LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) vs. UKG Pro vs. UKG Ready

I've learned hundreds of software applications over the last several decades, and trained teams in offices and one-on-one. At one point, books and trade magazines were a great way to get up to speed with an application, but they've become less and less effective for getting started. Video lessons have some strengths; you can get a rapid overview of a program's capabilities and watch an experienced user using its tools efficiently. On rare occasions they'll even point out bugs that could trip you up, but I wish instructors shared more of those issues. However, it takes a very self-motivated learner to sit through training sessions. Most people don't fit that category, and a subscription may end up gathering dust like a pandemic gym membership. My account is sometimes dormant for months, but then I'll be watching lessons continually the following month. I've often wondered if it was worth it for that reason. I have some friends that voraciously devoured class after Lynda.com class, and built successful careers on that training. But many others never use their account. It's helpful to consider whether you're a self-motivated learner. If not, it may not be the best format for you. More complicated software often can't be adequately introduced in a several-hour-long series of videos. I found Final Cut Pro (7) hard to learn online, also Logic Pro. Other somewhat complicated programs like DVD Pro were a snap to learn, and I learned a lot about PHP and Actionscript programming from Lynda.com. Some web and graphics software is exceptionally explained by real experts, such as Lynda's Photoshop classes, which are the best I've seen on that subject. Many of her web production courses will take you every step along the way to creating your own website, even if you haven't coded before. Adobe and Apple have both published similar project-based tutorial classes in book form, and I think they're a bit more polished, but the video instructor can help move you along through all the content more easily. Learning software seems to work better from an online video than a book these days; it's helpful to already be sitting at the computer where you're able to try everything out as it's explained. Most people don't seem to retain software principles unless they're trying them while learning. A bad instructor can make it difficult to sit through a video class. Lynda.com and others generally have a large variety of content creators, so you're not as limited with instructors as you might be at a University, where the same instructor may teach several related applications. Departmental faculty may have much more targeted and creative applications for your software though, while paid corporate software training can be mind-numbingly bad. Continuing ed classes that I've taken usually seemed to just focus on learning the tools in a software product. They often don't or even can't show you how to apply the software for your purposes as full time faculty at a University might. Some Lynda.com instructors weren't great, but most seemed a cut above the continuing ed and corporate software trainers I've learned from or contracted. The majority of the classes seemed to apply the software for an impressive final project. Redundancy is a real drawback among the online lessons. Often the advanced classes repeat many of the concepts from the introductory "Essentials" courses. If you know an earlier version of an application and just want to learn new features, a book may be a faster route to your goal. I originally suggested the "New Features" lessons that Lynda began to offer for updated releases, and I think they're especially helpful. It's much harder to skim through a video than a page of text, so I'd anticipate having to complement your Lynda.com lessons with other instructional materials. Lynda.com didn't have as many of the "fluff" courses that LinkedIn is now offering. These titles read like articles from Cosmo. They might be better served to offer "How to respond to a connection request from a recruiter who works in a field completely unrelated to you."

I feel UKG Pro has been so horribly rolled out at the City of Houston. I'm amazed that, as a system administrator, it even works at all. In my opinion, the greatest expense the city has budgeted is managed by a shoe-string, janky, bug-ridden mess. I truly hope UKG is bought out for 2 cents and scattered to dust. In my opinion, terrible maintenance and support, the worst consultants money can buy, the sleaziest sales accountants. This system tries my patience as a lead system administrator and I would caution anyone considering bringing in this mess to their business. It's been a year now, and we still have workarounds and bugs daily.

UKG is great for storing personal information and is easy to use for clocking in and out. And you can easily find the next payday at the bottom, your calendar with requested time off, and the available hrs. UKG is less user-friendly and more difficult when editing your personal information, like your phone number, and requesting time off is a little confusing to me.

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• Industry expert authors/instructors - you're learning from people with pedigree.
• Breadth and depth of catalog - not only is there a wide range of topics and disciplines, but there are frequently several levels of depth within each (eg. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).
• Time needed to complete each course AND each section of a course are included - you know what you're getting into from the first click.

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• UKG has an amazing support team to reach out to if assistance is needed
• All add-ons of UKG Pro integrate seamlessly making it a powerful software program
• UKG Pro is very configurable to meet the specific needs of companies
• It is easy to use and navigate
• The mobile app is loved by all employees and provides on-demand access
• The Ultimate Community is amazing!! On-demand information on all products and how they are used. Connect with other companies that use UKG Pro and learn from each other.
• The Learning Centre is also amazing!! Learning right at your fingertips anytime, anywhere.

