Paylocity vs UKG Ready

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Our analysts compared Paylocity vs UKG Ready based on data from our 400+ point analysis of HR Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Paylocity Software Tool
UKG Ready Software Tool

Product Basics

Paylocity is an all-in-one cloud payroll solution that enables organizations of every size to execute administrative tasks such as talent acquisition, time and labor management, and other core processes. Its functionality includes multiple configuration options that allow companies to customize according to their needs.

It contains robust security measures such as encryption, real-time backups and secure data centers. It also has a user-friendly mobile app that is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.
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UKG Ready delivers essential HR capabilities like payroll, talent acquisition and management, benefits, scheduling and attendance management via a core suite. It also offers an ACA module, accruals, attestation and mobile functionality. Companies can leverage it to address needs across the employee lifecycle.

Employing automated data collection, it simplifies the task of aggregating workforce information from multiple sources including mobile, timeclock and web interface. Analytics features give users insights into the workforce to make decisions based on data. Payroll services are also available.
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$19/Employee, Monthly
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$21/Employee, Monthly
Free Trial is unavailable →
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Streamlined Talent Acquisition: The software is equipped with capabilities that make the recruiting process more manageable. Users can automate tasks, create custom workflows for hiring, post jobs internally, configure applications and post jobs. 
  • Simplified Onboarding: The portal centralizes information to create a simplified process for new hires. It can be configured to gather necessary employee details such as contact info, withholding forms and an employee handbook with e-signature functionality. 
  • Competent Employees: The platform facilitates easy-to-understand training that equips employees with critical skills, regardless of the initial skill set or position. The built-in LMS suite offers multiple methods and formats that fit the user’s preferred learning style. 
  • Compliance Peace of Mind: The software can train users on compliance topics and assess them on a regular basis. It also aggregates news and industry trends into a feed to keep users updated on compliance laws. 
  • Automatic Notifications: Users can easily stay informed with push notifications that automatically send updates about new hires, changes, time off approvals and terminations. 
  • Employee Engagement: The platform offers engagement tools that promote community interactions, gather feedback and support peer recognition. This boosts engagement within teams and across departments, as well as improves productivity. 
  • Administrative Add-Ons: Services like FSAs, HSAs, TMAs and COBRA supplement standard plans with complementary programs, giving employees a wide choice of benefits to meet their specific needs. 
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  • Less Admin Work: Eliminate physical paperwork, maintain all HR operations digitally and integrate core activities. 
  • Better Engagement With Employees: Saving time allows managers to provide regular feedback and interact consistently. 
  • Strategic Focus: Reduced workloads and greater task efficiency allow HR to focus on leadership development, culture building and other strategic initiatives. 
  • Reduced Complexity: Remove manual processes surrounding ACA compliance, automating a large part of the process to save time. 
  • Mobile Access: Provide greater convenience with access to information on any mobile device. Managers can complete tasks like approvals and check reports, while employees can turn in timesheets, request leaves, check schedules and clock in and out. 
  • Improved Planning: Build data-based strategies and boost performance by spotting trends across the workforce using predictive tools and AI. 
  • Centralized HR: Simplify work, minimize errors and streamline the user experience with data, features and connected modules available in one unified platform. 
  • Less Compliance Risk: Reduce the potential for fines and legal issues by leveraging proactive compliance for FLSA and ACA. 
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  • Payroll: Companies can simplify multiple financial tasks related to payroll with this feature. It automates payroll processes and takes care of tax compliance, expense reimbursements into paychecks, garnishment services and custom reports that derive whatever data that’s needed. It provides employees with the flexibility to access a portion of their earned wages when needed. 
  • Workforce Management: This feature helps eliminate the need for manual tracking of tasks, reduces administrative work and maintains accurate records of individual employees. The review forms can be customized to promote employees to set goals via an insight chart. 
  • Employee Self-Service: The software provides users with admin analytics, 24/7 secure access, enrollment and insurance access, and internal plans. This feature helps employees and employers to access, update, enroll and administer data respectively. 
  • Time and Labor Management: Workers can clock in and out via the mobile app, and managers can set geofencing rules that ensure accurate clock-punching. It also syncs with payroll automatically and allows managers to create and adjust schedules as needed, without manually correcting payroll data. 
  • Data Insights: The platform allows users to access demographic information, utilization, headcount, labor costs, position insights, turnover and retention. It also features real-time employee data, analytics for employment trends, strategic hiring and budgeting decisions, and programs to build a diverse workforce. 
