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HR tech requirements
builder

Tick the requirements your next HR platform has to meet, weight them, name your shortlist and score every vendor in the demo. Out comes a weighted evaluation scorecard you can defend to the board. Everything saves in your browser, nowhere else.

Your shortlist

Vendor names label the scorecard columns. Leave them blank to print a scorecard you can fill in by hand.
Saves on this device as you go. Your requirements, vendors and scores are never uploaded.
Your evaluation
 
Share

Your requirements list

Two kinds of risk, eight categories, 48 requirements. Tick what your next platform has to do, weight it, and add anything we missed at the bottom of each column.

Process risk

The half your current system probably covers: admin, compliance, workflow. Still has to work.

Core HR & records

Pay, leave & compliance

Recruitment workflow

Onboarding & lifecycle admin

People insight risk

The half most requirement templates leave out: the decisions about people that the admin layer cannot see.

Hiring fit & selection science

Engagement & culture

Capability & development

Retention & people analytics

The scorecard

Score each vendor 0 to 5 per requirement while the demo is still on the screen, or print the blank scorecard and mark it on paper. Fit is weighted, split across both risk pillars, and a missed must-have is flagged no matter how good the average looks.

Tick requirements above, or load the starter set, and the scorecard builds itself here.
What should be on an HR software requirements checklist?

A complete checklist covers two kinds of risk. Process requirements include employee records, payroll and leave administration, compliance reporting, recruitment workflow and onboarding. People insight requirements include validated candidate assessment, culture and engagement measurement, capability development and retention analytics. Most published templates cover only the first kind, because they are written by vendors who only solve the first kind. Weight every requirement before you see a demo, so a vendor's roadmap cannot reorder your priorities.

How scoring works

The library holds 48 requirements across eight categories, split between the two kinds of risk HR tech has to cover. The process risk categories (core HR and records, pay, leave and compliance, recruitment workflow, onboarding and lifecycle admin) are what established platforms do well. The people insight risk categories (hiring fit and selection science, engagement and culture, capability and development, retention and people analytics) are where most requirement templates go quiet, because the vendors publishing those templates have nothing to sell there. Tick what applies, add anything we missed, and give each requirement a weight: a must-have counts three times, important twice, nice-to-have once.

Name up to four vendors and score each requirement from 0 to 5 as you watch the demo, or print the blank scorecard and mark it on paper. A vendor's fit is their weighted score as a percentage of the weighted maximum, calculated only across the requirements you have scored, so a half-finished evaluation never reads as a bad one. The scorecard also splits every vendor's fit across the two risk pillars and flags any must-have scored 0 or 1, because a missing must-have should never be rescued by an average. Everything runs and saves in your browser. Your requirements, vendor names and scores are never uploaded, stored or seen by us.

Once the scorecard has picked your platform, the Hiring Business Case Builder turns the same decision into the numbers that fund it.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of people analytics in the HR Glossary.

Assumptions
  • The 3, 2, 1 weighting is a convention. A steeper ratio would widen the gaps between vendors but rarely changes the order, and it never rescues a missing must-have, which is why those are flagged separately rather than averaged away.
  • Fit is calculated only across the requirements you have scored. A vendor you have seen for ten requirements can out-score one you have seen for forty. Compare percentages when the coverage is the same, or read the count next to each.
  • Scores are your judgement of a demo, not measured performance. Two people scoring the same demo will differ, which is a reason to score with two people, not a reason to distrust the tool.
  • The requirement library was written by us, and the people insight categories reflect the two-risk view Compono holds. Delete what you disagree with and add what we missed; the scorecard is yours, and it saves in your browser only.
  • The scorecard ranks fit. It does not price anything: cost, implementation effort, data migration and contract terms sit outside it, which is what the business case builder is for.
Sources
  • Gallup, State of the Global Workplace (about 20% of employees engaged worldwide, the reason the engagement columns exist), 2026 edition
  • Work Institute, 2025 Retention Report (about 63% of turnover is preventable, the reason the retention columns exist), 2025
  • Weighted scoring at 3, 2 and 1 for must-have, important and nice-to-have: a common procurement convention with no single primary source; treated as a starting point, not a standard

What to do about it

A vendor demo runs on the vendor's script. The scorecard puts it back on yours, but only if the weights were set before the first demo and nobody moves them afterwards. These steps are for whoever is running the evaluation, whether or not they hold the budget.

