§ The result
2 points separate Phenom and Handshake.
Phenom holds a 2-point edge over Handshake under rubric v1.0, 52 to 50, across the Sourcing and Screening cohorts. Phenom leads 4 of the 7 criteria, including Bias Audit Transparency, while Handshake leads 3, including Post-Market Monitoring. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Handshake 52, Phenom 75 — and at an 18% weight it carries 66% of the weighted advantage Phenom holds across the 4 criteria on that side of the table.
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
Phenom
Talent experience platform combining a career site CMS, candidate CRM, internal mobility, and conversational AI for screening and scheduling.
§ The record
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, Phenom under Candidate sourcing 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.
| Record | Handshake | Phenom |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2014 | 2010 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 43% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Handshake 52 · Phenom 75
4.1 weighted points to Phenom
12% weight · 66% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Handshake 48 · Phenom 30
2.2 weighted points to Handshake
20% weight · 81% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Handshake 48 · Phenom 55
1.4 weighted points to Phenom
15% weight · 89% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Handshake 30 · Phenom 25
0.8 weighted points to Handshake
15% weight · 93% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Handshake 57 · Phenom 60
0.4 weighted points to Phenom
8% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Handshake 60 · Phenom 55
0.4 weighted points to Handshake
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Handshake 58 · Phenom 60
0.2 weighted points to Phenom
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -2.9 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 9.5 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -2 beside that -2.9.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus Phenom.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | Phenom | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 55 | -7 | -1.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 75 | -23 | -4.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 25 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 60 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 60 | -2 | -0.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 30 | +18 | +2.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 55 | +5 | +0.4 |
| Total | 100% | 50 (F) | 52 (F) | -2 | -2.9 |
§ 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 | Phenom | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 0 | 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 | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 0 | 1 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 0 | — |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 0 | 1 | — |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 27 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 8 | 2 | 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; Phenom has 10 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 8 with a source URL, 2 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 44 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 10 for Phenom, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Phenom last reviewed
- May 21, 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