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• The mobile app experience is terrific. Once the employees figured out the navigation, they now prefer the app over the web version. The app mirrors the web version, although the navigation is somewhat compressed due to the mobile view. Other than that, the tools in the app work exactly as the web.
• Reporting - there hasn't been a time when I couldn't run a report on the information I needed. And the reports dashboard is very robust - my most important reports were already built in the system. I saved so much time because I didn't have to cobble together the data from multiple reports or contact support to build the report for me.
• Community page - I log into UKG's Community page daily. I learn so much from experienced UKG users and the UKG moderators are quick to provide answers and best practices. When I have a question about how to use a feature in UKG Ready, my first stop is the Community - I almost always find what I need without the need to submit a ticket/case or call Support. When I can't find what I need using Community, I can trust that Support will be responsive and helpful. For example, I needed help learning how our onboarding process was configured and submitted a case for assistance. The representative scheduled multiple meetings with me to help me not only navigate the onboarding setup but also to teach me how to revise the associated workflows and test the changes. I was also able to ensure our onboarding was set up correctly as well as modify it as needed.
• Employee Self-Service - Once employees were trained to find their HR Actions tool, they quickly adapted to submitting their requests through UKG Ready rather than asking for help from an admin. Now, they readily submit change requests to update their direct deposit, address, and withholding. Sure, they still need a little help from time to time, but employees are initiating these changes without the need for payroll or HR to chase down signatures or paperwork.

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• LinkedIn Learning provides learning paths, but it's left much to be desired. Not enough direction about the why, or learning outcomes.
• Some courses provide exercises/quizzes. Others do not. There's definitely a missing piece to test comprehension.
• The library is so large, it's difficult to really build your own learning. I find it better for just-in-time learning.

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• Teachers that are hard functionality. Okay. I would say the most issues that we've had is the admins or the HR department losing their access and it throws us for a loop. It's like, what happened? What's going on? So that's the main thing. And then some of our employees struggle with the hourly employees try to struggle with timekeeping as in clocking in and clocking out. But we got that resolved. Thank you UKG Pro. And our employees are happy again. I would recommend UKG Pro.

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• Custom reporting is not intuitive
• Learning and training is poor and has not provided our team with a way to approach our problems in a cost-effective and meaningful way
• Consistent glitches in some areas result in errors that persist through multiple payrolls despite a thorough review of all settings
• Reports don't live in the same place, multiple types of reports exist in multiple places with little explanation of the difference. We often build custom reports only to have them disappear or have to spend a long time trying to find them.

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It can help all employees learn to strengthen current skills or to learn new skills and then can learn to excel in their current department or they learn a new skills in a new department creating interconnection and cross-departmental value in a company.

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We have been a customer since 2015, we have gone to market and find that UKG Pro product is both user friendly for administrators as well as the employee. The qualify of support and service of UKG team is valued and we trust the product.

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We plan to renew our support and use of UKG Ready each year unless it becomes unavailable or the district seeks another vendor. As of now, there are no plans to changes vendors. The district staff is now familiar with using UKG. Another vendor will need to meet the same expectations we have come to enjoy with using UKG

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The platform is very easy to use and navigate, the content is clearly itemised via the Contents section and the video playback speed can be adjusted. It's also useful to have optional captions (I always use them) and a transcript for accessibility purposes.

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It gets the job done, but not with a few deep sighs. Once you know where stuff lives, it's manageable, but the first learning curve is steep, some menus feel buried. However, it's consistent, reliable and doesn't crash on me, which counts for a lot. With a little UI glow up it could push into a 9 zone.

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We have been very happy with the product. Occasionally, there are things we run into that do not seem so clear, yet the customer service provided by UKG community and service cases is unparalleled. Their specialists have been great to take the time to walk us through how to properly set up open enrollment and we appreciate the written follow up from the service cases so we can save the instructions.

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For the most part UltiPro has been reliable, but it could definitely be better. There have been several notable server issues where we were unable to access the product or unable to utilize some of the features. Customer support is usually quick to respond to questions about these issues, but they do not proactively reach out to customers whose environments have been effected by outages

The system seems very stable. Being hosted in the cloud, we are vulnerable to internet speeds and busy times. The system has been down a couple times over the 3 months we have been live, but Kronos resolved the issues very quickly. To have access from a desktop, tablet, time clock, or phone app is one of the best features....users have almost NO REASON they can't clock in.

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Normally UKG Pro loads quickly. We had been having major issues with reports running in a timely manner but recently they broke out our virtual server to another instance where is wasn't sharing resources and that seems to have helped reporting run more efficiently.

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We were always told that Kronos was the best, but there are reports that we got out of ADP and other payroll providers that we cannot get out of Kronos. One example is a report of Productive/Non-productive hours by department. We also need the dollar amount associated with the hours. This is information that is required on our cost report and we were told that that report is unavailable. It is very frustrating when I can't get what I need.

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The technical team behind LinkedIn Learning (or Lynda.com) knows their job, and they usually solve problems very quickly. While I haven't had many run-ins with them (thus the low rating), I do find that when we call them, the problem gets resolved in a reasonable amount of time. The flip-side of this comment is that we never have needed to call them with a high-priority issue.

