ADP Workforce Now vs. Workday Human Capital Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ADP Workforce Now
Score 7.5 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
ADP Workforce Now is a cloud-based HR platform for mid-sized businesses. It features customizable modules of various HR services that businesses can tailor to their specific needs, as well as regulatory monitoring and alerts to help businesses remain compliant.N/A
Workday HCM
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Workday Human Capital Management is a cloud-native system offering a globally consistent user experience. Workday HCM is part of an intelligent, unified system with other Workday products.N/A
Pricing
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Editions & Modules
Essential
Contact sales team
Enhanced
Contact sales team
Complete
Contact sales team
HR Pro
Contact sales team
Payroll Essentials
Contact sales team
HR Plus
Contact sales team
Hiring Advantage
Contact sales team
Performance Plus
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ADP Workforce NowWorkday HCM
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlease contact ADP for a product demo and ask about a hands-on "test drive" of Workforce Now.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Considered Both Products
ADP Workforce Now
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now is the best HR Software tool in the market because it offers multiple solutions. Other tools in the market only offer one tool and this one offers it all. This makes our HR departments jobs easier and they save a lot of money only have to purchase one tool …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
not particularly different, except I think the customer service is worse with ADP Workforce Now.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
Between the different HRISs and ATSs I have had experience with, ADP is probably the most robust. It is pretty difficult to find a system that incorporates all the essential HR functions (people data, time and attendance, PM, ATS, etc) and does it all seamlessly for large …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
We have Workday for other features like Time Off/Leave, organizational chart, personal information, and benefits information. ADP is how we handle the day to day with clocking in and out and being able to see our pay statements easily with ADP Workforce Now. Some features …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
We selected ADP due to its value and included capabilities. I find it to be very similar to the majority of the major payroll providers and in hindsight [I] am not sure this is the route we [should] have gone. If you have a robust HR/Payroll team, I think the product is fine, …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP seems much more flexible and robust with regards to what you can do but doesn't necessarily make it easy to actually do. Paycom seemed like they had a more employee "friendly" UI and shared tables but seemed a lot more rigid with regards to how you can do certain things or …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
We were looking at these vendors as options to change from ADP. They are still on a mainframe structure, while most competitors are on a cloud-based system.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
WFN offers a much friendlier user experience. Workday was a "pretty" system but did not offer near the functionality that WFN does. When completing a task in WFN, the steps are logical. If you did not know how to complete a task, the system is set up in a way that a few good …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
Constantly evaluating other systems is important to ensure the best fit is being utilized, but staying with ADP has been easy to this point because of the price point and historical data. Nothing is competitive enough to this point to warrant moving from the history and trusted …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
In a previous company we made the transition from ADP to Workday and from the short time I had experienced it, Workday seemed to be an upgrade to ADP for a similar cost and more robust in capabilities.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I would say there are some features that ADP is doing good but some features are lacking (Time and Attendance, Organizational Chart).
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I was not part of that decision-making process.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I've been very happy with my Workforce Now experience compared to PayForce with WorkDay during 2010ish, and PeopleSoft in the '00's. It is a relatively seamless experience that improves often.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
Workday was able to address the complex needs of agency with regard to managing various types of employees and in different settings, with varying funding sources. Single-sign on was successful and used agency-wide. Reporting at every level and for every department is more …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I enjoyed working with the other platforms mentioned such as Workday, SuccessFactors, and UltiPro. I think ADP as a whole could do a better job competing with some of these other sAAs solutions. UltiPro is much cheaper and provides the same services that ADP does.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I used Workday Benefits at a former employer. ADP Benefits is easier to use, and the open enrollment support staff that ADP provides is very helpful if you need them.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now had the features we wanted along with the compliance piece that other vendors couldn't match. We were happy that they could provide a clear path to getting us up and running in the shortest time frame available. We were very happy with the speed of the …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I have tagged all the main products my company uses above. I would say ADP sticks out since it is very easy to use and has relevant information.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
There is no other company out there with ADP's reputation, standards, and products. If I were to start a business today, ADP would be my partner. I have used, MSA, GEAC, Ceridian, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Paychex, SAP and Workday, none of them are as reliable as ADP and simple to …
Workday HCM
Chose Workday Human Capital Management
Workday HCM helps my organization better align our corporate strategy with defined objectives and KPIs while managing the performance of team members to deliver results. The user interface and time tracking capabilities of Workday HCM are also best-in-class. The Workday cloud …
Chose Workday Human Capital Management
I explained the differences in Workday and Concur in my previous answers. I did not select Workday, someone in Operations did. I liked Concur better from a expensing perspective. However, Workday is overall more robust since it has PTO functionality, org structure, …
Chose Workday Human Capital Management
The user interface is modern and quick to use, similar to Google and Amazon. The system works at a faster pace, allowing you to get more work done. There is a robust community of users that provide support, answers, and reporting templates (to name a few) when you have …
Chose Workday Human Capital Management
We liked that all customers are on the same version of the product and the minimum bi-annual updates. The customization is in the business processes you build within the delivered system. No "Bolt Ons". The visibility to managers to their teams was another big plus and we like …
TrustRadius Insights
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

