Workday Adaptive Planning

A good fit for Workday HCM customers who plan with Finance

Workday’s own figures come from unnamed customers

Workday says planning cycles are 70% shorter, on average, for its workforce planning customers. Workday says the same customers see a 50% gain in productivity, on average. Ask Workday for a named customer who can explain both averages.

Workday puts the average time to deploy Adaptive Planning at 4.5 months. The 4.5-month average is for Adaptive Planning as a whole. Ask Workday for the workforce planning figure before you set a start date.

Workday's workforce planning datasheet quotes Philips and Nationwide Insurance. Neither customer quote gives a result in numbers.

Approved hiring plans become open positions in Workday HCM

• Once a headcount plan is approved, Adaptive Planning creates the approved positions in Workday HCM. Recruiters can start hiring without typing the numbers in again.
• You can run unlimited what-if scenarios to compare hiring, reskilling and upskilling before you commit.
• Finance, HR and senior management can approve each plan before HR leaders act on it. Hiring then starts from a plan that Finance has already seen.
• You can pull plan data straight into Excel, PowerPoint, Google Sheets, Google Slides and Google Docs. Reports for leaders can then start from the plan's own numbers.

Companies on Workday HCM or with Finance on Adaptive Planning fit best

Workday says Adaptive Planning is designed for organisations of all sizes, so size alone will not settle the fit.

• Companies that run Workday HCM. A setup wizard automates the link between Workday HCM and Adaptive Planning. If you run a different HR system, ask how your people data will reach the plan.
• Companies whose Finance team already plans on Adaptive Planning. HR, Finance and Operations can build workforce plans together on one platform. You can also reconcile your headcount with Finance's numbers.

Get the plan's builder, timeline and cost in writing before you sign

Adaptive Planning is a platform to design plans on, not a finished workforce planning method. Someone must design your workforce plan on it before it gives you answers.

Workday quotes on request, and the trial is free for 30 days

Workday lists two add-ons, an administrator training kit and a consolidation option. Ask whether you need either add-on, and get the workforce planning part and each add-on priced as separate lines.

A 30-day free trial lets you test Adaptive Planning with no obligation. Use the 30 days to see how much work your workforce plan will need.

You can also buy Adaptive Planning through the AWS Marketplace. If your company has a yearly AWS commitment, that spend counts toward it.

What should you ask Workday before you sign?

1. Who will build our workforce plan in Adaptive Planning, and how long will it take? Good answer: a named team and a timeline, in writing.
2. Will Workday or a partner build our plan, and is their time billed on top of the licence? Good answer: one figure, written into the order form.
3. Does the Predictive Forecaster, or any other part of Adaptive Planning, predict anything about a named employee? Good answer: a plain yes or no. Under the EU AI Act, a system on its list of employment uses is always high-risk if it profiles people. From 2 December 2027, employers in the EU must tell affected workers and their representatives before using a high-risk system.
4. Can the plan use outside job market or pay data, and does that cost extra? Good answer: the named data source, with its price.
5. Which named customers use Adaptive Planning for workforce planning, and how many employees does each have? Good answer: names and headcounts you can check against your own.
6. If our Finance team already licenses Adaptive Planning, what does adding workforce planning cost? Good answer: one written figure for the workforce planning part.
7. What happens to our plans and data if we leave? Good answer: a written export process and a deletion date.
8. Can we see the full Customer Terms before we sign? Good answer: the complete document, sent before the order form.

Alternatives to Workday Adaptive Planning

The main alternatives are Nakisa, Anaplan, Pigment, the planning tools inside Oracle, Dayforce and UKG Pro, or a spreadsheet.

Nakisa sells a finished planning method, where you load your data and set the assumptions. Nakisa reads from Workday and sends approved changes back, so it suits Workday customers who want the method built.

Anaplan is a platform your own team or a partner builds the plan on. BT has run its workforce planning models on Anaplan for about five years.

Pigment gives you a ready-made workforce planning template to adapt. Pigment marks its link to Workday as "On the Roadmap", meaning not available yet.

If you run Oracle Fusion HCM, Dayforce or UKG Pro, demo that vendor's own planning tool first.

• Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning runs on Oracle's wider planning platform (EPM). Your team or a partner sets it up before it runs.
• UKG Pro includes Strategic Workforce Planning among its tools. Ask UKG who builds its model.
• Dayforce Strategic Workforce Planning is a ready planning tool inside Dayforce. Dayforce's planning tool costs $54.00 per employee per year, plus $171.96 per employee per year for the Dayforce Platform.

If you plan headcount once a year, a spreadsheet shared by HR and Finance may be enough for now.