AI and Algorithm Audit

These platforms investigate companies’ use of AI and algorithmic decision making to identify bias risk and ensure that they promote ethical, fair, transparent, and compliant hiring practices. They provide guidance on where and how AI and algorithms might introduce hiring bias, audit and monitor vendors' outputs, track legislation across the globe to flag use case risk, and make recommendations on where corrective action is needed.

AI Coaches

AI Coaches are digital coaching solutions designed to provide personalized guidance, feedback, and support to individuals or teams, and are used by employees, learners, managers, and organizations to support development and performance improvement. These systems typically analyze user inputs, behavior, goals, or performance data to deliver recommendations, facilitate skill development, track progress, and adapt interactions over time. They are deployed across organizations as always-available digital mentors or as augmentation tools for human-led coaching programs.

AI Infrastructure

AI Infrastructure platforms form the foundation of enterprise AI ecosystems, allowing organizations to create, deploy and govern AI applications responsibly. This sub-vertical includes model management systems, agent builders, and AI avatar studios. These platforms ensure transparency, compliance, and security across internally built AI applications.

AI Recruiters

These tools automate to varying degrees the sourcing, interviewing, and assessment of candidates. Powered by large language models, they typically have voice-enabled capabilities (allowing, for example, an AI Recruiter to interview a candidate and ask follow-up questions based on their responses) as well varying ability to “score” a candidate. This is an emerging category, with many deployments still in pilot stages as vendors continue to experiment with different approaches and commercial models, while staffing firms have been early adopters and currently account for the majority of use within the EW space.

AI Workers

AI Workers are a type of agent designed to autonomously complete tasks or workflows. The agents in this sub-vertical go beyond HR-specific use cases to include agents capable of supporting actual work, such as IT support, medical scribes, software development, executive assistants, or legal assistance. These agents are defined by their ability to act independently, with “agency”, within business systems to reduce administrative burden and scaling workforce capabilities.

AI Workers

AI-powered workers designed to complete tasks and deliver outcomes traditionally performed by human labor. These solutions represent a form of digital labor that can be deployed alongside employees, contingent workers, and service providers to support business operations.

Analytics

Platforms that collect and analyze contingent workforce data to provide insights into workforce trends, spend, supplier performance, compliance, and program outcomes. These solutions support workforce planning and decision-making through data and reporting.

API Connectors

These tools integrate software platforms and data management systems to make data and content exchange more seamless, and in particular allow point solutions to connect directly with an ATS.

Assessments

Platforms that provide behavioral and skills assessments to help organizations evaluate contingent talent. These solutions increasingly incorporate job simulations, AI-driven proctoring to reduce candidate fraud and cheating, and short-form assessments designed to improve the candidate experience.

ATS - Staffing

The core system of record staffing firms use to manage candidate sourcing, applicant tracking, job orders, and placements. These platforms typically combine applicant tracking with CRM capabilities such as candidate engagement, talent pooling, and client management. Recent innovations include AI-powered search and screening, candidate portals, and expanded integrations.

ATS Corporations

System of record for corporate clients used to manage and track candidates throughout the employer hiring lifecycle.

ATS Staffing Companies

System of record for managing and tracking candidates, job orders, and placements. Modern ATS now also typically act as the "hub" or central repository for all of a staffing firm's extended technology stack and the data it generates.

Background Checks

Software that automates and digitizes the process of background screening.

Background Checks and References

Platforms that verify the background, work history, criminal and employment records of candidates.

Behavioral Assessments

Technology that allows firms to screen for cognitive ability and personality. Psychometric assessments measure personality and cognition (i.e. am I generally pretty smart? Do I prefer things rigid and organized or fluid and dynamic?). Many conform to or are based on established standards.

Benefit Portals

This sub-vertical includes all the incoming technology utilized to improve employee access and understanding of employee benefits, often involving a directory of preferred medical and other benefits providers, ease in billing and mobile reimbursements. Innovations in this space primarily lie around ease of access for employees, providing a “Netflix”-like experience including recommendations for benefits employees may be missing out on.

