Workday Review: Workday was founded under somewhat acrimonious circumstances in 2005, following Oracle’s hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. The former CEO and chief strategist of PeopleSoft created Workday to take on the titans of the HR software industry, namely Oracle and SAP. And it’s working.
Half of the Fortune 100 companies have already purchased Workday, which now has 725 enterprise customers.
Workday does not have the resources or industry recognition that help Oracle and SAP maintain their grip on the market, yet Workday continues to secure big-name customers
So what makes Workday software such an attractive proposition for some of the world’s leading HR departments? That’s what we’ll explore in our analysis of Workday.
Table of Contents
What is Workday?
Workday HR software is not for startups, very small businesses, or solo entrepreneurs. Workday is a complex HR solution that contains features that are not applicable or necessary for small businesses.
For example, if you have only three employees, you don’t need to undergo a complicated restructuring or worry about succession planning.
However, if you run a larger company or your organization is growing rapidly, Workday can help you streamline your HR processes and make your HR department more efficient and effective.
Workday’s Features
Workday helps HR professionals get both an overview and a detailed breakdown of employee performance and the company as a whole. This helps HR play a greater role in overall business strategy and resource management.
Workforce Management & Planning
Workday offers a feature-rich dashboard to help managers better manage their teams. Managers can create job postings themselves without having to seek input from the hiring manager, as well as set up performance reviews, give feedback, evaluate compensation, and establish plans to help employees grow and learn.
Workday simplifies tasks that can often seem very complex. Take organizational restructuring, for example. With Workday’s modern and intuitive user interface, you can easily visualize the organizational chart and see what improvements can be made, as well as make changes by simply dragging and dropping different staff members. This workforce planning functionality extends to reorganizing organizational charts, changing salary structures, and reorganizing cost centers.
Reporting & Analytics
Workday has a comprehensive reporting dashboard that provides an overview of the performance of different aspects of HR.
Your dashboard shows easy-to-digest visual representations of the factors that influence the performance of any workforce. This includes the total cost, i.e. compensation, of your workforce, as well as what percentage of that cost is accounted for by contingent or contracted freelancers.
As companies hire more and more contingent workers, it’s important to get a complete picture of your company’s use of freelancers. Workday analyzes factors such as compensation by company, department, and project, as well as contract length and overall cost.
Another important functionality of the workforce analytics reports includes the ability to track the diversity of your workforce. This is complemented by Workday’s pay equity dashboard, which helps you understand where your compensation is outside the median pay rates by country and gender.
Recruitment & Talent Management
Workday’s recruiting module acts as an applicant tracking system (ATS) helping you manage all aspects of the hiring process from start to finish.
Workday ATS capabilities allow you to create a compelling, branded ad and application form, as well as search for and communicate with candidates, conduct interviews, and collaborate with co-workers to ensure the right candidate gets the job.
You can track the progress of each position thanks to Workday’s process management features, which show you how many candidates are at each stage.
Employee Portal
Employees can access Workday’s self-service portal from either a browser or cell phone. The portal provides onboarding information with important company documents to help new employees get up to speed quickly.
Managers can tailor the onboarding experience to each employee, with a checklist that shows the worker’s progress through the various steps. This helps make the onboarding experience faster and more relevant.
Workday time tracking is another key part of the employee portal, as workers can clock in and out from anywhere in the world using the mobile app.
Employees can also record time manually, add cost center and project codes to all their hours worked, and include very specific details, such as why a lunch break was waived. In this way, they can keep track of regular, overtime and overtime hours worked, when they will be paid next, and any vacation time they have taken.
Employees can also enroll in benefits from this portal, as well as access open job postings, and view learning and development opportunities, all from one main menu.
Workday’s Ease of Use
In a previous job, following the acquisition of a company, I ended up having to use two completely different HR systems to record the same information.
One was a modern SaaS solution that had been released in the last few years, was elegant and easy to use, and was updated regularly. The other was HR software that the parent company had been using for years that was designed for enterprises. It was a nightmare. It was slow, the user interface was ugly and it took ages to find the right option.
I was afraid that Workday would be like this. But it isn’t. Possibly due to the relative youth of the company (SAP HR was released almost 20 years before Workday), Workday has managed to maintain the look and feel of a modern SaaS solution. And that’s despite the fact that it includes just about every feature you can think of.
