What Does UKG Do? 9 Questions for the Leading Workforce Operating Platform
Key Takeaways
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UKG unifies HR, payroll, and workforce management to improve efficiency, productivity, and employee engagement.
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With people-first AI and the largest collection of workforce insights, UKG equips leaders to make smarter decisions that drive growth.
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Trusted by 80,000+ organizations worldwide, UKG solutions scale with businesses of any size to deliver long-term workforce success.
Great organizations know that their workforce is their competitive edge, but gaining a clear understanding of their people is rarely simple. This is especially true today, when external pressures, employee expectations, and tech advancements like AI are putting stress on your workforce and your systems.
At UKG we help organizations overcome these challenges, combining the largest collection of workforce insights with people-first AI to reveal the unseen opportunities to establish effective teams and help organizations reach their creative visions. In this blog, we’ll answer nine questions that illustrate how UKG empowers leaders to better understand their workforce — from the front office to the front line — and, ultimately, to build workplaces where employees and businesses thrive together.
1. What does UKG do?
UKG delivers a workforce operating platform that puts workforce understanding to work. Whether you call it HCM, HRIS, HRMS, or anything else, anybody who’s dealt with the people, tasks, and resources required to run an organization will tell you that having an effective technology platform supporting what you do makes the job a lot easier.
We provide that technology platform through our two main solutions, UKG Pro and UKG Ready, as well as multiple specialty products to support organizations of any size or industry. In addition to our technology, we also offer guidance and services to help advise and partner with our customers to help them succeed at any stage of growth.
2. What makes UKG different from other HR technology vendors?
We stand out by connecting the front office to the front line, giving leaders real-time workforce insight to stay ahead of every trend, plan, shift, and decision, creating capacity for the work that matters. By unifying HR, payroll, and workforce management in one platform, we tailor the experience using the largest collection of workforce insights, so you get the data you need at the right time to make the right call. Whether you’re a 75-person startup or a 75,000-person enterprise, we meet you where you are and scale with you without extra resources — delivering a lower total cost of ownership than other vendors. Our AI works alongside, not in place of, your people to build trust and performance. With decades of expertise and proactive support, we’re with you all the way as you implement, adopt, and expand.
Our AI works alongside, not in place of, your people to build trust and performance.
3. Who are UKG’s customers?
UKG is one of the largest private software companies in the world. As a result, our customers represent various industries and types of employers worldwide. We’ve been helping organizations for over 50 years, and today, 80,000 organizations across 150 countries rely on us at all scales to support their people, workforces, and strategic goals. This includes organizations in healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and beyond. Some of our customers include MGM Grand, BJ’s, Feeding America, Crocs, Yoga Joint, and Costa Coffee, as well as smaller, growing organizations. Here’s what some of UKG's customers are saying:
- “UKG has triggered a seismic shift in how we keep our frontline workforce connected and engaged and has opened our eyes to what’s possible when you have the right partner and right solutions in place. Our implementation of UKG was more than a technological upgrade, it was a cultural shift for us. The productivity gains we’ve achieved are not only measurable in hours saved but also in improved morale, enhanced delivery, and a workforce better equipped to meet the needs of our community.”
-Nicole Campbell, Director of HR, Bedford County, VA
- “Our biggest win with UKG is having an easy-to-use, single source for all HR and workforce data to help us work efficiently and maximize productivity — all while creating a great place to work environment for our entire staff. The solution is remarkably flexible and adapts to our evolving needs, giving us confidence in knowing that we selected a solution, and a partner in UKG, that we can rely upon for years to come.”
-Thang Ho, Director of IT, Associated Students of Chico State University
- “UKG technology allows us to take better care of our people and our patients. Our staff can see their schedules in UKG and pick up shifts at their home unit or nearby facilities, which gives them better work-life balance and has contributed to an increase in retention. At the same time, we’re able to look at patient ratios to make sure we always have the right staff in place to care for those patients. The changes we’ve put in place as a result of implementing UKG technology has helped us save $2.8 million.”
-Jon Stabbe, Director of Workforce Management, Community Health System
We’ve been helping organizations for over 50 years, and today, 80,000 organizations in 150 countries rely on us across every industry and size.
4. Are UKG solutions for large or small organizations?
Both! We’re the only workforce operating platform that offers a comprehensive HCM solution that fits the size of any organization, from complex enterprise organizations to smaller, agile HR teams.
