Analyst Perspectives

I am happy to share some insights on Workday drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic representation of our assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Workforce Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We utilized a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect the breadth of the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for workforce management. We evaluated Workday and 12 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and data derived from our benchmark research on workforce management.

Workday placed 10th in the WFM Value Index. It scored third in Manageability due to the its intense focus on both end-user and administrative personas, also reflected in its above-average Adaptability score.

Time and attendance management and absence management are Workday’s strengths; its calculation engine allows configurations to meet global requirements for both statutory and organizational needs. Self-service time entry is available via web browser or a mobile device. Clocking in and out includes automatic time stamps as well as location-based detection on mobile devices. Also, managers can easily initiate mass approvals, manage exceptions and get approval alerts on mobile devices and work feeds. However, scheduling and forecasting is a functionality area where Workday generally lags. For example, the platform doesn’t currently enable users to generate schedules based on algorithms or support scheduling based on historical patterns.

Limited capabilities in scheduling and forecasting resulted in Workday ranking 12th in Capability. Workday Time Tracking does not currently support demand-based workforce scheduling or consider employees’ skills and competencies — or costs — in the scheduling process; nor does it support shift bidding or scheduling across locations based on supply and demand. It could also improve on its task management and time clock support. Customer references and specific case studies would have improved the vendor’s Validation score.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of workforce management software in the industry. You can learn more about our Value Index as an effective vendor selection and RFI/RFP tool here. Participating vendors can learn more about how to use the Value Index here.