Workday is a cloud-based software vendor that specializes in human capital management (HCM), enterprise resource management (ERP), and financial management applications. The Workday system delivers an all-in-one package that’s designed for medium-to-large-sized companies, especially companies with multiple locations thanks to features like:
- Payroll Management
- Time Tracking
- Human Resource Management (HRM)
- Talent Management
- Data Analysis
- And much more!
What is Human Capital Management (HCM)?
Human capital management (HCM) consists of a comprehensive set of practices for managing, recruiting, developing, and optimizing the human resources of an organization. It’s essentially a tool for managing your most valued asset: your people. There are a lot of HCM solutions available on the market today, but Workday human capital management suite is a leader in the space.
Contact a Workday ConsultantWhat is Workday ERP?
Workday ERP is a software system used for planning in areas such as human capital management (HCM), professional services automation, project management, finance, analytics, and more. Enterprise resource management (ERP) is most commonly used for business processes and the transformation of data for enterprises.
Most Workday customers are mid-size and large companies and organizations. Workday ERP includes workforce, sales planning, and real-time analytics for an entire company. Workday financial management is used to provide financial accounting and reporting for a business.
What Does Workday Software Do?
Workday is a cloud-based software that specializes in applications for Financial Management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Human Capital Management (HCM). With over 9,500 customers, Workday has been providing existing customers, companies, and organizations with efficient and optimized HR, finance, and payroll solutions for over a decade.
Workday HR software offers a comprehensive solution for managing employee data and streamlining HR and financial processes, as well as advanced analytics and reporting capabilities to help businesses make better decisions and improve their overall performance.
With its comprehensive and collaborative solutions and user-friendly interface, Workday is an ideal choice for organizations looking to streamline their HR and financial processes, keep their users connected and well-informed, and manage their operations with ease.

Features and Benefits of Workday HCM Software
Workday was developed on a disruptive concept: bring people to the center of enterprise software. After more than a decade later, they still deliver on that idea. Employees, managers, and recruiters can access information anywhere, anytime on mobile, tablet, and desktop. And, even better, Workday offers mobile access at no additional charge.
There are quite a few functional products included across the Workday product roadmap to help companies manage and optimize tasks from Onboarding and Benefits Administration to Professional Services Automation, Strategic Sourcing, Spend Management, and more.
Here are a few of the main Workday products and their core capabilities for your organization…
Human Capital Management (HCM)
Workday HCM is a comprehensive suite of Human Resources (HR) applications, including Onboarding, Talent Management, Performance Management, Compensation Management, and Benefits Administration. With the comprehensive HCM solution, companies can manage HR-related tasks in a single platform, streamline HR operations, and improve employee productivity across the board.
Recruiting
Workday Recruiting is a functional Workday product created to help companies leverage intuitive recruitment management tools, including job posting, candidate tracking, and interview scheduling functions. This way, companies can attract, hire, and onboard new employees in the most efficient and effective way possible and retain them over time.
Users can also analyze what positions are open or what specific types of candidates they’re looking for and then create recruiting strategies based on real-time data.
Talent Management
The Workday talent management suite includes tools to improve managing, developing, and rewarding employees. It contains functions perfect for management, including onboarding, goal management, performance management, succession planning, and career and development planning.
Benefits
Workday solutions help companies manage their benefit plans to meet their unique business needs. Cloud Connect for Benefits includes a pre-built integration catalog to many different providers and automatically takes employee information data from Workday HCM, (which means users won’t have to worry about manually entering data. Goodbye manual data entry headaches…)
Payroll
Workday’s Payroll application is designed to streamline payroll processing and management, including features such as pay calculations, tax management, and compliance reporting.
Workday’s payroll management tools make it easier for companies to access relevant financial information, gain greater payroll visibility, and maintain compliance with local tax and labor regulations.
Have employees located outside of North America? Not to worry! Workday’s Cloud Connect for Third-Party Payroll makes it simple for your payroll department to integrate with third-party payroll providers. Users can use the local payroll service in the desired country while still accessing payroll data via Workday.
Time Tracking
Workday provides an intuitive timekeeping product built to help organizations manage employee time and attendance, including time-off requests, scheduling, and overtime calculations. This helps key stakeholders access relevant time information, gain real-time attendance visibility, and optimize employee productivity and performance.
Workday makes it easy as possible for employees to track their time, whether they clock in and out using a desktop, tablet, or mobile device. And for companies that do require physical time clocks, those can integrate with Workday via an API, so no troubles there.
Big Data Analytics for Workday HCM
Workday Big Data Analytics combines Workday data with multiple non-Workday data sources for even better understanding of the Big Picture™. It comes with pre-built analytics templates that address key business issues faced by HR and finance, addressing topics like workforce planning, retention, and diversity for pay-for-performance, compensation, and payroll-cost analysis.
Workday Learning
Workday Learning is a cloud-based learning management system (LMS) that provides a features like content creation, delivery, and tracking of employee training and development to make it easier for HR managers and employees to access relevant content.
Workday Learning can also help companies improve employee skills through personalized training and development programs and manage their learning strategies over time.
