Paychex vs. Workday Human Capital Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paychex
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.N/A
Workday HCM
Score 8.0 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
PaychexWorkday Human Capital Management
Editions & Modules
Paychex Flex Pro
Custom Pricing
per month/+$4 per employee
HR Pro
Custom Pricing
HR PEO
Custom Pricing
Paychex Flex Select
Custom Pricing
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Custom Pricing
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaychexWorkday HCM
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PaychexWorkday Human Capital Management
Considered Both Products
Paychex
Chose Paychex
It’s great that Paychex is one place for all things, however workday in combination with a financial institution for managing 401ks is a cleaner and easier to use system. That being said, we didn’t utilize all the components of Paychex
Workday HCM
Chose Workday Human Capital Management
Workday blows SAP away in the human capital management space. Workday is extremely user-friendly where SAP made me want to pull my hair out on a daily basis, as did all of my coworkers. I think it this is mainly due to the fact the Workday is ONE platform, everyone gets the …
Features
PaychexWorkday Human Capital Management
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.7
273 Ratings
5% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
9.0
99 Ratings
10% above category average
Employee demographic data7.8220 Ratings8.884 Ratings
Employment history8.0243 Ratings8.394 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.8178 Ratings8.896 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.8173 Ratings9.091 Ratings
Organizational charting8.02 Ratings9.790 Ratings
Organization and location management7.5159 Ratings9.787 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)6.7146 Ratings8.362 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.7
314 Ratings
5% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.7
82 Ratings
7% above category average
Pay calculation7.9296 Ratings9.670 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.01 Ratings7.558 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.2154 Ratings9.220 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.9175 Ratings8.965 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.3295 Ratings8.971 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.9210 Ratings9.068 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.6119 Ratings7.645 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.2
159 Ratings
12% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.6
77 Ratings
5% above category average
Approval workflow7.3113 Ratings8.876 Ratings
Balance details7.4151 Ratings8.176 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment6.9119 Ratings8.962 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.8
271 Ratings
5% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.3
97 Ratings
1% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.8249 Ratings8.286 Ratings
Update personal information7.9261 Ratings8.295 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.8122 Ratings7.875 Ratings
View job history7.9185 Ratings8.286 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.858 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
4.9
43 Ratings
48% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.4
25 Ratings
5% above category average
Tracking of all physical assets4.943 Ratings8.425 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
5.8
177 Ratings
26% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
7.6
81 Ratings
1% above category average
Report builder6.2147 Ratings8.977 Ratings
Pre-built reports6.2165 Ratings6.679 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data5.191 Ratings7.267 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
6.6
174 Ratings
19% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.9
59 Ratings
11% above category average
New hire portal6.9166 Ratings8.854 Ratings
Manager tracking tools6.3110 Ratings8.955 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
5.1
70 Ratings
42% below category average
Workday Human Capital Management
8.3
51 Ratings
6% above category average
Job Requisition Management5.536 Ratings8.748 Ratings
Company Website Posting5.234 Ratings8.841 Ratings
Publish to Social Media4.728 Ratings7.436 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting5.135 Ratings8.842 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention4.734 Ratings8.642 Ratings
Applicant Tracking4.739 Ratings8.042 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts5.964 Ratings8.146 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
8.8
63 Ratings
9% above category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings8.953 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings8.962 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings8.753 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings8.961 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
8.2
66 Ratings
4% above category average
Performance plans00 Ratings8.365 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings8.257 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings8.261 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings8.360 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings8.253 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.9
43 Ratings
1% above category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings8.237 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.937 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings8.041 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.739 Ratings
User Ratings
PaychexWorkday Human Capital Management
Likelihood to Recommend
6.6
(329 ratings)
8.3
(133 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.1
(48 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Usability
7.1
(270 ratings)
7.9
(15 ratings)
Availability
5.4
(12 ratings)
6.6
(8 ratings)
Performance
7.1
(12 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
6.4
(270 ratings)
8.0
(27 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(1 ratings)
9.6
(6 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(4 ratings)
7.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.3
(13 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(9 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(3 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
5.8
(12 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.6
(34 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
6.1
(35 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaychexWorkday Human Capital Management
Likelihood to Recommend
Paychex Inc.
Overall we have had a good experience. The unfortunate part of being with them for over 10 years is the change-over in support specialists and sometimes the lack of transparency when that occurs or the lack of personalized communication. However, the ease of use and streamlined services for reporting and recording payroll and onboarding employees is definitely a benefit to the service. Being able to pull reports and review past employees information can be invaluable at times. Knowing I have peace of mind when it comes to tax documentation because someone else is ensuring it is handled and handled correctly is very important
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
Paychex Inc.
  • It provides a well account of Retirement Plan Account Information.
  • Alerts are sent to email when there is new information to access.
  • Employee access both online and thru app.
  • Paperless options.
  • Easy and quick access to paystubs and tax forms.
  • Easy employee retirement management.
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
Paychex Inc.
  • I understand logging you out is a security function, but I'd prefer it not to log you out so soon.
  • The training we received for the team's meeting was subpar, in my opinion. Probably better geared for people with little to no computer experience. Very slow pace; we could have easily received all of this from some tutorials in a few minutes.
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
Paychex Inc.
Overall I like the features that Paychex Flex offers. I am sure that there are other features that I am unaware of, so I am excited to see if there is more that Flex is capable of to make my job easier. The basic features are really user friendly and easy to access. If there ever is an issue customer service is great
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
Paychex Inc.
I think as both a payroll administrator and an employee who is paid from Paychex, the site is user friendly and easy to find the items I need. The support is knowledgeable and quick to assist as is not always the case with other payroll platforms. The payroll options for checks and templates, gross-up, etc is easy to use and makes changes easy to do.
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
Paychex Inc.
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
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
Paychex Inc.
Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.
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
Paychex Inc.
In our experience, Support is slow to respond. They always eventually resolve issues and answer questions, but it almost always takes time. This has occasionally been a problem for us. However, in the instances where it was a problem, they made it right by processing a payroll overnight (instead of the usual 2 day requirement) in one case, and in another, they processed a separate payroll at no charge.
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
Paychex Inc.
We did online training only
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
Paychex Inc.
It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.
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
Paychex Inc.
Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.
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
Paychex Inc.
We still use QB Desktop Pro to maintain a Check Register / Overall Balance for the company, but once having tried QB Payroll Online for about 3 months prior to finding Paychex Flex I can tell you that there's just no comparison. QB online is VERY EXPENSIVE and not so user-friendly. I hated every minute of those 6 payrolls we ran through QB online.
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
Paychex Inc.
I generally do payroll at the office, however I have had to go remote due to internet issues and also had to take payroll on vacation with me. Very easy to log in wherever you are and manage your TAA and payroll
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
Paychex Inc.
  • With Paychex Flex we have been able to improve our compliance with required documentation for new/rehires
  • Moving everyone to direct deposit and mobile clock in/out eliminated lines at punching stations and paycheck pickup stations
  • Lost checks is a thing of the past
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

Paychex Screenshots

Screenshot of Paychex Payroll DashboardScreenshot of Employee Background ChecksScreenshot of Paychex HR DashboardScreenshot of Paychex Flex Perks

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