8 Best Workforce Planning Software Tools (2024)
The best workforce planning software reviewed and rated by our HR tech experts. Find feature comparisons, pros & cons, pricing details, and more below.
Top Workforce Planning Software
Workforce planning refers to the business process of forecasting, analyzing, and organizing workforce supply and demand. In other words, it’s about making sure the right people are at the right job and at the right time. Hence, workforce planning software is a tool that is designed to perform this process more effectively and in less time.
Although many HR professionals agree that the workforce is one of the most important assets of an organization, the Society for Human Resource Management has pointed out that this asset is often overlooked. Some organizations don’t measure, optimize, and plan out their workforce, limiting at times the executive capacity of the business itself.
So, if you’re looking to avoid such problems, we’re glad that you’ve landed on our listing of the top workforce planning software vendors. This carefully selected list contains some of the best options in the market, but it was also made with variety in mind. We’ve tried to include at least one tool with a lengthy free trial and solutions that adapt well to many sorts of business sizes and industries.
To determine the top workforce planning software solutions, our team evaluated dozens of tools based on vendor demos, expert consultations, user reviews, and hands-on testing. We looked for solutions that excel in three key areas: data integration, scenario modeling, and user experience.
- Data integration: The workforce planning tools that rise to the top can pull data from your core HR, payroll, and other business systems to create a single source of truth. This enables accurate forecasts based on real employee data. We gave preference to solutions with pre-built integrations to major HCM platforms and the flexibility to connect to multiple data sources.
- Scenario planning: The best workforce planning software allows you to model various scenarios to see the impact of different hiring, promotion, and attrition assumptions. We favored solutions that support the setup of multiple assumptions, what-if analyses, side-by-side scenario comparisons, and more so you can adjust variables and see how headcount, costs, and other metrics shift accordingl
- User experience: While planning capabilities are important, the tools also need to be easy for planners and managers to use. We looked for intuitive interfaces, customizable dashboards, and smart collaboration features. The top solutions provide self-service access and enable different teams to work together seamlessly.
For a deep dive into our methodology for evaluating HR software, please see our editorial guidelines.
APS
Anaplan
Planful
Visier People
Quinyx
WorkDay
SAP SuccessFactors
Need Help? Talk to an HR Software Advisor!
Tell us more about your company & an HR Software Advisor will help you find the right software
APS
We had a blast testing out APS workforce management software. It was impossible not to notice the automated org charts, detailed staffing metrics, and position management this vendor offered—efficient and incredibly helpful for organizations to guide their staffing decisions.
PROS
- Personalized customer service with a dedicated account team for ongoing support.
- Strong talent gap identification and workforce planning features for strategic hiring.
- Automated organizational chart keeps company structure up-to-date.
- Flexible staffing and position management tools for accurate labor budgeting and forecasting.
- Self-service access to the org chart improves visibility and communication across teams.
- Customizable metrics and reporting help forecast staffing needs and track trends over time.
- APS is very cost-effective. Although the pricing is custom and depends on your business size, we’ve heard current users speak of its affordability. Jackie R, who is a HR Director for a small-sized company says, “I love that APS offers all aspects of an HRIS system at an affordable price. We are a small business and can't afford the big name payroll vendors, but get everything they offer at APS for a price we can afford as a small business.”
- Their customer service is remarkable. As testified by multiple users, the customer service team at APS is prompt and there for you every step of the way, right from implementation to anytime you get stuck using the software. They’ll likely resolve your issue within the same day.
- APS is very easy to navigate and everything is updated and saved in real-time. Despite its complex features, you would likely not find it confusing. They also have how-to guides that come in very handy.
CONS
- Undisclosed pricing. No free trial available.
- Only only service clients in the U.S.
- Payroll must be purchased to access the workforce management product.
- Learning curve for reporting features may require support assistance initially.
- The reporting feature is limited in functionality. Sometimes, there will be missing information that you may require.
- Although their customer support is prompt, you can’t directly reach their team via phone. Customer service answers your queries via email and if you wish to talk to someone on the phone, you’ll have to mention it.
APS Workforce Planning Software provides a robust and well-rounded approach to managing labor, budgeting, and staffing needs.
