The Myth of Merit
This week’s announcement that law firm Simmons + Simmons is setting targets to significantly increase the number of employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds in every part of the organisation by 2029 provides a timely reminder that, in some quarters at least, ambition and good sense about what it takes to attract the most talented people remain alive.
The idea that talent rises to the top is comforting — but misleading.
Flying under the radar since the beginning of the year, a steady trickle of studies has provided evidence which proves this important point.
In medicine, The Sutton Trust found that 75% of medical school entrants come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, while only 5% are working-class. In the top 50 Arts Council-funded organisations, 30% of leaders and artistic directors were privately educated. In law, new figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority showed that 70% of lawyers come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
Does this mean they’re inherently better? No.This means that talented people are locked out: just 10% of people from working-class backgrounds make it into higher managerial and cultural occupations.
The cost of an unbalanced talent pool to business is real.
A study from the Equality Trust shows that lack of socioeconomic mobility affects productivity, innovation, and long-term business success. It estimates the cost to the UK economy at £106bn each year.
Clinging to the “myth of merit” means that organisations that fail to tap into a broad talent pool are not just limiting opportunity but also undermining their own competitive edge.
It’s a strategy which is as effective as lining up for a marathon and expecting to win when wearing a battered old pair of trainers with the laces tied together.
To move beyond the myth of merit and recruit from diverse socioeconomic talent pools, action is required on two fronts.
Attraction - getting people into an organisation - is critical. Simmons + Simmons, like many of its peers, rightly understands that what happens outside of an organisation through the networks, programmes and outreach to underrepresented groups plays a vital role in helping people set ambitions for the profession which may otherwise be put aside.
Equally critical is a focus on progression. A study by KPMG found that employees from lower socioeconomic backgrounds took 19% longer to progress in the firm than their peers.
Improving progression requires an understanding and action on the roadblocks—the hidden curriculum, senior sponsorship, capital stock, imposter syndrome—that prevent talent from reaching its full potential.
How likely are organisations at large to take this type of action on this important issue?
According to the findings of a recent study in the American Journal of Sociology: not very.
It found that high earners live in worlds which are so separated from lower earners they are increasingly detached from the social and economic issues they face.
And where leaders exist in a world shaped by privilege, the need for structural change is invisible to them, or, as the recent DEI rollbacks illustrate, an inconvenience, like a stone in their shoe, which for greater comfort can be discarded.
The leaders in this mould are serving their organisations poorly. Backing talent is backing success. Proactively looking for people who can serve a business and its customers well in the future isn’t about taking a moral stand but a commercial one, ensuring their talent pool is as rich and capable as possible.
Companies that ignore this reality are not being neutral; they are choosing inefficiency and missed opportunities.
In the week that the FTSE Women Leaders review found the number of women in board positions in FTSE companies had reached 43% in 2025, up from 25% ten years ago, it is clear that strategic intent matched by concerted action can make a difference to talent progression.
Those who apply the same approach of setting targets and effecting change within their organisations - both in systems and culture - are the ones who find themselves at the front of the competitive race in the future.
Michelle Weston Guest Author | CRO and Executive Coach at ECC
