Boosting diversity in businesses

Inflexion is committed to diversity within teams, and so recently invited its portfolio to learn about different ways some businesses are promoting diverse talent pipelines.

It has been said that many suffer ‘carbon-tunnel syndrome’ when considering ESG issues. A laser-sharp focus on environmental issues – which are often the primary concern given regulations – can inadvertently overshadow social and governance issues, to the detriment of a fully functioning ESG framework.   

Inflexion’s focus on building the best teams often addresses the S and G, and means diversity comes naturally – but sourcing the best candidates requires hard work. “The traditional channels for sourcing talent are limited to people with access to those routes. Taking time to explore other avenues can really help unearth a different cohort,” says Freddy West, Talent Director at Inflexion.   

The event delved into three aspects which aim to address this within companies: hire, train deploy (HTD), internships, and apprenticeships.

Hire, train, deploy

“Sparta’s HTD model represents the future of the workforce,” says Sparta’s Director of ED&I, Purnima Sen, speaking of how it trains a range of people including graduates, veterans, career changers in a range of technology skills and then deploys “Spartans” in relevant roles with its clients. The business received funding from Inflexion in 2020 to grow its business.

Purnima had been a university researcher focused on social mobility when she was drawn to what she felt was the right way to promote diversity in the tech sector and plug the skills gap between university education and technology and business professionals. “It is a fantastic model that serves a real purpose of democratising access to digital careers,” she explains.

The model starts with hire, and Sparta accesses young people from underrepresented backgrounds in area of low social mobility. “We are really removing barriers to entry by not asking for degrees to enter the Sparta Academy; instead, we prioritise the right attitude, aptitude and potential, but without the typical academic qualifications,” she explains, adding that it often means young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Once high-potential people are identified, Sparta trains them in technical as well as business interpersonal skills. “This latter bit is important when it comes to social mobility – teaching just technical skills isn’t enough since they need to be able to work well in complex environments and within the unwritten rules of the workplace.”

Helping companies with a historical lack of diversity to find and retain talent from a broader pool of society is the most rewarding part of Purnima’s role at Sparta. “It takes a lot of work to hire in the community the way we do.” Indeed, Sparta recruits talent from over 70 universities as well as through its own portal and building relationships within the community to offer free coding workshops. “Our free mentoring and coaching are all intended to inspire people, specifically those who thought it’d never be possible for them to be successful in technology.”

Sparta has trained over 3,000 Spartans, with 53% from ethnic minority backgrounds, 31% women, and 42% first in the family to go to university. The impact this is having has seen the firm win a number of awards, including B Corp certification and most recently the Kings Awards for diversity (check).

“We are a for-profit organisation and yet a true social impact business,” Purnima says proudly.

Internships

As part of their commitment to being an employer of choice, a Great Place to Work and their sustainability objectives, essential medicine pharmaceutical specialist CNX Therapeutics partnered with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) to support its internship efforts. The SMF’s vision is for the UK to be a society where talent from all backgrounds is nurtured, harnessed and rewarded.

CNX designed an inclusive, values-based recruitment process and through their partnership with the SMF, were provided with a broader pool of talent.

The SMF shortlisted 34 candidates for four roles using the values-based assessment CNX had prepared. 12 were selected for an assessment day, and the roles were successfully filled with CNX’s preferred candidates.

“While CNX has always embraced inclusive hiring practices, our partnership with SMF has enhanced our ability to remove barriers and provide more opportunities for diverse candidates. Their insights have helped us ensure that everyone, regardless of background or circumstance, has the chance to showcase their true potential. Though it’s early days, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The candidates we’ve met have been exceptional, and many have expressed how this process has empowered them to stay true to themselves, even after facing challenges in the past.” Jessica Dall, Learning, Development and Sustainability Manager

Apprenticeships

Tom Robinson, Head of Apprenticeships at ANS Group, also has professional roots in education, with a career working in high schools before moving to the digital transformation business and cloud hosting provider.

“We have a unique proposition at ANS and can use our academy to help other businesses to build their own diverse talent pipeline,” he says.

Tom points out that for all the chatter of digital skills in the last couple of years, it’s actually nothing new. “We’ve been talking about digital skills for over a decade; back in 2013 when we started out we already identified it wasn’t being delivered by school curriculums.” This forms part of the inspiration for ANS’s various apprenticeship programmes, and in 2017 the firm pivoted from working with further education providers to deliver to their own fully aligned curriculum of learning to give ANS full ownership of what was being taught. The following year it received investment from Inflexion to accelerate its growth further.

The firm onboards apprentices and then aims to retain or deploy them into fulfilling tech roles. Over 11 years 250 apprentices have been employed by ANS, and it has been recognised as a DFE Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer for three consecutive years.

Clients have faced barriers with recruiting technical talent, and so ANS is starting to offer apprenticeship programmes for customers, with data and AI a focus for 2025.

“Businesses have been telling us that filling the roles in the first place is a struggle and then retaining them is particularly hard. This has been especially the case in non-technical businesses where filling the precious few technical roles can see those team members struggle to remain engaged,” he explains. He adds that historically firms also lack funding to access the talent, with no access to levy funds or budgets for training.

Data from ANS shows how valuable apprenticeship programmes can be – not just for widening the diversity of the talent funnel but also for a firm’s bottom line: 61% of apprentices stay with the same employer for over five years (and junior tech talent can cost around £30k to replace each (including recruitment cost) so retaining is important); and 70% said the apprenticeships improved their services.

But costs aside, Tom is adamant the social mobility that apprenticeships can create is the real bonus. “Seeing young people come through is absolutely the best bit of my job,” he beams. Indeed, in 2024, 70% of graduating apprentices went on to secure roles in ANS and 15% secured tech roles elsewhere.

All Inflexion portfolio companies, regardless of size or ownership stake, have full access to our dedicated value acceleration resources covering digital enhancement (including data, AI, technology, cybersecurity and digital marketing), international expansion, M&A, ESG, commercial strategy and talent management.