§ The result
Handshake leads Paycor on all 7 criteria.
Handshake sits 10 points above Paycor under rubric v1.0 — 50 against 40 — with Handshake filed under Screening and Paycor under ATS-integrated. Handshake takes all 7 criteria and Paycor none of them; the nearest contest is FRIA Support, Handshake 30 to Paycor 27. One criterion, Bias Audit Transparency, is both the widest raw gap (Handshake 52, Paycor 25) and the heaviest weighted swing, and at 18% weight it makes up 49% of the weighted advantage Handshake holds across the 7 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
Handshake
Handshake is an early-career recruiting network whose employer tools use AI to rank applicants against employer-set criteria, find and message matching students and graduates, and target job promotions.
Vendor profile
Paycor
Paycor, a Paychex company, sells a mid-market HR and payroll suite whose recruiting tools include the Paycor Recruiting ATS, Paycor Smart Sourcing (formerly Talenya), which uses AI to build a prioritized list of passive and active candidates for each role and automate outreach, and a WISE assistant that phone-screens candidates and scores their answers.
§ The record
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, Paycor under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Sourcing.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Handshake | Paycor |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2014 | 1990 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 49% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Handshake 52 · Paycor 25
4.9 weighted points to Handshake
20% weight · 65% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Handshake 48 · Paycor 40
1.6 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 77% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Handshake 48 · Paycor 38
1.2 weighted points to Handshake
15% weight · 88% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Handshake 57 · Paycor 50
1.1 weighted points to Handshake
15% weight · 92% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Handshake 30 · Paycor 27
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
8% weight · 96% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Handshake 60 · Paycor 55
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Handshake 58 · Paycor 55
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +9.9 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 9.9 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +10 beside that +9.9.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus Paycor.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | Paycor | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 40 | +8 | +1.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 25 | +27 | +4.9 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 27 | +3 | +0.4 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 50 | +7 | +1.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 55 | +3 | +0.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 38 | +10 | +1.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 55 | +5 | +0.4 |
| Total | 100% | 50 (F) | 40 (F) | +10 | +9.9 |
§ Evidence
Cited sources and documented absences, criterion by criterion.
An absence is a finding, not a blank: the reviewer looked for a named artefact and recorded that it is not located. Where a source sits is a fact about hosting only.
| Criterion | Weight | Handshake | Paycor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | — |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 27 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 24 | 6 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Handshake has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 27 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; Paycor has 30 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 24 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Handshake and Paycor sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 64 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 30 for Paycor, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Paycor last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
HireAIScore scores are editorial research, not legal advice, and no vendor pays for placement, scoring or removal — see the methodology, conflicts policy and terms.
§ Where next