We love the ability to manage labor costs by tracking headcount and employee productivity APS offers. Throughout our testing, the system provided excellent visibility into staffing levels (overstaffed, understaffed, fully staffed, and open positions)—a key metric to ensure we’re optimally staffed. We also found the software’s capability to identify talent gaps impressive. We could, for example, quickly assess where additional hires were needed to meet future goals and develop strategic plans accordingly.
APS seems to know how to streamline everything from onboarding to employee progression. Linking workforce decisions to larger company goals was simply easy. This, combined with the staffing metrics we mentioned earlier, is precisely what one would need to anticipate potential workforce issues and proactively plan for change.
The staffing and position management tools in APS provide granular control over labor management. We appreciated the ability to establish positions, headcount, and budgeting—all crucial for effective workforce planning. Plus, the feature to auto-assign details like the reporting manager and wage type during the new hire process helped maintain data accuracy and onboarding efficiency.
The system also enabled us to view headcount per position, which was helpful for identifying discrepancies and planning future hires. The transparency created by position hierarchies meant that reporting structures were clear across the organization, and we particularly liked the automated org chart. Any updates to position details, reporting structures, or employee transfers were reflected automatically (farewell spreadsheets!).
There’s also this self-service access to the org chart we discovered in our test, which enables managers and employees to have a clear view of their team’s structure and role responsibilities. Needless to say, this visibility increased engagement and alignment across the company.
Let’s also discuss APS’s reporting features. While they are highly customizable, we did encounter a bit of a learning curve. Fortunately, the APS support team was incredibly helpful in guiding us through the setup and ensuring we got the metrics we wanted.
Now, on to the drawbacks. Unlike its payroll product, APS doesn’t publish its workforce planning tool. There is also no free trial, which definitely is not our cup of tea.
Another letdown is that to access APS’s workforce management features, you have to purchase the payroll component, which is unquestionably not ideal for teams interested in just the workforce planning offering.
While APS has built a solid reputation in the U.S. workforce management software market, we feel that its strong focus on domestic companies, in a way, leaves international organizations out in the cold.
3,500+ companies, including Wahlburgers, Rainbow Sandals, Grayson College, and Hillside Christian Church.
APS’s workforce planning software has undisclosed pricing.
Best For
U.S.-based companies seeking a workforce management tool with strong payroll service capability.
Anaplan
Anaplan is all about complex scenario planning. Their robust solution is used for many kinds of planning processes and forecasting.
PROS
CONS
Within HR, Anaplan is used to turn workforce planning into an extension of the company’s strategic, operational, and financial projects. HR organizations can connect with finances and business data, as well as third-party sources, in order to plan and visualize various workforce scenarios.
For instance, Anaplan can forecast attrition based upon past experiences, plan workforce movements, set and monitor headcount targets, and identify talent gaps. All this is done within an excel-like platform with rich analytics and statistical capabilities.
- Del Monte
- Vodafone
- The Greenery
- RSA
- Tableau
- PayU
Anaplan offers three plans, Basic, Professional, and Enterprise. These vary in their planning and modeling capabilities, but all of them are custom-priced depending on team size and needs.
Best For
Several business sizes and industries could make good use of Anaplan’s extensive platform.
Board
Board helps manage and plan human resources efforts with a unified analytics software platform.
PROS
CONS
Board has business intelligence products for HR, finance, sales performance, and supply chain management. Their HR tool helps manage resources for the department in a manner that stays unified with the plans and activities of the other business units.
Their platform focuses on leveraging workforce analytics to provide actionable insights. When it comes to workforce planning and performance management, these insights can be key in making sure that the proper decisions are taken at the right moment.
- Coca Cola
- KPMG
- Puma
- Mitsubishi Electric
- United States Navy
Board does not provide pricing details upfront.
Best For
Board is best-suited for enterprises that want to align their decision-making behind a single source of data.
Planful
Planful connect HR, finance, and operational data together. Businesses can then plan out the workforce that they’ll need to meet their goals.
PROS
CONS
Planful strives to help teams that may be spending too much time in manual processes, suffering from siloed approaches, and stuck to knee-jerk reactions to day-to-day problems. They ease these headaches by enhancing workforce planning with accurate and current data from the business, better aligning HR’s forecasts with what’s happening, and being planned, at other departments.
