Professional services has done more than almost any other sector to open up early talent recruitment.

The EHRC’s Employment Statutory Code of Practice sets out the legal obligations on employers under the Equality Act 2010. For selection processes, the relevant principle is objective justification: any selection criterion must be genuinely related to the requirements of the role and applied consistently. Employers cannot rely on historical practice as a defence. If a selection tool produces adverse impact, for example if candidates from particular ethnic backgrounds or socioeconomic groups consistently score lower, the employer must be able to demonstrate that the tool is measuring something genuinely predictive of job performance. Selection processes that cannot produce a documented audit trail for every decision create EHRC exposure, particularly as enforcement activity in early careers hiring has increased.

Coaching bias enters selection at two primary points: psychometric testing (where test preparation confers an advantage) and assessment centres (where familiarity with formal evaluation environments confers an advantage). Both correlate with socioeconomic background. Reducing it requires changing what you measure at the top of the funnel rather than trying to correct for it downstream. Immersive Work Experience generates evidence of motivation and engagement through structured work-based tasks completed over time, without a formal interview setting. Talent Assess converts that engagement into ranked selection evidence against a fixed rubric. Neither can be coached in the way that psychometrics or assessment centres can, because both measure consistent behavioural patterns rather than performance on a single day.

The Social Mobility Employer Index, run by the Social Mobility Foundation, is the UK’s primary benchmark for employer-led social mobility. Employers answer questions and provide data across seven areas covering recruitment, progression, workplace culture and supplier relationships. In 2024, 150 employers entered. The Index provides independent benchmarking, sector comparison and a structured framework for identifying where practice needs to improve. For professional services firms, the Index also carries reputational weight with graduates: candidates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds actively look for Index participation as a signal that their application will be assessed fairly.

The starting point is documentation. Every scoring decision (who scored what, against which criteria, at which stage) needs to be recorded and retrievable. If the process used any AI-assisted tools, you need to be able to demonstrate what the tool was scoring, how individual decisions were made, and that the tool’s outputs were subject to human oversight. The Video Interview Platform documents every scoring decision, every rubric applied, and every bias monitoring alert generated during the review process. If a decision is challenged, the complete record is there. Most early careers selection processes currently operating in professional services cannot produce this evidence on demand.