The long list is one of the most misunderstood steps in HRIS selection. Some teams make it too short and miss viable options. Others cast the net so wide that evaluation becomes impossible before it even gets started. Getting this step right matters more than most people realise, because the quality of your long list directly shapes the quality of every decision that follows.
A strong long list balances breadth with discipline. Here is how to build one that actually works.
This sounds obvious, but it is where most teams go wrong. Before any vendor names go on the list, you need to agree on what qualifies them to be there. Think about company size fit, geographic coverage, compliance capability, how they handle integrations, and whether their deployment model works for your organisation. If a vendor does not meet your baseline criteria, they should not make the cut, regardless of how well-known they are or how slick their sales deck looks.
Having these criteria documented upfront also makes it easier to defend your decisions later, which matters when stakeholders start asking why certain names are or are not on the list.
A long list is not meant to be exhaustive. It is meant to be representative. Typically, somewhere between ten and fifteen vendors is enough to give you a meaningful view of the market without burying your team in evaluation work. If your list creeps beyond that, it is usually a sign that your requirements are not sharp enough yet, or that there is reluctance to make early calls. Both are worth addressing before you go any further.
More vendors does not mean better decisions. It usually just means more noise.
Your long list should reflect the solution categories you identified during market research. If you identified that you need a system with strong workforce management capability, there should be vendors on the list that genuinely specialise in that. If payroll localisation is critical, the same applies. This ensures you are comparing like with like, and that you are not defaulting to familiar brand names simply because someone has heard of them before.
Category coverage also protects you against blind spots. It forces the team to look beyond the obvious choices and consider whether there are better-fit options that simply have a lower profile.
At the long list stage, you will be working with incomplete information. That is entirely normal. Some assumptions will be baked into your thinking, whether about vendor capabilities, pricing structures, or how certain products handle edge cases in your environment. The important thing is to write those assumptions down so they can be tested as you move into more detailed evaluation.
Treating a long list as a set of informed hypotheses, rather than firm conclusions, keeps the process honest. It also makes it easier to course-correct without losing credibility if something turns out to be different from what you expected.
Once the long list is in shape, bring HR, IT, and any other relevant stakeholders together to review and agree on it. This step is easy to skip when timelines are tight, but it pays off. Stakeholders who feel consulted at this stage are far less likely to raise objections further down the line, and late-stage objections are one of the most common reasons HRIS projects lose momentum or miss their go-live targets.
A short alignment session now can save weeks of frustration later.
A well-built long list keeps your evaluation focused. It prevents unnecessary backtracking, reduces the risk of scope creep, and gives the whole selection process a cleaner structure. Teams that rush this step often find themselves revisiting it anyway, just at a point in the process when it is far more disruptive to do so.
The HRIS Buying Guide includes detailed guidance on how to structure your long list and move confidently toward shortlisting.