Workday Adaptive Planning
Workday Adaptive Planning is a cloud-based planning, budgeting, and forecasting solution designed to help organizations align financial plans and business strategies, access relevant information across departments, and leverage flexible and adaptable tools to optimize financial planning and productivity.
Workday Financial Management
Workday Financial Management offers functional financial management applications that enable businesses to manage accounting, procurement, revenue management, and financial reporting processes to integrate all financial management processes in one solution.
With Workday Financials, users can gain real-time visibility into financial operations, and make better, data-driven decisions across different areas of the organization.
Main Advantages of Workday Products
Here are a few key benefits of using the Workday HR platform to plan, manage, and optimize your workforce operations throughout your entire enterprise…
1) Streamlined HR & Financial Processes
Workday Financial Management helps streamline financial processes by providing modern financial management capabilities in an adaptive cloud-based solution and supporting transaction processing, multidimensional reporting, consolidation, planning, and compliance, With an emphasis on innovation, automation, and streamlined processes, organizations leveraging Workday Financials can access all the information they need in one place, leverage mobile capabilities to easily manage financials, and achieve greater efficiency.
The Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) system provides a comprehensive, functional HR software designed to improve compliance and efficiency across organizations. Workday HCM offers advanced timekeeping features that allow employees to keep track of their regular and overtime hours, as well as features for managing training, performance, and benefits.
Workday Talent Management applications incorporate business and talent data into a single system, making it easier for users to identify retention risks, identify future leaders, and facilitate growth. Removing the distinction between transactions and analytics enable organizations to manage activities in real time, take action on data from anywhere within the platform, and gain trust in internal talent management data and operations.
2) Advanced Analytics & Reporting
Workday offers a secure and reliable system for workforce analytics and transactions, making it easier for organizations to translate talent and skills data, including financial data, operational analytics, and benchmark reporting data, into meaningful insights about their people.
Workday’s advanced analytics capabilities allow businesses to access and analyze their core business data, identify trends and patterns, and gain insights that can help users make more informed decisions. For example, with Workday’s analytics tools, businesses can track employee performance statistics and make well-informed purchasing decisions.
And, with training courses and education materials for continual learning, companies (and their Workday users) can create and customize reports tailored to their specific needs and leverage machine-learning functionality to quickly identify new opportunities for growth.
3) Improved Collaboration & Communication
Workday offers advanced tools and resources that facilitate better collaboration, networking, and learning between Workday users and organizations within the Workday landscape.
By leveraging Workday’s intuitive user interface (UI) and functional applications, users can access the tools and features they need when they need them, manage data, access advanced analytics, and connect with other Workday users.
Workday also offers built-in features for collaboration, like Talent Optimization and Workday Community applications, to help users share best practices, exchange ideas, and stay up-to-date on the latest products and features to improve the overall employee experience.
What Kind of Companies Use the Workday HCM System?
Workday is used across a wide range of organizations, including those in the Communications, Education, Energy and Resources, Financial Services, Retail, and Healthcare industries, to monitor their Human Capital Management operations, manage employees and their data, and leverage advances technology and tools to facilitate data-driven decisions and operations.
With advanced analytics and functional applications, Workday customers can customize their Workday experience to better meet their needs, tailor their operations to the size and complexity of their organization, optimize their workflows, increase productivity, and improve collaboration.
Here are some of their most notable customers:
- Amazon
- Bank of America
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- IHG
- Netflix
- The Ohio State University
Why Workday?
Key products included in Workday’s suite of connected applications offer tools and resources that help manage the entire workforce in one place, improve compliance with local laws and regulations, provide better data for decision making, increase process efficiencies, and offer mobile access at no additional cost.
With Workday’s cloud-based platform and products, organizations in any industry can manage their data and business processes more efficiently, adapt their Workday architecture to meet changing industry or business needs, stay up-to-date with new versions of the software, and ensure data accuracy through a single security model.
And, by understanding the benefits of Workday products and services and how they can help your business, you can gain better insights for more informed decisions and improve communication and collaboration across teams and business units.
Implementing the Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) System
If you’ve envisioned your goals and decided that Workday is the solution to help you reach them, your next step is implementation—that’s where the real work begins. Because Workday implementations affect so many people within an organization (not just HR departments), it’s important to be prepared for your transformation. In order to avoid implementation challenges and achieve a seamless transition, partnering with an IT consultant that has extensive Workday experience is key. Take your organization to the next level with Workday Human Capital Management.
Our senior-level Workday consultants, for example, have the experience to not only help you implement your solution successfully, but will also make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. Contact us to learn more and get started on your digital transformation journey.
Questions about Workday
What Is Workday Used for?
Workday ERP is a software system used for planning in areas such as human capital management (HCM), professional services automation, project management, finance, analytics, and more.
How Is Workday Different from Other ERP Systems?
Workday provides a smoother user interface experience that is built with modern technology.
What Industries Can Benefit from Using Workday?
Healthcare, Manufacturing, Higher Education and Retail are just a few of the industries that Workday supports.
How Can Surety Systems Help with Workday Implementation?
Surety can provide Workday consultants to assist with the initial implementation, help with the data migration, project management, integration, support and go-live.