The study of 2,000 adults by insurer Zurich UK also found that 31% report feeling the need to change or soften their accent in the office to sound ‘more professional,’ and 19% believe that the way they speak has held them back in their career.
One in seven people with a regional dialect report negative comments about the way they speak (13%) and the same proportion say that a recruiter or hiring manager has mimicked their accent. As a result, 16% experience ‘accent anxiety’ that stops them from speaking up at work.
“People should be judged on the quality of their work, not the sound of their voice,” Paul Sesay, founder and CEO of DEI network Inclusive Companies told HR magazine.
He explained that “accent bias often runs deeper than people realise,” as research suggests that people with strong regional accents are “less likely to be promoted, even when their performance is strong”.
“They are more likely to be questioned, overlooked in progression discussions, or steered away from visible or senior-facing roles. These decisions are rarely labelled as bias, but the outcome is the same,” Sesay added.
The research also found that nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents feel most self-conscious about their accent in the workplace, while 32% of respondents felt that people made assumptions about their character or job capability based on how they sound.
Raising awareness of accent bias often “requires a multi-pronged approach”, said Jess Sandham, founder and director of consultancy Human by Practice.
She told HR magazine: “Representation and exposure are crucial, especially for those in leadership roles. Creating safe spaces where people can share their experiences and hear diverse perspectives is powerful for building collective understanding.
“I've seen this achieved successfully through staff podcasts, employee network events, and staff conferences platforming diverse speakers who share their stories.”
However, collective awareness “only gets you so far,” Sandham added, explaining that when making hiring decisions or conducting interviews, practical interventions matter: “Recruitment priming, where recruiters engage with awareness-raising materials immediately before interviews, has proven highly effective at reducing stereotyping.”
Hannah Awonuga, founder of the Inclusive Foundations Programme, mentioned that “practical action starts with challenging what we mean by 'professional' when we prioritise value over fit, and with challenging what the corporate standard requires.”
Awonuga told HR magazine: “Organisations need to widen definitions of executive presence, train leaders to interrogate their instincts, and intervene when language equates polish with competence. Inclusion isn’t about asking people to neutralise themselves, to assimilate and copy others; it’s about ensuring that difference is valued and recognised as a competitive advantage.”
Representative of the insurance firm Zurich commissioned OnePoll to surveyed 2,000 UK adults from 2 to 9 December 2025. Findings were published on 5 February 2026.
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