Upcoming Events
HR Technology Conference & Exposition | October 20 – 22, 2026
Join the 3Sixty Insights team as they attend the upcoming HR Technology Conference & Exposition | October 20 – 22, 2026 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
3Sixty Insights would like to extend a special thank you to the sponsors who made our attendance to this years event possible: Insperity, Tavio, Lytiqs, and Paylocity.
Latest Announcements
3Sixty Insights welcomes Lance Haun as Principal Analyst, adding extensive experience across HR, workplace technology, talent, journalism, thought leadership, and industry research. With nearly a decade as an HR practitioner and leadership experience at ERE Media and The Starr Conspiracy, Lance brings a practical perspective on how organizations navigate people, work, and technology. His research will focus on HR, workplace technology, talent, and the evolving future of work, with an emphasis on the experiences and priorities of technology buyers.
3Sixty Insights Introduces Analyst as a Service to Provide Flexible, On-Demand Analyst Expertise
3Sixty Insights introduces Analyst as a Service, a flexible month-to-month offering that provides organizations with ongoing access to experienced industry analysts without the annual commitment of traditional advisory services or the cost of fractional leadership. The service includes unlimited research inquiries, press support and analyst quotes, customer insight sessions, and client reference discussions, with the flexibility to leverage different 3Sixty Insights analysts based on evolving business needs.
Latest Research
Case Study: Retention With Intention – How Anders Built a Data-Driven Talent Strategy
This case study examines how Anders, a 500-person accounting and consulting firm, transformed its approach to talent management and employee retention through its expanded use of Quantum Workplace. Under the leadership of Director of Talent Strategy Lauren Sanders, Anders moved from using less than half of the platform’s capabilities to leveraging a connected talent strategy spanning engagement surveys, performance management, 360 feedback, one-on-ones, goals, growth, talent reviews, and succession planning. By combining employee feedback and workforce data with clearer performance expectations, manager accountability, career development, and personalized support from Quantum Workplace, Anders increased survey participation from 77% to 88%, strengthened perceptions of career growth and manager effectiveness, and achieved strong adoption across its talent processes. The case study illustrates how a data-driven, people-first strategy can help professional services organizations make talent decisions more strategically while building a culture centered on transparency, accountability, development, and intentional retention.
This case study examines how a New York City-based restaurant group with 41 locations and approximately 650 employees transformed its HR operations by replacing paper-based, manual processes with an integrated experience built around Harri and ADP. Under the leadership of HR Director “JS,” the organization focused on simplifying the employee and manager experience, reducing administrative friction, and embedding compliance into everyday workflows. The transition streamlined hiring and onboarding, improved access to payroll and HR information, automated Fair Workweek compliance processes, and increased employee platform adoption to more than 95%. The integrated approach also eliminated the need for paycheck courier services, saving nearly $100,000 annually, while reducing the time required for hiring, year-end tax and compliance activities, and routine HR administration. More broadly, the case demonstrates how simplifying HR technology and consolidating workflows can help reposition HR from a reactive administrative function into a more strategic business resource, with compliance, cost savings, retention, and employee experience emerging as downstream benefits of a more accessible and unified HR environment.
Analyst Insight: The Importance of Implementation & How It Sets the Right Direction
This Analyst Insight examines why HCM implementation is a critical factor in platform adoption, utilization, satisfaction, and long-term value. Drawing on 3Sixty Insights survey data from 524 U.S. business leaders and insights from Insperity’s Ronald Metting, the analysis explores how inadequate implementation, weak support, poor stakeholder alignment, and limited knowledge transfer can leave organizations underutilizing their HCM investments. It also outlines how providers and implementation partners can improve outcomes through stronger discovery, business-aligned configuration, effective handoffs, clear support expectations, and an ongoing partnership approach.
This Analyst Insight examines the growing HR capability gap facing middle-market organizations as workforce demands, compliance requirements, and expectations for strategic HR continue to increase while internal resources remain constrained. Drawing on 3Sixty Insights research, including findings that only 12% of organizations identify as sophisticated HCM users, just 13% fully utilize their HCM platforms, and 49% would pay more for better support, the analysis argues that technology alone is insufficient to deliver meaningful HR transformation. The Insight explores how a service-enabled model that combines enterprise-grade technology with experienced HR expertise can help organizations improve technology utilization, navigate complexity, strengthen compliance, and scale HR capabilities. It examines Insperity HRScale™, a joint offering with Workday, as an example of how technology and human expertise can work together to address the practical challenges facing the middle market.
