In 2018, Start Foundation became the first European organisation to bring Open Hiring to scale outside the United States, partnering with Greyston Bakery – the Yonkers, New York social enterprise that pioneered the model over forty years ago – to adapt and implement it for the Dutch labour market. The first Dutch employer to adopt the model was MamaLoes, a baby retail business in Goirle, and the network has since grown to encompass employers across sectors including logistics, retail, production, hospitality, and most recently the public sector, with the municipality of Zoetermeer becoming the first government employer to hire through Open Hiring in 2024. Start Foundation’s investment in this work has been both financial and intellectual: it has developed the operational framework, built the employer support infrastructure, co-produced research with Erasmus University (SEOR) and Deloitte, and worked directly with the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, UWV, and local municipalities to embed Open Hiring within national employment policy.

The evidence base that has grown from this eight-year endeavour is substantial. Research shows that 44% of Open Hiring placements in the Netherlands convert to permanent employment contracts. Employer surveys confirm strong management satisfaction, and Deloitte’s independent impact analysis demonstrates that Open Hiring delivers measurable progress against four UN Sustainable Development Goals – reducing poverty and inequality while creating decent work and fostering the multi-stakeholder partnerships that systemic change requires. The model works not despite removing selection criteria, but because of it: by asking only whether someone can and wants to do the job, it unlocks a motivated, overlooked talent pool that conventional recruitment consistently misses.

It is this proven, evidence-backed, European-adapted model that Start Foundation is now bringing to the United Kingdom. As a founding partner of Open Hiring UK, Start Foundation brings eight years of implementation experience, a comprehensive research foundation, established relationships with government and civil society, and a clear methodology that has been tested and refined in a labour market context directly comparable to the UK’s. The Start Foundation UK project, commencing in 2026, is designed not to transplant a foreign model wholesale, but to transfer hard-won expertise, adapt it to the British context, and support UK employers and policymakers in building an inclusive labour market that gives everyone who wants to work a genuine chance to do so.