A Good Product, But Make Sure You Have Enough Staff to Dedicate to a FULL Integration.
August 16, 2021

A Good Product, But Make Sure You Have Enough Staff to Dedicate to a FULL Integration.

Jennifer O'Brien | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with UKG Ready

UKG Ready (formally known as Kronos WFR) is being used across the entire agency for HR management, timekeeping, & payroll. It streamlines our HR, payroll, and employee experience.
  • Reporting
  • Position management
  • Labor allocation
  • Payroll, payroll, payroll: Manual checks are a HUGE issue as well as updates to the subject wages when a manual is needed.
  • Knowing the customer's needs at implementation would help.
  • Positive: We have had better reporting with UKG Ready.
  • Negative: We still have no benefit integration with our external benefit administrator after 2 years on the UKG Ready Platform. The first attempt that took 2 years failed and now UKG wants us to pay for a single directional integration. This has cost excessive staff hours for manual intervention.
  • Negative: Any payroll adjustment requirements are not easy and the UKG Process is outdated. We recently had a payroll issue and were forced to issue a 2nd payroll but the payroll was delayed because UKG cannot (will not) process the same day. This is unacceptable and since Kronos and Ultimate Software merged, Ultimate software was able to process same day as are many other payroll companies that do not have as much power as UKG Ready does.
  • Positive: We are able to use position management for better budgeting. There could be some upgrades to this module, but it does do what was promised.
  • Negative: Quarterly and year-end closeouts are 3rd business days, which is not always possible. Very inflexible in regards to this. Even when it is done timely, we get random notices and charges that it was not done even though we can prove it was.
  • Positive: It appears customer service is getting better. We struggled at first, but lately, it seems better.
Not allowing me to list Ultimate Software (most likely due to the merger), but there is a comparison to be had. UKG Ready HR management is a great product and stacks up above Paylocity. I would say it is similar to Ultimate software (not listed as I assume that you are considering them part of Kronos, except they had different features). The time & attendance is better than all. The Payroll is not as good as either. Mainly for the negative reasons previously stated. It could be better if not for some of the stringent rules at the very end of the process. It does integrate better from attendance and labor distribution and reporting aspects, but actual payroll processing is lacking.
It does work for the industry we are in due to the many reporting capabilities.
I would give this a higher rating as I use it for reporting mostly, but my staff needs better ability with payroll flexibility. Also, we still struggle with the full use of the system as it is a self-taught system and we do not always have the staff to work through these types of improvements.
There is plenty of material, but some of it is inaccurate when using the UKG Community as UKG relies on/allows other clients to leave bad information.

Do you think UKG Ready delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with UKG Ready's feature set?

Yes

Did UKG Ready live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of UKG Ready go as expected?

No

Would you buy UKG Ready again?

Yes

So far, UKG Ready has been a good change for our organization as it added efficiencies (more will be added as we get the full use of the system). The reporting is excellent. The TLM has good features for our employees. The technology is sized well for our 1,000 employees. I would love to give the system a 9-10 and UKG is working with us to make that happen. We had some serious issues with implementation specifically related to integrations, which are not all done and look like they will take almost a year to happen. We were not able to implement all modules because of a company misunderstanding of need—again working with UKG on this. We also were not always shown the best method for streamlining processes within the system. The customer service has also been hard to deal with. This has improved as we have been put in a focus group, but that took some doing and prior to that it was not a good transition. One of our biggest concerns that is not a big item is the lack of payroll reconciliation. Manual checks cause all kinds of reconciliation problems and UKG Ready can only help if we can identify the problem. If we cannot, it is an issue. It seems archaic as a manual requires too much intervention on the part of the payroll administrator to ensure subject wages are accurate for Tax reporting--this just should never happen and it should be automatic. I know this sounds negative, and I really do like UKG Ready--again, I feel it was a good decision. I would be remiss not to mention the good with the bad.

UKG Ready Feature Ratings

Employee demographic data
8
Employment history
8
Job profiles and administration
9
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
6
Organizational charting
8
Organization and location management
8
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
8
Pay calculation
5
Support for external payroll vendors
Not Rated
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment
1
Benefit plan administration
6
Direct deposit files
6
Salary revision and increment management
7
Approval workflow
8
Balance details
5
Annual carry-forward and encashment
5
View and generate pay and benefit information
8
Update personal information
8
View job history
8
View company policy documentation
Not Rated
Tracking of all physical assets
8
Report builder
8
Pre-built reports
7
Performance plans
8
Performance improvement plans
8
Review status tracking
8
Review reminders
7
Multiple review frequency
7
Create succession plans/pools
Not Rated
New hire portal
7
Manager tracking tools
Not Rated
Individual goal setting
Not Rated
Performance tracking
7
Job Requisition Management
6
Company Website Posting
6
Publish to Social Media
6
Job Search Site Posting
6
Duplicate Candidate Prevention
7
Applicant Tracking
6
Notifications and Alerts
6

UKG Ready Implementation

We would have ensured that all the features were utilized and that they worked. This is a hindsight issue and, unfortunately, we have learned that many items could have been better.
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
  • Benefit integration: It is still not done after 2 years.
  • Full product use: Just the basics were done and then everything was considered implemented.
  • The understanding of our organization and how the platform should be used as we didn't get much help.