The Executive Guide to the Best HCM Software in 2026

Human capital management (HCM) defines how an employer positions, develops and optimizes the value of its most valuable resource: employees. While an organization’s approach to HCM may shift based on its head count, every business benefits from placing its staff in a way that maximizes employees’ potential and supports long-term operational success.

By extension, finding the best HCM software to support your workforce in 2026 and beyond isn’t about looking for the most features, but the right technology to:

• centralize HR data
• eliminate manual work
• automate complex tasks
• help reduce compliance risk
• connect your people to the answers they need
• empower employees and their leaders with an easy-to-use, accessible experience

If confusing systems, constant workarounds and a routinely overwhelmed HR Department feel familiar, what could be holding your operations back is the tools you use to manage them. Especially if those tools create multiple, separate systems and databases that can’t seamlessly communicate with each other.

To help you find the best HCM software for your organization’s future, let’s explore how the tech should work, what challenges it should help you overcome and the scalable functionality you need now and in the future.

What is HCM software, and what makes one system the “best”?

HCM relates to the way your organization attracts, engages, develops and positions employees to help maximize efficiency, drive business results and navigate compliance with confidence. By extension, identifying the best HCM software to support your workforce in 2026 takes understanding the specific operations it should automate and simplify. Before we dive too deep, remember no process is static when it comes to HCM. The purpose it serves stays consistent and true, but how it satisfies that purpose evolves as we evolve.

To help future-proof your organization, keep that principle in mind as we explore what your workforce tech should help you accomplish at a basic level, as well as what truly separates the best HCM software from the pack.

Core components of modern HCM: HR, payroll, time, benefits, talent management and more

We’ve defined how it works broadly, but what is HCM specifically? HCM covers anything and everything related to employees, such as:

• workforce planning
• recruiting and hiring
• time and attendance management
• benefits administration
• training, learning and development
• performance management
• employee experience, accessibility and engagement
• compensation planning
• reporting and analytics
• payroll management
• compliance

Essentially, if a process relates to how employees find, work in and advance through your organization — as well as the supplemental processes you use to optimize your workforce and spot areas of need — then it falls under the HCM umbrella.

Keep in mind certain components of HCM may matter more in your organization. For example, a relatively small, yet high-quality, furniture manufacturer may favor longevity and craft over how many people it employs. For this mock organization, performance management and its employee experience likely take precedence over hiring and recruiting. (Though the manufacturer would eventually need a plan for it, too, once its current workforce starts to age out.)

So while you might not need to prioritize every component of HCM equally, the best HCM software makes it easy for you to address any and all of them.

Why the “best” has changed: Automation, AI readiness and single-source data

As tech evolves and the HCM needs for employers grow more complex, what defines the best HCM software transforms as well.

Think of it this way: At one point, HR professionals needed calculators to determine hours, expenses, balances and more to assemble payroll. Now, most HCM software offers at least some way to automate the payroll process. But that capability in and of itself doesn’t make an option the best. Rather, you should consider this kind of functionality the bare minimum for your HCM software.

Why? Because the capability feels like a given — including payroll and more — for HR tech today. Payroll may not be reliable, consistent or accurate when an HCM software operates across multiple systems and databases. At the center of HCM functionality is automation, the mechanism that performs tasks for us.

You’ve likely seen the robotic arms of an automated assembly line putting together everything from small electronics to cars, planes and even cruise ships. The best HCM software works similarly, automating the basic and otherwise manual tasks making up workforce management, so HR and executive leadership can focus on innovation and long-term strategy beyond day-to-day operations.

Of course, for HR automation to work as intended — seamlessly — your HCM software and all its tools should exist within a truly single database. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for most organizations. In fact, HR and payroll professionals reported their organizations use an average of 6.17 HCM providers, resulting in:

• 77% storing data across multiple HCM databases
• 71% left unable to transfer or share that data across databases
• 80% saying disparate or duplicate data makes it difficult to create accurate reports*

Without the seamless flow of data ensured by single-database HCM software, HR may still have to enter and reenter the data when it doesn’t automatically transfer to relevant tools, like how an employee’s hours worked and benefit selections should reflect in payroll.

And reliable automation lays the foundation for equally reliable artificial intelligence (AI). As of now, almost every HCM provider touts at least some AI functionality, though most argue theirs is the most comprehensive. Still, if its HCM software is spread over multiple databases because its tech was acquired or not built fully in-house, its AI may not be particularly “intelligent” at all. Or worse, it could rely on external sources from the internet that:

• can’t be verified
• disseminate potentially inaccurate information within your organization
• expose your workforce to cybersecurity risks, since the tech doesn’t operate within a closed system

On the other hand, the best HCM software deploys a command-driven AI engine in a single database, which ensures the workforce data used by AI is always accurate and instantly accessible. How? Because it only considers data employees entered themselves in your organization’s single-database HCM software. And nothing else.

Plus, since command-driven AI works within a single database, it provides instant answers to users’ prompts and questions. That’s because it doesn’t have to scour separate databases or attempt to fill in the blanks created by multidatabase HCM software. This makes it intuitive for everyone in your organization — from executive leadership to your new hires — to access the employee data they need, whenever they need it.

The shift from human resources information systems (HRIS) to HCM and the full-solution automation it makes possible

Before HCM was realized, let alone commonplace, most organizations relied on an HRIS to help manage their workforce. They sound undeniably similar, because in some key ways they are: HRIS is software that helps businesses handle the core functions of managing employees, like payroll, taxes, time tracking and more.

HCM, however, approaches workforce management more holistically, as it addresses everything an HRIS does and more, like:

• hiring and recruiting
• compliance management
• succession planning
• workforce reporting and analytics
• employee engagement
• performance management

This holistic approach is how the best HCM software allows for a level of automation (or “full-solution automation”) an HRIS simply can’t achieve.

But remember, even HCM tech claiming to be “comprehensive” or “all-in-one” may not empower your organization with the maximum level of automation if it spreads its tools across multiple databases. Even if a provider’s HCM software appears to operate as a single app, it may still be pieced together through outsourced and externally acquired tech, resulting in a suboptimal experience.

Don’t fall for this. Instead, vet a potential provider to determine if its tech exists within a truly single database. Don’t just dig into how it markets its software now, but how it has built its tech to ensure it’s free of mergers and acquisitions that create multiple databases out of necessity. This way, you can ensure your organization reaps the benefits of the best HCM software capable of full-solution automation .

What problems should the best HCM software solve in 2026?

Unchecked, HR inefficiency can pose a significant risk to your operations. As you look for the best HCM software to support your organization in 2026 and beyond, ensure it helps you address the following issues challenging employers everywhere.

Manual processes draining HR resources

While certain tasks may seem like minor distractions in isolation, HR professionals quickly lose focus and productivity to manually:

• entering and reentering data
• answering basic questions for employees
• compiling info for reports
• correcting data errors that shouldn’t have occurred in the first place

In other words, none of these tasks exist alone. When HR staff are regularly inundated with manual work, it means they can’t invest time and effort into work that could move the needle for your organization, such as employee engagement, long-term strategy and compliance prep. It also means your current HCM tech stack is failing to automate the tasks keeping HR chained to basic, administrative work.

While manual processes undoubtedly consume HR’s productive time, they also take a bite out of your organization’s bottom line. According to 2025 research by EY, a single manual data entry made by an HR pro without self-service technology carries an average cost of $4.86. And yes, while most HCM providers should offer a self-service experience of some kind, if the tech fails to communicate with your entire HCM software within a single database, it could still saddle HR with unnecessary manual work.

Keep in mind, manual tasks aren’t limited to your HR professionals, either. For example, without a tool to automate time-off decision-making, your managers may be stuck with more manual tasks that pull them from opportunities to meaningfully lead their teams.

Decision fatigue from endless approvals

Speaking of choices, the best HCM software should be designed to free your organization from as many of them as possible. Failing to do so could infect your organization with HR inefficiency spurred by decision fatigue, which happens when the increasing volume of decisions we make throughout the day physically, mentally and emotionally depletes us.

