'Making the Invisible Visible' is Progress Together's campaign to highlight hidden barriers to progression in financial services.
Socio-economic background remains one of the strongest predictors of progression in financial services. Employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds take nearly two years longer to move from middle management into senior leadership, despite no difference in performance.
The result is clear: talent is being held back, and potential is being lost.
The campaign
Making the Invisible Visible is a sector-wide campaign led by Progress Together to expose the barriers that limit progression, and drive action to remove them.
We are bringing together firms, leaders and employees across financial services to:
- Surface the real drivers of stalled progression
- Share lived experience at scale
- Translate insight into practical, measurable action
Because what remains invisible cannot be fixed.
Why this matters now
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Slower to progressTake 16% longer (nearly two years) to progress from middle to senior roles than peers from higher socio-economic backgrounds.16%
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The seniority gapMen from higher socio-economic backgrounds are 3.4x more likely to reach senior leadership than women from lower socio-economic backgrounds.3.4x
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Too few at the topJust 26% of senior leaders in financial services come from lower socio-economic backgrounds versus 34% at junior levels.26%
What we need to uncover
Progression is shaped as much by culture as by capability. The barriers that hold people back are rarely explicit. They are embedded in everyday behaviours, unspoken expectations and the informal dynamics that determine who gets noticed, who gets sponsored and who gets the opportunity to step up.
Research from Progress Together shows that employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds take nearly two years longer to progress from middle to senior roles than their peers, despite no difference in performance. The data shows the pattern. This campaign exists to uncover the cause. It goes beyond data to understand what people experience day to day, what holds them back in practice and what needs to change inside organisations. Because the barriers that cannot be seen cannot be fixed.
A call to leadership
Change will not happen without visible leadership. Progress Together's research shows that progression diverges sharply at the point where promotion decisions become dependent on managers identifying individuals, and managers tend to select people like themselves. This is where intervention is most needed, and where leadership has the greatest power to shift outcomes.
We are calling on CEOs and senior leaders to lead openly on socio-economic inclusion, to share what they are doing and what they are learning, and to create genuine accountability for progression outcomes. Not as a values statement, but as a business imperative.
Leadership shapes culture. And culture shapes who progresses.
A call to the sector
We are asking employees and firms across the industry to contribute their experience. The data tells us that progression is slower for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, but data alone cannot tell us why. That requires voices. Without visibility, there is no progress. By bringing lived experience and real examples to the surface, we can identify the root causes behind the data, focus action where it matters most and build organisations where talent is recognised and developed regardless of background.
We are actively collecting experiences of progression barriers from employees at all levels, practical examples of what has worked within firms, and initiatives, ideas and learning from across the sector. Every contribution, whether from an individual reflecting on their own career or an organisation sharing what it has tried and learned, will help shape the direction of this campaign and the action that follows. This is a sector-wide effort. The more voices we hear, the more precisely we can act.
Share your experience
We are actively collecting lived experiences of progression barriers, practical examples of what has worked within firms, and initiatives, ideas and lessons learned from across the sector. Every contribution will help shape the direction of this campaign and the action that follows.
Whether you are an individual reflecting on your own career or an organisation sharing what you have tried and learned, we want to hear from you. Email communications@progresstogether.co.uk to contribute your experience or share your firm's approach.
What people are saying
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If you have a homogeneous type of executive board, the risk is that the decision making is all the same and there is no challenge.
Cinzia Basile Hueffer, Chair, Amova Asset Management UK -
Talent and ambition are the things that succeed, not socioeconomic background. Performance actually excels when we recruit people from all kinds of socioeconomic backgrounds.
Karim Haji, Financial Services Partner, KPMG -
There's talent everywhere and not everybody has the confidence, the skills, the knowledge and the capability to access those opportunities. Our role as a board is to have leadership and oversee the progress that management make towards taking down those barriers.
Robert East, Chair and Non-Executive Director, Paragon Bank -
People in power need to make a choice. You either pull the ladder up, or you reach down for someone.
Francesca Hampton, Group Chief Financial Officer, Raymond James Wealth Management UK
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