UKG Pro Strategic Workforce Planning

Demo it if UKG Pro is already your HR system

UKG reports Costa gains, and its tool predicts nothing about named staff

• UKG names Costa Coffee, with more than 1,500 UK locations, as a customer of the tool since late 2021. UKG reports that Costa's staffing efficiency rose nearly 50% over Christmas 2021 and 65% just after. Costa's labour operations manager says the tool helps Costa plan recruitment ahead of time.
• The tool does not forecast anything about a named employee. In the EU, GDPR treats predicting a named employee's performance as profiling. If you have EU staff, ask UKG to confirm in writing that the tool forecasts nothing about named employees.

Its evidence is store staffing, so test longer-term skills planning

• UKG's contract service descriptions list the tool with its scheduling and timekeeping services. If you need a skills plan for years ahead, ask UKG to show one in the demo.
• UKG names no outside source of labour market, pay or skills data for the tool. UKG's pages describe your own sales, traffic, seasonal and budget data as the inputs. That matters if you want to compare your pay or skills with the market.

It fits teams that plan both shifts and years ahead

• If you want shift scheduling and plans years ahead in one system, UKG says it covers both.
• If frontline managers plan staffing with HR, Finance and Operations, UKG names all four as users.

UKG quotes on request, so benchmark against Dayforce's list price

UKG quotes the tool's price on request. Without a quote, you cannot budget for the tool before a sales call.

Dayforce publishes a list price for its own planning tool. Dayforce's tool lists at $54.00 per employee per year, plus $171.96 per employee per year for the Dayforce Platform. Compare UKG's quote with those figures.

UKG's own guide to workforce management pricing says vendors often mix per-employee, per-user, per-location and bundle prices. Check which of those apply to the planning tool, and what the quote includes.

What to ask UKG before you sign

1. Who builds our planning model, and who keeps it running? Good answer: named people from UKG, a partner or your own team, and a set-up time in weeks.
2. What does the tool add to our UKG Pro price? Good answer: a figure per employee per year, in writing.
3. Can we buy the tool without the rest of UKG Pro? Good answer: a plain yes or no, with the price either way.
4. Does an approved plan flow back into UKG payroll and scheduling, and how often does data refresh? Good answer: the direction of each link and a refresh time, shown in the demo.
5. Does the tool track which jobs are approved, open or filled against this year's budget? Good answer: a plain yes or no, shown in the demo.
6. Can we call a customer that uses the tool for more than store staffing? Good answer: a named company you can call.
7. Can the tool use outside pay or skills data, and does that cost extra? Good answer: a named data source and a price.
8. How do we export our plans and scenarios if we leave UKG? Good answer: a written export process, the file formats and a deletion date.

Alternatives to UKG

If your HR system is Dayforce, Workday or Oracle rather than UKG Pro, look at that supplier's planning tool. The strategic workforce planning guide explains the other kinds of product in this market.

Dayforce Strategic Workforce Planning is a planning tool inside Dayforce, with the planning method built in. If Dayforce holds your HR data, demo it first.

Workday Adaptive Planning is Workday's finance planning software that also covers workforce planning. Look at it if Workday HCM is your HR system. A setup wizard links it to Workday HCM. Ask Workday who builds the plan.

Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning sits inside Oracle EPM, Oracle's wider planning platform. You or a partner set it up before it runs. Unlike UKG's tool, it can predict the performance and attrition of individual employees. Look at it if you run Oracle, and ask how Oracle uses predictions about individuals.