The best HCM software should keep your organization in control, true, but it should also free employees at every level from choices that could — and should — be automated. To lean on our previous example, when time-off decisions aren’t automated, they create more manual work for:

• managers, who have to check schedule coverage and other previously submitted requests before approving or denying a request
• HR professionals, who have to track down a manager for an outstanding request or mediate a disagreement between a supervisor and their employee
• employees, who may have to break away from their work to follow up with HR or their manager about a time-off request

The best HCM software automates these decisions and more based on rules your organization sets. So you can focus on the work at hand while your HCM tech ensures you have the coverage you need to meet demands and operate within your company’s policies.

Fragmented tools creating data errors

When your HR tools are scattered across multiple separate databases, it leaves no guarantee data seamlessly and accurately flows between them. This could create errors in and of itself, but if an HR professional has to manually intervene to reconcile data, even a slight miskey could result in:

• a lack of schedule coverage
• inaccurate payroll
• incorrect reports and analytics
• noncompliance and related fines and other penalties

This also creates errors beyond HR. For example, if your HCM software doesn’t retain the data employees entered when they originally applied for a job, they may have to reenter it as they onboard, delaying them from the work you hired them to do.

Similarly, if your time-off tool doesn’t accurately transfer data to your scheduling tech, your managers may have to manually ensure any approved time off is accurately reflected. If they don’t, it could leave your organization short-staffed during a peak period, potentially hurting profits, your brand image and more.

Compliance complexity across multiple states, regulatory shifts and more

Your organization’s ability to successfully operate demands it complies with any laws impacting where it operates. If your HCM tech can’t automatically account for relevant employment laws and adjust as needed, it could prove consequential for your organization as it faces potential:

• fines
• audits
• and other penalties for noncompliance

It can’t be overstated: Strong and consistent compliance is fundamental to your organization’s success in 2026 and beyond. And consistent compliance is proving more challenging to maintain for many in HR and finance, given research shows most in those fields consider staying in the loop with local, state and federal laws a top challenge.

Ideally, the best HCM software updates to reflect relevant taxes, overtime requirements, scheduling laws and more to help your organization navigate the evolving regulatory landscape with confidence.

Poor employee experience reducing adoption

Maybe it goes without saying, but if your employees don’t use your HCM software, you’ll never receive the full benefit it could provide. Of course, you shouldn’t expect your people to use any tech that doesn’t meet them on their level.

HCM tech failing in this department creates a confusing experience that requires employees to:

• provide and remember multiple logins or passwords
• hop between multiple different apps (if the provider offers a mobile app at all)
• navigate complicated tools and disparate, in-app browsers
• repeatedly enter data they’ve entered elsewhere in your software

If your employees don’t engage with their software, then they’ll likely ask HR or their managers to enter data for them or provide answers. Either way, it creates additional HR inefficiency and a culture of burnout — not employee empowerment.

Payroll errors

The best HCM software helps you prevent problems before they become problems. Take payroll, for example. With multidatabase HCM software, your employees may only have a chance to identify errors after payday. This means they can’t stop payroll errors before they impact their check, which could be detrimental to their short-term financial wellness and planning.

Additionally, your organization could generate even more HR inefficiency as the department rushes to correct this issue through:

• voids
• wires
• manual checks
• and other costly and time-consuming fixes

The best HCM software, on the other hand, self-starts payroll each scheduled period, automatically find errors and guide employees to fix them before payday. This empowers employees with needed peace of mind, while also freeing your HR teams from reactive work, so they can focus on being proactive throughout your organization.

Key criteria for evaluating the best HCM software

As you look for the best HCM software to support your organization’s future, don’t settle for anything short of your expectations. If you need help forming and identifying the functionality you need, as well as creating an HCM comparison for different providers, consider the following HCM evaluation criteria.

1. Single-database architecture

The best HCM software houses all of its HR tools within a truly single database. Keep in mind certain tech providers claim they offer a single or “all-in-one” solution, but this may only relate to how their HCM software appears — not how it functions.

