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HCM Software
Compare All HCM Software
iCIMS Talent Cloud
iCIMS Talent Cloud
Support the entire candidate experience from start to finish with a unified recruitment platform. iCIMS offers best-in-class recruiting products for your hiring life cycle, available as part of one unified talent cloud platform, o...Read more
RUN Powered by ADP
RUN Powered by ADP
Faster, smarter, easier payroll and HR As a small business owner, you’re managing more than ever. And with less time to get it all done — you can’t afford mistakes. You need a trusted payroll and HR platform that can help you st...Read more
ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Solution is suited for businesses with more than 50 employees looking to streamline HR processes. ADP Workforce Now includes capabilities such as payroll processing and tax filing, performance management, compensatio...Read more
ADP Vantage HCM
ADP Vantage HCM
ADP Vantage HCM is an on-premises human capital management (HCM) solution suitable for large organizations with more than one thousand employees. ADP Vantage offers integrated tools to manage recruiting, talent management, time ma...Read more
ApplicantStack
ApplicantStack
An applicant tracking system is the foundation of strategic talent management. ApplicantStack capably empowers all stakeholders: internal recruiters, hiring managers, administrators and—most importantly—applicants. ApplicantStack ...Read more
Software pricing tips
Read our Human Capital Management Software Buyers GuideSubscription models
- Per employee/per month: This model allows you to pay a monthly fee for each of your employees.
- Per user/per month: Users pay a monthly fee for users—normally administrative users—rather than all employees.
Perpetual license
- This involves paying an upfront sum for the license to own the software and use it indefinitely.
- This is the more traditional model and is most common with on-premise applications and with larger businesses.
Rated best value for money
ApplicantPRO
ApplicantPRO
ApplicantPRO by JobMatch is a cloud-based applicant tracking (ATS) system designed for small to midsized companies that are working to stay in compliance with EEO/AA and OFCCP guidelines.. Its interface can be utilized by organiza...Read more
Oracle Taleo Cloud
Oracle Taleo Cloud
Oracle Taleo Cloud is a cloud-based human resource (HR) management suite suitable for large and midsize businesses in all industries. Key features include candidate management and employee onboarding, especially for high volumes o...Read more
BrightMove
BrightMove
BrightMove provides on-demand recruiting software for staffing firms, recruitment process outsourcing providers and corporate HR departments. With access to over 1,000 resume databases, BrightMove’s sourcing tools assist rec...Read more
SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite
SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite
SAP human capital management (HCM) solutions enable a more flexible, engaged, and resilient business by strengthening the employee experience with cloud HR solutions across core HR and payroll, time and attendance, talent manageme...Read more
ClearCompany
ClearCompany
Since 2004, ClearCompany has empowered thousands of companies to attract, screen, and hire better talent, engage their team, and use strategic insights to keep their recruiting competitive.The ClearCompany Talent Management Platfo...Read more
Workday HCM
Workday HCM
Workday HCM assists global businesses of all sizes in a variety of industry verticals with workforce planning, analysis, and execution. Workday delivers user and administrative tools across financials, HR, planning, talent, payrol...Read more
Popular Human Capital Management Software Comparisons
Buyers Guide
Last Updated: March 14, 2022What Is Human Capital Management Software?
Human capital management software is a type of software that provides features for strategic planning of available workforce. The software fits into the broader category of general HR software and offers overlapping features such as personnel and time and attendance tracking. The informal distinction is that human capital management software includes data visualization and analytics capabilities to predict requirements and optimize workforce.
Technically, HCM software fits into the broader category of general HR software and as such, it can include some or all of the following core HR functionalities:
- Recruiting
- Onboarding
- Personnel tracking
- Time and attendance
- Payroll
The informal distinction between HCM and general HR software is that HCM includes tools useful for more strategic workforce planning and analysis, while core HR software is typically more focused on the nuts and bolts of employee management. This is discussed in more detail in the final section below.
Of course, this standard warning applies: Vendors market their software differently and have a tendency to blur distinctions and descriptions. While the distinction above may not hold in all cases, it’s still useful to keep in mind as you read reviews and move closer to a purchase decision.
In this HCM software Buyers Guide we look at:
- Common Functions of Human Capital Management Software
- What Type of Buyer Are You?
- Related HR and HCM Software Categories
Common Functions of Human Capital Management Software
The following are generalized descriptions of the functionalities commonly included in HCM software. While they may be described differently by different vendors, the essential functionality will be similar across the board.
| Core HR administration | These are the functionalities associated with traditional HR software, such as: benefits and payroll administration, employee life cycle process management and organization of employee data. |
| Talent management | These applications help manage recruiting and onboarding processes, compensation, management of employee performance and training and education programs. |
| Workforce management | These tools help manage day-to-day workforce activities by tracking time and attendance, activity and task tracking, scheduling and absence management. |
| HR service delivery | These tools are provided largely for the benefit of employees, offering direct (online) access to important records and information regarding their employment. |
| Workforce analytics | These functions include reporting and data visualization features as well as predictive HR analytics models to help the predict and plan for likely future scenarios and challenges. |
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Core HR buyer. Your company has grown and it’s time to graduate from your spreadsheet-and-email methods of managing employees. Core HR platforms provide the essential, must-have HR functions such as personnel tracking, absence management, payroll, benefits administration and recruiting. Core HR platforms can be purchased for on-premise installation or as online software.
Best-of-breed core HR buyer. You already have a system for managing human resources. It’s an older system and doesn’t have much fancy functionality, but it’s integral to your operations and would be costly to replace. But, you’ve found you need some additional functionality, maybe something to help you better track applicants or update your appraisal and review processes. Often, HCM applications can be purchased as best-of-breed solutions, letting you add new HR functionality without much capex or system downtime.
Strategic HR buyers. If you’re in this group, then you probably have loftier HR goals, like workforce optimization and strategic workforce planning. These goals require better analytical tools that can help with forward-looking projections and planning. To the average (core) HR buyer, some of these tools would be considered “nice to have.” But for companies that want to amp up their HR strategy and are looking for tools to help with, for example, performance management, succession planning or compensation management, then HCM software is usually the best choice.
Related HR and HCM Software Categories
There’s a variety of stand-alone HR applications and full HR and HCM platforms on the market, and buyers are encouraged to examine all of their options before making a purchase decision. Depending on if you’re a core HR buyer, a best-of-breed core HR buyer or a strategic HR buyer (see explanations above) you might find the perfect HR tool on one of the related pages below: