SMB’s Diversity Survey Results 2019

Today, we published our 2019 diversity survey results. The information presented was gathered in an anonymous survey for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and was completed by 85 members of staff.

Overall, SMB’s workforce is highly diverse in most areas. Almost 60% of our workforce are female and 7.1% of surveyed staff identify as a different gender to the one given at birth.

We are a relatively young workforce with the largest age bracket at 42.4% being staff aged 25-34. At least eight different religions are represented by staff and 43.5% of all staff identified as atheist or having no religion. The majority of SMB’s staff, at 35.3% attended non-selective UK state-funded schools, while 10.6% of staff attended school outside the UK.

In terms of socioeconomic background, 45.9% of staff had at least one parent with a degree level qualification that was gained before the staff member turned 18, while 16.4% of staff had parents with no formal qualifications before they turned 18 (with over three quarters of those being legal staff). Almost 30% of staff grew up with the main/highest income earner of their family working in a modern professional occupation.

Primary carers of a child under the age of 18 make up 24.7% of our workforce, while 8.2% of staff provide 1-50 hours unpaid care per week for those with long term physical or mental ill health caused by disability or age and 4.7% of staff identify as disabled according to the Equality Act.