  • Reports: The system comes with over 100 standard reports along with an ad hoc reporting tool. Users can schedule reports to automatically generate and track key reports with a favorites feature. 
  • Compensation Management: With this feature, administrators can configure settings such as the approval process and eligibility requirements. It also supports the customization of compensation plans to match organizational pay cycles. Company leaders gain a view into budgets and allocations, while managers can provide increases and view employee data like performance and pay history.  
  • Marketplace Integrations: Organizations can extend Paylocity’s capabilities to streamline the payroll regularity and HR data management across all policies. The solution connects with partner solutions in 20 categories, including single sign-on (SSO), ERP and a variety of HR-related functions. More than 300 integrations are available in the vendor marketplace. Data can flow into or out of Paylocity, or in both directions, depending on the integration. 
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  • Payroll: Supports unlimited payroll runs, ensures information is always up to date, manages a variety of components like tax considerations and garnishment processing, and provides self-service access for employees. Surfaces relevant data via standard and ad-hoc reporting, equipped with filters, grouping and customization. 
  • HR Management: Access a unified database for tracking and managing employee information. Configuration settings and the ability to build processes help workflows match internal requirements. Also offers: 
    • Onboarding: Streamlines processes with checklists, task assignments, automated reminders, forms with e-signature and more. 
    • Benefits: Includes employee self-service tools for selecting plans and updating information, configurable reports, and support for multiple plan types. Also shows data on costs, enrollment statuses and more. 
    • Training: Enables building courses, scheduling internal classes, reporting on learning outcomes, assigning training to employees, tracking completion and more. 
  • Workforce Analytics: Improves decisions and strategies by collecting and visualizing real-time workforce data. Uses AI to assess trends and identify risks to make predictive recommendations. 
  • Talent Acquisition: Simplifies the application process with custom application options, including populating from a LinkedIn profile. Also helps: 
    • Create a career site and integrate with more than 8,000 free and premium job boards.
    • Set up workflow approvals for job requisitions.
    • Manage recruitment processes in one place and sort candidates using criteria-based filters.
    • Configure email templates and pre-screening questions.
  • Employee Development: System administrators can define training courses, schedule classes and assign employees to take the classes. Managers are able to monitor open seats and gain visibility into employee participation and performance within the courses. 
  • Time Keeping: Automates many time and attendance processes, including alerts when employees cross leave limits and breach company policies related to attendance. Real-time data updates support accurate payroll and compliance. 
  • Performance Management: Delivers performance data that aids employee development efforts. Also includes: 
    • Goals tied to organizational objectives.
    • Unlimited profile types for the company, department or job level, offering weighted or numerical ratings and customizable criteria.
    • Automated review cycles, which include alerts, real-time status tracking and configuration options to set review dates and frequency.
    • Custom reports showing employee skills and required training, which aid succession planning.
  • Scheduling: Provides auto-generated schedules based on company needs, along with automatic employee sorting using preset conditions such as skills and availability. Other features include call lists for filling unexpected openings, employee self-scheduling, automated workflows and forecasts to anticipate demand. 
  • Compensation (Add-On): Simplifies compensation tasks by removing the need for manual tools and processes. Offers configurable cycles, automatic approval workflows, a budgeting interface, security settings and mass finalization of proposals. 
  • Attestation: Sends prompts to employees reminding them to confirm they’ve taken mandatory breaks for purposes of legal and internal compliance. Also offers: 
    •  Several course options: build-your-own courses, over 400 premade courses from the library and third-party content thanks to SCORM compatibility. 
    • Configuration of prompts to capture relevant information.
    • Automatic notifications alerting employees if they’ve missed attestation.
    • Reports that help validate compliance and aid attestation tracking.
    • Ability to attest time from the mobile or web time tracking app.
  • Accruals: Reduces errors through automated accrual tracking. A variety of criteria are available to configure accruals. Reports show thorough summaries of each employee’s accrual data for every type of PTO. 
  • ACA Management: Dashboards show real-time and historical data, with the ability to view individual employees for full visibility. Alerts help managers track schedules and employment changes, as well as let employees know about benefits eligibility. 
  • Payroll Service: Seamlessly integrates with the payroll module to ensure compliance, process garnishments, remove the need to manage tax paperwork and provide accurate information for tax filing. 
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Product Ranking

#17

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HR Management Software

#73

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HR Management Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 5068 reviews
Great User Sentiment 2859 reviews
84%
of users recommend this product

