12 best workforce management software for 2024

According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2023, only 56 percent of consumers feel positively about their support interactions over the past year. Many aspects can cause this unsettling lack of customer satisfaction, and how you run a business behind the scenes is at the top of the list.

Workforce management (WFM) is a set of processes and technologies a business can use to manage employees, optimize operations, and ensure a positive customer experience (CX) time after time. In this article, we detail the 12 best workforce management software options to level up your organizational efficiency and deliver positive support interactions.

More in this guide:

• What is workforce management software?
• Workforce management software comparison chart
• The 12 best workforce management software
• Must-have features of workforce management software
• Benefits of workforce management software
• How to choose the right workforce management software
• Frequently asked questions
• Ready to try workforce management software?

Workforce management software is a tool businesses can use to schedule employees, monitor productivity, comply with labor laws, set long-term goals, and more.

While it’s important that organizations embrace workforce management, it’s just as important that WFM initiatives are implemented smoothly. Workforce management software bridges the gap between strategy and execution, empowering managers to engage in WFM processes—like scheduling, performance monitoring, and payroll processing—as easily as possible.

Below is a comparison chart of the top 12 workforce management software options. It includes information on each software’s price, free trial options, and features.

Next, let’s jump into an extended breakdown of each software, including pricing and features, so you can invest in the best one for your business.

1. Zendesk (via Tymeshift)

Zendesk has long been a trusted partner for businesses seeking to improve their customer experience, ranking as G2’s #1 customer service product for 2023. Now, users can get that same world-class CX integrated with new workforce management capabilities thanks to our acquisition of Tymeshift, an AI-powered workforce management software built just for Zendesk. With the power of both platforms, organizations can reinvent their workforce management through several key components:

• AI-powered forecasting: Find the employment sweet spot with complete staffing forecasts so you know exactly how many agents you need and where you need them.
• Automatic scheduling: Tymeshift factors in a company’s staffing forecasts to automatically create efficient schedules for every employee—no more wasted hours on spreadsheets.
• Reporting and analytics: Develop real-time and historical reports that give insight into capacity, performance, and overall productivity.

To access Tymeshift, you must first be a Zendesk customer, but we are confident that after seeing how these products integrate, you’ll never need another workforce management solution.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• AI-powered forecasting
• Automatic scheduling
• Customizable performance reports
• Utilization/occupancy rate tracking
• Seamless agent experience
• Complete integration with Zendesk

Pricing:

• Professional: $15 per user/month
• Enterprise: $30 per user/month

  *Plans are billed annually.

• Start a free trial
• View pricing
• Request a demo

Free trial:

14 days

2. BambooHR

BambooHR is a platform that takes an HR-style approach to workforce management. Traditional WFM features like employee time tracking and performance monitoring are present, but so are other capabilities like hiring and onboarding help.

The product’s dashboard gives managers a single view of hours worked, PTO tracking, standard workflows, and more to streamline the WFM process.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Customizable performance reports
• Feedback and sentiment tools
• Performance management
• Applicant tracking
• Employee engagement assessments
• PTO tracking

Pricing:

• Contact for pricing

Free trial:

7 days

3. Papaya Global

Papaya Global is a payroll and payments solution designed for global workforces. It focuses primarily on financials and offers payroll, analytics, and employee benefit assistance.

Papaya has analytical features like connected and global payments that provide a high-level overview of how teams perform financially. Employers can also zoom in and focus on individuals by examining paychecks and workforce analysis.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Customizable performance reports
• Workforce analytics
• Employee portals
• Payroll integrations
• High-level data collection
• Global payments

Pricing:

• Payroll Platform License: $3 per employee/month
• Payments-as-a-Service: $3 per employee/month
• Full-Service Payroll: $12 per employee/month
• Data and Insights Platform License: $150 per location/month

Free trial:

Unavailable

4. Deel

Deel is an HR platform that assists businesses with workforce management—whether the teams consist of direct employees, contractors, or employer of record (EOR) employees. It is designed to help businesses manage local and global teams.

Features like custom dashboards and payroll reports allow users to keep tabs on expenses and employee performance, while self-serve onboarding capabilities can assist in the hiring process.

