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10 Best Workforce Planning Software for Executive Teams in 2023

The Best Workforce Planning Software List

Here’s the list of the best workforce planning software that I’ll cover in this article:

  1. Deel

    Workforce planning software for worldwide compliance, payroll, and HR in 150+ countries

  2. Runn

    Real-time resource management and forecasting

  3. Anaplan

    Scalable and strategic HR planning software

  4. ActivTrak

    Workforce planning software focused on improving productivity in the workplace

  5. Vena

    Workforce planning software with a focus on payroll

  6. Planday

    Employee scheduling software with payroll forecasting

  7. Visier

    AI-driven workforce planning software for solving urgent challenges

  8. Workday Adaptive Planning

    Enterprise-grade agile workforce planning software.

  9. Planful

    Scalable workforce planning software with platform-wide data confidentiality

  10. ChartHop

    Simplified drag-and-drop workforce planning tool

Workforce planning is essential to identifying what your organization will need in the future as you continue to grow. 

It’s about identifying the right talent pool to pull from, identifying gaps and opportunities, and ensuring you get the right people to fill the right roles. 

If this sounds daunting, it’s because it is! Luckily, there is plenty of workforce planning software on the market to help you. 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with what to choose. In this article, we’ll go over a number of the best workforce planning software available on the market, and which ones would be the best choice for your organization.

Comparison Criteria

When it comes to identifying the best workforce planning software, what do I look for? 

  1. User Interface (UI): It's very easy for workforce management software to be convoluted and difficult to use. I look for software that allows you to create high-level dashboards with ease, and quickly dig through the many data layers at your disposal.

  1. Usability: The last thing I want you doing is spending a large portion of time learning yet another software solution. The software featured in this article are focused on usability to allow you to spend less time learning the software, and more time making use of it.

  1. Integrations: When it comes to integration, I look for workforce planning solutions that integrate with a number of common software applications. Your employee data will be spread out across a number of sources, so you'll want workforce planning software that can pull from these data sources. This includes people analytics, talent management, workforce scheduling, employee time tracking and payroll software. 

Workforce Planning Software: Key Features

In regards to key features of workplace planning software, here are three key features that will provide your organization great benefits. 

  1. Modeling What-If Scenarios: Workplace planning software can offer some quick adjustments to test a number of what-if scenarios and see what future impact they may have on your organization and the bottom line.

  1. Identifying gaps and opportunities: Workplace planning software will help you identify where you currently are, and the steps required to get where you want to go.

  1. Integrations: Workforce planning software can pull data from a number of sources through APIs, eliminating the pains of trying to import and export data manually.

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Overviews Of The 10 Best Workforce Planning Software

Here’s a brief description of each workforce planning software to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface. 

1

Deel

Workforce planning software for worldwide compliance, payroll, and HR in 150+ countries

Deel is an impressive HR tool that makes it easy for teams looking to streamline their workforce planning processes. One of Deel’s standout features is its ability to support a complete view of the entire workforce, including both employees and contractors, no matter where in the world they’re located. Having this single source of truth gives teams a current and complete picture of their workforce without having to compile data from various sources.

Employees can use Deel's clean interface to generate reports, view time off requests, and manage other important aspects of workforce planning. Deel's advanced payroll capabilities and global coverage for benefits administration are also valuable tools for executive teams looking to manage their HR needs more effectively. There’s also comprehensive reporting and analytics, allowing you to make informed decisions quickly about your entire workforce. These features help you consolidate administrative costs and ensure your workforce is managed in the most efficient and effective way.

Deel is highly integrated, allowing you to streamline your HR processes and automate or sync data across your HR tech stack. Deel offers integrations with common tools like Ashby, BambooHR, Expensify, Greenhouse, Hibob, Netsuite, Okta, OneLogin, Quickbooks, SCIM, Xero, Workday, and Workable, and has an API for connecting to tools beyond their pre-built integrations.

Deel offers flat rate pricing details upon request, as well as a free demo.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 628

Free demo available

Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people

2

Runn

Real-time resource management and forecasting

Runn allows for navigation of planning, tracking and forecasting work projects and allows for in-depth capacity management.

Runn can help you catch resource bottlenecks and see if someone is overbooked, and transfer their shifts to another staff member. You can check a number of what-if scenarios to see the impacts of project delays and how it can impact capacity.

Runn has a Full REST API that allows you to integrate Runn with any service (this requires a bit of technical work). It integrates with employee time tracking tools like Clockify and Harvest, along with tools like Salesforce, Slack, WorkflowMax and more.

