HR’s role is shifting from improving talent acquisition and management processes, to helping lead organizational transformation. AI is reshaping HR’s function, but limited budgets make agility and strategic alignment essential for successful adoption of new technologies and practices. To succeed, HR leaders must assess their organization’s readiness for change, surface hidden workforce capabilities, and guide adoption with confidence. If you’ve been in HR for a while, you probably remember the days when your entire system lived in a spreadsheet — and if you don’t, consider yourself lucky. Today, HR technology has advanced significantly, but with that progress comes complexity. The average organization now manages 15 to 20 different HR tools and tech systems. With so many tools and limited budgets, you’re likely facing a critical […]
AI
Video: Risk to Retention: How Strategic Background Screening Drives Trust, Safety, and Talent Retention
In this video, 3Sixty Insights Principal Analyst Dylan Taggart shares key findings from our research note, “Risk to Retention: Background Screening as Strategy.” Discover how modern background screening is evolving from a compliance task into a strategic tool that shapes candidate experience, organizational trust, safety culture, and talent retention. Dylan highlights insights from Mitratech and its clients, including WillowBridge Property Company, showing how technology and human judgment work together to streamline processes, reduce administrative burden, and improve HR effectiveness. Learn how transparency, fairness, and strategic screening can strengthen your organization’s culture, reputation, and competitive advantage in today’s high-turnover, highly regulated environment. Watch to learn: How background screening influences first impressions and candidate confidence The role of screening in safety and public trust How technology […]
theHRDIRECTOR: Lessons from HR Tech 2025 – How vendors can stand out in a crowded market
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend HR Tech 2025 . After years of observing this industry as a customer and analyst, I came away both amazed and thoughtful about the state of HR technology and the way vendors communicate their innovations. The State of HR Technology Today The advancements in HR software over the past few years are nothing short of revolutionary. From AI-driven solutions to streamlined workforce management tools, the software on display at HR Tech 2025 has the potential to accelerate organizations’ capabilities by years—if deployed effectively. For end users, the key takeaway is clear: if you haven’t explored HR technology in the last few years, now is the time. The innovations showcased at this year’s event could fundamentally improve how HR […]
theHRDIRECTOR: Is HR Tech in its “It’s Toasted” Era?
One thing’s for sure in HR tech: everything is agentic AI. Or better yet, just “agentic.” In the frigid back conference halls of the Mandalay Bay convention center, past the food court, and up the escalator banks, the word “agentic” bounced across the walls and danced through the air. It’s the hot new thing. Everyone’s talking about it. And maybe that’s the problem. Over the course of the two and a half days at the 3Sixty Insights table, I was briefed, debriefed, and briefed again with vendors from across the HR tech industry. I met and spoke with many witty, intelligent, and forward-thinking people, all telling – or being told to tell – the same story. As an analyst, the result was often walking away […]
Council Guest Post: The Workplace AI Trap – When “Productivity Tools” Actually Make Work Harder
Remember those mysterious farm implements from the Shelburne Museum I wrote about last week AI Is Not Always the Answer? Tools that clearly served important purposes in their time, but whose actual utility has been lost? That same disconnect between sophistication and usefulness is playing across the country as companies rush to deploy workplace AI. “We need to leverage AI to boost productivity,” executives announce, like archaeologists picking up an ancient tool and declaring it must be valuable because it looks complex. They’re so focused on having cutting-edge technology that they forget the most fundamental question every organization should ask: “Will this actually help our people do their jobs better?” With workplace AI spending projected to reach $79 billion by 2025, companies feel pressure to […]
Analyst Insight: HR Techonomics & The Napster Effect