Features:

• Customizable performance reports
• Organizational charts
• Reporting and analytics
• Employee profiles
• Team workflows
• Onboarding and offboarding

Pricing:

• Deel HR: $0 per month (limited features)
• Contractors: Starting at $49 per month
• EOR: Starting at $599 per month
• Immigration: Contact sales for pricing
• Global payroll: Contact sales for pricing

Free trial:

Not applicable

5. monday.com

Workforce management software monday.com is a platform that can provide one source of truth for managers and employees by centralizing all work, processes, tools, and files into one place. The product comes with capabilities for project management, business operations, goal and strategy setting, and more.

Its WFM process consists of three levels: goals and objectives, projects and processes, and tasks. Through these, businesses can create goals and action plans, and define the workflows needed to achieve them. Meanwhile, managers can utilize task management and to-do lists to ensure employees are staying productive in reaching those goals.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• AI-powered forecasting
• Automatic scheduling
• Customizable performance reports
• Utilization/occupancy rate tracking
• No-code customizability
• Custom workflows

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (2 seats)
• Basic: $8 per seat/month
• Standard: $10 per seat/month
• Pro: $16 per seat/month
• Enterprise: Contact sales

  *Plans are billed annually

Free trial:

14 days

6. Connecteam

Connecteam is a product that seeks to support deskless teams of all sizes. The main goal of the platform is to make it easy for managers to communicate, train, and manage their employees.

Features like team scheduling, one-click payroll, and time clock management help businesses automate schedule-making and track employee hours. Mobile checklists and task management features allow teams to stay connected and promote accountability from employees and managers.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Customizable performance reports
• Team scheduling
• One-click payroll
• Geofencing
• Knowledge base
• Onboarding

Pricing:

• Small Business: $0 per month (up to 10 users)
• Operations Basic: $29 per month (up to 30 users)
• Operations Advanced: $49 per month (up to 30 users)
• Operations Expert: $99 per month (up to 30 users)

Free trial:

14 days

7. UKG

UKG is an HR and workforce management product that assists businesses in managing their employees. It emphasizes building relationships and creating great work environments through specially designed features.

The platform helps businesses recruit top talent and set development goals for employees. It also assists managers in creating employee schedules that promote work-life balance. Additionally, reporting and analytics can keep businesses on track with their goals.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Automatic scheduling
• Customizable performance reports
• Recruiting and onboarding
• Automated payroll processing

Pricing:

• Contact for pricing

Free trial:

Unavailable

8. ADP

ADP is primarily an HR and tax services platform that can help businesses of all sizes with workforce management. It leverages customizable dashboards, a phone app, self-service capabilities, and more to provide a streamlined interface.

Scheduling capabilities like automated scheduling, time and attendance tracking, and absence management allow managers to establish and monitor team schedules throughout the workweek. Also, analytics and insights features give managers an idea of their team’s performance.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Automatic scheduling
• Customizable performance reports
• Absence management
• Reporting and analytics
• Payroll integration

Pricing:

• Contact for pricing

Free trial:

Unavailable

9. Workday

Workday is an enterprise management solution that offers workforce management capabilities for global workforces. The product delivers flexibility and agility with its features to help managers meet employee needs.

AI-driven schedule generation, demand forecasting, and labor optimization can help managers create schedules while shift-swapping features let employees modify those schedules how they see fit. Workday can also assist with interview scheduling, hiring, onboarding, and other elements associated with the recruiting process.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• AI-powered forecasting
• Automatic scheduling
• Customizable performance reports
• Utilization/occupancy rate tracking
• Labor optimization
• Onboarding and offboarding
• Geofencing

Pricing:

• Contact for pricing

Free trial:

Unavailable

10. Rippling

Rippling is a workforce management platform designed for HR, IT, and finance industries. The product lets businesses keep track of employee payroll, benefits, and expenses—all from one dashboard.

Rippling’s HR features aim to help businesses with time and attendance tracking, recruiting, headcount planning, and more. Meanwhile, IT and finance features target areas like device management, expense management, and corporate cards. Users can also leverage reporting and analytics, workflow automation, policy enforcement, custom permissions, and other features to manage their workforce.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• AI-powered forecasting
• Automatic scheduling
• Customizable performance reports
• Utilization/occupancy rate tracking
• Payroll and benefits administration
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

• Pricing starts at $8 per user/month

Free trial:

Unavailable

11. Paylocity

Paylocity is an HR and payroll solution that attempts to improve the employee experience. The workforce management platform takes an all-in-one approach, assisting businesses in key areas like talent management, time and attendance tracking, benefits administration, and more.

