Workday / SAP SuccessFactors / BambooHR
The cloud HR platforms that centralise employee records, payroll, performance management, talent acquisition, and workforce analytics into a single system of record.
What it is
About Workday / SAP SuccessFactors / BambooHR
HRIS (Human Resource Information System) platforms are the software systems that manage the complete employee lifecycle within an organisation — from hiring through onboarding, performance management, compensation, learning and development, and offboarding. The three dominant platforms in this category serve different market segments. Workday HCM (Human Capital Management) is the enterprise standard for large, complex global organisations — typically 1,000–250,000 employees, £400,000–£1.3M first-year cost, known for its unified data model (a single system for HR, finance, and planning), strong analytics, and frequent innovation releases. SAP SuccessFactors is the enterprise alternative, particularly strong in organisations already on SAP ERP — modular purchasing allows starting with core HR and adding talent management, learning, and compensation modules; first-year TCO £250,000–£500,000+ for the full suite; requires 1,000+ employees to justify the investment. BambooHR is the mid-market and SME-tier HRIS — significantly more affordable (£10–22 PEPM), intuitive interface, focused on core HR and ATS functionality, suitable for 50–500 employee organisations that need structured HR processes without enterprise complexity. For an HR Business Partner, the primary HRIS interactions are: employee data management (maintaining accurate records, processing job changes, managing org structure), reporting and analytics (headcount, attrition, compensation analysis, diversity metrics), performance cycle management (calibration sessions, review completion tracking), and recruitment workflow (HRIS-integrated ATS for requisitions and offer management). The HRIS is the system of record that downstream processes — payroll (ADP, Sage), benefits administration, learning management, and workforce planning — connect to as the source of truth for employee data. Data quality in the HRIS determines the accuracy of every HR report, every payroll run, and every compliance submission.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Process a job change transaction in Workday — initiating a promotion for an employee, entering the new job title, grade, compensation, and effective date, routing the transaction through the approval chain (HR Business Partner → department head → Compensation review), and confirming the change is reflected in the employee's record and the downstream payroll interface
Run a headcount and attrition report in SAP SuccessFactors — generating the monthly workforce analytics dashboard showing headcount by department, voluntary attrition rate versus the prior 12-month rolling average, and time-to-fill for current open requisitions, and exporting the data for the People Committee presentation
Manage a performance review cycle in BambooHR — activating the annual review cycle, sending automated review invitations to all managers, monitoring completion rates by department on the cycle dashboard, chasing non-completions via the platform's built-in reminder function, and exporting completed reviews for the calibration session
Update an organisation structure in Workday following a restructure — adjusting the management hierarchy for 15 employees across three teams, reassigning cost centres, updating the supervisory organisation tree to reflect the new reporting lines, and running the org chart export to confirm the changes are reflected correctly before communicating the restructure
Prepare a compensation benchmarking report using SuccessFactors Compensation — pulling current salaries for a job family against the external market data imported into the platform, identifying the employees below the 25th percentile of the market range, and building the off-cycle adjustment recommendation for HR Director approval
How to learn it
Learning Resources
Workday Community (community.workday.com) — free access with a Workday customer or partner subscription; the most comprehensive resource for Workday HCM training, including Workday Learning courses, release notes, and practitioner discussion forums
SAP SuccessFactors Learning Hub (learning.sap.com/products/sap-successfactors) — official SAP training platform with SuccessFactors-specific learning journeys; SAP SuccessFactors certification programmes are the recognised professional credentials
BambooHR Academy (help.bamboohr.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001012132) — free in-product learning centre covering BambooHR core HR, ATS, and performance modules; the most accessible starting point for HRIS learning at low cost
CIPD (cipd.org) Level 3 and Level 5 qualifications — the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development credentials cover HR systems, workforce analytics, and people management processes that underpin effective HRIS use, regardless of platform
Pro Tip
Never process a HRIS change without a paper trail of who approved it. Every job change, compensation adjustment, and termination should have an approval documented in the system — not just in email. Most enterprise HRIS platforms have a configurable approval workflow, and the instinct to "just update it quickly" outside the workflow creates audit failures that matter significantly during employment tribunal proceedings, payroll reconciliations, and GDPR Subject Access Requests. If the approval workflow feels bureaucratic, the solution is to streamline it — not to bypass it.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool
Alternatives