Runn costs $10/person managed, per month, and has special discounts for Ukraine, low to middle income countries, and nonprofits. Runn offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card necessary.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
3.7 41

14-day free trial and free plan

From $10/person managed/month

3

Anaplan

Scalable and strategic HR planning software

Using a system they call “connected planning,” Anaplan focuses on real-time collaborations across all business functions. Anaplan makes use of hyperscale computing to make more accurate forecasts.

The software allows you to narrow down choices for the best candidate available within a company based on attributes like time in role, years of experience, and skills. With its compensation modeling, Anaplan gives you a framework to work on retention with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Anaplan Strategic HR Planning integrates with other software such as Boomi, DocuSign, Salesforce, OneCloud, and more.

Analan Strategic HR Planning offers customized pricing on request. It does not offer a free trial, but a free demo is available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 214

Free demo available

Price upon request

4

ActivTrak

Workforce planning software focused on improving productivity in the workplace

ActivTrak focuses more on employee productivity compared to other workforce planning software. It can help you track aspects like the impact of remote and hybrid models to see the differences in work productivity and well-being.

ActivTrak helps unlock productivity potential with its dashboards on productivity indicators and work habits. It allows you to see how applications are used to help determine whether you should continue using them, or remove them.

ActivTrak integrates with Salesforce, Google Workspace, Zendesk, Slack, Monday, Jira, Workday, ADP and more.

ActivTrak costs $10/person/month. It offers a free trial with no credit card required.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 266

14-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $10/user/month

5

Vena

Workforce planning software with a focus on payroll

Vean contains a number of pre-built workflows to allow for dynamic modeling in regards to changes to payroll and labor cost. Vena also allows for a number of workflows to control user access to sensitive data.

Vena offers a number of Excel templates for anything from labor expense planning, to tracking upcoming hires. Vena includes pre-built logic to help calculate benefits, whether in America, Canada, or the UK.

Vena integrates with most HRIS and payroll systems such as ADP, Workday, Bamboo, and Peoplesoft and enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) such as NetSuite and Sage Intacct.

Vena Solutions offers customized pricing on request, and a 7-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 143

7-day free trial

Pricing upon request

6

Planday

Employee scheduling software with payroll forecasting

Planday focuses on employee scheduling to handle vacations, availability, payroll, and more. You can set up compliance warnings to warn you when staff have been assigned too many hours, or shifts too close together.

Planday allows you to use all current payroll information (working hours, vacation time, overtime) to forecast your payroll costs.

Planday has a number of API integrations, such as ADP and Quickbooks.

Planday offers customized pricing on request, and a 30-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 83

30-day free trial

Pricing upon request

7

Visier

AI-driven workforce planning software for solving urgent challenges

Visier Now allows you to identify where employees can move to with their given skillset and if they would be the right fit for the position. The software makes use of Guided Diversity Planning to help set goals for your organizations diversity initiatives.

Visier Now uses AI-enhanced analytics to help determine who is most at risk of leaving your organization, and why. This software allows you to see the impact your engagement initiatives (such as better compensation or policy changes) have on overall employee turnover.

Visier Now integrates with the most common human capital management (HCM) and applicant tracking system (ATS) platforms.

Visier Now offers customized pricing on request. It does not offer a free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 41

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

8

Workday Adaptive Planning

Enterprise-grade agile workforce planning software.

Workday Adaptive Planning allows you to model a number of what-if scenarios in real time to see how things will be impacted. This software allows you to plan by level, department, skills, project location, and more.

Workday Adaptive Planning allows for plans and budgets to sync with financial plans in real time, instead of ending up in email purgatory. Models can quickly be drawn up for important events such as mergers, or restructuring.

Workday Adaptive Planning integrates with any HR system and any Workday-related product in their ecosystem.

Workday Adaptive Planning offers customized pricing on request and offers a free trial which you can request here.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 143

Free trial + free demo available

Pricing upon request

9

Planful

Scalable workforce planning software with platform-wide data confidentiality

Planful works for companies of any size in any industry, and is easy to scale with its simple interface. The software allows for simple imports, exports, validation, and data transformation with pre-built connectors, and puts a great emphasis on secure data processing.

Planful offers templates and workflows to help reduce tedious tasks of importing data and setting a format that is readable. For future hiring, Planful offers a simple compensation system that allows for automatic calculations and changes depending on the country you're hiring in. Planful has a task manager built in to keep track of who is working on what.

