Skyward HRMS vs. UKG Ready

For a medium sized company I believe Skyward is an acceptable and not too complicated system. I do not work with the back end so I am not aware of the reporting capabilities which would be a deciding factor for some companies. For K12 Education it seems to check all the boxes

Incentivized

The UKG Ready platform configured lay out and widgets are easy and fun. The ability to see your 'to do' and staff are great. However, the ability for administrators to manipulate the widgets and platform for personal preference is cumbersome

Adding a manager and grouping is way to complicated and cumbersome., also removing someone from the group is not easy understood

Incentivized

• Skyward is superior in tracking and submitting PTO
• Skyward is accessible in the cloud so 24/7 access
• Menus and screens are fairly easy for non-technical users to navigate

Incentivized

• Time & Attendance - Easy for workforce to use especially with the mobile app.
• Payroll Processing - Offers step by step navigation to process payroll seamlessly.
• Reporting Features - Ability to filter data easily and reporting feature is strong.
• Implementation Teams - They are a true partner in this process and are detailed, professional, organized, and easy to work with.
• Customer Service - By the click of a button, I can open a case or chat request, and UKG is very prompt in reaching back out to me. If it is regarding payroll processing, the response time is almost immediate.

Incentivized

• The Captcha screen can be needlessly complex or hard to guess due to letters overlapping
• Then time off screen defaults to 0 hours when creating a new entry and the zero does not get replaced... turning 8 hours into 80 hours unintentionally

Incentivized

• A better review of community ideas that have hit high points threshold. When we go out searching for a solution and see an idea that would solve the solution and it has 500-1,000 points from 2 years ago, it's sad.
• Adjust the last remaining report screens that don't match the updated UI so it's consistent across all.
• Allow dashboard layouts to be reset without adjusting managers' customizations of their dashboards.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

The improvements have made some of my previous challenges easier...the new layout definitely makes it easier and you can toggle between different views. Some of the new features in recruitment have made things easier for our hiring managers...they really seem to like these features.

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Lots & lots of training available. Timing was wrong for our organization. We had lengthy down time in the beginning while the implementation consultant setup our system. We did online training then. Difficult to train on a generic system setup that isn't your industry and hard to understand what you are learning how to do w/o actually being in your system. Online training was well documented and the instructors were very knowledgeable.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Not part of the selection process, but the new Skyward system is fr easier, user friendly and full featured than previous systems I have used

Incentivized

UKG Ready has similar functionality to others in the full suite HRIS space and what sets them apart is their customer service model, company values, and culture. The sales process was appropriate and enjoyable. They also provide a lot of different thank you's to their customers throughout the year. We love the community that is available to submit ideas and research as well.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Previously we had multiple systems for licensed and unlicensed staff, Skyward brings it all together creating a same experience for all users

Incentivized

• With our previous third-party payroll provider, payroll processing was a 6-8 hour day. With the UKG Ready/UKG Telestaff combination, the process is completed in under 4 hours on a regular basis.
• Cloud hosting comes at a cost, but we have found that having the convenience of 24-hour support is a welcome offset to in-house IT, onsite hosting, and hardware management. UKG Ready's cloud hosting services are constantly updating software and feature redundant operations for records management.
• As an organization whose HR department is completely in-house, the UKG Ready platform saves HR time on a daily basis with multiple aspects of their day-to-day processes. All services from onboarding to offboarding and all components in between are available on UKG Ready.

Incentivized