Agentic AI is becoming table stakes, but the pricing model is broken for HR tech vendors. Given that platforms like ChatGPT are free for most HR tech users—or built into the existing fee structures for HR tech platforms—I fear that tying it to a zero-cost model may inadvertently propel HR tech AI into a fate similar to that of recorded music after Napster and the rise of music streaming. Napster proved to the world that music can be free, and the music industry never recovered from it. Record stores closed, artists suffered, and the music market was flooded with even more music, all of which was still available for free. Even decades later, when services like Apple Music and Spotify began to pop up, charging […]
Winner Takes All: AI, Shareholders & the Future of Work
Many HR tech companies’ go-to-market strategies are fixated on enhancing employee experience. There’s often a heavy emphasis on frontline efficiency achieved through a bottom-up approach to bolster business. They aim to help employees first, enabling them to be more productive, which in turn benefits the company as a whole. A significant part of this movement is facilitated through the use of AI as a vehicle to accelerate progress. At HR Tech 2025, there was a recurring emphasis on the concept of “human in the loop” — the idea that even with advancements in AI, such as agentic AI, human oversight will always be necessary for its actions. Many business and tech leaders argue that AI is meant to assist, rather than replace, workers. And this […]
Research Note: Risk to Retention – Background Screening as a Strategy
Why forward-thinking HR leaders are reimagining background checks with technology to enhance candidate experience, reduce risk, and strengthen employee retention. Executive Summary Background screening has grown to shape candidate experience and signal organizational culture, just as much as it ensures compliance and protects against risk. Having shifted from a mere compliance safeguard to a strategic element of talent management, when done well, screening builds candidate trust, promotes a safe workplace, and enhances employee retention. The future of background screening will be shaped by regulatory expansion, tighter integration of technology, and increasing candidate expectations for fairness and transparency. Companies that strike a balance between compliance and culture, leverage technology without compromising human judgment, and prioritize candidate trust, will not only reduce risk but also gain an […]
Analyst Insight: ADP Innovation Day 2025
It’s not often I get to take the subway to an HR tech meeting. Fortunately for me, ADP’s early September 2025 Innovation Day on Central Park South was a short ride away from my home in Brooklyn. This private session brought together HR technology analysts, along with ADP partners and clients for an in-depth review of ADP’s strategic vision and technology roadmap. Throughout the day, executives, including President and CEO Maria Black and Sreeni Kutam, President of Global Product & Innovation, shared stories on topics such as innovation, artificial intelligence, and global payroll. While this event was intended to update analysts on ADP’s products and technology, it also served a dual purpose for ADP to address current topics. These included using multiple AI/LLM agents for […]
Council Guest Post: AI Is Not Always the Answer
That’s Cool! What is it? (The AI Feature Trap That Can Kill Early-Stage Companies) One of my favorite places to go is the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Walk into one of the buildings on the expansive grounds and you’ll find yourself staring at a collection of mysterious farm implements. Interesting, well-crafted tools that clearly served important purposes—but nobody alive remembers what those purposes were. Curators can guess based on the materials and construction, but the actual utility? Lost to time. While there’s a pretty long leap from the bucolic scenery of rural Vermont to artificial intelligence, the notion of unclear use is exactly how many early-stage companies are approaching AI features today. “We need AI in our product to stay competitive,” they announce, like archaeologists […]
Video: What HR Tech Vendors Are Missing – Lessons from HR Tech 2025
3Sixty Insights Nicholas Biron in this video shares his key takeaways from HR Tech 2025, offering a deep dive into the state of HR technology and the evolving landscape for both end users and vendors. Over the course of the event, it became clear that HR tech vendors are making revolutionary investments where solutions today are light years ahead of where they were just five years ago. For practitioners who haven’t evaluated new software recently, these innovations can be transformative, enabling organizations to solve complex workforce challenges, improve efficiency, and drive meaningful business outcomes. At the same time, Nick highlights a critical challenge: while the innovations are groundbreaking, much of the messaging coming from vendors is strikingly similar. Buzzwords like “agentic AI” and “human-in-the-loop” dominate […]
Is HR Tech in its “It’s Toasted” Era?
