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Due to the pandemic and our mass adoption of Zoom-like technologies, many companies have started to view geography differently. Companies are increasingly hiring contractors and employees overseas.
As workforces become more globalized, companies need a global HRIS system that can serve as a single source of truth for all employees.
While many companies can claim to support a global workforce, there is some nuance that is required. Companies should know if global employees get access to the entire system, or just limited parts of it. They should know if the company can provide language localization, in-country compliance advice or has non-US support centers. They should know if the company can provide global payroll, contractor management and global PEO services.
If you need further help sorting through the market, OutSail's free services can provide you research and expertise to simplify the process. Contact OutSail
Below is an overview of the best global HRIS systems and what sub-categories they fall into:
Learn More: Download a free vendor report with pricing, integration details and user reviews
Global Enterprise HRIS Systems
This group of solutions is purpose-built to serve as a global HRIS system with full functionality available to employees all across the globe. These systems offer language localization and global support offices. These systems do not process global payroll, aside from in a 2-3 countries. They do, however, partner with a number of global payroll partners to provide that service.

Workday
Overview: Workday is a leader in the HRIS space for a reason. They create a platform that is robust enough to make power users feel confident, informed and highly catered to. But Workday is also light enough that any frontline employee can navigate it with ease. Workday’s weakest features is their ATS and recruiting module, but the real drawback is simply the price, which includes not just software fees, but also a lot of ongoing consulting / headcount costs to maintain such a robust system.
Average Customer Size: 1,500+ employees
Typical Price Point: $50-90 PEPM

SAP SuccessFactors
Overview: SAP SuccessFactors is a full suite HRIS system that focuses heavily on Talent Management and Employee Experience. SuccessFactors is primarily an enterprise solution and works best for companies with large, complex, global workforces. They provide unique strengths around recruiting, performance, succession planning and employee engagement. Their Core HR (payroll, time, benefits) tools are not their strongest area and are often replaced by 3rd parties.
Average Customer Size: 1,000+ employees
Typical Price Point: $30-40 PEPM

Oracle HCM Cloud
Overview: Oracle’s HCM Cloud is a rising leader in the enterprise space. Oracle has put numerous development resources behind building an all-in-one HCM offering that can configure to any organization’s complexity. Oracle’s HCM Cloud gets strong reviews for the recruiting functionality, as well as for the employee experience, which can be strong on mobile and has some AI capabilities to simplify workflows.
Average Customer Size: 3,000+ employees
Typical Price Point: $24-34 PEPM
Blog: How to Negotiate an HRIS Agreement
Global HRIS + Global Payroll Systems
There are only a few companies that can offer both the full suite of global HRIS tools and a fully-owned global payroll network too. The advantages for these companies are that they can truly serve as a one-stop-shop for all of your team's global needs including a global system of record, global payroll and global support. They can be a bit limited when it comes to global compliance, global PEO and contractor management, however.

Ceridian
Overview: Ceridian Dayforce is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. Ceridian Dayforce is utilized by companies as small as 100 employees and as large as 100,000, but has developed a strong presence in the Mid-Enterprise. Ceridian is known for it's strengths around Payroll and Workforce Management. Ceridian has long been a top competitor to ADP in the payroll space, and in 2012, they acquired Dayforce, a leading Workforce Management platform. Since then, Dayforce has become their flagship offering and is a great solution for companies with complex payroll, time & attendance, scheduling and tax needs.
Average Customer Size: 400-5,000 employees
Typical Price Point: $20-29 PEPM

ADP
Overview: ADP Workforce Now is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. Workforce Now is utilized by companies of all shapes and sizes, but their strongest audience is in the Mid-Market. ADP is known for their strengths around payroll and tax filing, and also provides expertise to support virtually any business scenario. ADP also has a unique outsourced service, called Comp Services, that allows companies to put their payroll processing and benefits management on auto-pilot.
Average Customer Size: 75-1,000 employees
Typical Price Point: $19-27 PEPM
Mid-Market Global HRIS Systems
These types of solutions are not as expensive and intensive to implement as the first group (Oracle, Workday and SAP). However, these systems can still offer a robust global HRIS platform that gives employees outside of the US full access to the system. Each of these companies serves numerous global companies and has global payroll partners. They are, however, limited in their ability to support global PEO, global compliance and contractor management. Some of these companies have global offices, but some do not.

UKG Pro
Overview: UKG Pro is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. UKG Pro is utilized by companies as small as 100 employees and as large as 100,000, but has developed a strong presence in the Mid-Enterprise. UKG Pro is known for it's strengths around HR and Talent Management. While many of their peers developed payroll first and HR after, UKG has made HR their core competency from the get go, providing strengths around recruiting, engagement and employee development. UKG also has a loyal following from many of their customers due to their 'partners for life' philosophy.
Average Customer Size: 350-5,000 employees
Typical Price Point: $24-36 PEPM

SagePeople
Overview: SagePeople is a scalable HRIS solution designed to be payroll-agnostic and best suited for global organizations. SagePeople is built on the Salesforce platform which makes it a very scalable, secure platform with high quality reporting. They do not offer a payroll module, but are experiencing at integrating with a variety of leading payroll providers in the US and abroad. SagePeople can be a great fit for companies that need a single source of truth for a complex global workforce
Average Customer Size: 150-2,500 employees
Typical Price Point: $14-20 PEPM
Paylocity
Overview: Paylocity is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. The system is designed for mid-market companies and gets above average reviews for ease of use. Paylocity is strong in integrations and can support companies with global workforces too.
Average Customer Size: 50-500 employees
Typical Price Point: $15-23 PEPM

Namely
Overview: Namely was built with the employee experience in mind and designed their HRIS from the ground up to be mobile-first, employee-centric and on-par with other consumer apps that younger workforces use outside of work. Their solution covers a large portion of Core HR functionality and, where they can't offer certain functionality, they have integrations with leading 3rd parties.
Average Customer Size: 50-300 employees
Typical Price Point: $16-23 PEPM
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BambooHR
Overview: Over the last decade, BambooHR has steadily grown into a market leader in the SMB and Mid-Market. They provide a modern HRIS solution that covers a wide spectrum of functionality - performance, recruiting, onboarding - at a competitive price point. While Bamboo owns a payroll company, called Trax, many customers will use their own payroll / ben admin tools and use Bamboo for more employee-facing activities. Bamboo is also open to integrating with a variety of 3rd party HR tools
Average Customer Size: 20-300 employees
Typical Price Point: $6-10 PEPM
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HiBob
Overview: Bob is a great solution for companies that want performance, engagement and culture to be at the center of their organization. While many vendors add those tools later in their lifecycle, those features were foundational to Bob from the get-go. The emphasis on employee engagement leads to high usage from employees and better reporting for companies. Additionally, Bob is a global company and their solution is a strong fit for multi-national companies.
Average Customer Size: 50-500 employees
Typical Price Point: $7-13 PEPM

GoCo
Overview: GoCo provides sleek, easy-to-use HR tools with some surprisingly robust capabilities under-the-hood. GoCo's strengths are around onboarding, benefits admin and leave management, but they have also developed unique expertise to facilitate payroll integrations and have rolled out a workflow builder tool that allows HR teams to build automated processes from scratch.
Average Customer Size: 5-250 employees
Typical Price Point: $5-10 PEPM