Automated scheduling and employee shift-swapping features can help organizations create schedules suitable for managers and workers. Recruiting, onboarding, and training capabilities can also assist businesses with hiring and getting new hires up to speed.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Customizable performance reports
• Utilization/occupancy rate tracking
• Recruiting and onboarding
• Employee shift-swapping
• Geofencing
• Remote clock-in and clock-out

Pricing:

• Contact for pricing

Free trial:

Unavailable

12. Paycom

Paycom is a workforce management platform that primarily provides HR and payroll services. The product empowers employees to handle the majority of their payroll, ensure their information is correct, manage their data, and more.

Paycom’s payroll system, Beti, has employees manage every aspect of their paycheck information, such as payroll verification and approval, PTO, expenses, and benefits. As a safeguard, features like time clock management and time and attendance tools allow managers to ensure that employees are tracking their time correctly.

Features:

• Real-time tracking
• Customizable performance reports
• Time and attendance tracking
• Talent management
• Onboarding

Pricing:

• Contact for pricing

Free trial:

Unavailable

No matter which workforce management software you choose, you should look for a few key features.

Workforce management software can aid organizations in several ways. Below are some of the top benefits for businesses implementing WFM processes.

Cost reduction

AI-powered forecasting, automatic scheduling, utilization/optimization rate tracking, and more can ensure businesses have the right number of employees at the right time. This naturally reduces overtime costs and optimizes labor budgets so organizations can spend less on payroll. Furthermore, automation can create more efficient workforce managers, allowing them to focus less on menial tasks like schedule-making and more on big-picture strategy and performance.

Strategic planning

Workforce management software should always have features that help businesses plan for the future. Using historical and real-time data, organizations can make informed decisions about staffing levels, training needs, resource allocation, and other short- and long-term goals. With features that allow for effective anticipation, businesses can stay ahead of emerging trends and ensure they prepare themselves for what’s to come.

Improved productivity

Optimization is the name of the game with workforce management software, and Tymeshift has several features like optimization/utilization rate tracking that can ensure internal help desks and support agents are working as efficiently as possible.

Automation capabilities also play a big role in helping managers become more productive. Rather than creating schedules manually via a spreadsheet, for example, managers can use Tymeshift to generate optimized schedules in a fraction of the time.

Enhanced employee satisfaction

Workforce management software can promote employee satisfaction through predictable scheduling and ease of use. Automatic scheduling and AI-powered forecasting can improve efficiency, eliminate unnecessary overtime, and process time-off requests—factors that can make a difference in an employee’s work-life balance. Products like Tymeshift can also offer comprehensive agent dashboards, easy-to-access metrics and timesheets, and other features that promote a seamless agent experience.

Selecting the right workforce management software for your organization can be difficult. There are several key factors that you need to consider to make sure your chosen product aligns with your needs and goals.

Consider your use case

Different businesses have different needs—some will focus more on automatic scheduling and agent productivity, while others may prioritize payroll assistance and analytics. Identify the unique pain points of your organization to select the right workforce management software for your use case. Not every product on the market will be right for every organization.

Note the vendor’s reputation

If you find yourself gravitating toward a handful of workforce management products, research the vendors' backgrounds. Consult online reviews and recommendations from peers if possible to find positive feedback and a track record of reliability.

Also ensure that the vendor can keep your and your customers’ data safe with enterprise-grade security. At Zendesk, for example, we pride ourselves on our numerous compliance certifications that are based on industry-accepted security and privacy frameworks.

Confirm it will easily integrate into your operations

Workforce management software will weave itself into the fabric of your operations, so select a product that is easy to use and effective. Evaluate how well the product can integrate with your other tools, and ensure employees can get up to speed quickly.

Take Tymeshift, for instance. It’s designed specifically to work with Zendesk, so integrating the two is seamless. This means teams that already use Zendesk can get up to speed with Tymeshift in no time.

Make sure it scales with your business

Organizations grow and evolve, and your workforce management solution should be able to grow with you without requiring a complete overhaul of equipment. You should also look for products that promise low total cost of ownership and fast time to value—things we prioritize at Zendesk.