One thing’s for sure in HR tech: everything is agentic AI. Or better yet, just “agentic.” In the frigid back conference halls of the Mandalay Bay convention center, past the food court, and up the escalator banks, the word “agentic” bounced across the walls and danced through the air. It’s the hot new thing. Everyone’s talking about it. And maybe that’s the problem. Over the course of the two and a half days at the 3Sixty Insights table, I was briefed, debriefed, and briefed again with vendors from across the HR tech industry. I met and spoke with many witty, intelligent, and forward-thinking people, all telling – or being told to tell – the same story. As an analyst, the result was often walking away […]
Market Alert: Workday to Acquire Paradox, Expanding AI Capabilities in Talent Acquisition
What Happened Workday, a California-based leader in HR and finance solutions for business, has agreed to acquire Paradox, which provides software that streamlines the talent acquisition process through conversational AI, with a focus on high-volume recruitment campaigns. By incorporating Paradox’s capabilities into Workday Recruiting, Workday will be able to offer a single platform that helps companies attract, engage and retain talent. Workday said the match will enable customers to take advantage of an end-to-end solution that reduces time-to-hire and improves conversion rates. In addition, Paradox, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., will help Workday more effectively search and onboard employees of all types, including frontline and back-office workers, as well as full-time and contingent employees. The acquisition price wasn’t disclosed; however, in 2021, privately held […]
From Practitioner to Analyst: My Takeaways from This Year’s HR Technology Conference
My heart is full and my battery is drained, but in the most beautiful way. Prior to HR Technology Conference, my experience with conferences was from the practioner’s and blogger perspective. I had the opportunity to attend HR Tech as a learner and an analyst in an industry where I’ve been a customer, a decision maker, and a functionality geek. I got to see some amazing people I had not seen in years or even had never met IRL. I’ve always loved learning, attending demos, and seeing how people are looking to solve their business challenges with people tech solutions. It was fun to have the experience of being in HR for 20+ years and now having a different conversation with vendors, finding out from […]
Payroll’s Role in Trust, Equity, and the Free Market | National Payroll Week 2025
National Payroll Week (Sept 1–5, 2025), led by PayrollOrg, is all about accurate pay. But it’s also a reminder that payroll is at the heart of employee trust, financial well-being, and the larger economy. Payroll and paying people on time are integral to the national infrastructure. The preliminary 2025 payroll.org survey “Getting Paid in America” provides valuable insights into how employees actually experience payroll today: Direct deposit still dominates. Nearly 93% of respondents said they are paid this way. Despite the hype, payroll cards barely register at 0.58%. Vendors may talk about them, but adoption remains minimal. Accuracy isn’t bulletproof. Three out of five respondents feel “very certain” their pay is correct. But roughly 8%—about 1 in 12 employees—remain less than certain. That doubt is […]
Council Guest Post: HR Transformation – Leveraging Technology for HR Efficiency
Utilizing HR Tech Such as AI and Analytics for Streamlined Processes Introduction In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the role of Human Resources (HR) has transcended traditional boundaries. The integration of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics is revolutionizing HR functions, enabling organizations to streamline processes, enhance decision-making, and improve overall efficiency. This article delves into the transformative impact of HR tech, specifically AI and analytics, and how they are reshaping the way HR operates. Rapid Innovations in HR Technology The advent of digital transformation has paved the way for HR technology to become an indispensable part of modern organizations. HR tech encompasses a wide range of tools and solutions designed to automate and optimize various HR functions, from recruitment and onboarding […]
Monthly Research Recap | August 2025
Recent News: 3Sixty Insights Welcomes Nicole Roberts as HR Industry Analyst 3Sixty Insights Welcomes Nicole Roberts as HR Industry Analyst. We’re thrilled to announce that Nicole Roberts has joined the 3Sixty Insights team as an HR Industry Analyst, focusing on Workforce Strategy and Innovation. Nicole brings a practitioner’s perspective to the evolving world of work, helping bridge the gap between technology, strategy, and the people experience. 3Sixty Insights Partners with PayrollOrg to Celebrate National Payroll Week 2025 3Sixty Insights is proud to partner with PayrollOrg for National Payroll Week 2025 (September 1–5), celebrating the critical role payroll professionals play in ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time. Beyond recognition, this partnership focuses on education and empowerment, helping workers better understand their paychecks and financial […]
On-Demand Webinar: Practical Advice for Leading HR Through Uncertain and Unpredictable Times
In today’s climate of shifting administrations, economic uncertainty, and evolving workplace expectations, HR leaders are being challenged like never before. The pressure to deliver results, preserve culture, and support employees—often with fewer resources—requires a new level of agility and insight. This session is designed to help HR professionals lead confidently through complexity by providing practical, experience-backed advice. Key Takeaways: Managing shifting priorities without sacrificing employee experience Identifying where HR processes tend to break under pressure Maintaining balance between business demands and workforce well-being Featuring: Geoff Webb – Contributing Analyst at 3Sixty Insights, with over 25 years of experience in the tech industry. Geoff brings deep expertise in how technology intersects with business strategy and society. A member of the Forbes Technology Council, he writes and […]

