{
  "id": 126357,
  "title": "The Elusiveness of Merit-Based Hiring",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/04/the-elusiveness-of-merit-based-hiring",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-04T11:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "MIT Sloan",
    "slug": "mit-sloan",
    "url": "https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-elusiveness-of-merit-based-hiring/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In recent years, companies have shifted their focus from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to purportedly merit-based hiring practices in an attempt to align with the administration's preferences. However, this shift does not necessarily translate into merit-based hiring, as the distinction between DEI and merit is often oversimplified. In reality, good DEI practices aim to expand the talent pool rather than limit it to a select few.\n\nValidity in hiring, as defined by industrial-organizational psychologists, is the degree to which a selection process is job-related and has been demonstrated through accepted validation methods. Valid assessments can accurately identify high-performing employees, while invalid assessments, lacking empirical proof of their validity, might still be supported by individuals who believe in merit due to the \"merit mirage.\" These assessments often favor majority groups and can disadvantage underrepresented candidates.\n\nExamples of the merit mirage include relying on educational requirements that have not been proven to predict performance, emphasizing \"years of experience\" without accounting for the quality of that experience, and valuing superficial qualities like first impressions or professional dress. Additionally, leaders often confuse rigorous assessment processes with relevant and comprehensive ones, and they may evaluate group characteristics instead of individual merits.\n\nTo achieve true merit-based hiring, organizations must employ validated assessments that are job-related, standardized, and reliable. However, this requires a level of expertise in human resource management that many hiring managers lack. A notable example involved a large organization that developed a rigorous test for entry-level positions but later discovered that its application differed from the validation study, rendering the exam invalid and ultimately wasting over $17 million on thousands of applicants. The misconception that the selection was based on merit was simply a mirage. The primary reason for such misperceptions often stems from an overreliance on intuition and subjectivity, coupled with a tendency to employ haphazard selection methods.",
  "summary": "Patrick George/Ikon Images Since early 2025, organizations seeking to curry favor with the current U.S. administration have disavowed earlier commitments to workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and proclaimed that their hiring practices are therefore meritocratic. But framing DEI and merit as antithetical dichotomies, as various executive orders have done, does not mean that…",
  "key_points": [
    "Companies shift from DEI to purportedly merit-based hiring.",
    "Validity in hiring requires job-related, validated assessments.",
    "Misconception of merit-based hiring often stems from intuition and subjectivity."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}