In this sense, Planful works for teams beyond HR as well. For example, as soon as a workforce budget is created, HR data is instantly loaded into the system, saving time for each manager, whether they’re in finance, HR, or marketing. Also, once a workforce forecast is done, it can easily be adjusted to match market ups and downs.
- Five Guys
- Nerdwallet
- PalletOne
- Morphe
- Specialized
- Thule
Planful doesn’t provide pricing upfront.
Best For
HR departments that want a tight partnership with the finance team when it comes to workforce planning.
Visier People
Visier is a robust analytics solution that has a People Planning module. Their platform is built mainly for mid-market to enterprise clients and they offer professional services as well.
PROS
CONS
The fact that they’ve chosen to name their workforce planning module ‘People Planning’ goes to show how in tune the folks at Visier are to modern human resources. Thinking of that, it makes sense that they keep coming up in many HR analytics conversations.
Many organizations use Visier to better understand themselves. Whether it’s retention, headcount forecasting, TA funnels, or how all these efforts stack up in relation to peer companies, Visier has very robust people analytics capabilities to offer.
Visier is used at organizations like Amgen, BBVA, Micron, EA, Nielsen, Bridgestone, Dignity Health, and more.
Pricing for Visier is not currently disclosed, so the best way forward is to get in touch or request a demo.
Best For
Mid-market to enterprise clients looking to get workforce planning done right, but also implement a myriad of HR analytics tools while they’re at it.
Quinyx
Quinyx is a powerful and user-friendly workforce planning software that can help businesses to improve their scheduling, reporting, and employee management. Its feature set, data-driven approach, and scalable model make it a perfect option for fast-growing companies.
PROS
- Quinyx provides advanced scheduling features, including pre-built templates, options to roll out schedules fully manually, semi-manually, or automatedly, auto-compliance warnings, and shift management capabilities.
- Customer support can be reached through a variety of means: online help documents, tickets, emails, and phone calls. Users have highly rated them for their helpfulness.
- Has a variety of reporting features that allow managers to track employee attendance, productivity, and time off.
- Can integrate with various other software, such as payroll and HR systems, ERP, and Forecasting & BI.
- Available in 15 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Russian, and Turkish.
CONS
- Some users have reported that Quinyx can be slow and unresponsive, especially when managing large teams.
- Some also have stated that Quinyx can take a long time to update data, such as employee schedules and timesheets.
- It is impossible to copy and paste large numbers of shifts at once in the standard schedule mode.
- Tech issues requiring Quinyx’s Service Request Form (SRF) will be invoiced for at least 4 hours.
Quinyx strives to provide the most up-to-date and significant insights regarding recruitment needs. Businesses can use the workforce planning solution to calculate and visualize various what-if scenarios and the impact that they could have on their workforce. We have tested Quinyx for our workforce planning and have found some really good gems about the product.
First and foremost, Quinyx packs a lot of features that we have found helpful. For instance, we like the ability to create schedules based on Quinyx’s pre-built templates — saving us a lot of time and hassle. We also like that Quinyx uses AI to auto-detect our future staffing gaps and give us recommendations on how to fill them. The platform can help with proactive planning regarding training, outsourcing, or reallocating people. To do all this, Quinyx takes multiple data sources and factors them into consideration. These include resource constraints, costs, current attrition level, and efficiency rates.
But it’s worth mentioning that several users whose teams are big shared have encountered slow platform loading, especially when they update data or schedules, which can be frustrating. Quinyx doesn’t have a transparent pricing structure. The tool doesn’t have a free trial that we can sign up to try things upfront, either. While it provides customer support in various channels: phone calls, emails, tickets, and help center without charging additional fees, the tech support submitted via its service request form costs a minimum of 4 hours of service fees, regardless of the request’s type.
McDonald’s, Hilton, Starbucks, Domino’s, DHL, London City Airport, Elysium Healthcare.
Pricing details for Quinyx are not provided upfront.