Campus & Early Career

Technology platforms that help organizations transition from traditional campus and early career hiring (on-campus events and career fairs) to a more modern, virtual, and off-campus approach. On the hiring manager side, these tools help recruiters host virtual events, post job opportunities, and engage with early career individuals. On the candidate side, these tools provide early career candidates with the opportunity to connect and network with recruiters, search through an array of entry level positions, and participate in community-like platforms. We include all forms of campus and early career tech in this subvertical, regardless of the commercial or business model.

Candidate Comms and Chatbots

Platforms that specialize in candidate communication through messaging channels and conversational AI. These solutions enable organizations to engage candidates throughout the hiring process, with capabilities ranging from text-based communication to AI-powered chatbots that can automate and personalize candidate interactions.

Candidate Communication & Bots

Software that communicates with candidates via various channels (website, text, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.) throughout the application lifecycle. Uses varying degrees of pre-programmed logic and conversational AI to automate data gathering, basic screening, and scheduling tasks in an interactive manner.

Candidate Relationship Management (CRM)

Software designed to enhance the candidate experience from application through onboarding, with the goal of generating more applications and creating a positive and memorable experience for those that do apply. Used by clients to engage applicants pre- and post-application, distribute marketing, and build various kinds of recruiting and retargeting campaigns.

Change Management Tools

Change Management Tools are specialized applications designed to help organizations manage and measure the impact of change processes and technology adoption. They typically exist as a “user overlay” on existing or new software applications, guiding users through prompts, nudges, knowledge repositories, in-app content search, and auto translation. These tools tend to be “no-code,” enabling non-technical teams to create and launch content, with AI capabilities increasingly used to predict adoption risks and generate personalized communication strategies.

Coaching and Mentoring

Coaching and Mentoring platforms facilitate the connection of mentorship within the workplace. Some platforms operate as internal marketplaces connecting employees with each other, others introduce external coaches or mentors as options to connect and build relationships with. These tools often facilitate the connection itself by providing a platform to record notes, provide prompts, connect data from other sources on common interests or alma mater.

Contingent CRM

Platforms that serve as a system of engagement for contingent talent, helping organizations build and maintain relationships with non-permanent workers. These solutions typically support talent pooling, candidate engagement, matching, interview scheduling, and other contingent recruiting workflows.

Contractor Payroll - AOR / EOR

Tools offering organizations the ability to compliantly hire, onboard, and pay employees and contractors globally via a simple online user interface. They act as a common piece of infrastructure for both client organizations and online work platforms which use them to ensure workers engaged on their platforms are engaged in compliance with the regulations of the jurisdictions involved.

Contractor Payroll Platforms

These platforms allow businesses to manage payroll and associated documentation and compliance for contracted workers via a single consolidated tool.

Course Authoring Tools

A Course Authoring tool is a tool that allows users to create online courses and publish it in the formats and programs of your choice. These tools are often "no-code", allowing non-technical users to quickly drag and drop and build course content. These tools include multiple forms of media, and can be exported as SCORM or xAPI or any other format. Learning administrators can use these tools to create videos, develop quizzes, or build interactive games.

Crowdsourcing

These platforms are used to crowdsource talent for project-based work where employers may post projects and receive one-time contract bids for those projects. Includes everything from micro transactions to large, complex work.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing includes firms that offer “microservices” performed on-demand by a globally distributed network of freelancers and firms that facilitate contest-based work. The microservices model now basically consists of AI image tagging and equivalent kinds of work, and in our view will be one of the first victims of eventual displacement by intelligent AI agents. “Contest”-based awards can be interesting and sometimes impactful, but this model has not proven it can scale meaningfully and thus is mostly a novelty.

Deployment Systems

Software that staffing firms can license to mimic the capabilities of an online staffing company, such as a candidate mobile app, worker profiles, real time job acceptance/notification, candidate/client communication and reviews, and geo-tracking.

Direct Sourcing

Platforms designed to help organizations engage pre-identified talent directly rather than through a staffing firm. These solutions typically combine technology and services to support sourcing, talent matching, interview management, and talent pooling.