Verify your potential provider built all of its tech in-house, without acquiring it from third-party developers or merging with another HR tech company. Doing so helps ensure you receive the highest level of automation possible, which can only be achieved with tech that relies on a truly single database, because it was designed that way from the start.

2. Payroll-native functionality

Given payroll is likely your organization’s largest expense, the best HCM software should seamlessly flow all data impacting your workforce’s pay into the process.

It’s not enough for an HCM tech provider to offer a payroll tool. (Consider it a bare-minimum expectation, not a perk.) It should offer an automated payroll experience existing within the same, single database as all of its other tools. Additionally, built-in payroll functionality should automatically:

1. self-start each payroll period
2. update as necessary with real-time workforce data
3. identify errors and guide your employees to fix them before payroll submission

Anything less could still leave your organization wrestling with retroactive payroll errors, so ensure the HCM software you consider is built to prevent this issue.

3. Automated workflows and exception handling

When it comes to finding the best HCM software, the less tedious work your HR professionals have to perform, the better. Whenever a change occurs in one part of the tech, it should automatically be reflected across the entire software. This should also include the capability to account for any role-based position changes by tying wages, job descriptions and more to your organization’s positions — not specific people.

For example, if an employee submits a time-off request and the HCM software automatically approves it based on the rules you set, the decision should automatically reflect not just in payroll and an employee’s time-off balances, but in your organization’s scheduling tool, too. Additionally, your HCM software should provide options for tagging and sorting exceptions created by when and how employees work — like for shift differentials and contractors — without any manual intervention from HR.

4. Real-time data accuracy

The best HCM software exists within a single database, so your workforce data is both easily accessible and always accurate. Remember, if your tech is spread across multiple, separate databases, they may not communicate with each other seamlessly.

By extension, this may require HR to merge, transfer and duplicate data across systems. And if you’re trying to account for the big picture, any blind spots or inaccuracies created by manual work limit your executive leadership’s ability to make informed decisions about the future.

5. Employee-powered updates

Within the best HCM software, any change an employee makes should reflect across every tool it impacts. If a provider can’t promise this capability, it’s a nonstarter. Consider these scenarios as examples:

• If an employee has a qualifying event impacting their health care coverage, payroll should account for the new deduction once it’s entered.
• If an employee submits a resignation notice, the software should automatically prompt HR to take action related to COBRA coverage, exit interviews, facility access shut-off and more.
• If an employee completes required compliance training, their manager and HR should be automatically notified.

These represent just a few common examples of employee changes that can have an impact elsewhere within your HCM software. To help you find the right option, consider creating a few of your own to bounce off a provider. If it can’t address your unique needs, it almost certainly can’t support you in 2026 and beyond.

6. Built-in time and labor functionality

Your organization likely has its own unique time and labor requirements. Whatever those needs may be, the best HCM software should be primed to handle them by:

• simplifying how your people clock in and out
• allowing employees to easily select the type of work they’re performing, which impacts shift differentials, or where they’re working, which impacts labor allocation
• automating time-off decision-making based on your organization’s policies
• automatically flowing all time and labor data into payroll and beyond to allow for real-time analytics, reporting and labor budgeting

7. Robust compliance support

As you know, for your business to operate successfully, it has to prioritize compliance. Likewise, the best HCM software puts your compliance first by updating alongside current and emerging legislation. At the same time, it should help you conduct compliance self-audits by automating relevant reports — including in their government-required formats.

Remember, single-database software can be crucial for your compliance approach, as eliminating manual data entry and reentry helps you prevent mistakes that unintentionally create regulatory issues. This level of automation also allows your HCM software to send push notifications for upcoming COBRA, ACA and other compliance-related deadlines.

8. Scalable reporting analytics

No matter how many people your organization employs, the best HCM software should help you readily analyze and report on your staff in real time. It should allow you to automate recurring reports, while also making any piece of employee data you need instantly accessible and simple to understand.

