Research from real conversations
Rover research is built from recorded phone conversations with HR and finance professionals who did not apply to be surveyed and were not paid. Every figure we publish carries the denominator behind it.
Most buyer research asks people to describe their own intentions on a form. Rover research starts from a conversation a person actually had with a Community Development Representative (CDR), which is a different instrument measuring a different thing. Where the two disagree, we publish both readings.
The methodology page below is the reference every publication points back to: how conversations are collected and consented, what counts as a conversation, how contacts are anonymized, and where the limits of each dataset sit.
The Satisfaction Trap: The HRMS Buyer Signal Report
Seven in ten HR buyers rate their system a 4 or 5. 3.8% of decision makers intend to replace it within twelve months. First-party findings from 10,913 recorded conversations, every denominator shown.
Learn more →The Short Fuse: The Payroll Buyer Signal Report
Payroll buyers rate their systems lowest in the HR stack, and unlike everywhere else the unhappy ones leave. 1,608 recorded conversations, denominators shown.
Learn more →The Enterprise Cliff: The Benefits Administration Buyer Signal Report
Benefits buyers are the happiest in HR software and the least available, and those are the same fact. 884 recorded conversations, every denominator shown.
Learn more →The Category Nobody Owns: A Signal Note on Learning Management
Two in three learning management buyers run a system with no recognizable name on it, and three in four can name something it cannot do. 1,096 conversations.
Learn more →Research Methodology
How Rover collects first-party conversation data, how Community Development Representatives (CDRs) are trained, how individual contacts are anonymized, and how TruSQL™ scoring works. Every research publication references this document.
Learn more →HR Software and Service Buying Snapshot, Q1 2026: superseded.
The in-market figures in this snapshot were produced before the Buyer Signal Series method was fixed and are not comparable to the current reports. Four reports replace it: The Satisfaction Trap (HRMS), The Short Fuse (Payroll), The Enterprise Cliff (Benefits), and The Category Nobody Owns (Learning Management). Section 04 of the learning management note explains why the earlier figures moved with the question rather than the market.
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