Best For
Quinyx is a worth-exploring workforce planning tool for medium-sized businesses and growing teams being on the market for a scalable solution to help them improve their scheduling, engagement, time attendance, and strategic workforce planning.
WorkDay
Workday is one of the most popular people management software products out there, with a workforce planning tool specifically geared towards enterprises.
PROS
- Workday customer support is available via community, live chat, and phone.
- Option to try Workday Adaptive Planning free for 30 days.
- Compatible with 300 HR systems, including ERP/GL, CRM, HR, and PSA.
- Configurable dashboard with AI and ML-driven insights.
- Keeps workforce plans and budgets in sync with financial plans in real-time.
- Provides SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.
- Accessible customer support from the community, live chat, and telephone.
- Compatible with 300 HR systems such as ERP/GL, CRM, HR, and PSA.
- Configurable dashboard with AI and ML-driven insights.
- Ability to maintain real-time alignment of budgets and workforce plans.
- SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.
CONS
- Pricing is undisclosed.
- Takes time for implementation (average deployment time is 4.5 months).
- Can be challenging to navigate for first-time users and may require some training to get used to all features.
- A few users encountered trouble logging in.
- Undisclosed pricing.
- No free trial for its talent management software.
- Time-consuming implementation period (average 4.5 months).
- Challenge navigating for first-time users may require training.
- Issues with logging in were reported by users.
Workday is one of the most popular HR suites for enterprise teams. Although it is known to have a lengthy implementation process, it maintains a loyal customer base with those needing a global-ready product that can scale, and checks the necessary IT/Infosec boxes.
The workforce planning tool is captained by a well-made dashboard, which provides a complete and highly customizable view of workforce data, including total headcount, headcount by location, worker type, open positions, the average cost per hire, and more. Numerous integrations are available, and the dashboard can be configured to reflect the selections of the user.
From the dashboard, users can generate self-service reports with more comprehensive insights on topics from headcount to skills gaps. Since planning, execution, and analysis are done in one single platform, leadership can keep track of every workforce planning decision and make needed adjustments in a timely manner.
Quicken Loans, AstraZeneca, Target, Dell, Bank of America.
Workday pricing is undisclosed. You need to contact their sales department for exact pricing details.
Best For
WorkDay is a great choice for enterprise teams looking for a comprehensive workforce planning solution coupled with core HR and business needs within the same platform.
I used Workday daily to manage various aspects of our organization's workforce. The key workflows I rely on include employee data management, performance management, and reporting. For employee data, I maintain up-to-date employee records, including personal information, job titles, and reporting structures. For performance management, as a manager, we used it to track employee performance by setting goals, conducting performance reviews, and managing feedback. Workday also has robust reporting functionality.
User-friendly interface: Workday's clean and intuitive design makes it easy for users to navigate and find the information they need.
Scalability: This makes it an ideal solution for growing businesses that require additional functionality over time. As a company expands or needs change, Workday can be customized to meet those evolving requirements.
Seamless integration: Workday offers robust integration capabilities with various third-party applications, ensuring a smooth flow of data across different systems. This compatibility with other software tools enables organizations to maintain a connected ecosystem, streamlining processes and reducing the need for manual data entry or reconciliation.
My organization was 10k plus employees and our old HRIS system was dated and clunky. I used it for approximately 2 years. We needed better self-service for not only employees but for managers as well with built-in approval processes. Additionally, we were looking for a tool that could handle the complex requirements of our global workforce, including compliance with local labor laws and regulations. Our previous system didn't have robust reporting capabilities, and it was challenging to extract useful data for analysis. Furthermore, it made it easier to manage employee data and processes across multiple systems. It also provided built-in compliance features, ensuring that we were meeting legal requirements in all countries where we had operations.
Cost: The investment in Workday is substantial, and not a good option for smaller companies.
Learning curve: While Workday's user interface is intuitive, the platform's extensive features may require some time to master. Adequate training and onboarding are essential for users to get the most out of the software.
Limited customization: Workday offers a wide range of built-in features and functionalities, but it may not be the best fit for organizations with highly specific or unique requirements.
While Workday has a long list of impressive companies that utilize their system I find SAP SuccessFactors does just as much and for slightly cheaper.