Solutions Spotlight: The Guardian Shows How isolved Is Taking Payroll AI From Detection to Action
This Solution Spotlight examines isolved’s The Guardian, an AI-powered payroll agent designed to identify potential payroll errors, prioritize anomalies, and prepare proposed corrections for administrator approval. The analysis explores how The Guardian moves payroll AI beyond detection toward guided action, while also highlighting isolved’s broader Workforce Capital Management strategy, its integration with the isolved Connector for Claude, and the potential impact for small and midsized employers seeking greater payroll accuracy, employee self-service, automation, and human oversight.
This Market Alert examines how WorkTango’s Constellation rethinks the traditional survey and focus-group process by combining guided discussion, issue validation, prioritization, and solution development in a single workflow, with the potential to compress weeks of qualitative research into a 45-minute session. The analysis explores WorkTango’s approach to democratizing employee voice, reducing reliance on skilled facilitators, supporting organizational governance and anonymity, and applying AI to employee listening, while considering where the technology is best suited and whether AI-facilitated collaboration can meaningfully close the gap between employee feedback and organizational action.
Darwinbox is expanding its partnership with Microsoft by applying Microsoft Frontier Tuning to Darwinbox Cortex, the company’s AI-native HCM platform. The integration brings organization-specific AI learning and reasoning into Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Copilot, positioning Cortex to continuously improve its understanding of an organization’s HR context, workflows, and conventions. This 3Sixty Insights Market Alert examines what the Darwinbox and Microsoft announcement means for enterprise HCM, AI-powered HR technology, and the evolving role of AI agents in the employee experience. It explores how Frontier Tuning and Cortex could address limitations in first-generation HR assistants, the strategic importance of delivering HCM intelligence within the applications employees already use, and the implications for HCM buyers evaluating AI capabilities, governance, data boundaries, and measurable business outcomes.
Recent Articles:
Payroll Used to Be a Transaction—Now It’s Part of the Employee Experience
In recognition of National Payroll Week, this article examines how payroll has evolved from a largely transactional back-office function into an increasingly important part of the employee experience. It explores the role of payroll self-service, earned wage access, AI and automation, connected time and attendance, and compliance technologies in giving employees greater control while helping payroll professionals manage growing complexity. The article also considers the relationship between payroll, HR, and finance and highlights the people behind payroll whose expertise, accuracy, and ability to adapt to technology help build employee trust and keep organizations running effectively.
Vendors Are Selling the Technology, But Who Is Helping the Buyer Get It Approved?
Enterprise technology buyers increasingly need to do more than understand what software can do. They must build a business case, secure budget, gain executive support, and address concerns from finance, IT, legal, compliance, and other stakeholders. This article explores how vendors can move beyond product education and help buyers build the internal alignment, ROI justification, and organizational support required to get technology investments approved.
The Insperity press release highlights new 3Sixty Insights research reinforcing the value of service-enabled HR technology for midsized organizations. The analysis points to gaps in HCM adoption and utilization, while emphasizing that organizations often need ongoing expertise, implementation support, and human guidance to realize the full value of their technology investments. The release connects these findings to Insperity’s HRScale solution, which combines Workday technology with Insperity’s HR services to provide businesses with both a modern HCM platform and the support needed to manage HR more effectively.
3Sixty Insights proudly joins PayrollOrg as a 2026 Media Partner for National Payroll Week, taking place September 7–11. Organized by PayrollOrg, the annual initiative recognizes payroll professionals and highlights the essential role payroll plays in helping employees understand their paychecks, financial wellbeing, and overall employee experience. Through its participation, 3Sixty Insights supports the continued recognition of payroll as a critical business function connecting people, technology, compliance, and organizational trust.
Who’s Watching the Front Desk?
“Who’s Watching the Front Desk?” examines how Qualtrics’ growing emphasis on customer experience, data, and AI could overshadow the employee experience that ultimately drives customer interactions. The article explores Qualtrics’ XM Data & AI strategy, including predictive and simulation capabilities, while questioning the reduced visibility of EX in the company’s current messaging. It argues that even as AI becomes increasingly capable of predicting customer needs and shaping experiences, employees remain the critical connection between technology and the customer—and organizations need to consider both sides of that equation.