Direct Sourcing

The use of technology and process to enable organizations to use their own brand to attract and hire temporary labor.

Employee Experience Center

An Employee Experience Center Platform is the "front door" to the employee workplace experience, providing a centralized hub where employees can access tools, information, services, learning resources, and support throughout their employment journey. It creates a seamless and personalized experience that improves engagement, simplifies work, and helps employees stay informed, productive, and connected. It is typically integrated with HRIS, ATS, performance management, learning, and collaboration platforms.

Employee Listening

Employee Listening platforms utilize surveys, data integrations, and other tools to provide team managers and employees with a more transparent view of employee sentiment, experience, as well as insights into how people work and interact. The core of such offerings is typically a “pulse survey” administered at some pre-determined frequency which asks employees a variety of questions about their work experience, and an analytics module that enables HR leaders and managers to gauge the current state of their employee engagement across the organization with the goal of leading to actionable insights and decisions that can improve it (and thus also improve employee retention). "Passive" listening tools analyze company systems meta-data that can be analyzed standalone or in combination with traditional surveys to garner deeper insights. Trends in this area include providing executive/leadership coaching and non-survey methods of data collection (analyzing calendars, emails, Slack, etc.).

Employee Performance Measurement

Performance Measurement tools are designed to track and measure employee performance. Managers can configure goals, assign scores, and leave employee feedback in the form of notes or numerical scores. This software is typically used in promotion-related decisions. We are starting to see more dynamic performance measures be accounted for in such tools, such as projects completed (when integrated with an Internal Talent Marketplace) or new skills attained via self-directed training (when integrated with an LXP), providing managers with a more holistic view of employee performance and enabling better decisions overall.

Employer Brand Management

Includes companies that focus on either managing a company’s online reputation externally from the corporate careers site or on enabling the company to engage with talent in a branded 3rd party environment.

Employer Reviews

Companies offer a Yelp-like value proposition for prospective and current employees to evaluate and track what people are saying about their current / future / dream employer. Employer Review companies charge employers to promote and manage their corporate branding within their digital real estate.

E-Staffing

Firms that have digitized the traditional staffing process. Firms in this category typically staff/place professional roles for longer periods of time, though the delivery and candidate-client interaction all happens through digital channels.

Executive Search

Executive Search platforms are the systems that power Executive Search firms and the internal Executive Search function of organizations. Executive hiring has unique requirements around process and role confidentiality, research capabilities, and internal collaboration that are typically beyond the scope of traditional ATS and CRMs.

Financial Wellbeing

Financial Wellbeing technology consists of applications that assist employees with all aspects of their financial health, from budgeting tools to finance calculators to full on financial planning. Some innovation in this space includes the ability to provide on-demand payments for hourly or gig workers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.

Fraud Detection and Prevention

Platforms that offer various forms of identity management and applicant fraud detection capabilities designed to help organizations protect themselves from fraudulent applicants.

Freelance Management Systems

System of record for tracking and managing freelancers and independent workers throughout an organization.

Freelance Management Systems

Enterprise-focused applications designed to help organizations engage with pre-identified and vetted talent. Many have embedded AOR / EOR capabilities to facilitate smoother hiring and compliant payments of individuals hosted on their platform.

Generative AI Models

Generative AI generates new content in a "human-like" fashion based on a user's prompt or request. Model builders are not in the talent space specifically, but can be leveraged in many different talent applications, such as creating job descriptions and job ads, summarizing candidate qualifications, providing initial candidate assessments, generating interview questions, and assisting with job matching, among many others.

HCM Suites

HCM suites are an all-in-one platform that encompass a plethora of talent management functionality from payroll to performance to planning to help organizations manage and retain their employees. These platforms act as a system of record for organizational and employee HR data, transactional employee and manager self-service, benefits, and payroll administration. Modern HCM suites have also expanded to include other modules such as performance, learning, and internal mobility functionalities. In recent years, the employee user experience has been in focus.