Functionality: Determine the features and capabilities that are most important to your organization. Consider aspects such as human resources, payroll, talent acquisition, time and attendance, performance management, financial management, and analytics. Ensure the tool you choose covers the required functionalities or can be easily integrated with other systems to create a comprehensive solution.
Scalability: Assess whether the tool can grow and adapt to your organization's changing needs. A scalable solution will allow you to add or modify features as your business evolves, ensuring long-term viability.
Integration: Examine the tool's ability to integrate with existing systems and third-party applications. Seamless integration is essential for streamlining processes and reducing the need for manual data entry or reconciliation.
User experience: Evaluate the tool's user interface and overall usability. An intuitive and user-friendly design will encourage adoption and make it easier for employees to effectively use the platform.
They have expanded product offerings and made some user experience enhancements.
Enterprise with large (1000k+) and global employees.
Small businesses with under 1k employees.
SAP SuccessFactors
As one of the big names in enterprise software, it’s no surprise that SAP SuccessFactors has an HR metrics and workforce planning tool made for medium to large businesses.
PROS
CONS
SAP SuccessFactors is a cloud-based solution with a people analytics module that’s built for strategic workforce planning. Using augmented analytics and AI-driven insights, HR teams at large companies can make smarter and more informed decisions when it comes to talent acquisition, employee engagement, internal mobility, diversity, turnover, and more.
- American Airlines
- Vitra
- Premier Foods
- Ernst & Young
- Hero Group
- Terex
- Watco Companies
The exact pricing for SAP SuccessFactors is only available upon request, but they do offer a 90-day free trial of their analytics cloud.
Best For
Enterprises looking to leverage AI in order to streamline their workforce planning.
ChartHop
ChartHop is an organizational management software company that is rapidly evolving into one of the most interesting HR Tech vendors in the business.
PROS
- Charthop integrates well with existing HR/ATS systems for centralized management.
- The drag-and-drop org chart editing is highly rated by users for its ease of use.
- The Goal Tracking interface is quite intuitive and easy to edit.
- The Map feature shows employee locations, promoting a sense of togetherness for remote teams.
- Charthop nicely integrates with your existing HR and ATS systems. Having everything under one roof means not having to use ten different applications.
- Charthop’s organization chart is its biggest asset. Their drag-and-drop feature to edit the chart is a hit amongst a majority of the users. Overall, the tool makes navigation throughout the company really easy - you can find the people you need, figure out their responsibilities, and track changes after the latest company re-organization.
- Charthop's goal tracking interface is simple, intuitive, and easy to build. There's not much else you can ask for.
- Charthop's Map feature allows businesses to see where each employee is located. For organizations that work remotely, this promotes a feeling of togetherness, which is crucial for employee engagement.
CONS
- Org chart navigation can be tricky with unintuitive zooming gestures.
- Its many complex features can be overwhelming to learn initially.
- The Search function lacks guidance and sometimes yields inaccurate results.
- The UI feels a bit outdated and clunky.
- Charthop's organization chart navigation isn't the best. The chart zooms in and out quite quickly, and the gestures aren't intuitive, making it difficult to use.
- Charthop can be a little complicated to figure out. Also, the fact that there are so many features is a little intimidating.
- Charthop's search function isn't user-friendly. There's not much information on how to use it effectively, and it sometimes throws the wrong results.
- Charthop's UI is somewhat dated and clunky.
Although initially just an org chart software, Charthop now markets itself as an all-encompassing organizational management solution. It provides a robust dashboard with visualizations of workforce analytics like attrition risk, diversity metrics, and performance trends. This enables users to quickly spot insights.
Users appreciate Charthop's ability to integrate with existing HR systems like ATS, consolidating people data into one platform for streamlined reporting and analysis. Charthop also allows customizable reports and KPI tracking aligned to business goals. It makes sharing actionable insights across the organization simple.
In summary, despite some navigation and search issues, Charthop is an excellent people analytics tool with its org charts, mapping, and reporting. Its consolidated view of people data is quite valuable for organizations aiming to optimize their workforce.
Best For
Companies of all sizes can benefit from ChartHop's offering. It's proved to be particularly effective with remote teams.
