Humaans Vs Workday: Feature-By-Feature Breakdown

Payroll

Workday offers built-in payroll software, which means you can actually process payroll right inside the system. It supports countries like the U.S., UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Australia. For other countries, Workday extends its reach through certified global partners, helping large companies manage payroll for international teams from one platform.

It even includes features like real-time payroll visibility, built-in audits, flexible reporting, and compliance dashboards to help HR teams stay on top of regulatory changes. This makes it a strong option for businesses that want to run payroll directly, especially across multiple countries.

On the other hand, Humaans does not process payroll itself. Instead, it works by connecting with payroll providers like Pento and PayCaptain. This means it’s a little limited if you’re looking for an all-in-one payroll engine, but it’s still very useful. Humaans provides a ‘Payroll Summary’ feature that gives you instant access to everything your accountant or provider needs, such as compensation history, time off balances, and role changes. You can easily export this data in CSV format and share it with any payroll system. If needed, you can even build custom payroll integrations using Humaans’ open API.

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Humaans AI is a smart helper for small and mid-sized teams. It saves time by instantly answering common employee questions using the company’s own documents, like handbooks, policies, and onboarding guides. HR doesn’t have to repeat the same answers over and over—the AI handles it. It can also respond to natural language commands to create data views and pull insights from documents. It’s privacy-friendly, runs in real-time, and doesn’t train on your company data, making it a good fit for teams that want simple and secure automation without complexity.

Workday AI is built for big companies that need more advanced automation. It runs on Workday Illuminate™, a platform that goes beyond answering questions. It uses ‘Agentic AI,’ which means it can take actions automatically—like updating payroll, sending out policies, or reviewing contracts—based on who the user is and what they’re allowed to do. Because it’s connected to Workday’s full HR and finance systems, it helps large teams automate tasks, spot trends, and stay compliant. It also includes tools that make sure the AI is transparent, responsible, and safe for enterprise use.

Onboarding

Humaans keeps onboarding straightforward and efficient—ideal for lean HR teams at small or mid-sized companies. Once a new hire is added (manually or via an ATS), it can auto-trigger a workflow that includes welcome emails, tasks, and document collection like tax forms or IDs. All data syncs into the employee profile, and HR can manage document access through simple permissions. It’s a clean, no-fuss setup that helps teams avoid repetitive work without relying on multiple tools.

Workday, in contrast, is designed for large enterprises that want onboarding to feel structured and personalized. It kicks off as soon as a candidate accepts the offer, using SMS messages, tailored timelines, and role-based content to guide the experience. It connects with other Workday tools like Recruiting, Learning, and Journeys—so onboarding blends into broader employee transitions, like promotions or internal moves.

Absence Management

Humaans stands out for its simplicity and speed. It allows employees to register full or half-day absences across more than 15 time off types—including PTO, sick days, WFH, parental leave, and custom categories. One of its most helpful features is the inclusion of 190+ public holiday calendars globally, which keeps time-off tracking accurate no matter where your team is located.

Policies can be customized per office or team, including carryover, unlimited leave, and weekend rules. When someone leaves, Humaans auto-calculates their final leave balance. By integrating with Slack, Google Calendar, and Apple Calendar, it makes time-off data easy to export, ideal for lean teams who want to avoid spreadsheets and stay in control.

Workday, by comparison, is built for scale. It ties absence management into its broader ecosystem—payroll, time tracking, HR, and scheduling—all managed in one system. Its absence management system ties directly into time tracking, payroll, scheduling, and HR. Employees can request leave through mobile or Slack using Workday Assistant, and managers can track everything through real-time dashboards. It also includes a built-in policy library, automated reminders, and custom labels.

Reporting And Analytics

With Humaans, you can export employee data in just two clicks using ready-to-use CSV templates. This makes it ideal for teams that prefer analyzing data in familiar tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or third-party BI dashboards. What makes it even more practical is its point-in-time reporting, allowing you to view things like historical salaries, past job roles, or PTO balances of former employees. Since it is system agnostic, users are not tied to a specific analytics setup, which is perfect for lean HR teams that value simplicity and control.

Workday, meanwhile, shines with its advanced, built-in analytics ecosystem. Instead of exporting data, it centralizes it, combining internal and external sources using tools like Workday Prism Analytics and Illuminate. This enables automated insights, visual dashboards, and AI-driven alerts embedded across workflows. It goes even further with features like risk detection and employee feedback tools such as Peakon. These capabilities make Workday a strong fit for enterprises with large teams and the need for real-time, in-platform decision-making.