“Workforce planning” is often used interchangeably with the broader category of “workforce management” activities in business today. However, workforce planning focuses on aligning your workforce with your business objectives.
Unlike other workforce management tools, such as scheduling software or time-tracking tools, workforce planning software helps you strategically forecast your workforce needs to ensure you have the right people in the right roles to meet current and future demands.
This guide will explore the top six workforce planning software tools for SaaS companies. Whether you’re scaling your business and need more people, optimizing your current workforce, or managing complex staffing requirements, our comparison of top tech will help you find the software that best fits your company’s needs.
The best workforce planning software compared
The best workforce planning software solutions make it easier for companies to forecast and manage their workforce needs. The comparison chart below summarizes all the details for the top contenders to help you more strategically build and optimize a workforce that meets the needs of your business while also staying in line with your budget.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $$ | $ | $$-$$$ | $$ | $$-$$$ | $$$ |
| Best for | SMB to Mid-Market | SMB | Mid-Market to Enterprise | Mid-Market to Enterprise | Mid-Market to Enterprise | Enterprise |
| Scalability | Highly scalable | Low scalability | Highly scalable | Scalable but may require adjustments along the way | Scalable but requires continual adjustments | Scalable with upgrades |
| Integration with ERP, CRM, Billing and BI | 20+ OOTB integrations | < 3 OOTB integrations | < 5 OOTB integrations | 7 OOTB integrations | 7 OOTB integrations | 15 OOTB integrations |
| Scenario planning & modeling | ||||||
| Connected planning & modeling | ||||||
| Employee movement tracking and reconciliation | ||||||
| Advanced analytics & reporting with dynamic dashboards | ||||||
| Collaboration with access control | ||||||
| Ease of use |
Drivetrain
Purpose-built for small and mid-market companies, Drivetrain is a comprehensive financial management and analysis (FP&A) platform that supports all types of business planning, including workforce planning. Planning in Drivetrain is connected planning, meaning that the impacts of changes made to one plan will instantly be visible in other related plans. This is particularly important for workforce planning which often relies on other important planning processes.
For workforce planning specifically, Drivetrain seamlessly integrates with HRIS, ATS, and payroll systems, allowing easy reconciliation of planned versus actual hires. This eliminates manual data consolidation and significantly improves forecast accuracy.
By automating tasks like employee movement tracking and new hire reconciliation, Drivetrain frees up time for finance teams to identify gaps and opportunities that drive business growth. Its robust features allow you to manage currency exchange rates for compensation of globally distributed teams, reconcile actual hires with planned ones, and monitor variances between your budgeted and actual headcount.
Beyond basic headcount planning, Drivetrain offers granular insights into how hiring decisions impact your company’s P&L and cash flow. With scenario modeling, assumption-based planning, and detailed employee tracking, teams make informed decisions quickly.
Drivetrain also includes collaboration features with in-app communication tools and role-based access control to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned around a single source of truth, enabling smarter, faster, and more secure workforce planning and data-driven decision-making.
$$
Small and Mid-market
200+ popular integrations including native data connectors to all popular business applications such as ERP, CRM, Billing systems
Connected strategic planning to align workforce planning with key business objectives
Integrated workforce planning to align with operational and financial planning
Compensation planning
Automated reporting with interactive dashboards
Highly intuitive UI
Extensive customization option
Not well suited for enterprise-scale companies
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Headcount and capacity planning
Headcount reconciliation
Variance Analysis
Scenario Planning and What-If Analysis
Automated Insights
Collaboration for unified workforce planning
BambooHR is a strategic HR planning tool that helps you make data-driven decisions for employees and potential candidates. Specifically designed for HR teams, this software offers dozens of standard reports related to employee data, turnover, hiring, paid leave, and more. While the users cannot access reporting and analytics features through their mobile app, they can create and customize dashboards on desktops.
$$
Small and Mid-market
Ability to create reports that can be used for workforce analysis
Affordable for smaller companies
Intuitive and user-friendly interface
Offers basic reporting capabilities but lacks advanced features
Limited dimensional-level access and collaboration tools
Cannot manage workforce planning scenarios
Employee data management
Applicant tracking system (ATS)
Performance management
Time-off tracking
Custom reports
Pigment is a business planning platform designed for relatively stable, slow-growing large enterprises with complex needs. The platform aims to streamline complex decision-making by bringing all your data into one place with real-time updates.
$$
Mid-Market to Enterprise
Model building capabilities
Data synchronization across all modules
Cross-functional collaboration
Limited advanced reporting and dashboard features
Restricted formatting and data manipulation options compared to excel
Raw user experience with minor usability issues
Occasional latency when updating formulas
Steep learning curve (5-12 months)
Headcount planning
Scenario planning
Compensation planning
Collaboration features
ADP Workforce Now is a strategic platform for all HR-related things, such as organizational charts, notifications, tax filing, time off requests, and performance management. It boasts robust reporting and analytics capabilities that can help with workforce planning. It also includes benchmarking tools to compare organizational metrics against market data, allowing businesses to optimize strategies in compensation and employee retention.
$$
Mid-Market to Enterprise
Robust workforce database to support confident decisions
Centralized document management
Strong compliance management
Basic metrics tracking but lacks full integration
Headcount modeling is not supported
Limited advanced collaboration features
Headcount reconciliation is not supported
Setup is complex
Steep learning curve owing to extensive features
Workforce analytics
Talent management
Recruitment management
Time and attendance tracking
Payroll and benefits management
Workday Adaptive Planning is a software that offers a unified suite of tools to streamline and modernize workforce planning, modeling, budgeting, and forecasting. It allows organizations to model workforce dynamics, align staffing with business goals, and monitor talent requirements. The platform offers a robust set of features but its complexity often requires reliance on expensive, certified consultants for both implementation and ongoing maintenance.
$$-$$$
Mid-market to Enterprise
Offers industry-specific financial planning templates and functionality
Detailed headcount management, including salary, compensation, bonuses, and benefits
Integrates smoothly with HR and payroll systems for a complete view of employee costs and projections.
Requires training to use
Extensive features and capabilities not financially sustainable for small and midsize companies
Less intuitive, particularly for complex scenarios
Customization may require additional support
Very high implementation costs
Workforce forecasting
Headcount and expense planning
Scenario modeling
Integrated financial planning
Real-time analytics
Anaplan is a workforce planning tool for HR and business leaders to optimize headcount management and bridge workforce gaps. It provides real-time insights into headcount and costs and integrates cost models with "what-if" scenarios for strategic HR planning.
$$$
Enterprise
List-based modeling for various use cases, such as headcount analysis and skill set tracking
Intuitive, Excel-like interface
Customizable with the ability to handle complex headcount planning scenarios
Flexible but complex
Slowdowns with large lists or high volumes of data
Implementation and ongoing management require additional resources
Strategic workforce planning
Scenario planning
Headcount planning
Integrated planning
Collaboration tools
9 reasons Drivetrain should be at the top of your list for workforce planning software solutions
Choosing a workforce planning software isn’t easy. While it can seem like an apples-to-oranges comparison, all of the tools we’ve presented here generally fall into two categories:
- Tools built specifically for workforce or headcount planning
- Tools built for a broader set of business planning use cases that includes workforce planning
As a more comprehensive FP&A tool, Drivetrain stands out in the latter category for its highly sophisticated and powerful calculation engine and spreadsheet-inspired UI. With Drivetrain, you can build complex headcount planning models in one-tenth of the time compared to other tools.
The platform uses plain English formulas and a familiar, Excel-like interface that enables you to model at the speed and complexity your business demands without a steep learning curve.
With Drivetrain, you get the best of both worlds—a powerful yet simple, user-friendly solution for workforce planning.