ADP Workforce Now and Workday HCM are HR Management solutions designed to create a single source of data and a single user experience for employees. ADP Workforce is more popular with mid-sized companies while Workday HCM is preferred by larger enterprises.

Features

ADP Workforce Now and Workday HCM both include the basic features one can expect from HR management tools, but they also have a few standout features.

ADP Workforce offers strong customer support and online resources for customer success. It also offers strong self-service tools for employees. Workday HCM has a great user interface, strong workflow management, and a simple onboarding process.

Limitations

In addition to their strengths, ADP Workforce Now and Workday HCM have some limitations that may be important to some businesses.

ADP Workforce Now has a dated interface, particularly on its search functionalities. Additionally, ADP Workforce Now communicates downtime through a social media esque program rather than by directly contacting users. Workday HCM requires paid add-ons for some features such as storing tax forms. Some users also cite performance issues with Workday HCM’s self-service system.

Pricing

ADP Workforce Now’s pricing is dependent on the business. Quotes are available from the vendor. Workday HCM starts at $100.00 per user per year. Both HR management solutions have add-ons that can be purchased to add new functionality to their base features.

Features
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.7
1058 Ratings
5% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.4
96 Ratings
4% above category average
Employee demographic data8.3935 Ratings8.381 Ratings
Employment history8.1974 Ratings8.691 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.1924 Ratings8.493 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.6951 Ratings9.188 Ratings
Organizational charting7.3666 Ratings9.287 Ratings
Organization and location management7.7731 Ratings8.884 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)6.9673 Ratings6.759 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.9
1069 Ratings
3% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.8
80 Ratings
8% above category average
Pay calculation8.71030 Ratings8.468 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors7.5408 Ratings8.656 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.9321 Ratings9.818 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.5817 Ratings8.363 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.71017 Ratings8.669 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.3800 Ratings9.066 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.5488 Ratings9.243 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.9
875 Ratings
3% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.5
74 Ratings
4% above category average
Approval workflow7.7797 Ratings8.573 Ratings
Balance details7.9829 Ratings8.473 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.1673 Ratings8.759 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.7
1050 Ratings
6% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.3
94 Ratings
1% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.21013 Ratings8.883 Ratings
Update personal information8.21003 Ratings8.692 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.9811 Ratings7.673 Ratings
Employee recognition6.5382 Ratings7.957 Ratings
View job history7.732 Ratings8.883 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.0
12 Ratings
28% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.2
25 Ratings
3% above category average
Tracking of all physical assets6.012 Ratings8.225 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.8
974 Ratings
11% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.3
78 Ratings
9% above category average
Report builder7.6957 Ratings8.874 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.1952 Ratings8.576 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data5.6569 Ratings7.864 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.2
142 Ratings
10% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.5
56 Ratings
6% above category average
New hire portal7.5138 Ratings8.452 Ratings
Manager tracking tools6.8112 Ratings8.752 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.1
329 Ratings
12% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.4
60 Ratings
4% above category average
Corporate goal setting7.1255 Ratings8.650 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.0307 Ratings8.659 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.1252 Ratings7.851 Ratings
Performance tracking7.2302 Ratings8.558 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.4
426 Ratings
21% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.8
63 Ratings
11% above category average
Performance plans6.6383 Ratings8.962 Ratings
Performance improvement plans6.3328 Ratings8.854 Ratings
Review status tracking6.0386 Ratings8.758 Ratings
Review reminders6.9402 Ratings9.058 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.4335 Ratings8.851 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.0
7 Ratings
26% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
7.8
40 Ratings
0% above category average