At the same time, it should give you plenty of options to create custom reports as the needs of your organization evolve — and by extension, the insight your executive leadership needs to make the best decisions possible.

9. Mobile-first experience

In 2026, employees won’t just like HR tech that prioritizes their convenience. They’ll expect it. The best HCM software proactively addresses this demand by empowering your staff with a fully mobile, accessible experience for:

• updating their info
• enrolling in benefits
• completing assigned training
• submitting expenses and time-off requests
• viewing, verifying, troubleshooting and approving their paychecks before payday
• and more — all in one mobile app

Consider an option that further empowers them with a command-driven AI engine in a single database, so they can instantly access accurate employee data — even if they don’t know how to ask exactly the right question.

10. Quality implementation and client support

Have you ever been stuck on hold for hours? Or waited days for an unscheduled callback? The best HCM software should be backed by a dedicated, world-class service team to help ensure you don’t experience downtime.

For example, if the representative who sold you on their HCM software doesn’t plan to stick around to support your organization through implementation, see it as a sign they probably don’t have your best interests in mind. You should also ensure your provider empowers you with a single point of contact who not only knows the software but also understands your organization’s unique needs.

Be sure to ask potential vendors how they plan to service your needs. If they mention a ticketing system or phone trees, it’s safe to assume they don’t truly prioritize your success.

Comparing modern HCM systems vs. legacy HR tools

The best HCM software not only handles the core functions legacy HR tools and HRIS tech attempt to address, but also go further in helping you facilitate:

• hiring and onboarding
• stronger compliance
• employee engagement
• reskilling and upskilling
• workforce planning

Use the following HCM comparison to help you understand where your legacy HCM tech could fall short.

Feature depth

The best HCM software won’t just let you accomplish more; it will also optimize the basic processes that legacy tech may struggle to consistently get right. The table below outlines some overarching differences.

Perhaps more important than any other component is the best HCM software’s ability to exist within a truly single database.

Legacy HCM systems, on the other hand, may be built on a collection of tools that weren’t designed together, necessitating multiple databases. This approach can create additional manual work for HR since those separate databases may not communicate seamlessly with each other.

A single-database approach improves data integrity since it prevents the need to enter, reenter and transfer data across separate, disparate systems. This way, HR information is entered once — and only once — by the employee, who has everything to gain and lose by it being correct.

Automation capability

The right, modern HCM software takes a single-database approach to ensure the highest level of automation possible. Legacy tech, by comparison, may be limited in what it can automate, or at least limited within the process a specific tool covers.

For example, you could have legacy payroll tech that automatically considers and applies relevant taxes but outright fails to consider approved expenses and reimbursements.

Risk exposure

Since legacy HCM systems tend to be built on disparate tech, they create an opening for cybersecurity threats. Single-database software, on the other hand, operates in a closed environment, eliminating the vulnerability that could leave your organization open to a breach.

Additionally, the best HCM software helps bolster your compliance strategy with relevant updates and automated reporting to help you stay audit-ready. This way, your organization benefits from a proactive approach to the compliance issues that otherwise could result in unexpected fines and other penalties.

Employee experience

Built with your employees’ experience in mind, the best HCM software empowers them with a fully mobile app, allowing them to easily access their HR data no matter where they work — without the need for complex training or software knowledge.

Legacy systems, on the other hand, may only offer your workforce limited functionality and saddle them with multiple apps for:

• clocking in and out
• enrolling in benefits
• checking their pay stubs
• training

Even outdated software offering a single, “all-in-one” app may still redirect employees to other tools, resulting in a fractured and confusing experience. Don’t fall for it. Ensure a provider proves how convenient its software is to use for employees through extensive demonstrations, client testimonials and case studies.

Total cost ownership: Why the best HCM software helps reduce costs

Ultimately, the best HCM software helps your organization generate the highest ROI possible. Keep these methods for doing so in mind as you determine the right tech to maximize your company’s HCM cost savings.

