Retirement Onboarding Coordinator

Building an HR tech stack for 2026. HR & People HR tech payroll From payroll and benefits to recruiting and performance management, the right HR tech stack saves hours of manual work each week. Here is how to evaluate and assemble the right combination of tools for your team size. Reading Time HR & People The HR technology landscape has matured significantly over the past three years. The era of spreadsheets and email-driven processes is ending for any company that values accuracy and compliance. In 2026, the question is not whether to adopt HR software - it is which combination of tools creates the most efficient workflow for your specific team size, geographic footprint, and growth trajectory. ## The Core HRIS Layer Every HR tech stack starts with a core HRIS to store employee records, manage organizational structure, and track employment lifecycle events. For companies under 50 employees, Gusto provides the most streamlined experience by bundling HRIS, payroll, and benefits into a single platform. The trade-off is that Gusto's HR features are shallower than dedicated HRIS platforms - its performance management module covers the basics but lacks the depth needed for companies with formal career laddering and 360-review processes. BambooHR remains the strongest standalone HRIS in the 50-200 employee range, offering deeper HR functionality around time-off policies, document management, and reporting, but requiring a separate payroll provider. Rippling has emerged as a strong third option for companies that want unified IT and HR administration - its device management and app provisioning features are unique in the market, though its HR depth does not yet match BambooHR. ## Payroll Processing Payroll accuracy is non-negotiable, and the payroll module you choose often determines the rest of your HR stack. If you use Gusto as your all-in-one platform, payroll is included and handles auto tax filing, multi-state withholding, and year-end W-2 processing with a tax penalty guarantee. If you use BambooHR as your HRIS, you will integrate with a dedicated payroll provider like Gusto or ADP. The integration between BambooHR and Gusto is mature, syncing employee records and time-off balances bidirectionally, but payroll journal entries still flow one direction into your accounting software. Companies with 100+ employees across 10+ states should evaluate ADP or Paychex for their broader tax compliance coverage and dedicated support teams - both handle edge cases like garnishments, local tax jurisdictions, and multi-entity payroll structures that all-in-one platforms may not support reliably. ## Recruiting and Applicant Tracking The recruiting layer of your HR stack needs to connect job postings, candidate pipelines, and onboarding. For companies hiring 5-20 people per year, t ## Performance Management Performance management is the most commonly deferred HR function, but investing in it early prevents the painful retroactive evaluations that companies face when they first need to make promotion or termination decisions with no documentation. For teams under 50 people, simple quarterly check-in templates in your core HRIS are usually sufficient. As teams grow beyond 50, dedicated performance management tools like Lattice or 15Five provide structured goal tracking, manager feedback calibration, and engagement survey capabilities that most all-in-one HR platforms lack. Lattice integrates directly with BambooHR and Gusto, pulling employee data and org structure to keep performance records aligned with the core HRIS. ## Compliance and Security HR data is among the most sensitive information your company holds. Every platform in your HR stack should support SOC 2 Type II certification, annual penetration testing, and role-based access controls that restrict payroll and personal information to authorized administrators only. Configure SCIM provisioning through your identity provider so that employee access to HR tools is automatically granted on hire date and revoked on termination date - manual deprovisioning is the leading cause of HR data exposure in growing companies. Run a quarterly access audit across all HR tools to verify that former employees, contractors whose engagements have ended, and interns whose terms have expired no longer have active accounts. ## Building Your Stack by Company Size The right HR tech stack depends on where your company is today and where it will be in 24 months. Companies under 25 employees should start with Gusto as an all-in-one: you get payroll, benefits, basic HRIS, and time tracking in one platform for predictable per-employee pricing. At 25-75 employees, add BambooHR or Rippling as a dedicated HRIS layer if Gusto's HR features feel limiting, and consider a lightweight ATS if you are hiring regularly. At 75-200 employees, evaluate a dedicated performance management tool like Lattice, upgrade your ATS to Greenhouse or Lever if recruiting volume demands it, and ensure your payroll provider supports all states where you have employees. Beyond 200 employees, enterprise HR suites like Workday or SAP SuccessFactors become worth evaluating, though the migration cost and implementation timeline (typically 6-12 months) means you should only make that jump when your current stack creates measurable friction in reporting, compliance, or employee experience. Key Takeaways * 1In-depth analysis of hr & people tools and trends * 2Practical recommendations for hr tech and payroll * 3Based on real testing and expert evaluation by PilotStack Team PilotStack Team is a software expert at PilotStack, specializing in hr & people tools and technology evaluation. Published July 16, 2026

Gusto launches Cofounder, an AI teammate purpose-built for small business. Cofounder is one of the first agentic interfaces for small businesses that knows a business' team, payroll, compliance tasks and more before even getting started. Gusto, the leading partner for small businesses, announced the launch of Gusto Cofounder, an AI teammate built specifically for small business owners. Unlike general-purpose AI tools that start from a blank slate, Cofounder launches with context from Gusto and customer-authorized connected tools, including a business's team, payroll schedule, benefits, and Gusto compliance calendar, and can immediately start taking action on behalf of small businesses. The launch comes as America's entrepreneurship boom accelerates. New business applications are running above 500,000 a month, near record highs. According to Gusto's 2026 New Business Formation Report, 60% of new business owners used AI to help launch their business in 2025 - double the rate from just two years ago. Half said AI made the process significantly faster or less expensive. "Small business owners are some of the most resourceful people in the world, but they're consistently stretched too thin," said Eddie Kim, Co-founder and Head of Technology at Gusto. "For most, running payroll isn't the hard part - it's everything they have to do ahead of running it. Pulling data from other systems, manipulating spreadsheets, chasing down missing inputs - the 'work before the work.' It's one of the most hidden burdens of running a business and Gusto Cofounder was built to take that off their plates entirely." Cofounder is designed to handle the operational work that consumes small business owners' time like running payroll, helping flag compliance risks, chasing missing timesheets, and surfacing staffing conflicts before they become issues. Owners can direct Cofounder through natural conversation via SMS, Slack, or the web with prompts like: * "Run payroll for this Friday and flag anything that needs my approval before it submits." * "Generate a weekly labor cost report by department and send it to me every Monday morning." * "Send me an approval request for any team expense over $25 before it gets processed." * "Flag any time-off requests that overlap with payroll deadlines or leave the team short-staffed." Cofounder also monitors businesses proactively, with more than 20 pre-built automations covering onboarding, payroll, expense approvals, and compliance tasks - patterns learned from the over 500,000 small businesses using the Gusto platform. "Cofounder allows you to interact with Gusto in a real human way. It feels like you're talking to a person. It's doing all of the Gusto things behind the scenes for me." - David Levin, CEO, Angry Sam Productions Gusto Cofounder integrates with Google Workspace, Notion, Slack, and other tools small businesses already use. Guardrails keep humans in control of key decisions while Cofounder handles the routine and flags exceptions. [To share your insights with us, please write to [email protected]]