1

Weight before the first demo, then lock it

Get the people who will live with the platform in a room, agree the must-haves, and write down who agreed and when. A vendor's roadmap cannot reorder priorities that were signed off before the vendor arrived.

2

Ask each vendor to show your top-weighted requirements, not their highlights

"Show me how you would flag a wrong-fit candidate before we hire" beats "do you have assessments". Score while the demo is running, in the scorecard, not from memory afterwards.

3

Score with two people and argue the gaps

Where the two scores differ by more than a point, that is the requirement to ask the vendor about again. The argument is where you find out what you actually saw.

4
Where a tool helps

Read the pillar split before the total

A vendor at 85% overall can be 95% on process and 40% on people insight, which is the same blind spot your current stack has, re-bought at a higher price. If a must-have is flagged, no average rescues it.

5

Turn the winner into numbers

Take the finished scorecard and the business case builder to whoever signs, together. The scorecard says which platform; the case says why the money is better spent there than where it goes now.

Put us on the shortlist.
Then score the demo.

Compono is a talent intelligence platform: an applicant tracking system and an employee engagement platform built on the same people data. It was built for the second pillar of your scorecard, fit measured before the hire and engagement and culture read while people are with you, alongside the recruitment workflow, onboarding, records and reporting the first pillar expects.

Step 4 is where most evaluations discover they have re-bought the blind spot. We will not top every process column, and that is the honest trade. Score us on both pillars in the demo like everyone else, and read the split.

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Common questions

How does a weighted vendor evaluation scorecard work?

Each requirement gets a weight (must-have counts three, important two, nice-to-have one) and each vendor gets a 0 to 5 score per requirement. Multiply score by weight, add it up and divide by the maximum possible for a percentage fit. The weighting stops a vendor winning on a pile of nice-to-haves while missing the two things you actually bought the platform for. This tool also flags any must-have scored 0 or 1, because no average should rescue a missing must-have.

Is it safe to type real vendor names and scores in here?

Yes. The builder runs entirely in your browser, and your shortlist saves to your device's local storage so it is still here when you come back after each demo. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored or seen by Compono or anyone else. The share buttons only ever share your requirement counts, never vendor names or scores.

What questions should I ask in an HR software demo?

Ask each vendor to show, not tell, your top-weighted requirements: "show me how you would surface a wrong-fit candidate before we hire" beats "do you have assessments". Then ask what data the platform captures that you could defend a decision with a year later, and score both answers in the scorecard while they are fresh. A demo runs on the vendor's script; a weighted scorecard puts it back on yours.

Why split HR software requirements into process risk and people insight risk?

Because HR is managing two different kinds of risk, and most tools only address one. Process risk is visible and administrative: payroll errors, compliance breaches, onboarding that stalls. People insight risk is quieter and more expensive: the wrong hire, the team that has mentally left, the training that builds no capability. A requirements list built only from process templates buys a tidier version of the blind spot the current stack already has. Splitting the list makes the second kind of risk visible at the exact moment you can do something about it, while the platform decision is still open.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the relevant authority in your country or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

Next step

Business case

Build the business case

Turn this number into a document your CFO can question line by line.

Open the builder →Related tool

Hr business case builder

Keep the same numbers moving. The next calculator picks up where this one stops.

Run it next →HR Glossary

People analytics

The plain-English definition, with the calculators and rules that sit around it.

Read the definition →Talk to us

Bring us your number

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