ChartHop harmonizes information from our HRIS and ATS, providing us with a dynamic org chart that displays our current team as well as future hires; we can easily scroll in time to see historical and future statuses. We can also view data by department or location as needed. The map view is a tremendous help in visualizing our organizational distribution across the globe.
The data sheets option offers data in excel format. The automatic sync option into Google Sheets is a bonus and makes collaborating a breeze. We have stopped using our HRIS reporting feature and instead review data through ChartHop.
The UI is very appealing and well laid out. I like the dashboard and the components of what is included. It has beautifully developed org charts. Extracting data from the data sheet tab is easy. ChartHop compiles data from HRIS and ATS to create a robust database to build reports and organization structures. The support and product assistance is great.
We were looking for a comprehensive "1-stop" shop for critical People Analytics. We've been using ChartHop for over two years and are very satisfied with the data management and reporting capabilities. While our HRIS system offered some basic dashboard options, there were a lot of gaps, and we don't have the capacity to build the dashboard internally. We started with the free version which offered minimal yet useful insights and have remained impressed ever since. The Org Charts in a single platform is a dynamic solution. ChartHop has completely changed the way we look at employee data.
Charthop is not the most user-friendly where mapping custom fields and building reports is concerned, and they could have more self-service options available so that one-to-one support is not needed. Charthop can seem difficult to use at first and the implementation process can be overwhelming.
Charthop is unique in the way performance reviews transfer to the compensation section. There's also a variety of options for viewing employee information. Charthop is better than our HRIS for delivering information, and is one of the best employee dashboard analytics available for the cost, service and capabilities offered.
It is most important to consider integrations and compatibility with other systems as this is pivotal to the success of this platform within any organization. It is equally important to consider how information will be uploaded/downloaded. Lastly, consider the features needed; customization can be tricky with Charthop, so if there are specific data/analytics needed, it is imperative to ascertain whether these data sets are possible to extract from this platform.
Charthop is ever evolving to meet user needs and is transparent in its communications of such via regular notifications and emails. There have been improvements to data fields and sorting and filtering functions.
Organizations of any size and within any industry could benefit from Charthop. Charthop has different packages offering a variety of features, making it easy to adapt to an organization's changing needs through periods of growth, expansion and/or transition.
Charthop is not a good choice for organizations seeking a cheap or low-cost option; although the free version offers wonderful insight, the paid versions offer the complete picture, and can be costly by comparison to HRIS included functions.
Use Cases: Why Use Workforce Planning Software
Workforce planning software can help you optimize productivity — both for you and your employees. As such, you’ll be able to reduce costs and be more efficient as a company overall. Here’s how WFP systems can make HR jobs easier:
- Forecasting Labor Demands: Know how many employees — and what type of employees — you need on a given day based on expected demand so you avoid over- and under-staffed days and not get stuck paying unnecessary overtime. For example, if you have a call center and are approaching a busy sales season, you'll likely need to temporarily increase your workforce. But exactly how many more people will you need at your contact center? How many overseas staff will you need to engage employer of record companies for? With workforce software, you can find out how many more you'll need to cover your expected increase in sales volume (without hiring too many and overpaying or hiring too few and losing sales).
- Scheduling Employees: Manage all your employees’ schedules in one place, so you never have to worry about over-scheduling, missed shifts, or unhappy employees (or managers).
- Time & Attendance: Attendance tracking and time management are hugely important tasks, but they also can take a lot of YOUR time to keep up with. Fortunately, scheduling software lets you easily track your employees’ hours and allows them to clock in and out. Depending on the workforce software you use, you can manage time and attendance directly through the platform itself by integrating with an existing timesheet tool you’re already using.
- Time Off Requests: Allow employees to request paid time off (PTO), parental leave, and more. Managers can approve or deny requests right in the program and see who will be out when creating schedules. That way, you never make the mistake of scheduling an employee when they won’t actually be working.
As you can see, convenience plays a big role in why you might use a workforce planning tool. Traditionally mundane and manual processes — from managers creating and assigning employee schedules to employees requesting time off — can be streamlined, managed, and stored all in one place.
