups (through the race bar):

These are old institutions and actually a lot of the way[s] in which the business works, they’re centuries old at the end of the day: they are white, male dominated and it’s about [prospective applicants] not understanding what the rules are and that’s really, really, tricky to get across, and even as a female understanding what the rules are, and still they physically de-select themselves from the process. (Bea senior manager within Graduate Recruitment)

For Bea and Helen there is harmony between the different rationales for a diversity strategy. They represent the three main reasons as mutually compatible. Despite the publicly available recruitment support for applicants, participants in this study showed very little knowledge of it, and many navigated the application process without accessing such support. Even those at whom the booklet might be said to be aimed – i.e. those who might be concerned about having diverse backgrounds – failed to access such forms of support. This section has looked at how the Firm uses recruitment literature

and website to bring together its commercial, professional, legal and CSR commitments into a coherent rhetoric.

I shall now move on to the second half of this section, which follows up on the Firm’s claims to be the number one provider of professional services from the point of view of participants. I have already set out the way in which the Firm promotes itself and is promoted as the best, ‘number one’, an industry standard-setter, and a centre of excellence as a provider of professional services and as an employer. There is no doubt that the Firm’s rhetoric of its excellence and prestige was conveyed to all the participants of this study. Aside from the Firm’s own claims to being the best, it seemed clear that the recruitment process itself served to reinforce or give the impression to participants that the Firm was prestigious by virtue of the fact that it recruited from the most prestigious British universities, which all participants attended.

You know from the outset that the people that this firm target, isn’t far outside Oxbridge, LSE, Warwick, Nottingham, York, Leeds and