Here are some standout features that make Drivetrain shine:
1. Automation and accuracy
Drivetrain significantly reduces manual effort with automated data consolidation, employee movement tracking, and new hire reconciliation. This ensures that the data is always up-to-date and accurate, enabling more informed decision-making in all planning processes.
“Drivetrain is automating our financial forecasting, reporting & KPI tracking. These three items have been a massive time-saver for us as they used to involve a lot of manual effort and are now updating in real time.
We are also using it for headcount management with hiring plans being available to the appropriate hiring managers within the platform.”
2. Real-time integration with core business systems
Many tools in the market today have limitations when it comes to data ingestion and handling, often resulting from a limited number of integrations available or difficulty performing complex data joins necessary to successfully use data, once imported, with other data sets.
These problems don’t exist with Drivetrain. With 200+ pre-built connectors, including the popular HRIS, ATS, and Payroll systems, and the ability to create custom integrations, Drivetrain allows for seamless data flows and real-time data synchronization.
“Drivetrain can accommodate different scenarios, build-outs, and integrations, which is beneficial, especially when dealing with various systems. Other companies seem to have more of a canned offering of functionalities and capabilities.”
3. Comprehensive employee movement tracking
With Drivetrain, you can maintain a detailed employee roster, track all employee movements, and monitor changes in headcount and related expenses, which allows for more comprehensive and precise headcount planning.
4. Connected planning and scenario modeling
Drivetrain enables connected planning across departments, allowing teams to align around a single source of truth. Its scenario modeling capabilities allow you to run "What-If" scenarios, helping you identify the best path to achieve your business goals.
5. Ready-made templates
While models are super-easy to build from scratch in Drivetrain, you also have access to a library of best-in-class model templates to get you started quickly. Every template was developed with flexibility in mind and all are completely customizable.
6. User-friendly interface
Despite its advanced features, Drivetrain is recognized for its ease of use. It has been awarded G2 badges for being the easiest to use and the fastest to implement FP&A platform for the mid-market segment.
7. Collaborative capabilities with role-based access control
Drivetrain enables CFOs, finance teams, and other departments to connect and manipulate their data without IT help. This not only saves time and money but also removes dependency on expensive analysts and tools.
Effective collaboration requires that everyone has access to the data they need while ensuring that sensitive information is protected. Drivetrain offers fine-grained role-based access control, enabling organizations to manage sensitive information securely by controlling access at a dimensional level.
8. High customer satisfaction
Drivetrain has a 4.9/5 rating from G2 users, reflecting strong customer satisfaction. The software’s ability to simplify complex processes like financial forecasting, reporting, and KPI tracking has made it a favorite among finance teams globally.
9. Advanced reporting and analytics
Drivetrain allows users to slice and dice data across multiple dimensions to identify root causes of variances in count and cost. It makes data accessible to stakeholders so they can directly manipulate it for performing analysis.
Ad-hoc reporting and interactive dashboards empower teams to share timely insights and make data-driven decisions faster.
Experience best-in-class workforce planning software. Book your demo today!
How to choose the right workforce planning software for your business
Strategic workforce planning directly impacts how efficiently you manage and scale your most valuable asset: your people. Selecting the right tool is vital for sustained success and competitive advantage. That said, let's explore workforce planning a little more deeply along with the benefits that workforce planning technologies have for companies that adopt them.
What is workforce planning?
Workforce planning is all about making sure your company has enough people with the right skills in the right roles to achieve its business goals and vision. This is accomplished through a process that involves analyzing, forecasting, and planning.
More specifically, workforce planning involves assessing current and future staffing needs, identifying skill gaps, and developing strategies to bridge those gaps. By aligning human resources with strategic objectives, workforce planning helps organizations optimize costs and enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness.
