The Bank has just begun to put in place a system for measuring the socio-economic background of its recruits. In future, that might help in sketching the contours of the Bank’s own experiential diversity map. Some organisations have taken more purposive action still to promote social mobility. For example, some have set themselves recruitment targets for employees drawn from lower socio-economic groupings. Others have put in place so-called “contextualised” recruitment, adjusting their entrance requirements to prevent filtering out of candidates based on their socio-economic background. The Bank has also made some initial steps in the direction of contextualised recruitment, as well as signing up as a member of the so-called Social Mobility Compact, which promotes social inclusion and mobility in the UK. 67  Heckman (2006) finds that very early intervention for disadvantaged children is crucial in order to affect outcomes. Intervening when a child is over the age of six has comparatively little effect. 68  Attanasio and Blundell (2014). 69  Feinstein (2003). 70  Commission on Child Poverty and Social Mobility (2014). BIS central bankers’ speeches  13  Across all organisations and institutions, there is plainly much further to go. This new dimension to the diversity debate could, if the evidence is even half-right, yield high organisational and societal returns from a modest investment in better measurement and in different approaches to recruitment and performance. (c)  Recruitment strategy  Recruitment is typically a singular pursuit. The successful candidate is typically the one deemed to best meet the job requirements.
However, as we saw in the mid-2000s, there is also the associated risk of upward pressure on inflation from global energy and other commodity prices, if the momentum of world growth becomes too strong. Fourth, the high degree of stimulus provided by fiscal and monetary policy to combat the recession will need to be withdrawn over a period of time. Returning budget deficits to a more sustainable level will require a prolonged tightening of fiscal policy in many countries, including the UK. Monetary policy can provide an offset by continuing to support the growth of private spending – though the appropriate degree of monetary stimulus will need to be continually reassessed in the light of the progress of the recovery at home and abroad and its impact on inflationary pressures. Given the turbulence we have seen in the major economies of the world over the last two years, it is very natural to worry about setbacks to the recovery, both in the UK and overseas. In the past, economic recoveries have not been smooth and linear. So we should expect to see some variability in growth rates, both at home and abroad, as this recovery develops. However, looking through this data volatility, there are also good grounds for expecting the growth of the world economy to continue to provide a healthy support to the UK’s economic recovery over the years ahead.