Why Social Mobility Still Shapes Career Progression in the Workplace

Social mobility at work is about ensuring people can progress based on their talent and potential, not their background. Yet many workplace opportunities still depend on unwritten rules, professional networks and cultural knowledge that not everyone has access to. Here's why social mobility remains a challenge and what organisations and managers can do to create fairer career progression.

Why Social Mobility Still Shapes Career Progression in the Workplace

For many people, an invitation to lunch with a manager, a networking event after work or an offer of coaching are part of the unremarkable furniture of getting on at work. They are easy to accept, navigate and move on from. As signals of belonging and investment, they make you feel valued.

For others these questions land completely differently, provoking anxiety and uncertainty: what if I can’t afford lunch? What am I supposed to do at a networking event? Do they mean I’m not very good at my job if I need a coach?

The difference isn't talent or ambition. It's whether you've grown up exposed to the unwritten rules and language of work. What many see as an opportunity feels like tests you aren't prepared for.

This isn’t an experience confined to a minority. In the UK 93% of people are state educated. The majority of people grow up without exposure to professional networks or familiarity with workplace norms. Navigating restaurant menus, dress codes and unspoken expectations isn’t something they’ve been prepared for.

As opportunity is influenced this way, progression favours those who already know the rules. Across the UK’s largest companies, only around a third of senior leaders are state educated, and almost two-thirds of FTSE chairs were privately schooled. In financial services, just a quarter of senior leaders come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, despite the fact that 40% of the workforce share that background. Entry to and progression in the arts and professions still remains skewed to those who already have access or are from a more affluent background.

This is a systems failure that prevents talent from rising and potential from being fulfilled.

As with other persistent inequalities such as race, gender, or disability, waiting for the system to change on its own won't create equity of opportunity. Change requires conscious action from those who see the barriers and choose to do something about them.

Sophie Pender, founder of the 93% Club, told me last week that as someone from a working-class background, the most powerful support navigating university and entering professional work came from seemingly small gestures.

The colleague who quietly explained what to order at a client lunch. The manager who explained what to do at that networking event without making it feel like charity. Other offers of help made in a way that preserved dignity and let them choose whether to accept it.

These are not grand interventions. They're moments of supportiveness, where someone sees that what feels normal to them might feel alien to someone else and adjusts accordingly. The impact isn't just practical, it signals belonging in a way that lets people keep their sense of self intact.

When so much of the conversation about social mobility gets pulled into debate rather than change, the impact of practical actions like this really matters.

The same is true for organisations. They don’t have to wait for perfect data, policy shifts or the whole system to move before making a difference. Small, conscious changes in how opportunity is designed, offered and supported can reshape who gets access and who progresses.

Last year, Bank of America, working with the 93% Club, brought 41 graduates from different socio-economic backgrounds into the organisation. Imagine the impact of efforts like that at scale.

And scale doesn’t have to come from broad policy. It comes with enough people doing the small, conscious things.

The 93% who face these barriers are, in fact, the majority. If enough of us, as individuals and organisations, choose to act, we change the system from the inside out.

This work requires nuance. Supporting state schools doesn't mean opposing private schools. Discounting people with an Oxbridge background risks overlooking those who succeeded in getting there despite their socio-economic circumstances. There are no blanket solutions here. We have to work at getting it right.

There’s no doubt this is a challenging time for anyone committed to fairness and opportunity. But when I see the ongoing efforts that are already making a difference, I’m reminded that it comes down to a choice: do something, or step back. The more of us who choose the former, the greater the chance we succeed. We know what to do.

This article is from Geraldine Gallacher's Bi-Weekly newsletter, On Balance.

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