Health Navigation & TPA

Health Navigation and TPA (Third Party Administrator) platforms refer to technology that helps employees decide, access, and manage their health benefits. Health Navigation is the front-end experience for employees, simplifying healthcare decisions around cost, providers, and care options through preferred provider networks, cost calculators, and healthcare advocates. On the other hand, TPA platforms are the back-end for benefits administrators and brokers, managing healthcare benefits infrastructure including plan operations, claims processing, eligibility, and more.

Hiring Analytics

Software that collects hiring data from various systems, synthesizes the information, and makes it actionable for stakeholders.

Internal Comms & Knowledge Mgmt

Previously known as Internal Social Networks, these tools connect employees and enable them to share information and access institutional knowledge on a secure platform. Modern “intranets” are now Knowledge Management tools that center conversational experiences such as intelligence search capabilities and conversational bots who can surface relevant content or contacts without having to navigate through a “link farm”.

Internal Talent Marketplaces

Internal Talent Marketplaces are dual-sided technology platforms that enable hiring managers to post internal opportunities, such as projects, temporary assignments, short- to long-term roles, and open positions, while enabling employees to search for and apply to opportunities across the organization. They help companies leverage internal talent for project-based work, reduce external hiring costs, and support employee retention, engagement, and mobility. These platforms often use AI to match employees to opportunities based on skills and role requirements, and are increasingly used as part of broader internal mobility and skills-based talent strategies.

Interview Management

Platforms that support or automate everything in the interview process from interview scheduling, to dynamic or structured interview guide creation, to AI-driven interview intelligence (providing feedback and insights around individual interviews).

Interview Scheduling

Software that supports and automates interview scheduling and coordination between candidates and hiring teams.

Job Board Aggregators

Verticalized search engines for jobs. They scrape career websites, other job boards, and career portals (i.e. anywhere a job is listed on the web) in order to list all jobs from a single site. Pricing is usually done on a performance basis (e.g. cost per click), with Indeed being (by far) the largest and best-known example of this model.

Job Boards

One of the oldest, most mature, and largest (by revenue) categories in the ecosystem. Websites and apps where employers can pay to advertise open jobs and candidates can search for and apply for jobs. The most common pricing model is to charge a fee for a monthly "slot" that different job requisitions can be moved in and out of.

Job Boards

Job Boards help hiring managers, suppliers, or staffing vendors view available work opportunities, submit qualified candidates for contingent or non-employee roles such as contractors, temporary workers, consultants, and project-based specialists, and track role activity. These are often deployed within Vendor Management Systems (VMS), but may also be integrated with ATS, talent marketplaces, freelance management systems, direct sourcing platforms, and staffing vendor networks to broaden access to contingent and permanent talent.

Job Distribution

These firms amplify the reach of a job posting by re-posting the job to hundreds or thousands of other job sites. Used by clients to simplify the process of getting jobs onto the sites a firm contracts with as seamlessly as possible.

Job Post Optimization

These companies provide solutions to improve a company's career page or its job descriptions, both of which are focused on creating a branded experience for talent.

Labor Market Intelligence

Platforms that collect and analyze labor market data to provide insights into talent availability, skills, compensation, workforce demand, and other labor market trends. These solutions support workforce planning, sourcing strategies, and hiring decisions.

Labor Market Intelligence (LMI)

These tools provide quantitative and qualitative data related to employment and the workforce. Companies use LMI tools to plan and make informed decisions around investments, compensation and banding, hiring, education and training, and strategic workforce planning.

Learning Aggregators

Learning Aggregators are essentially a "marketplace" or database of learning content for organizations to purchase, aggregated from various sources and centralized in one place for convenience. Typically aggregators offer a database of hundreds to thousands of courses for organizations to quickly purchase and upload to their LMS or LXP. These tools differ from Self-directed Learning platforms in that the aggregator has no relationship with the creator of content (i.e. it is a distribution channel for e.g. MOOCs), and these tools sell primarily to enterprises versus individuals.

