The National Hiring Metrics exist because UK employers had no common language for measuring recruitment performance. This page sets out the problem they solve and what adopting them gives your organisation.
Every organisation measured recruitment differently. Time to hire meant something different in every system. Cost per hire excluded different things in every finance team. Attrition was calculated over different periods by different people. The result was that no two organisations could meaningfully compare their performance, and no employer could credibly demonstrate the return on their recruitment investment.
The National Hiring Metrics resolve this. Nine metrics. Consensus definitions. One published calculation specification. Independent benchmarks. For the first time, UK employers can measure, compare, and improve hiring performance on common ground.
The National Hiring Metrics are a free and open standard: the definitions and the calculation specification are published here for anyone to use, at no cost, under the licence on this site. Adopting them changes how an organisation measures, compares and argues its own hiring performance.
Internal metrics show whether you are improving. Measured on identical definitions, the National Hiring Metrics show where you stand against comparable organisations, so a benchmark actually means something.
The metrics translate recruitment into the terms Finance and the executive already use: time, cost, retention and financial impact. Hiring becomes a business performance conversation, not an activity report.
A single agreed definition for each metric ends the familiar argument that every team, system and finance function counts things differently. Everyone measures the same way, so the numbers are trusted.
The standard is published for any organisation to use. Take the definitions, calculate your own nine metrics, and put them to work, with no cost and no account required.
Talent Benchmarking Ltd originated the National Hiring Metrics and holds the name and marks as custodian of the standard. The definitions and calculation specification are free for any organisation, platform or researcher to use, and anyone may state that its metrics are calculated in accordance with them. The Better Hiring Institute adopted the metrics in 2026 and consents to any change to the definitions, which are revised only after a public consultation of at least 30 days with the responses and reasons published on this site. Talent Benchmarking Ltd operates the National Hiring Data Hub, which validates contributed data and produces the National Hiring Index for the Better Hiring Institute, and offers benchmarking services on its own commercial terms.
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