The latest from the National Hiring Metrics programme — launches, milestones, and what’s coming next.
The National Hiring Metrics were formally introduced to the policy community at the House of Lords on 19 March 2026. Adrian Thomas, head of the RL100, presented the standard as the measurement backbone of the National Hiring Strategy — the first time a consensus-ratified set of recruitment metrics has been embedded in UK national hiring policy.
The soft launch marked the culmination of a consensus process that began in Summer 2025, involving senior TA leaders from across the RL100 UK community reviewing and ratifying nine metric definitions. The specification reached its 19th version prior to ratification.
“Strategy without measurement is aspiration. If we are serious about improving hiring outcomes across the UK, we must underpin the National Hiring Strategy with standardised recruitment metrics that allow organisations to benchmark performance consistently and credibly.”
Adrian Thomas — House of Lords, 19 March 2026The National Hiring Metrics will be formally launched to the wider UK talent acquisition community at RecFest UK on 2 July 2026 at Knebworth. The hard launch will open the full benchmarking programme to all UK employers and mark the beginning of the data collection period for Year 1 benchmarks.
RL100 members will be offered complimentary access to the benchmarking platform for Year 1. All UK employers are invited to participate via the calculator and data submission process.
Following the UK hard launch, the National Hiring Metrics programme will be introduced to the US talent acquisition community at RecFest USA in Nashville on 23–24 September 2026. The US RL100 chapter (~22 members) includes several cross-geography organisations already participating in the UK benchmark, including Boeing, PepsiCo, WPP, and EY.
The RL100 Middle East community (~90 members) will be activated as part of the international expansion of the National Hiring Metrics standard. The Middle East chapter represents a significant opportunity for cross-geography benchmarking, with several members already participating across both the UK and Middle East communities.