Create succession plans/pools5.86 Ratings9.234 Ratings
Candidate ranking5.86 Ratings7.435 Ratings
Candidate search6.37 Ratings7.938 Ratings
Candidate development6.26 Ratings6.837 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.0
438 Ratings
24% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.3
48 Ratings
8% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.2383 Ratings8.145 Ratings
Company Website Posting6.9374 Ratings8.439 Ratings
Publish to Social Media5.3300 Ratings8.634 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting6.2336 Ratings8.540 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention2.38 Ratings7.739 Ratings
Applicant Tracking6.8378 Ratings8.140 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.3399 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(1123 ratings)
8.7
(130 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.4
(83 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Usability
2.7
(80 ratings)
7.6
(15 ratings)
Availability
7.3
(14 ratings)
6.6
(8 ratings)
Performance
6.4
(13 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(494 ratings)
8.0
(27 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(9 ratings)
9.6
(6 ratings)
Online Training
5.8
(17 ratings)
7.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.6
(34 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(10 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.1
(8 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.6
(785 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.2
(8 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
6.1
(8 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
ADP Workforce NowWorkday Human Capital Management
Likelihood to Recommend
ADP
During COVID, ADP Workforce Now was great about keeping up with changing laws and regulations. They built reports that helped us apply for PPP loans and then later apply for forgiveness. Webinars and other training avenues were well constructed, accurate, and informative. We were all at a loss together and having a partner who ensured the legal side was met was one less worry. They can easily do the day-to-day compliance and regulatory things. COVID highlighted how quickly it could be done.
Read full review
Workday
I would say it's well suited in every environment because I think it does so much. It's like the holy grail of HRIS systems is what I like to call it because thinking about all parts of the employee lifecycle, it lives here in Workday Human Capital Management. So I love the fact that you can do the people data analytics, you can store employee records, the talent acquisition pieces there. I'm thinking I can't think of anything negative right now except for the fact that I can't drill down into the data for the people analytics side. Other than that, I think it's literally, yeah, the holy grail of HRIS systems, I love it and I would highly recommend it.
Read full review
Pros
ADP
  • HRIS that is personalized for the employee and addresses DE&I needs.
  • Payroll, of course! The system addresses all needs, such as deductions, additional pay, premium OT, and shift differentials.
  • Onboarding is an excellent way to stay in compliance and have all documents completed.
  • Tax and Banking and resolution to any issues.
Read full review
Workday
  • Groups employees in management hierarchies and creates Org Charts that are easy to navigate and allow for visualizing management chains regardless of employee locations
  • Intuitive and easy to use. The Workday search functionality works very much like Google; one can search for anything that they have access to in the database and drill down into the various details. All information is connected through hyperlinks and users can easily keep digging into the details for as far as their security access would take them.
  • Tasks such as to do, review or approve items are sent to the user's Workday Inbox, very much resembling email. Notifications about outstanding "to do" items are also sent to each the user's work email address on a daily basis.
Read full review
Cons
ADP
  • Customized pre-process payroll reports (Limited on pre-process payroll reports)
  • Labor Allocation (Allocations make payroll reporting very hard to review and find any errors )
  • Recruiting (ATS is very basic)
  • Geofencing (should be able to change shape rather than a circle)
  • Pay Classes (should be able to change at Practitioner level rather than reach out to support)
  • Cookies and Cache have to be cleared on a regular basis
  • Only able to see employee documents/acknowledgements one at a time in the employee file
  • Timecards can only be managed/viewed by 1 person
  • Timeoff emails do not have a link
  • Cost per payroll - not just monthly fee so cost with off cycle payrolls
  • Separate I9 step not needed - during onboarding - 2nd Everify step
  • ADP Workforce Now does not pull in allowances for Houly employees into payroll ONLY Salaried employees
Read full review
Workday
  • Should have more option in time sheet like choose project code or something.
  • On The pay page, it should have options to view past salaries; it may be there already but not in the version that I use.
