Well-spoken Employees Wanted

It's no good just walking in and saying 'Gissa job' in thick Scouse, Brummie, or Glaswegian. If you want employment, get a 'proper accent' or you won't get past the first interview.

Don't be too posh, though - Oxford accents are off-putting and sounding like the Queen will only irritate your prospective employer, especially if you are a man.

The accent that will launch you on a glittering career is received pronunciation, or RP. This will give the impression that you are confident, intelligent and ambitious.

The ideal voice for getting that job is similar to a BBC announcer's voice, because 'It's pleasant to listen to', according to research by David Davey, a chartered psychologist specialising in executive assessment. The comparison did not please the BBC whose spokesman said: 'The BBC accent doesn't exist any more. We have an equal opportunities policy and any accent is acceptable provided that it is clearly understood.'

Standard accents are important in jobs that involve contact with customers with a wide range of accents, Mr Davey writes in the Institute of Personnel Management's journal, Personnel Plus. 'But for a research position, intelligence, education and experience would heavily outweigh even the worst Cockney or Scouse accent.'

There is consolation for those burdened with a strong accent: they are seen as friendlier, more generous, more honest and as having a better sense of humour than the RP brigade.

Mr Davey says that most educated Scottish accents rate highly, although below RP, of course. 'Educated' Welsh and Irish accents also score quite highly as do the mellower examples of English provincial brogues, such as those from Yorkshire and Tyneside. American, Australian, South-African, Indian and West Indian accents might benefit from a certain 'classless' factor but all fail to challenge the supremacy of standard pronunciation.

RP women are thought to be more confident than women with 'non-standard accents', and they are also rated more highly in adventurousness, independence and femininity. (The Observer)