However today, for all but the smallest businesses, this type of planning is impossible to do without the help of technology. So, let’s look now at some of the ways technology can benefit workforce planning
1. Enhanced forecasting and planning accuracy
A workforce planning software integrates and synchronizes the data in HRIS, payroll, and systems in real time to ensure reliable and up-to-date information. This helps companies more effectively predict future staffing needs, plan for growth, and manage turnover. Some tools also allow teams to create and explore different scenarios (e.g. best-case, worst-case) and their potential outcomes, helping them to plan more effectively.
2. Cost Optimization
By connecting headcount data to P&L and cash flow forecasting models, software can help leaders more fully understand the financial implications of hiring decisions and internal movements. This helps avoid overstaffing or understaffing, which further reduces unnecessary labor costs. Additionally, workforce planning software can offer detailed insights into future workforce costs based on trends and planned hires, supporting accurate budget creation and efficient allocation of financial resources across the organization.
3. Proactive Talent Management
Modern workforce planning tools go beyond simple wage estimates. By identifying current and future skill gaps, they help you bring in the right people with the right skills at the right time. Gap analysis enables HR teams to proactively address them through targeted hiring, training, or redeployment strategies. In addition, leaders can identify potential succession gaps and prepare to develop specific high-potential employees for key roles. This helps the company ensure continuity in key-roles and avoid the impacts that vacancies can have on the business.
4. Increased Organizational Agility
Workforce planning software increases organizational agility by enabling businesses to swiftly adapt to market changes. Its real-time data and forecasting capabilities allow for quick adjustments to workforce plans, ensuring alignment with shifting demands. This flexibility allows businesses to dynamically allocate resources where they are most needed, optimizing workforce utilization across the organization. This way, companies can stay responsive and competitive in a rapidly changing environment.
5. Improved Compliance
With a continuously changing legal landscape for labor and employment, a workforce planning software helps businesses adhere to all relevant labor laws and industry regulations in effect in the different regions in which they operate. This not only reduces the risk of non-compliance penalties but also helps businesses know ahead of time the legal hurdles they may face in a particular area or region, which can help to inform plans for expansion.
6. Data-Driven Decision-Making
Headcount planning software promotes data-driven decisions by providing in-depth insights on the supply and demand of talent. With real-time access to critical workforce data, companies can quickly adjust their plans to respond proactively to changes in workforce requirements. This capability allows them to identify trends, predict future requirements, and make informed decisions that enhance retention, accelerate promotions for top performers, and drive strategic growth.
7. Risk Management
What-if analysis enables leaders to identify and prepare for potential workforce-related risks like shortages in critical skills or high turnover. The software enables you to create a robust workforce plan that helps identify and mitigate workforce risks, reducing the time needed for crisis decision-making.
8. Improved Collaboration and Communication
From the C-suite to hiring managers to third-party recruiters, a centralized platform makes it easy for all stakeholders to collaborate better on workforce planning and management. Not only does it fosters transparency but also ensures that everyone involved in workforce planning is aligned on the current and future needs of the organization.
9. Scalability in Workforce Management
As your company grows, so does the complexity of your workforce planning. While spreadsheets have their merits, at a certain point, spreadsheets may not be up to the job. A robust headcount planning software supports the increased complexity of managing a larger and more diverse workforce. They can handle extensive datasets, making it easier to manage workforce supply and demand as your organization expands.
Features to look for in a workforce planning software
1. Scenario planning & modeling
Scenario-based workforce planning helps leadership make informed decisions about how to best (strategically and methodically) allocate resources, upskill employees, etc., in preparation for what lies ahead. Software with scenario planning capabilities assists leaders with planning for the future by developing options for what may lay ahead.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple scenario planning | ||||||
| Sensitivity analysis | ||||||
| What-if / Scenario analysis | ||||||
| Scenario comparison |
2. Connected planning & modeling
Any software you choose for workforce planning should support integrated planning and modeling. For instance, your headcount plans should integrate well with other financial forecasts (cash flow, P&L, and income statements), ensuring changes are reflected across projections.