UKG Pro is our powerful, culture-driven HCM and workforce management solution designed for midsize and large organizations, whereas UKG Ready is our all-in-one HR, payroll, talent, and time solution designed for leaner teams.
Our specialized products also complement our core solutions by addressing the needs of a particular industry, such as healthcare, public sector, or retail. You can see all our specialty products here.
5. How do UKG solutions work?
UKG provides HCM, workforce management, and payroll solutions that use people-first AI to help businesses manage their people, payroll, talent, and time in a single platform. Our solutions are AI-guided with seamless integrations and are designed to be flexible and scalable to meet your organization’s needs. Plus, mobile-friendly, self-service tools engage critical groups like frontline workers.
6. How does UKG help with HR, payroll, and workforce management?
When you need to plan, engage, schedule, and pay your workforce, we offer the solutions that make it happen while ensuring your people are able to focus on the work that matters.. Our technology enables you to drive productivity and empower your people in these ways:
Give leaders the data they need to make confident decisions
Executives get the intelligence they need to reach their goals, make decisions, and fuel growth for a resilient and engaged workforce.
Keep employees engaged in every moment of their journey
HR leaders get the support they need to implement new, effective engagement strategies, manage day-to-day processes, implement HR policies, and simplify administrative tasks.
Put the right talent in the right place at the right time
Operations leaders take confident action thanks to an AI-guided workforce management technology foundation. The technology efficiently manages time and attendance, allows flexible, personalized scheduling, and forecasts workloads based on your specific industry needs.
Pay people accurately and compliantly
Payroll and finance leaders reap the benefits of automated processing. They can stay up to date on regulations and compliance, free up time to ensure employee trust, and adjust processes to match financial strategy goals.
To sum it up, our platform empowers workforces with insights and solutions designed for all people and all roles.
7. Where does UKG’s unrivaled access to workforce data and insights come from?
We hold the world’s largest collection of workforce insights, built on two powerful, complementary foundations:
50 years of workforce activity measurement – spanning more than 30 billion frontline worker interactions, 4 billion schedules created, and $300 billion in payroll processed. This gives us unrivaled visibility into the everyday rhythms of work: the cycles, the moments that matter most, and the interactions that drive engagement and performance across different roles.
30 years of Great Place To Work® (GPTW) data – the industry-standard benchmarks that reveal what truly makes organizations high-performing and people-centered.
By bringing these two streams of data together, we offer organizations something no one else can:
A real-world lens – rooted in the lived experiences of employees, from the frontline to leadership.
A blueprint for success – grounded in decades of research on high-performing workplaces.
The result? An unparalleled understanding of both the realities and the aspirations of work. We know how work actually happens in practice, and we know the benchmarks organizations should aim for to build thriving workplaces. This dual perspective empowers leaders to not just imagine what a high-performing workforce looks like — but to create it, with confidence and clarity.
That’s why when it comes to workforce insights, we don’t just have more data — we have the right data, woven together to create a complete, actionable view of the employee experience.
8. Is the UKG platform easy to use?
Our solutions are designed to be simple for HR teams and employees. When you partner with UKG, you’re at the center of everything we do. That shows up in three ways:
- Personalized service and support.
You get a system built around your needs — not a one‑size‑fits‑all call center. A team of experts who support your modules and organizations of your size responds quickly when you need help.
- Always‑on expertise.
Real people who know your business plus built‑in intelligence that guides you in the moment to make every interaction more helpful, personal, and proactive.
- A thriving community.
You’re connected to peers and partners, so you’re never solving challenges alone.
We back this with more than 7,500 UKG experts dedicated to optimizing your operations, response times under two minutes for support calls, and unlimited learning resources that give administrators confidence and ensure you get the most out of our solutions every day.
9. Where are UKG’s biggest areas of innovation and investment?
Since 2015, UKG has been a leader in people-first AI, and we’ve recently doubled down on our commitment to make work simpler through UKG Bryte, the AI embedded in our workforce operating platform. The agents, automation, and in-the-moment assistance Bryte provides are reshaping how people access information, analyze insights, and follow important processes. This technology empowers leaders to understand their workforce and anticipate how external uncertainty will impact their organization. We are dedicated to continuously innovating our technology to help organizations empower their people and reach better business outcomes. To achieve this, we have spent more than $2 billion on HCM and workforce management research and development over the last three years.
In addition to solving complex HCM, payroll, and workforce management problems for our customers, we’re committed to being the workforce operating platform that helps your people focus on the work that matters.