  • The employee information page does not have a back button to navigate to the previous page.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ADP
Due to the lack of support from the sales and service center we are looking at other options outside of ADP. Again it is a good system, it just lacks the support it deserves from the company employees. It is just unimaginable that you will need to reach out to a service provider several times for the same issue and not get it resolved.
Read full review
Workday
It is work to make one system the source of truth for our data, but now that it is done, there is less work involved in staying on this path. This means for us that maintaining and/or implementing new modules like performance, finance, talent, etc. is simple. It's a no-brainer
Read full review
Usability
ADP
I would give it a 10 however I do not like when ADP does facelifts in Workforce Now which does not add any value other than having to relearn navigation. I am also not a big fan of being forced to refer to the Bridge. We have Google which gives the same results. If I understood the answer I would not contact our Account Rep.
Read full review
Workday
Workday's on a great path in terms of user experience. Their goals is to deliver a use experience that doesn't require training or instruction, like Amazon on the consumer side for example. That's hard to do when you're talking about complex business processes and important and sensitive employee information, but they're doing it well
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
ADP
ADP outages are very rare
Read full review
Workday
In 2014, Workday has changed the update process. There will be two updates a year; the updates will be delivered to customers typically in a 24 hour window during these two weekends a year. They also keep the Community up-to-date about any planned outages, etc. There is weekly scheduled downtime on Friday night.
Read full review
Performance
ADP
Overall, I think the functionality of the program works pretty well. Sometimes, certain browsers do not work well for the policy function of ADP, but that is the only issue thus far
Read full review
Workday
From my perspective, the system runs like a well oiled machine and I have not had any issues with customers complaining about speed. If a report is taking long to run, the report can run in the background and you can go about your business. For larger enterprises, there is additional space and machines to process the application in what Workday refers to it as Extended Configuration Tenant
Read full review
Support Rating
ADP
this is my only down side of ADP, they dont transfer you around a lot (Good) and try to tackle the issue right there, but the english barrier is sometimes a huge brick that stands in the way, and can result in the wrong outcome. There has been times I have asked for someone else as I thought it was getting done wrong, and was still able to get the assistance I needed, just took me explaining it twice
Read full review
Workday
Workday is still learning about the needs of higher education. I have seen rapid improvement in support and knowledge over the last year so am confident this will continue to improve. Overall however, I have found the Support Team to be extremely responsive and Workday offers the advantage of having support across several timezones so that we never wait more than a few hours for a response.
Read full review
In-Person Training
ADP
In-person training was pretty good - I think this significantly depends on the trainer. Our trainer was really good and showed what ADP can do - but I know that all trainers are not the same - and this truly makes such as difference. Overall, our training went pretty well.
Read full review
Workday
Some training is offered online. Cost is per-person. This also gets quite expensive. Training doesn’t follow a logical path A to B. Starts in middle. When you try to do it afterwards at your desk, difficult.
• Training scenarios are not very real
Read full review
Online Training
ADP
At the time training was not as expansive as it is now. If it could go wrong it did for me so the process was difficult and lengthy. I needed to have more in person walkthroughs of things to ensure the transition was done correctly. Not sure what else I can say, we were part of the initial move to Workforce Now when it was introduced.
Read full review
Workday
I have done for report writing and mass imports (EIBs). They give materials and you run through examples, i.e. you don’t just watch them do tasks, so that is helpful. Training is expensive – a single reporting writing class is $600 per person for virtual training
Read full review
Implementation Rating
ADP
Either assign more than one specialist to the implementation process, or assign less clients to the implementation specialist. The process requires attention to detail and the ability to test and re-test as well as verify the information. It also requires a lot of back and forth between the client ant the implementation specialist, so they need to be readily available during the whole implementation process.
Read full review
Workday
It was implemented before my joining the company. At my last company, we used Workday professional services.

