How to choose the best Workforce Management solution for your UK business: compare WFM softwares and tools

Why choosing the right workforce management software matters

Whether you’re a business, HR or payroll leader, you’ll know just how complex running an enterprise is — particularly when it comes to managing your staff.

If your business is growing, so too is that complexity. That means the challenges, ranging from paying all your employees accurately and on time to keeping on the right side of the ever-evolving laws, are also growing. This is where a workforce management (WFM) solution becomes a ‘must-have’ for your enterprise. WFM software will help you streamline and automate the whole process of distributing your resources, especially the efficient organisation and deployment of your people.

But there’s more to workforce management than that. This software can help you monitor attendance, enable your employees and managers to self-serve and helps your business stay compliant.

The key benefits of the best workforce management solutions

A WFM solution will enhance your ability to identify priorities, predict potential difficulties and, if necessary, take preventative actions. As a result, you can maximise productivity and minimise the time, waste, risk and cost involved in traditional HR operations.

On a human level, WFM software can also boost employee engagement and customer service.

Why the use of workforce management software is increasing

Your workforce here in the UK is likely to be your most expensive overhead. So, it makes total commercial sense to manage and deploy your staff as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible — helping you avoid, for example, untracked time or employee leave overlapping, leading to missed shifts.

What’s more, the UK has complex, often-changing labour laws. Non-compliance can mean hefty fines, reputational damage and scrutiny by the authorities. WFM software will help you stay compliant with the regulations.

Furthermore, in a competitive labour market like the UK’s, attracting top talent is mission-critical. WFM software — once integrated with your payroll — will enable you to deliver accurate, timely pay and optimise the employee experience by giving your people a better work/life balance, helping you recruit and retain the best people.

In this fact sheet published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), you’ll find out more about the importance of workforce management software to business.

What to look for in WFM tools when you compare solutions

Workforce management software offers you a variety of features to help you better manage your employees and business. Those you choose will depend on your budgets and needs now and in the future, plus factors such as your organisation’s size, shape and sector.

When you compare the best and most advanced WFM tools available — such as those offered by ADP — they tend to be cloud-based workforce management solutions and include sophisticated data privacy, security and backup protections.

Go beyond the basics of managing labor costs and optimize your workforce performance

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The most sought-after WFM software functions typically include:

Labour forecasting

This enables you to better identify and plan for spikes and lulls in customer demand so you can make the most of your employees’ time and departmental budgets. You should also enable you to model ‘what if’ scenarios, such as those for market trends, holidays, special events and the weather.

Staff scheduling tools

By utilising the best staff scheduling tools, UK employers like you can create schedules that deliver the perfect people fit for their labour needs’ forecasts. In fact, you can easily select the ideal employee for an open shift based on their skills, certifications, preferences and more.

Some WFM software goes further. It enables your staff to swap shifts with their coworkers and provide their availability in advance of assignment, boosting your employee engagement and job satisfaction levels.

Time tracking

When you compare employee time tracking tools in the UK, when provided as part of a WFM solution, do ensure they include web-based timesheets, time clocks, mobile apps and point of sale (POS) devices.

These not only mean you can you capture the hours employees have worked remotely and in real time, but your WFM software can automatically process the data according to your policies and send it to your payroll.

Absence management

The more employees you have the more challenging it becomes to manage their time off, whether that’s holiday entitlement or sick leave.

One of the many advantages of WFM software is that it enables you to quickly and easily access, track and manage time off balances and extended leave breaks. As a result, you can compare those of your business with industry benchmarks.

Overtime management

Overtime helps your staff ease the pressure on their household budgets. So, it’s important you offer and allocate overtime fairly to employees that want it and approve payments simply and quickly. This capability is a key factor to consider when comparing workforce management software.

A WFM solution will usually send you alerts when an employee is approaching overtime and automatically warn them if they try to work extra hours without authorisation.

Analytics

In the commercial world, prevention is always better than cure. So, WFM software has built-in dashboards providing real-time visibility of scheduling and attendance data, giving your managers the ability to address potential issues before they become problems.

They can also run reports on key performance indicators (KPIs) to see how their workforce is performing over time.

Regulatory compliance

We’ve already mentioned the perils of non-compliance with regulations. WFM software enables you to configure work and pay rules so that your organisation complies with external wage and hour labour laws and internal policies and union contracts.

Mobile accessibility

With the advent of remote working and more of us accessing work-related tasks via mobile devices, ensure your WFM solution is compatible with these technologies.

The speed, ease and flexibility these features deliver allow managers to fill gaps in shifts (and communicate the changes) almost instantaneously. So, if an employee calls in sick, for instance, your team can use a smartphone or tablet to quickly search for available workers and maintain shift coverage.

Your workforce management software comparison for the UK market in 2025

If you’re wondering, ‘What’s the best way to compare the WFM tools available in the UK?’ don’t worry. We’ve got all the information you need in our quick checklist chart below (which compares the leading workforce management software available in the UK) and the reviews section which follows it.

These give you an overview of what’s available — including the cloud-based workforce management software on the market — so you can confidently choose a solution that best meets the needs of your business and people.

Your simple workforce management product features comparison chart for the UK

Workforce management reviews and key features

ADP Workforce — best for businesses wanting everything they need in one place

ADP Workforce management makes it easy for businesses to take care of everything – from scheduling and tracking to managing payroll and HR. It’s designed towards medium and large businesses, giving you a single, secure system to keep on top of staff shifts, absences and compliance. With ADP, you save time on admin and can trust that your workforce operations are running smoothly and accurately.

Key features

• Cloud-based and AI-driven
• Enterprise-wide capability
• Automated time and attendance, scheduling and reporting
• Mobile device access for managers and employees
• Advanced UK payroll and compliance integration
• Scalable solution for growing businesses
• Real-time workforce analytics and insights

If we lose the rest of the information on the competitors, then this heading will need to change. Maybe we just delete it and go with the subhead below.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion — so what’s the best workforce management software for business in the UK?

When it comes to a comparison of the best WFM tools available in the UK, the right solution is the one that can be tailored to suit your business, it’s size, sector and people.

Consider a wide range of factors from your headcount and budget to your growth plans and support requirements — now and in the future.

ADP offers you comprehensive, secure and scalable workforce management solutions. These are built on more than 75 years of experience and supported by thousands of HR and payroll software experts here in the UK and around the world who already serve over a million customers.

The bottom line

Today’s most innovative solutions — such as ADP’s — use AI and cloud-based workforce management software for their UK customer base; solutions that can put workforce management right at the very heart of your business.

1. The potential of payroll in 2025: Global payroll survey.