Learning Experience Platforms

Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) are distinguished by the fact that these platforms typically take a “bottom’s up” approach to learning, putting learning roadmaps in the hands of individual employees. These tools integrate with a wide variety of external learning content providers and often map specific trainings to skills and related jobs or roles. Main features of an LXP include the AI-recommendation engine that proactively recommends courses and content to users based upon their learning history, current role, or desired roles, similar to how consumer marketplaces recommend additional products based on purchase history. Other unique developments in the LXP space include individual learning budget management, and skills academies.

Learning Management Systems

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are platforms designed primarily to host, disseminate, and in some cases create prepared corporate content for employees, while tracking consumption and completion. Historically driven by compliance needs, such as sexual harassment or diversity training that is often mandatory in many jurisdictions, LMS platforms often serve as a central repository for internally created compliance, business, and change management content. These tools can integrate with Internal Talent Marketplaces, HRIS, or Performance Management systems to provide a more holistic and verifiable view of employee skills and capabilities.

Matching Systems

Technology to match candidates to jobs. Capability and sophistication ranges from basic resume parsing software that can do keyword searches to advanced AI models that use vast data sets to infer fit and predict success in a non-binary fashion. Most recently, some providers are using LLMs to generate new kinds of matching systems that take a "natural language" or "human-like" approach to candidate qualification.

Onboarding

Digital Onboarding Tools are designed primarily to improve the employee’s experience before joining the company, enabling firms to share information about company culture, insights into the role in which a candidate will be working, or to emulate the “first few days” in the office and ensure the new employee is prepared for success. Inclusive of background checks, emergency contact directories, standalone Onboarding Tools are typically website or platform-based, with integrations into payroll, HRIS, and LMS. Some tools are mobile-first applications designed specifically for deskless workforce onboarding.

Onboarding

Platforms that support the onboarding of contingent and non-permanent workers through digital workflows, document management, compliance verification, training, and worker readiness processes. These solutions help organizations efficiently prepare workers for assignments while maintaining compliance and operational requirements.

Pay Equity and Incentive Pay Management

Pay Equity and Incentive Pay Management platforms focus on minimizing the red tape between finance, HR and respective teams as they manage pay equity, commissions, and options for employees. Incentive pay platforms are primarily designed for sales commission management, with integrations into payroll, HRIS, and CRM systems, while some specialized solutions focus on pay equity by identifying systemic pay gaps across workforce segments, potentially disrupting traditional consulting-led approaches. Emerging trends include the use of AI to predict "safe" pay bands for new hires to proactively support pay compliance, as well as specialized platforms for managing stock compensation that provide managers and employees with intuitive tools for administering stock and options (a large component of total compensation in many high-growth technology firms).

Payment Solutions

Platforms that provide on-demand pay and earned wage access solutions for workers. These solutions enable workers to access earned wages before a scheduled pay date, often through pay cards, digital wallets, or other payment mechanisms.

People Analytics

People Analytics platforms refer to tools utilized in understanding a company's workforce through data analysis. These platforms combine data from multiple sources such as HRIS, ATS, performance, learning and internal mobility platforms to unearth insights on employee sentiment, program usage and demand planning.

People Search and Matching

People Search and Matching tools aggregate publicly available data on hundreds of millions of candidates (including contact info) and make it accessible to recruiters and sourcers. Because these tools are trained on such a large dataset, they typically also have very strong matching capabilities, and many can be embedded into an ATS to either provide real-time data updates to existing candidate records, or power internal search and match capabilities.

Perks Marketplaces

Perks Marketplaces are marketplace platforms provided to employees as a "perk" or added benefit. These marketplaces typically provide employee discounts at partner organizations or retail organizations by aggregating all the discount contracts negotiated by firms on behalf of their employees, including discounts and freebies offered by retail partners. These solutions usually exist as a branded website or app, and increasingly, companies are insisting that all vendors they do business with offer perks to employees as part of the negotiation.

Programmatic Advertising

A job advertising model where firms can assign a fluctuating budget to open jobs to expand their reach and impact over the internet (with additional dollars expanding the reach and audience).