Reworked: 6 Years of Payroll Data Show AI Is Already Breaking Job Architecture
In his Reworked article, “What 6 Years of Payroll Data Reveals About the Jobs AI Already Changed,” 3Sixty Insights’ Lance Haun examines how artificial intelligence is already reshaping the workforce, using six years of payroll data to identify changes in employment patterns and job structures. Rather than focusing solely on predictions about AI’s future impact, Haun looks at measurable shifts in the jobs organizations are hiring for, how work is being structured, and where AI may already be changing the nature of specific roles. The analysis provides a data-driven perspective on the evolving relationship between AI, job architecture, and workforce planning, offering context for HR and business leaders navigating these changes.
UNLEASH’s “Ask The Analyst” explores what evidence HR needs to make a credible business case for reskilling rather than treating it as a compromise to headcount reduction. Drawing on perspectives from analysts including Nicole Roberts of 3Sixty Insights, Allan Schweyer of The Conference Board, David Wentworth of Brandon Hall Group, and Jess Von Bank of Now to Next, the article examines how organizations can use workforce modeling, skills data, business demand, and financial analysis to evaluate whether existing employees can be redeployed and developed to meet future capability needs. Roberts highlights the importance of connecting the skills an organization will require with the capabilities already present in its workforce, while assessing the cost, timing, productivity implications, and execution risks of reskilling compared with external hiring. Overall, the article emphasizes that effective reskilling strategies require evidence that connects workforce capabilities and development investments to measurable business needs and outcomes.
UNLEASH’s “Ask the Analyst” explores what will determine which HR technology vendors win or lose contracts over the next 12 months, featuring Nicole Roberts, HR Industry Analyst at 3Sixty Insights. Roberts emphasizes that vendors must do more than deliver a compelling product demonstration. They need to help internal champions build and secure approval for the business case by clearly addressing ROI, business outcomes, implementation, total cost of ownership, security, and organizational value. Her perspective highlights the growing importance of buyer enablement and the vendor’s role in helping decision-makers navigate increasingly complex HR technology purchasing processes.
HR Dive Article: Why Better Support — Not More Features — Is the Missing Link in HR Technology
This HR Dive article examines why better human support, rather than simply adding more features, may be the missing link in maximizing the value of HR technology. Drawing on research from 3Sixty Insights, it highlights gaps in HCM implementation, ongoing support, issue resolution, and data-driven guidance, showing that business leaders increasingly value accessible human expertise alongside technology. The article emphasizes the importance of combining capable HCM platforms with knowledgeable, responsive support to help organizations achieve greater adoption, efficiency, and business impact.
HR Dive, in partnership with Insperity, explore why organizations continue to struggle to realize the full value of their human capital management (HCM) investments despite widespread access to sophisticated technology. Drawing on research from 3Sixty Insights, the article highlights significant gaps in HCM utilization, adoption, and ongoing support, reinforcing the idea that technology alone is not enough to deliver meaningful business value. Insperity uses these findings to emphasize the importance of service, expertise, and continued optimization in helping organizations maximize their HCM investments and move beyond simply having technology in place to actually realizing its potential.
Podcast and Videos:
#HRTechChat: John Dnyprowsky & Ryan Shapiro on Why PEO Buyers Need a Translator
In this episode of #HRTechChat, Nicole Roberts (Director & Principal Analyst, 3Sixty Insights) is joined by John Dnyprowsky SVP of National Partnerships at Vensure Employer Solutions, and Ryan Shapiro President & Founder of PEOMG and founder of the PEO Brokers Collective for a conversation about a layer of the HR ecosystem most HR leaders don’t know exists: the PEO broker.
#HRTechChat: Rick Torrence on Treating AI Like Electricity
In this episode of #HRTechChat, Dylan Teggart (Principal Analyst, 3Sixty Insights) is joined by Rick Torrence, Chief Sales Officer at PrismHR with over 35 years of experience across the payroll and HCM industry for a conversation about what happens once AI stops being a novelty and starts being infrastructure.
Many SMBs have invested in HCM technology, yet a significant majority are not using their platforms to their full potential. This video explores the findings behind the 87% utilization gap, examining why organizations often struggle to move beyond core HR capabilities and how technology, service, and human support need to work together. The discussion also highlights how Insperity HRCore™ Solution brings these elements together to help SMBs get more value from their HCM investment while addressing the practical needs of today’s HR teams.