Pricing: What WFP Solutions Cost
More often than not, workforce planning systems will charge on a per employee per month basis. Some might offer certain modules as independently-priced add-ons or charge a fixed annual fee. Hence, the best way forward is to see which vendor from this list works with companies similar to yours and get in touch with them for an actual quote.
Key Considerations of Workforce Planning Software
Is it well-known that the workforce is often an organization’s biggest strength but also its greatest cost. Because of that, it’s a challenge to move beyond any slow and manual processes that fail to integrate into the bigger strategy. When choosing a workforce planning tool, one should make the following considerations in order to truly reap its benefits.
- Continuous optimization: Workforce planning tools aren’t ‘set it and forget it’ like other HR solutions out there. Since a business's staffing requirements, like the business itself, are always shifting, the program needs to be updated accordingly. New forecasts need to be made considering the latest insights and developments in order for the actual workforce planning to be effective. The main thing to take away from this is that the system you choose should have reporting functionality that lets you know when it’s time for a new forecast.
- Syncing with finance & other departments: One of the main characteristics of effective workforce planning is that it takes into account the needs, plans, and objectives of other parts of the organization. Thus, HR becomes a strategic partner in fulfilling the business’s broader goals. Hence, it’s important that any WP tool provides visibility to business leaders in other parts of the organization, so everyone can leverage it, and the insights it creates, for their decision making.
- Mobile readiness: Lastly, the solution should not only be accessible to people beyond HR, it should also be convenient to use. Choosing a solution that’s mobile-friendly creates a better experience for everyone involved since they can study the data and consider new insights from multiple devices. If the solution also has HRIS capabilities such as scheduling and time tracking, then it’s all the better if employees can access these features while on-the-go as well.
Demo Questions: What To Ask About Workforce Planning Tools
You’ll likely have to book a demo in order to find out the exact pricing of most of these tools, and it’s also necessary to see them in action.
Now, one thing to keep in mind here is that even if seeing a demo was a bit of a necessity born from the lack of a free trial (when there isn’t one), you should drive the discussion as much as possible.
The main goal of each demo is to understand if this solution could be the best for your unique needs, and which features it has that make it so. You should also talk about what integrations are important to you, what kind of insights you’re after, and what kind of support you’ll get if something goes wrong.
Here are some other questions to help you get started, but we recommend you draft a list of the ones that are most important to you and your team. You can bring that to the demo, or even send it to the salesperson that’ll be conducting it in advance.
- Is this suited to a particular industry or type of worker?
- Do I need to use the rest of your HR software suite to use this?
- How will others in the organization use this solution?
- How have other organizations used this to optimize their WP efforts?
- What are the key features I want to ask about?
- What are the things that would make me nervous about buying this sort of solution?
- What kind of implementation plan would we be looking at?
Workforce Planning Software FAQs
What is workforce planning?
Workforce planning is the process of preparing your business for new hires, terminations, succession planning, growth, and acquisition.
What are the three stages of workforce planning?
The three stages of workforce planning are acquisition, development, and termination.
What is workforce planning software?
Workforce planning software are solutions that are designed to manage, analyze, and track administrative processes related to your employees. It encompasses the entire employee lifecycle, from hiring to termination.
What features do workforce planning software solutions provide?
Workforce planning software offers the following features: time tracking, scheduling, mobile app, analytics, reporting, payroll, benefits, performance management, AI, compliance, and communication.
What are the benefits of using workforce planning software?
Benefits of using workforce planning software include reduced compliance risk, improved retention, and automation of tedious tasks.
Last Advice on Buying Workforce Planning Software
Workforce planning software can be a key part of assessing gaps in your workforce and determining which interventions need to be made in order to have the right people in the right position at the best possible time. But of course, the tool is not everything. For workforce planning to truly become an aid to broader business goals, there needs to be a strong link between all departments.
We mention that because although picking out 2-3 tools from this list and booking demos is one of the obvious next steps, you should make an effort to involve every stakeholder in the conversation. WP software, if it is to fulfill its purpose, is not only for the HR department.
If you’re in need of a broader HR solution that helps with workforce planning, recruitment, and more, check out our roundups on the best HR software, the best HR tools for SMBs, or the best free HR software.
About Us
- Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
- Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