Programmatic Job Advertising

Programmatic Job Advertising is the automated buying, placement, targeting, and optimization of job advertisements for contingent or non-employee roles. These platforms use rules, algorithms, budget controls, and performance data to place EW opportunities on the channels most likely to generate qualified candidates at the right cost and speed. These had been one of the faster growing categories in the ecosystem, but more recently has been challenged with both an industry-wide pullback in job ad spends as well as quality issues from certain job board and aggregator market participants with arguably unscrupulous practices.

Recruiter Marketplaces

Marketplace of recruiters. Client firms use this kind of solution when they want to have multiple agencies and recruiters competing to fill open jobs. This category is sometimes leveraged by larger firms to better track, manage, and optimize the spend for direct hire and permanent placement.

Recruiter Marketplaces

Recruiter Marketplaces are digital platforms that give companies access to a curated network of third-party recruiters, staffing agencies, or independent recruiting partners who can source and submit qualified candidates for open, hard-to-fill, or high-priority roles. These platforms are focused on recruiter or agency participation and may use matching logic, specialization data, or performance scoring to identify the recruiters or agencies best suited for a specific requisition.

Recruitment Marketing Platform

Software that is used to market a company and its jobs so that it can attract candidates and convert them into applicants. Typically more robust analytics / pre-apply capabilities than a CRM, and also includes programmatic advertising and in some cases traditional agency support.

Reference Checks

Software that supports the reference check process on candidates prior to hiring them.

Referral Tools

Software that facilitates internal referrals. Employees can refer friends, contacts, and individuals from their professional network. Often includes the ability to track said referrals through the process and a mechanism to incent individuals (i.e. employees) to participate in the referral process.

Referrals

Referrals are sourcing channels that encourage existing candidates, workers, or talent community members to recommend other qualified candidates for open roles. When used by staffing firms, referral programs often incentivize candidate-to-candidate referrals, with payouts tied to placement profitability and released only after defined milestones are met, such as the referred worker starting the role or remaining employed for a specific period. These programs can also be used by self-managed EW programs to create a new sourcing channel, particularly in supply-constrained labor markets such as healthcare or other hard-to-fill skill areas.

Resource Management

Platforms that help organizations manage skilled resources across projects. These tools are used by organizations selling project work to clients (e.g. management consulting firms or system implementors) as well as clients who may be staffing / managing projects internally (via a variety of both internal and external resources). They provide tools for managing team structure and composition, timelines, milestones, and costs.

Rewards and Recognition

Rewards and Recognition platforms are utilized by managers and team members to reward or recognize subordinates or colleagues on demand. These platforms manage ongoing recognition as well as milestone-based rewards and awards. These rewards can take many forms, including vacation days, experiences, gift cards, cash, or discounts, while recognition is typically delivered through platform-based experiences or integrations with internal communication channels such as Teams and Slack, often through badges or shout-out channels.

Robotic Process Automation

Tools that operate on the user interface of computer systems to perform "swivel chair" activities and automations. Because of this, RPA bots are sometimes referred to as digital workers.

Self-directed Learning

Self-directed Learning platforms include a wide plethora of bespoke learning content creators, from websites that crowdsource learning content from a community of creators to Massively Open Online Courses (otherwise known as “MOOCs”, courses offered by universities to a wide audience at a significantly discounted price) and everything in between. These tools are also often consumer tools, providing a better quality user experience compared to LMS or LXP tools. Employees typically utilize these platforms the same way they would as a regular consumer, however more SDL platforms are developing a "for business" product that includes LXP-like functionality such as group learning and capability academies.

Skill Assessments

Technology that allows firms to measure hard skills through assessments (can I code an algorithm that reverses a sentence in Javascript?).

Skills Management & Analytics

Skills Management and Analytics are manager-focused tools that helps organizations identify, assess, track, and develop employee skills. These tools use AI to create dynamic skills taxonomies and report on trends, and tend to be integrated with internal data sources such as performance tools, ATS and HRIS. These systems allow organizations to standardize skills and identify skill gaps within the organization, design jobs more effectively, understand their workforce's skills coverage, plan talent strategies, and in some cases act as a "translation layer" for different systems that each utilize their own methodology for skills analysis.