Workday takes more time to get familiar with, as it has many different menus. But all of those menus are easily accessible and each option is clearly marked. It is then divided into submenus, which help you drill down to even more granular options.
Even if you are immersed in personnel management, you can easily find your way to another task, such as performance management, via menus or back arrows.
Workday’s Pricing
Workday does not publicly provide pricing information and there is no free plan. You need to contact sales to find out what kind of pricing Workday offers for your organization. You can contact sales by filling out a form, calling them on the phone, or using the live chat option.
When you contact them, they will provide you with a quote specific to your company. In part, this is to ensure that you get the right package for your needs, whether it’s a standalone HR software or a combined HR and finance solution.
Workday’s Support
Workday offers personalized support options 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have a problem, you can submit your question to the Workday community or contact Workday to have the issue resolved.
To get help from Workday, you must fill out a form with the details of the complaint and specify the severity of the problem. You can choose whether you want Workday to call you back or contact you online via your Workday login details.
According to Workday, the average response time to a serious complaint is 13 minutes.
Benefits of Workday
Workday is a one-stop shop when it comes to managing your workforce. Whether you want to understand how your workforce is performing, standardize compensation, manage talent, implement learning opportunities, or optimize all of these processes to drive business growth, Workday can help you get there.
Workday is also surprisingly easy to use for a solution of such complexity and with so many different functions.
Better for Bigger Companies
Workday is not for everyone. Not because it’s not good (it’s a fantastic solution), but because it has too many features for solo entrepreneurs or companies with few employees. You won’t use half the features and you’ll have to pay a lot for the privilege, so you might be better off with a Workday competitor built with small businesses in mind.
However, if you run a larger organization and need a solution that can help you manage a large workforce, including budgets, performance management, training, diversity, compensation management, and restructures and reorganizations, then Workday is a great choice.
Its attractive appearance, intuitive user interface, and well-organized navigation are a breath of fresh air in a market that is often slow to modernize and often offers a poor user experience.
How Workday Compares
| Employee self-service portal | Performance management | Benefits | Benefits administration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workday | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Benefits | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| SentricHR | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| BambooHR | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Workable | ✅ |
FAQs
What type of customer support does Workday provide?
Workday offers a comprehensive and round-the-clock customer support system. Users can avail themselves of assistance by either submitting queries to the Workday community or directly contacting the support team. Workday takes pride in its responsiveness, with an average response time of approximately 13 minutes for critical issues, ensuring timely resolution and minimal disruption.
Is Workday recommended for companies seeking to optimize HR & finance processes?
Absolutely, Workday is a prime choice for organizations seeking an integrated solution for optimizing both HR and finance functions. By combining these critical aspects, companies can achieve seamless collaboration, eliminate data silos, and enhance overall operational efficiency. Workday’s integrated approach enables cross-functional insights and strategic decision-making that drive holistic business growth.
How does Workday support workforce analytics?
Workday’s robust analytics capabilities empower HR professionals and business leaders to gain actionable insights from workforce data. Through interactive dashboards, companies can delve into compensation structures, analyze diversity metrics, and scrutinize the impact of contingent workers. These analytics facilitate informed decision-making and resource allocation strategies.
Can Workday assist with organizational restructuring?
Indeed, Workday simplifies the intricate process of organizational restructuring through its intuitive interface and powerful functionalities. HR managers can visualize current organizational hierarchies, make seamless changes to team structures, modify compensation plans, and realign cost centers – all while minimizing disruption and ensuring a smoother transition.
What benefits does the employee portal offer?
Workday’s employee portal is a gateway to self-service functionalities that enhance employee engagement and autonomy. New hires can access a repository of onboarding materials, facilitating a seamless integration into the company culture. Additionally, the portal allows employees to manage their work hours, enroll in benefits, explore internal job opportunities, and access learning resources, fostering continuous growth.
Mike DaVinci HighTechBlogging.com
Mike DaVinci is a skilled content writer with a talent for storytelling. He specializes in creating captivating narratives that engage readers and leave them feeling inspired. His writing has been featured in various publications, including magazines, blogs, and business websites. Mike’s particular interest in human interest stories allows him to uncover the heart of any story and convey it to his readers in an emotional and authentic way. He believes that storytelling is a powerful tool for connecting with people and inspiring positive change in the world.
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