The Wudang and Shaolin temples are notorious for both being powerhouses in the fictional
wuxia kung fu world and have long held an unofficial rivalry as people stack the two
against each other.
The Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group originating from Staten Island in the early 90s, pulled
inspiration from this mash up, pulling their name from a westernization of Wudang and their
slang term for Staten Island as Shaolin.
Similarly, Workday and Oracle are two huge players in the HR software space, and in this
video we will be taking on the role of stacking these two against each other.
Unfortunately, no Wu-Tang songs have been made about these two HR solutions, yet, but
hopefully all my fan letters to the RZA will change that in the near future.
Oh, and hi!
I’m Kyle, and I’ll be guiding us along this Workday vs. Oracle discussion today.
If you find this video helpful, or if you loved my nod to kung fu or the Wu-Tang Clan,
hit those like and subscribe buttons down below.
Workday provides insight into how hiring, firing, retention, and individual employee
performance drive revenue growth.
Visual workflows and drag-and-drop tools make team reorganizations and big-picture updates
fast and easy.
This helps keep HR and company leadership organized and informed with the most up-to-date
information.
When a company experiences a lot of change in a short period of time, Workday’s visualization
tool makes it easy to clearly conceptualize organizational and reporting structures.
Workday’s cloud infrastructure gives HR employees access to analytics and benchmarks.
Using analytics within Workday, HR teams can assess their processes and identify areas
for improvement.
Not only Hr employees, but all company employees can access their performance, benefits, and
even recommended learning all from a single interface.
While Workday encourages collaboration and data integration across departments, it lacks
a native social collaboration tool, such as instant messaging.
To fill in this gap, customers must integrate Workday with a social collaboration tool of
choice.
This is a plus if a company is already wedded to a particular social app that it doesn’t
want to abandon, like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
However, integration issues could arise between Workday and third-party software.
Unlike Oracle, Workday does not offer its own ERP system, nor does it have CRM, manufacturing,
or supply chain management solutions that integrate with the HCM suite.
This means that with Workday, integrations with third-party tools are necessary to fill
in the gaps, and a customer’s current ERP and CRM systems may not be compatible with
Workday.
Oracle Cloud HCM was born out of Oracle’s reaction to the industry’s increasing adoption
of cloud-based software.
This suggests that changes to Oracle HCM will not necessarily be innovative but rather reactive
to remain competitive in the market.
However, Oracle HCM is a strong contender.
It relies on the strong Oracle name and is a consistent, reliable product.
Oracle HCM’s interface is built on the foundation of Oracle’s cloud database and connects
data sources across an entire business in areas such as accounting, finance, or into
Oracle’s ERP system.
With this kind of data integration, it’s easier to measure the impact that HR has on
other areas of the company.
For example, connecting HR data with accounting gives leaders an overview of how much the
workforce costs so they can assess whether they can afford to grow the team.
The employee interface includes company news, analytics for individuals as well as teams,
and AI-driven action suggestions for learning and development.
Receiving personalized learning recommendations not only gives employees a better user experience,
but it’s also a way to keep employees engaged with their work.
Companies that value employee engagement and feedback might be disappointed with Oracle
Cloud HCM in this regard, as it does not offer employee engagement tools like Workday’s
Peakon Employee Voice tool.
Oracle HCM users will need to connect the software with external engagement tools, such
as Assembly or Kudos to promote active listening, employee engagement, and inclusivity within
the organization.
Oracle’s solution also lacks tools that support diversity, equity, and inclusion not
only in a company’s current workforce but also in its prospective employees.
Unlike Workday’s recruiting and hiring features, Oracle doesn’t include features that actively
mitigate bias and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Workday’s adaptive workforce planning tools integrate HR, finance, and operations.
This provides HR with a 360-degree view of workforce plans to see how a scenario, such
as an anticipated hiring crunch in the company’s industry, will impact each area of the company.
Workforce planning with Workday gives HR leadership insight into the total cost of the workforce
— for things like salary, benefits, and reimbursement policies for travel — from
a historical perspective.