Social Networks

Platforms and communities where individuals can meet, connect, communicate, and share information. The firms (generally) make money through advertising, and have grown rapidly because of the targeted information they have on the users of their platform (and advertisers desire to reach said users). Many recruiting teams and staffing firms use social networks to target candidates or to build recruiting campaigns.

Social Search

Technology that aggregates individuals' information from across the web into a useable format for recruiters, often including skills, occupation, job history, and contact information.

SOW and Procurement Solutions

Platforms that help organizations with automated sourcing capabilities, RFP / RFI management and analysis, SOW creation, automated workflows and analytics.

Staffing Platforms

Platforms designed to help staffing firms modernize and digitize service delivery through white-label apps or talent marketplaces. They enable workers to find and track work, while helping staffing firms and clients distribute work and better allocate resources.

Talent Marketplaces - Onsite

Onsite Talent Marketplaces are digital platforms that connect organizations with external workers, contractors, freelancers, or project-based specialists who are required to perform work at a physical location. These marketplaces are typically used for roles where local availability, site access, shift scheduling, compliance, safety requirements, and in-person work execution are important. Initially gaining traction in healthcare, these platforms are now expanding into sectors such as logistics, hospitality, retail, and light industrial work.

Talent Marketplaces - Remote

Remote Talent Marketplaces give organizations direct access to external talent for virtual, skills-based, and project-based work across areas such as technology, design, marketing, analytics, content, consulting, finance operations, and administrative services. While these marketplaces have not fully displaced traditional staffing firms as once predicted, they continue to grow as companies look for faster and more flexible ways to access external talent. Because these marketplaces tend to follow a “winner takes most” business model, a small number of leading platforms may emerge over time within each major work or skill category.

Temporary Labor Marketplace -- Onsite

Digital marketplaces of onsite labor and labor services where buyers and sellers of temporary labor can connect and complete work transactions via a platform or app without a recruiter.

Temporary Labor Marketplace -- Remote

Digital marketplaces for all forms of remote labor (typically knowledge work) and labor services where buyers and sellers of temporary labor can connect and complete work transactions via a platform or app without a recruiter.

Time & Attendance Tools

Time & Attendance tools are applications that digitize and automate the process of tracking employee hours and attendance. These also facilitate shift scheduling, vacation scheduling, reporting and absences, and help organizations stay compliant with wage and hour laws in the jurisdictions in which they operate.

Vendor Management Systems

System of record for managing staffing suppliers. A specialized category of procurement software used to create standard processes that vendors must adhere to in order participate in a contingent workforce program, and allows clients to track and manage the program.

Vendor Management Systems - HCM Affiliate

Vendor Management Systems (VMS) affiliated with a major HCM provider and typically sold as part of a bundled solution. Adoption is often driven by the benefits of consolidating within a single ecosystem, including cost efficiencies and tighter integration.

Vendor Management Systems - Independent

Vendor Management Systems (VMS) with no affiliation to an HCM provider or MSP.

Vendor Management Systems - MSP Affiliate

Vendor Management Systems (VMS) owned and developed by Managed Service Providers (MSPs). These platforms are typically proprietary to the MSP and used primarily within the contingent workforce programs they operate.

Video Interviewing

Software that supports virtual / remote video interviewing, allowing firms to remove location from the interview equation, and allows firm to digitize, track and store interview information. Some firms also claim to offer predictive capabilities by analyzing the video.

Wellbeing Benefits

Wellbeing Benefits are point solutions that focus on improving employee wellness for areas not typically covered under an insurance plan such as Behavioral or Physical Wellbeing. These applications often provide support for daily activities like sleep, hydration and exercise to periodic benefits such as counselling. Wellbeing Benefits are offered delivered through gamification or competitions, associated with rewards or perks.

Workforce Management Platforms

Workforce Management Platforms help organizations manage and deploy their (typically frontline / hourly) workforce efficiently. These tools may include workplace health and safety management, shift management, and labor forecasting. WFM tools are predominantly used for frontline, hourly wage, and retail workforces. Recent innovations include providing onboarding and engagement tools for this population.