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The quality of UKG Support is related directly to the UKG rep. who handles the issue. In some cases you get someone who really is good at supporting the product and others may not have as much experience and it shows

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If I was only rating support itself that would be a 10. Every support case I have entered has been addressed efficiently and with the desired result. On the implementation and transition to support there were multiple issues that those doing the implementation or transition could not answer or workflows and various settings left undone only to be discovered later. We implemented 3 different modules and the expertise we got for each one varied widely.

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I've been to a few in-person (hands on) training sessions and it is very similar to the online classes. You have the same reference material to look back on after the training. So regardless of in person training or online you really get the same thing.

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Our in-person training was a hybrid. Live online training with an instructor. They were very knowledgeable of the product & the area they were training on. I asked several specific questions and if they didn't know the answer immediately they followed up after class.

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Most of the online training was very generic (to be expected) but we had specific requirements for configuration that could have been better addressed with more individual sessions earlier on from our project team. However, we did finally begin booking training sessions with our implementation team which were recorded, and so provided additional information for how to correctly configure and test the system.

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Pretty good online training, you have many how to options and can watch them several times. It can be hard at times to dig through the amount of data online but can usually find what you are looking for. Also you can download documentation for setting up the profiles and policies.

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By implementation we are able to achieve 1.Skill improvement 2.Reduced burden on training staff 3.Learning new market leading technologies like Generative AI.

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Make sure you have all of your tax account information with all the states you are registered in available and that you are knowledgeable about the filing status, frequency, etc. We had some unique challenges with our state unemployment tax set up that I was not aware of and needed to be addressed prior to going live. Working with the state unemployment office can be a challenge.

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Make sure the people who are doing the build have extensive knowledge on employment law and asking the right questions. I would bet that the people who helped with our builds did not read any of our employment contracts or ordinances; and when I asked questions about how other companies handled certain basic dictates from federal employment laws, they didn't have any idea what FMLA, FLSA, etc were.

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Our organization has used different webinars, including ones on LinkedIn, to provide similar insight. But it's a totally different ballgame. Lynda.com offers in-depth tutorials rather than just a 2-hour video broadcast. With lynda.com there are more information and experts, as well as so many different courses fit for every need/want. There is also a lot more flexibility with lynda. You can take it on the go, watch on mobile and at anytime, rather than being tied to a certain time slot.

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We used ADP WFN prior to switching to UKG. We interviewed three different payroll companies to see what our options were. UKG stood out and aligned with our company values. The sales team was very helpful and asked questions about what we were currently doing and how they could assist with simplifying things. I personally had a side meeting with them to see if there were options for a process that we manually process and if UKG could actually eliminate the process. We came to the conclusion that we weren't able to get it 100%, but we could pull 80% of what we needed from UKG, and then we would only need to manipulate 20% of the information. It was also determined from that meeting that we wouldn't need to pay extra to have a special report built. The customer service is what we were sold on. The other companies that we looked at didn't give us the confidence that their customer service would be any better than what we previously had.

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UKG is much easier to use and customize for our business needs. I enjoy that the time piece is directly connected with the payroll function. This is something that we didn't see when working with Paylocity. There was a manual time data upload that we needed to process into the Payroll function to process payroll. UKG has this setup and it's just a click of a button, so simple!

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The UltiPro HRMS platform offers Flexibility & Accessibility. We are able to add a component company to our existing profile with ease. UltiPro provides a step-by-step guide to component company implementation. The process was flawless! the HRMS homepage is customizable. We place a large amount of data on our HRMS homepage for employees to view and print, regardless of their location, as long as they have internet access. The Human Resources Department no longer prints and distribute Employee Handbooks, Policies & Procedures, and Group Health SPDs, as this information is available on HRMS.

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Thus far we are able to add as many users as necessary, implement 3 different bargaining units, 5 different types of user groups. Very flexible.

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• I can't think of a negative impact that Lynda.com has when it relates to the extensive library of training software that is available to subscribers. I'm lucky that my job provides a free subscription for instructors. I use Lynda.com to hone in on my technical skills.

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• My company acquired another company, and with a UKG partner, we were able to bring them online in UKG within two months of the acquisition date.
• When COVID sent us remote, we could configure custom fields to track vaccination status.
• The C-suite can get custom reports done in minutes, or ours, where our previous HRIS would have taken days to accomplish, as data would have had to have been exported to Excel and then manipulated inside Excel.
• UKG has allowed to go virtual paper free as both a candidate and employee.

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• The system has allowed us to understand what goes into background vendors and helped us transition in a troubled time.
• The system has allows us to move forms to custom forms vs using Docusign.
• The system has helped us cut back on paper usage and storing folders.

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