Based upon my experience at my last company, I would rate the implementation experience an 8/10. There are different ways to set things up and we had different people telling us different things. It set us back a couple of times.

Regarding configuration advice, we could set things up where every manager has supervisory organizations, or have it financially based i.e. aligned to cost center/department. We chose the individual manager path and I think we should have chosen a department route. Going down the individual manager path, to maintain the information, we have to inactivate a supervisory org whenever a manager changes/leaves.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
ADP
They pale compared to ADP because they each have broken systems that do not flow from beginning to end. Another system is required to support all of the functions needed to process payroll. That puts too much on me, the person, instead of the system. We should work smarter, not harder.
Read full review
Workday
Workday is an incomplete product, by this I mean it must work alongside other products and does not work by itself. Trying to make several different products work smoothly together becomes very challenging. As compared to ADP products, when purchased all together work very well all together. Also, ADP has extensive Training programs and extensive Customer Support. So ADP's products are far superior to Workday's products in my opinion.
Read full review
Scalability
ADP
We have been able to grow with ADP from just a few hundred employees to over 10,000 so it's actually very scalable for payroll usage. We do not use the benefits and onboarding offerings for most of our employees but they are built to scale easily enough for when our corporate team has over 1,000 FTE.
Read full review
Workday
Workday has released Financials and is continuing to develop it's Human Capital Management footprint with the addition of Workday Recruiting. I think customers will find that is easy to add on additional functionality in the system. Workday does make it easy for customers to make changes without relying on IT resources. The Business Process framework is a visual tool that allows functional resources to make changes and see the flow of the transaction
Read full review
Return on Investment
ADP
  • ADP WorkforceNow has provided a positive ROI for our company. It has saved me countless hours in the time I used to spend preparing reports, managing benefits, and annual enrollment, recruitment tracking, and much more.
  • The integration with Payscale has allowed our company to take every position in our organization and benchmark it to industries and job titles. This has allowed us to be more competitive on recruitment and retention.
  • We have used the new DE&I dashboard to provide valuable information on the landscape of our workforce, as well as areas of our organization that may not be as diverse.
Read full review
Workday
  • Positive ROI, we were one of the first organizations that went with Workday HCM, and we received numerous discounts. Cloud systems are the way to go and we feel the system is stable for our growing work force.
  • The user conferences have been helpful to network and learn more deepness in the modules and functionality.
  • Right off the bat, our implementation costs were lower than budgeted and we had less 'billing' surprises.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ADP Workforce Now Screenshots

Screenshot of ADP Workforce Now: a simple and complete human capital management solutionScreenshot of Benchmarking by ADP DataCloud: an application with an extensive data set ... available to ADP Workforce Now clientsScreenshot of ADP Workforce Now clients can equip their employees with the ADP Mobile self-service app

Workday HCM Screenshots

Screenshot of Workday Human Capital Management HomepageScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management Manager Insights HubScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management HR Partners HubScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management Expense AnalysisScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management Skills DashboardScreenshot of Workday Human Capital Management HR Operations and Compliance Dashboard