HR management can use this information to build predictive models and identify how to
make better use of the company’s human resources.
Using historical data in Workday’s workforce planning tools, companies can decide where
to best invest resources — be it recruiting pipelines or hiring campaigns — and how
to expedite timelines for hiring budget approval.
Oracle HCM includes workforce modeling tools that draw from native data intelligence tools
to anticipate possible hiring and reorganization needs based on potential business situations.
The workforce predictions tool visualizes data and generates insights based on past
hiring and employment data.
HR executives can predict high performance and future openings, giving the HR team a
head start for hiring.
Oracle HCM approaches workforce modeling with companies’ long-term succession planning
in mind.
As a result, it’s great for companies that have set organizational structure and career
pathways because it helps them anticipate employee upward mobility into higher-level
positions.
So which of the two do we recommend for analytics?
Well, it’s a tie.
Here’s why: Workday and Oracle’s ability to meet a company’s workforce planning analytics
depends on a company’s approach to HR management.
Workday HCM approaches workforce planning with a focus on fiscal and timing factors.
Therefore, Workday is better for hiring optimization.
Oracle HCM, in contrast, approaches HR management with a focus on long-term employee growth
at a company.
This makes Oracle a better choice for succession planning.
Workday’s approach to compensation strategy emphasizes collaboration and transparency.
Administrators and managers can collaborate on a data-informed merits process and configure
rules for rewards and other employee incentives to arrive at the most attractive compensation
package.
Allowing for collaborative compensation-building takes multiple stakeholder perspectives into
account.
Plus, setting compensation rules at the outset makes promotion processes more fair and equitable,
as Workday’s pay equity dashboard will show.
At the same time, the collaborative approach runs the risk of creating more work for all
parties involved in compensation structures.
Oracle HCM approaches compensation in a way that caters to high-level management and HR
professionals, though in different ways.
Oracle gives access to high-level compensation metrics that interest business executives.
Such metrics include base salary, bonuses, and extras to help make the most informed
compensation-related decisions.
Its budget modeling tool provides an overview of total employee salary and wage spend based
on different scenarios.
In Oracle HCM’s administrative portal, HR teams can set up flexible compensation rules
that are in line with overall business strategies based on criteria like department and level.
A variety of automation features take the guesswork out of compensation decisions.
The software system automatically calculates components of each employee’s salary based
on where they are located and alerts HR managers to anomalies in salary allocation.
Given these features, Oracle HCM is more rule-based when it comes to compensation tools.
Rules and the automations that rely on them are what allow Oracle HCM to save HR professionals
time to take on more strategic tasks.
Oracle HCM has an advantage over Workday because it hooks up with employee performance data
from the performance management product in the Oracle HCM suite.
So who comes out on top for compensation?
Oracle.
The compensation features in both solutions are similar.
Depending on a company’s approach to setting up and administering compensation packages,
both solutions are worth evaluating.
However, Oracle HCM’s integration of compensation and performance management facilitates quicker
approvals for rewards like employee raises.
Workday emphasizes organization and high-level data analytics in its benefits administration
features.
The benefits management solutions in its HCM module help HR decision-makers oversee plan
offerings, enrollment levels, and their effect on overall business financials.
Because all of this information is stored in a centralized location, HR teams reduce
their reliance on manual audits and lighten their periodic tax reporting work.
Oracle, on the other hand, emphasizes employee self-service and benefits program customization.
It provides a portal for individual employees to sign up for their own benefits while protecting
employee privacy and freeing HR pros to complete higher-priority work.
Using Oracle, HR teams can provide customized benefits plans and automatically calculate
and manage plan rates for each employee group.
Workday pulls ahead of Oracle on this one.
Here’s why: Both solutions are comparable in their benefits administration offerings,
except their emphases are different.
The right solution will depend on which features a company prioritizes more.
Workday’s differentiating feature is that it integrates with more than 300 benefits
administration software tools, while Oracle’s benefits administration integrates with Oracle
Payroll only.