Additionally, the software should facilitate exchange rate conversion for managing costs associated with a globally distributed team. This helps accurately project expenses and financial impacts of staffing decisions across different currencies and locations.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrated planning & modeling | ||||||
| Metrics tracking | ||||||
| Exchange rates conversion |
3. Employee movement tracking & reconciliation
Employee tracking and reconciliation is a must-have when you’re on a lookout for a headcount planning software. Traditional HRIS systems often do not track internal employee movements comprehensively, and managing this manually through Excel is prone to errors. Accurate tracking ensures you have a reliable record of all internal movements, allowing you to align actual data with your budget. Headcount reconciliation is equally important for mapping future hires to actuals. It allows real-time tracking of planned versus actual hires and adjusting forecasts as needed.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employee movement/transfer tracking | ||||||
| Headcount reconciliation |
4. Advanced analytics & reporting with dynamic dashboards
Dynamic dashboards provide real-time insights into headcount and associated costs. They allow you to slice and dice data to identify and address attrition and hiring issues. The software should also support advanced analytics, such as variance analysis to detect and analyze discrepancies in count and costs. Visually appealing dashboards and intuitive UI ensures the software can be used across departments and hierarchies.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variance analysis | ||||||
| Drill down to transaction level | ||||||
| Drill down by any dimension | ||||||
| Global- and chart-level filters | ||||||
| Text callouts/notes in dashboards | ||||||
| Intuitive UI | ||||||
| Reporting templates |
5. Collaboration with access control
Effective workforce planning requires a lot of collaboration. Different teams need to work with HR to understand their talent needs, and everyone has to work with the finance team to ensure the resources are available to meet them. Everyone involved in the process should be able to easily navigate the tool and provide their inputs directly without the inefficiency of a lot of back-and-forth communication through email.
Additionally, since workforce planning involves sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII) and compensation levels for individual employees, you will need a tool that offers good role-based access control so you can tailor the level of access and functionality on the user level. This not only streamlines workforce planning but also protects sensitive information by limiting access to authorized personnel.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Role-based access | ||||||
| Dimensional-level access control | ||||||
| Slack notifications | ||||||
| Data masking | ||||||
| Threaded comments | ||||||
| Audit logs |
6. Ease of use
Headcount planning is a highly involved process. Your chosen planning tool should be accessible and easy-to-use for all key stakeholders. Software with a user-friendly UI enables stakeholders to easily create all the necessary charts, assign responsibilities to team members, and access all the necessary communication tools in one place.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | BambooHR | Pigment | ADP Workforce Now | Workday Adaptive Planning | Anaplan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User-friendly UI | ||||||
| Natural language formula writing | ||||||
| Drag-and-drop visualization |
FAQ
1. How long does it take to implement workforce planning software?
Implementing workforce planning software can take as little as 4-6 weeks, but may extend to 3-6 months depending on the tool you choose. The exact timeline depends on whether your company is small, medium, or enterprise-level, as well as the software’s features and the level of customization needed.
2. How easy is it to integrate workforce planning tools with HRIS, ERP and other tools?
Integrating workforce planning tools with HRIS, ERP, and other systems can be relatively straightforward. Look for tools that offer pre-built connectors and APIs are designed to sync data in real time, ensuring seamless data flow across systems. However, the ease of integration can vary depending on the specific software and the level of customization required.
3. What is the difference between workforce planning software and workforce management software?
Workforce planning software analyzes, forecasts, and plans workforce supply and demand to ensure a company has the right people in the right roles at the right time. On the other hand, workforce management software is broader. It involves scheduling, tracking, and managing employee work and compensation, including payroll, time tracking, and compliance. Workforce planning is a component of workforce management.
4. What problems does workforce planning software solve for companies?
Workforce planning software can help companies proactively manage their human capital, optimize workforce efficiency, and align their workforce with evolving business needs. It enables leaders to forecast staffing needs, identify gaps or surpluses, and plan for future hiring, training, or restructuring.
