A Strategic Response
A National Challenge Demands a National Solution
The United Kingdom faces a structural skills challenge, with productivity, growth, social mobility, and regional prosperity all directly influenced by how effectively organisations attract and deploy talent.
The National Hiring Strategy — described as the first coherent framework connecting workforce planning, skills-based hiring, and economic competitiveness — aims to move hiring from an operational afterthought to a strategic national capability.
Over six months, the RL Community worked with more than 60 Heads of Resourcing from leading UK employers to address a long-standing problem: recruitment metrics that share familiar labels but are calculated inconsistently, making meaningful benchmarking impossible. The result has already been described by boards as "refreshingly commercial."
Guiding Principles
Faster. Fairer. Safer.
The Better Hiring Institute's guiding principle underpins every aspect of the National Hiring Strategy — supported by TA Leaders from the UK's largest organisations.
Project Impact
The 9 Standardised National Hiring Metrics
Standard definitions and formulas agreed by 60+ senior resourcing leaders across the UK's leading employers — enabling meaningful benchmarking for the first time.
Hear From the Leaders Behind the Metrics
Watch the announcement and conversations from the House of Lords launch.
National Hiring Metrics — Introduction
National Hiring Metrics — Overview
National Hiring Metrics — In Depth
Strategy without measurement is aspiration.
— Speech delivered at the House of Lords
National Hiring Strategy
Moving Hiring to a Strategic National Capability
The National Hiring Strategy connects workforce planning, skills-based hiring, and economic competitiveness — aiming to move hiring from an operational afterthought to a strategic national capability.
Roadmap
What Comes Next?
An ambitious roadmap for embedding the National Hiring Strategy and Metrics across the UK economy.
Seeking to embed the National Hiring Strategy and Metrics into HR professional qualifications, ensuring the next generation of people professionals are trained in consistent, commercially robust hiring practices.
Exploring the development of a British Standard for reporting recruitment outcomes — bringing the same level of reporting rigour and measurability to hiring that other business functions have long benefited from.
Creating genuine demand pull from organisations by demonstrating that adopting the National Hiring Strategy and Metrics drives better business performance — not bureaucracy.
Announcement
National Hiring Metrics Launched in the UK
Landmark announcement made at the House of Lords marks a new era for talent acquisition across the UK economy.
In a landmark address delivered at the House of Lords to an audience of parliamentarians from both Houses, the RL Community and the Better Hiring Institute (BHI) have jointly announced the creation of the National Hiring Metrics — a standardised framework of nine recruitment measures that will form the measurement backbone of the UK's National Hiring Strategy.
A Strategic Response to a National Challenge
The United Kingdom faces a structural skills challenge, with productivity, growth, social mobility, and regional prosperity all directly influenced by how effectively organisations attract and deploy talent. The National Hiring Strategy — described as the first coherent framework connecting workforce planning, skills-based hiring, and economic competitiveness — aims to move hiring from an operational afterthought to a strategic national capability. Delivering hiring that is Faster, Fairer and Safer — the guiding principle of the Better Hiring Institute — has never been more critical.
Nine Standardised Metrics: From Aspiration to Measurement
Over the past six months, the RL Community has worked with more than 60 Heads of Resourcing from leading UK employers to address a long-standing problem: recruitment metrics — such as time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and quality-of-hire — that share familiar labels but are calculated inconsistently, making meaningful benchmarking impossible. The result of this collaboration is agreement on nine standardised recruitment metrics, now formally adopted as the National Hiring Metrics. The framework has already received enthusiastic support from boards and executive teams, with one board describing it as "refreshingly commercial" — a signal that Talent Acquisition is earning its seat at the strategic table.
New BHI–RL Community Partnership to Drive Adoption
Alongside the metrics announcement, the BHI and RL Community have confirmed a new formal partnership to accelerate adoption of the National Hiring Strategy. The collaboration brings together policy influence, professional practice, and employer leadership to ensure the strategy is embedded across organisations of all sizes. The National Hiring Metrics will enable organisations — large and small — to benchmark meaningfully, invest confidently, and report transparently on their hiring performance.
The Prize
The prize, organisers say, is significant: more productive organisations, more inclusive hiring, and a labour market that works better for employers, candidates, and the UK economy alike.
- →Embedding the National Hiring Strategy into HR professional qualifications
- →Exploring a British Standard for reporting recruitment outcomes
- →Creating genuine demand pull from organisations of all sizes
- →RecFest debut — findings showcased at the UK's largest TA event
- →Implementation from RecTech providers
- →Adoption by Government as a Key Economic Indicator
About RL CommunityThe Resourcing Leaders Community brings together a global ecosystem of talent acquisition leaders, fostering collaboration, thought leadership, and actionable insights. The community drives local impact by addressing region-specific challenges while empowering its members to drive strategic transformation within their organisations at a global level. The unique strength of Resourcing Leaders lies in its blend of peer-driven innovation, influence, and shared experiences, positioning it as the must-join community for senior talent acquisition leaders.
About BHIThe Better Hiring Institute exists to transform the UK labour market by bringing in a revolution in the way the UK hires staff. Working with UK Government the Better Hiring Institute has developed Better Hiring Toolkits to cover 80% of the UK workforce, a Better Hiring Charter to transform fairness in UK Hiring and runs the Modernising Employment APPG in Parliament.
Partners
Jointly Announced By
The National Hiring Metrics are the result of a formal partnership between two of the UK's most influential talent acquisition bodies.
Resourcing Leaders UK
The Resourcing Leaders Community brings together a global ecosystem of talent acquisition leaders, fostering collaboration, thought leadership, and actionable insights. The community drives local impact by addressing region-specific challenges while empowering its members to drive strategic transformation within their organisations at a global level.
Better Hiring Institute
The Better Hiring Institute exists to transform the UK labour market by bringing in a revolution in the way the UK hires staff. Working with UK Government the Better Hiring Institute has developed Better Hiring Toolkits to cover 80% of the UK workforce, a Better Hiring Charter to transform fairness in UK Hiring and runs the Modernising Employment APPG in Parliament.