So, unless a company already uses Oracle’s other products, it may encounter difficulty
integrating various software tools into Oracle Cloud HCM.
Workday’s recruiting tools target adaptability.
They pull historical data from performance management tools to pinpoint the most valuable
skills and habits of high performers.
Recruiters can use this information to continually iterate job descriptions and recruitment strategies
to find the best-fit candidates for a changing workforce.
Its recruiting tools also help employers attract a more diversified workforce.
It removes bias at every step of the hiring process by masking identifying details on
resumes and providing internal and external diversity metrics.
This gives companies an idea of where they’re at currently in terms of a diverse workforce
and goals to strive for.
However, hiring new employees isn’t always the answer.
Workday gives companies tools to identify opportunities for existing employees to advance.
For instance, Workday applies machine learning and analytics to help companies understand
the skills that current employees already possess in order to better identify skills
gaps that inform hiring or training opportunities.
In this way, Workday’s approach to talent management allows companies to incorporate
each individual employee into a bigger strategic picture and invest in their development with
the company.
Oracle’s recruiting tools encompass the full employee acquisition cycle to help companies
hire for vacancies quickly and efficiently.
It provides templates and leverages data from past roles to expedite the hiring process.
It also provides candidate recommendations, using AI to match candidates with sought-after
skills for a given role.
Recruiters can split candidates into pools based on skills and keep them all informed
with conversational chatbots or real-time messaging.
Oracle’s talent management tools focus more on automating and simplifying core HR processes
to empower employee self-service and take some administrative burdens away from HR staff.
Workday takes this one too.
Here’s why: Oracle prioritizes efficiency for HR users without promoting an optimal
candidate experience.
Workday’s recruiting tools, in contrast, help HR teams adapt their recruiting strategy
over time and promote the company’s DE&I efforts.
Workday offers native payroll for the U.S., Canada, U.K., and France.
However, it also integrates with other payroll software solutions to manage payroll in other
countries.
HR users can view Workday payroll dashboards by groups and individuals.
This makes it easy to ensure standardization across roles and spot any discrepancies that
need to be addressed.
Workday’s direct connections with recruiting software automatically transfer employee data
to payroll.
That way, there’s no delay in payment for the new employee.
Payments and compensation changes are managed directly in Workday’s payroll tool, which
syncs with data in the compensation tool.
Workday’s real-time general ledger flags HR to pay issues before they occur, ensuring
continuously compliant payroll.
Oracle’s payroll system includes core features that work for the U.S., Canada, U.K., Mexico,
and several Middle Eastern countries.
India will be added in 2023 and France in 2025.
Payroll management and compensation tools communicate with each other as well to avoid
duplicate work.
Payroll administrators can also be assured that payroll is running in a compliant manner,
as the system automatically updates based on global, national, and local tax regulation
changes.
Payroll goes to Workday as well.
Here’s why: while these two solutions offer comparable payroll features, Workday allows
companies to remain proactive and adaptable.
Plus, HR can make changes to payroll at any time, and the system will continuously recalculate.
Human capital management software is complex, and so is the purchase and implementation
process, no matter which solution a company chooses.
Oracle Cloud HCM’s features are likely a better fit for companies that have a large,
distributed workforce because Oracle deploys more automation and self-service in its HCM
suite of products.
Automation and self-service save HR staff, managers, and employees time, but it also
contributes to siloed, less collaborative work environments.
Smaller companies may find it does not adapt quickly enough to their rapidly evolving needs.
Workday’s offering appeals to smaller and more nimble companies that prioritize flexibility,
adaptability, and collaboration.
As a company matures, however, collaboration will become more difficult to sustain as teams
grow larger and reporting structures grow more complex.
HR teams will therefore need more automation to streamline tasks that were once easier
to do with a smaller workforce.
These two aren’t the only options out there though, if you’re interested in these two,
check out: Rippling, Paycor, or GoCo.
Thanks for watching!
If you made it to the end, you rock!
Also, if you liked it this much, why not help me out with a like and subscription down below?
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