§ The result
Handshake leads Paylocity on 6 of the 7 criteria.
Handshake scores 50 and Paylocity 43 under rubric v1.0, a 7-point gap across the Screening and ATS-integrated cohorts. Handshake leads 6 of the 7 criteria and the remaining criterion is level, so Paylocity is ahead on none of them; the closest of the 6 Handshake leads is Customer Documentation, Handshake 60 to Paylocity 58. One criterion, Bias Audit Transparency, is both the widest raw gap (Handshake 52, Paylocity 33) and the heaviest weighted swing, and at 18% weight it makes up 53% of the weighted advantage Handshake holds across the 6 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
Paylocity
Paylocity is a cloud-based HCM and payroll platform whose talent suite includes an applicant tracking system with generative-AI job-description and invite drafting, one-way video interviews, candidate self-scheduling, and a conversational "AI Assistant."
§ The record
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, Paylocity under ATS-integrated AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773. Only Paylocity is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Handshake | Paylocity |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2014 | 1997 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 53% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Handshake 52 · Paylocity 33
3.4 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 67% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Handshake 58 · Paylocity 50
1.0 weighted points to Handshake
20% weight · 80% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Handshake 48 · Paylocity 44
0.8 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 91% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Handshake 48 · Paylocity 42
0.7 weighted points to Handshake
15% weight · 98% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Handshake 57 · Paylocity 54
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Handshake 60 · Paylocity 58
0.2 weighted points to Handshake
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to +6.5 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 6.5 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +7 beside that +6.5.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus Paylocity.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | Paylocity | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 44 | +4 | +0.8 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 33 | +19 | +3.4 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 54 | +3 | +0.4 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 50 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 42 | +6 | +0.7 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 58 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 50 (F) | 43 (F) | +7 | +6.5 |
§ 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 | Paylocity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 1 | 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 | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 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 | 11 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Handshake has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 27 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; Paylocity has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Handshake sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 52 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 18 for Paylocity, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Paylocity last reviewed
- July 17, 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