Direct cost savings (hours, errors and rework)

Remember, with HCM tech that relies on multiple, separate databases, you could see an increase in the manual work given to HR. Consider some of these estimated costs (in labor and nonlabor) for manual tasks as measured by EY:

• $11.75 for HR or managers to search for employee information
• $12.85 to record Form W-4 and other tax information in an HR system
• $15.06 to review or approve shift swaps between employees
• $17.54 to verify accuracy of employee timecards
• $23.27 to obtain or provide information to compare benefit plans

Ideally, the best HCM software helps you circumvent all of these actions and more, while also revealing opportunities for you to maximize ROI through further employee tech use.

Compliance and audit protection

Fines, unexpected audits and other compliance penalties hold your organization back and pose a threat to not just your bottom line, but to your operations as a whole. With proactive updates to account for current and emerging legislation, the best HCM software should help you avoid noncompliance while also automating reporting, saving your organization even more resources as it conducts self-audits and other forms of compliance prep.

Fewer shadow systems

By existing within a truly single database, the best HCM software eliminates the need for complicated workarounds that could introduce unnecessary risk into your organization. This includes:

• the need to store and retain multiple logins and passwords
• browser redirects within your software to account for disparate tools and systems
• plugging company data into an external tool to assist with a task your legacy HCM tech can’t handle

In turn, this reduces the wasted motion created by these workarounds, while also helping you prevent the potential costs unneeded exposure could create for your organization.

Less IT maintenance

With no external systems or separate tools to handle workforce processes, the best HCM software alleviates the burden on both HR and IT. How? With single-database software, IT doesn’t have to worry about integrating disparate tools into its organization’s tech stack. And with entirely web-based HCM software, you avoid time-consuming versioning and manual installation.

Plus, by eliminating complicated workarounds and empowering employees with a way to answer questions around tech use and similar policies, IT doesn’t have to invest time:

• fixing processes that inevitably break
• fielding basic questions
• constantly vetting your HR tech for potential security risks

Best HCM software use cases by executive role

Keep in mind that the best HCM software makes work easier for more than your HR professionals. Let’s explore how the ideal HCM tech benefits your people at every level.

CEOs: Strategic clarity through automation

For a CEO, the best HCM software empowers them with accurate employee data — instantly at their fingertips. Legacy systems may require either extensive tech knowledge or the need for a CEO to wait on HR or other support staff to provide them with the data they need.

With single-database software, however, CEOs can use a command-driven AI engine to immediately obtain answers about their workforce, giving them a shortcut to make smarter moves. It’s all possible without even having to navigate the software, so a leader’s lack of familiarity with the tech poses no issue.

CFOs: Financial visibility and labor cost accuracy

By operating in a truly single database, the best HCM software for chief financial officers (CFOs) gives them clear visibility into labor allocation and the confidence to know the data they rely on is accurate. Software requiring multiple databases limits data flow, which also limits the scope of what a CFO can parse.

HR directors: Operational control and reduced manual work

By automating the complex and time-consuming tasks holding HR back, your HR directors benefit from an empowered team and are ready to focus on strategy — not manual or otherwise tedious tasks — including work related to:

• engagement
• recruitment
• employee satisfaction and well-being
• upskilling and reskilling

And for the HR director’s team, full-solution automation grants professionals the freedom to focus less on menial work and more on projects and initiatives that position HR as a true strategic partner to the C-suite.

CIOs: Security, governance and reduced tech sprawl

With an HCM software built on a truly single database, a chief information officer (CIO) and other IT leaders have a built-in method for reducing needless exposure of your organization’s most sensitive data. Additionally, having fewer disparate systems and databases frees your CIO’s team from continually working to support an antiquated and error-prone HR tech stack.

Employees: Faster, self-service updates

Given that the best HCM software makes it easier to manage your workforce, it should also simplify how employees manage their own data, too. With single-database tech and a command-driven AI engine, your people enjoy instant access to their workforce data from the convenience of their mobile devices. And since all employee data is stored in a single database that automatically updates with new changes, they receive the most accurate data possible.

Plus, since payroll is the process affecting your employees most, the best HCM software empowers them with an automated experience that finds potential errors and guides employees to fix them before submission and before those issues disrupt their income.

