Side-by-side · Rubric v1.0
Handshake vs Versant by Pearson
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.
Substantial gaps
Screening
Versant by Pearson
Versant by Pearson is a suite of AI-scored English proficiency tests (plus spoken Spanish, French, Arabic and Dutch) that automatically score candidates' spoken and written responses on Pearson's Global Scale of English within minutes, used by employers such as contact centres and BPOs to screen applicants and benchmark staff through the ScoreKeeper dashboard.
Substantial gaps
Assessment
The result
1 point separates Handshake and Versant by Pearson.
Handshake (Screening) edges Versant by Pearson (Assessment) by 1 point under rubric v1.0, 50 to 49. Handshake leads 4 of the 7 criteria, including Bias Audit Transparency, while Versant by Pearson leads 2, including Article 11 Technical Documentation, and 1 is level. The widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing are the same criterion, Article 11 Technical Documentation, and Versant by Pearson holds it (Handshake 48, Versant by Pearson 63, 20% weight), worth 97% of the weighted advantage Versant by Pearson builds across the 2 criteria it leads.
Criteria won
7 criteria
- Handshake4
- Versant by Pearson2
- Level1
- Widest raw gap
- Article 11 Technical Documentation48 vs 63
- Heaviest weighted swing
- Article 11 Technical Documentation20% weight
The record
Categories, scope and company facts.
Handshake is filed under Screening AI, Versant by Pearson under Assessment AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of
Only Versant by Pearson is in scope of
| Record | Handshake | Versant by Pearson |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | GB |
| Founded | 2014 | 1844 |
What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
- 1
Article 11 Technical Documentation
20% weight47% of the movement so far
Handshake48Versant by Pearson633.0 weighted points to Versant by Pearson
- 2
Bias Audit Transparency
18% weight76% of the movement so far
Handshake52Versant by Pearson421.8 weighted points to Handshake
- 3
Data Governance Disclosure
15% weight85% of the movement so far
Handshake57Versant by Pearson530.6 weighted points to Handshake
- 4
Post-Market Monitoring
12% weight95% of the movement so far
Handshake48Versant by Pearson430.6 weighted points to Handshake
- 5
Human Oversight Design
12% weight99% of the movement so far
Handshake58Versant by Pearson560.2 weighted points to Handshake
- 6
Customer Documentation
8% weight100% of the movement so far
Handshake60Versant by Pearson610.1 weighted points to Versant by Pearson
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to +0.2 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 6.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +1 beside that +0.2.
Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Handshake minus Versant by Pearson, coloured for whichever of the two it favours.
| Category | Weight | Handshake | Versant by Pearson | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 48 | 63 | -15 | -3.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 52 | 42 | +10 | +1.8 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 53 | +4 | +0.6 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 58 | 56 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 43 | +5 | +0.6 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 61 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Total | 100% | 50F | 49F | +1 | +0.2 |
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 | Versant by Pearson | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own 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 | 23 | 6 | Sources 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; Versant by Pearson has 29 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 23 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Handshake and Versant by Pearson sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 63 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Handshake, across 2 distinct source domains, and 29 for Versant by Pearson, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Handshake last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Versant by Pearson 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.