Paylocity has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 5068 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

81%
of users recommend this product

UKG Ready has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 81% when considering 2859 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

4.6 (21)
n/a
4.5 (2500)
4.0 (846)
4.5 (825)
4.1 (778)
n/a
4.1 (790)
4.4 (245)
4.3 (129)
3.5 (1477)
3.9 (316)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User-Friendly Interface: 60% of users suggested that the interface is user-friendly, with automated payroll and simplified workflows that make it easy to operate and monitor teams.
Unified Dashboard: Paylocity enables HRIS, payroll, timekeeping and admin-related tasks to be handled from a single location, according to 60% of users.
Performance Benefits: It eases task management for essential activities such as checking time off balances and paychecks, conducting goal assessments and achievements, performing year-end reviews, and more.
Easy PTO: It’s easy to use and implement in a day-to-day work routine, with 30% of users mentioning they can check staff availability before approving leaves.
Streamlined Onboarding: The onboarding process checks in candidates and sends paperwork before they start, making it 10%-20% easier for admin setup and paperwork completion according to users.
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Streamlined Onboarding: New hires can electronically complete onboarding tasks, such as I-9 and W-4 forms, before their first day, saving time for both HR and employees.
Centralized Employee Data: The platform serves as a single source of truth for employee information, including contact details, job history, performance reviews, and benefits enrollment, reducing the need for multiple systems and spreadsheets.
Efficient Benefits Administration: UKG Ready simplifies benefits enrollment and management, allowing employees to easily compare plans, make selections, and track their coverage.
Time and Attendance Tracking: The system offers various methods for tracking employee time and attendance, including mobile clock-in/out, which can help ensure accurate payroll and compliance with labor laws.
Performance Management: UKG Ready facilitates performance reviews, goal setting, and feedback, enabling managers to track employee progress and development.
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Support Team: Paylocity's support process is lengthy according to 30% of users, requiring a lot of back and forth to get an issue resolved, which usually takes days.
Cumbersome Payroll: The payroll module requires set up by different people and doesn’t function accurately according to 10% of users.
Timesheets: Tracking time is difficult, as Paylocity doesn’t update and capture time entries until a shift is completed.
System Logouts: Despite automation, additional verification is required when logging in, causing 10% of users to completely exit and then log in again.
Tracking: Tracking functionality doesn’t work well for all the features in the experience of 10%-20% of users.
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Limited Customization: Users express frustration over the inflexibility of the platform, particularly when it comes to tailoring the system to their specific needs. For example, setting up unique approval workflows or customizing reports can be challenging.
Complex User Interface: Some users find the system difficult to navigate, describing the interface as clunky and unintuitive. This can lead to decreased efficiency and frustration, especially for new users.
Occasional Technical Issues: Users report experiencing occasional glitches and errors, such as system slowdowns or difficulty accessing certain features. These technical hiccups can disrupt workflow and impact productivity.
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Paylocity is a user-friendly HCM solution that works well for SMBs and delivers an array of features such as payroll management, hiring and talent management in a unified suite. Self-service capabilities help employees access their information. Some users found issues with its payroll, tracking and timesheet capabilities, reducing accuracy and limiting what can be done. However, it offers an intuitive interface, with tools like onboarding and PTO that make tasks easier while speeding up processes. Businesses looking for an end-to-end system to manage HR functions should consider this as a good contender.

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User reviews from the past year indicate UKG Ready is a comprehensive human resources management software solution best suited for small and mid-sized businesses, but may not be the best fit for every organization. Users praise UKG Ready for its user-friendly interface, robust reporting and analytics, and seamless integration with other business software, such as accounting and CRM software. For example, one user noted the software's intuitive design made it easy to navigate and complete tasks efficiently. Another user highlighted the value of the detailed reports, which provided actionable insights into key HR metrics, enabling data-driven decision-making. However, some users have reported that the software can be expensive and may require a significant upfront investment. Additionally, some users have found the initial setup and implementation process to be somewhat complex and time-consuming. UKG Ready differentiates itself from competitors by offering a mobile app that allows employees to access their information and manage tasks on the go. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses with remote or mobile workforces. Users also appreciate the strong customer support provided by UKG, noting the team's responsiveness and helpfulness in resolving issues. Overall, UKG Ready is a solid choice for businesses seeking a comprehensive HR solution with a user-friendly interface, robust features, and reliable customer support. However, businesses with limited budgets or those seeking a simple solution with minimal setup may want to consider alternative options.

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