The future of HCM: The shift toward full-solution automation

As HCM software continues to advance, the future of HCM and HCM automation evolves with it. Consider these trends to help you keep an eye on what’s next in HR tech.

Why siloed HCM features are becoming obsolete

While it may seem counterintuitive at first, less tech — not more — continues to pave the way for a simpler, more seamless future for HCM. This means fewer disparate tools that can’t consistently communicate; fewer databases that require HR to transfer data back and forth; and less organizational confusion caused by duplicate or incorrect data.

Think of it this way: If effective HCM requires a holistic approach to workforce management, why should the tools you use to manage employees be separated from each other? They shouldn’t, as single-database HCM software proves.

The rise of actionable AI vs. observational AI

It’s likely you’ve experienced — and maybe even regularly use — AI in your personal life. You may even use it at work to simplify tasks like underwriting and reviewing statistics. As the tech continues to evolve, AI will be less speculative and more about producing tangible results.

For example, the best HCM software already includes a command-driven AI engine, providing users with instant access to accurate employee data. While many tech providers may attempt to recreate this functionality if they haven’t deployed it already, the best HCM software ensures this data is available instantly and accurately by housing all its tech in a truly single database.

Why single-source software dominates accuracy

As we head into 2026 and beyond, single-database (or “single-source”) software continues to ensure workforce data is as accurate as it is accessible. Providers that continue to acquire third-party tech could unintentionally slow your organization as the data travels between multiple databases, gradually losing integrity — if data can even automatically flow between those databases at all.

The best HCM software for your organization’s future considers all employee data holistically, automating everything from role-based changes to your employees’ payroll experience and time-off decision-making. In doing so, the single-database software ensures all data stored within it operates seamlessly and flawlessly. All without requiring HR or other admins to meticulously manage it.

Your checklist for evaluating the best HCM software

As you narrow the pack to find the best HCM software to manage your workforce, ensure your potential provider satisfies all the following must-haves:

1. Architecture: Ensure your prospective provider’s HCM software works within a truly single database built entirely in-house. Keep in mind many providers may tout an “all-in-one” solution, but it could still rely on multiple, separate databases that limit automation and create a lackluster tech experience.
2. Automation: From onboarding to role-based position management and every process in between, the right HCM software automates aspects of every process relating to your workforce. A single-database approach helps ensure your provider’s automation is truly seamless and reliable.
3. Compliance: The best HCM software automatically updates with compliance-related enhancements and empowers you with automated reporting capabilities, so you can stay proactive and audit-ready.
4. Data accuracy: Each provider should be able to outline its approach to data accuracy, including how it houses employee data within one database — not across multiple, disparate systems.
5. Employee experience: By putting employees first with one convenient, fully mobile app, the best HCM software offers an intuitive experience any employee can easily use.
6. Costs: The right HCM software should use automation to help reduce unneeded costs, while also allowing you to measure and maximize the ROI you achieve through employee usage.
7. Support: Your ideal provider should connect you with a dedicated, single point of contact who knows the unique needs of your business and how your HCM software should support them.
8. Reporting: The best HCM software allows you to automate recurring reports — including in government-required formats — with real-time data for proactive compliance and stronger insight into your workforce.
9. Integration risk: To avoid security risks and wasted resources, ensure your provider didn’t build its HCM software through acquired third-party tech or integrations.

Download our HCM buyer’s software checklist to help you identify the ideal tech for your workforce.

Why the best HCM software eliminates work

No matter how successful your organization becomes, its resources will be finite. The best HCM software recognizes this and ensures no motion goes to waste by:

• automating your most complex tasks
• operating within a truly single database
• empowering employees at every level with an easy-to-use, accessible experience
• helping strengthen your compliance with regulatory updates and real-time reporting
• deploying a command-driven AI engine to allow your employees instant access to accurate data they entered themselves

Explore Paycom to learn why our single-database tech is the best HCM software for your organization.

*Single-Database HCM Solutions Drive Cross-Business Success, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Paycom, May 2025.