Planful integrates with Excel, Quickbooks, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Slack, and more.

Planful offers customized pricing on request. It does not offer a free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 309

Pricing upon request

10

ChartHop

Simplified drag-and-drop workforce planning tool

ChartHop moves away from spreadsheet purgatory and takes a more visual approach in regard to workforce planning. ChartHop has a simple and intuitive drag-and-drop UI that’s easy to learn so you can get up and running quickly.

ChartHop includes Employee Tools to help foster connections within an organization. Anyone can look at an employee’s preferences, work history, hobbies, and more.

ChartHop integrates with software like BambooHR, Workday, Sapling, Greenhouse, Slack, and more.

ChartHop is free for your first 150 employees, with $2/employee/month for every employee after 150.

Free demo + freemium version available

From $8/user/month

Need expert help selecting the right Workforce Management Software?

People Managing People has joined forces with the software comparison platform Crozdesk.com to assist you in finding the best tool for your needs. Crozdesk’s Workforce Management Software advisors can create a personalized shortlist of software solutions with unbiased recommendations to help you identify the solutions that best suit your business's needs. Through our partnership you get free access to their bespoke software selection advice, removing both time and hassle from the research process.

It only takes a minute to submit your requirements and they will give you a quick call at no cost or commitment. Based on your needs you’ll receive customized software shortlists listing the best-fitting solutions from their team of software advisors (via phone or email). They can even connect you with your selected vendor choices along with community negotiated discounts. To get started, please complete the form below:

The 10 Best Workforce Planning Software Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
Deel

Workforce planning software for worldwide compliance, payroll, and HR in 150+ countries

Free demo available

Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people Visit Website
2
Runn

Real-time resource management and forecasting

14-day free trial and free plan

From $10/person managed/month Visit Website
3
Anaplan

Scalable and strategic HR planning software

Free demo available

Price upon request Visit Website
4
ActivTrak

Workforce planning software focused on improving productivity in the workplace

14-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $10/user/month Visit Website
5
Vena

Workforce planning software with a focus on payroll

7-day free trial

Pricing upon request Visit Website
6
Planday

Employee scheduling software with payroll forecasting

30-day free trial

Pricing upon request Visit Website
7
Visier

AI-driven workforce planning software for solving urgent challenges

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
8
Workday Adaptive Planning

Enterprise-grade agile workforce planning software.

Free trial + free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
9
Planful

Scalable workforce planning software with platform-wide data confidentiality

Not available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
10
ChartHop

Simplified drag-and-drop workforce planning tool

Free demo + freemium version available

From $8/user/month Visit Website

Other Options

Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best workforce planning software list:

  1. Orgvue

    Centralized workplace planning platform

  2. ClearCompany

    All-in-one platform to align business needs with workforce planning analytics

  3. Saviom

    Enterprise-level workforce planning suite

  4. Inspire

    Workforce planning software to set employee goals and track progress toward those goals over time

  5. Precursive

    Resource management in Salesforce for staffing your projects

  6. Quinyx

    Strategic planning for workforce management

  7. CSOne WFO by Nice

    Workforce management focusing on your employee engagement

What’s the Difference Between Workforce Planning and Workforce Management?

Some like to use the terms "workforce planning" and "workforce management" interchangeably, but they refer to different things. 

Let's briefly cover the difference between the two.

Workforce management covers the following: 

  • Having the right people for the right roles.
  • Aspects that fall under workforce management would be time tracking, employee scheduling, payroll.

Workplace planning, on the other hand, covers the following: 

  • Identifying the goals of the organization and aligning them with employees.
  • Identifying the steps required to prepare for future staffing needs and strategic workforce planning.

Workforce management is more about the current state, while workplace planning focuses on the future. For a more thorough explanation, check out the following article.

For more in-depth information, I recommend reading our article on Workforce Planning: What Is It and How To Do It.

To also note, while there is some overlap in regards to succession planning, there are a number of differences compared to workforce planning. Check out our article: What Is Succession Planning? How To Develop Your Next Leaders

What Do You Think About This List?

These are just a few of the many excellent workforce planning tools on the market. Whether you’re a small business, or a large enterprise, there are a number available at your fingertips to help you deal with the difficult task of workforce planning. 

If you are looking for more insights into the topic of workforce planning, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more!

By Paul Lopusushinsky

Paul Lopusushinsky is the founder of Playficient, which uses many product management techniques to improve the employee experience.