How DHRMap Signals works

• Primary sources only. Company announcements, regulatory filings (e.g. SEC 8-K, 10-Q/10-K), the company's own job boards, official event exhibitor and sponsor lists, and DHRMap's editorial coverage. Media reports are leads, never evidence.
• Rated only with enough data. A measure is Strong / Mid / Weak only when the data behind it is verified and sufficient. Otherwise the page says why. Missing data is never treated as a bad result.
• Independent. Paid listings, sponsorships, advertising and awards have no input into Signals.
• Versioned and reproducible. Every rule has a version; a rating can be recomputed as of its date.
• Not investment advice. Signals describe public evidence, not future performance.

The overall signal is the average of a company's rated measures (Strong = 2, Mid = 1, Weak = 0), shown only when at least 2 measures are rated. Average ≥ 1.5 is Strong, ≥ 0.75 is Mid, below is Weak. Listed companies are rated on Fundamentals, Hiring momentum and Coverage momentum; private companies on Funding runway, Hiring momentum and Coverage momentum.

Evidence grade shows how much of the picture is verified: A when at least 4 of five measures (including Capital & deals and Leadership) have data, B when at least 2, otherwise C.

Fundamentals — listed companies

Trailing-twelve-month revenue growth and GAAP (or IFRS) operating margin from the company's filings. Strong: revenue growth ≥ 10% and operating margin ≥ 10%. Weak: revenue growth below 3% or an operating loss. Mid otherwise. Where a filing reports no operating-income line, the pretax margin is used and labelled. Financials older than 18 months are not used. GAAP figures include one-off items such as impairments.

Funding runway — venture-backed private companies

Months since the last priced funding round, divided by the normal gap for its stage (18 months up to Series B, 30 months from Series C). Ratio ≤ 0.67 is Strong, ≤ 1.33 Mid, above that Weak. A company that has publicly stated it is profitable within the last 24 months is never below Mid. Private-equity-owned and self-funded companies don't depend on funding rounds, so this measure does not apply to them.

Hiring momentum

Change in open roles on the company's own job boards, last 30 days against the 30 before, ranked within its peer group. Needs 60 days of history and job boards checked complete against the company's careers page. Fewer open roles is never read as layoffs.

Coverage momentum

Change in the company's share of DHRMap's editorial coverage, last 180 days against the previous 365, ranked within its peer group. Using a share — not a count — removes changes in our own publishing volume. Companies with fewer than 3 stories in the period are not rated.

Ranking within peers: the top 25% of a peer group is Strong, the bottom 25% Weak, the rest Mid. Peer groups follow DHRMap's company categories (HCM, Recruiting, Talent Management, Compensation, Workforce Management, Staffing) and need at least 8 companies.

Capital & deals

Confirmed priced funding rounds and acquisitions made in the last 24 months: 2 or more is Active; 1 is Moderate and none is Low — these two are stated only when our verified coverage spans the whole window, because “not recorded” is not the same as “did not happen”.

Leadership

Confirmed changes in core executive roles (CEO, CFO, CTO, product, people, revenue, COO, president) in the last 12 months: a CEO change or 2+ departures is a Major change; Changed (one change) and No recorded change are stated only when the company's filings for the whole window were read.

Market presence

Where it sells & serves uses open sales, customer and marketing roles on the company's official job boards, by region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa). Engineering and delivery centres are not markets, so all roles are shown separately as the team footprint. A region with fewer than 5 market roles shows “present” without a share; fewer than 10 in total is flagged as a small sample. Industry events come from official exhibitor and sponsor lists of tracked events. Expansion or contraction by region will be shown once enough history exists. Layoffs are recorded only from company statements or official notices (e.g. US WARN filings).

Flags

Facts worth knowing that do not change a rating: a CEO change, ownership by a financial sponsor, two or more acquisitions being integrated, a pending acquisition, or an unconfirmed report of an ownership change.