Gone are the days when effective employee management was synonymous with costly software investments. With the rise of free workforce management software, businesses of all sizes can now access powerful tools to streamline their workforce operations without breaking the bank.
In this article, we’ll discuss our top five picks for the best free workforce management software and how they can meet your unique operational needs.
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Article Roadmap
- Best Free Workforce Management Software
- Who Can Benefit From Free Workforce Management Software
- Key Features of WFM Software
- Next Steps
Best Free Workforce Management Software
The traditional methods of managing employee schedules, tracking time and attendance, and optimizing workforce efficiency are no longer sustainable in today’s digital age. A significant growth in the WFM software market indicates that workforce management solutions are becoming a popular tool among organizations looking to digitize and automate key HR processes.
Manage your employee’s working hours from a unified dashboard. Source
However, for many businesses, the cost of implementing comprehensive workforce management solutions has been a barrier to achieving operational excellence.
Free workforce management software has emerged as a viable alternative, providing you with the tools needed to optimize workforce processes without the financial constraints typically associated with such systems.
By leveraging the power of cloud-based technology and automation, you can efficiently schedule shifts, track time and attendance, and manage labor costs, all without the burden of hefty software expenses.
Given below is our list of our top five free workforce management software and their capabilities to help you find the ideal solution for your business.
Connecteam
Connecteam offers solutions for time management, employee onboarding and engagement, compliance, health and safety and more for businesses in industries like construction, manufacturing, retail and homecare. Its features include time clocks, employee scheduling, polls and surveys and mobile accessibility, designed for operations HR, IT and training departments.
The mobile app provides on-the-go access to key software features. Source
| Users | Business Owner, Administrators, Managers, Employees |
|---|---|
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud and Installed |
| Company Size | S M L |
Top Benefits
- Effective Internal Communication: Facilitate real-time collaboration across the organization using the Communications Hub, an easily accessible platform that enables operational communication with your mobile workforce. Features like instant chat messaging, two-way feedback exchange, automated updates and a company knowledge base enable uninterrupted peer-to-peer communication and information sharing, and keep team members connected at all times.
- Centralized management: You can use the HR and Skills Hub to easily manage all HR-related matters and streamline work processes on a single platform. It enables you to onboard and train employees, track progress, set milestones, store and manage company documents and more.
- Advanced Integrations: Native integrations with payroll software such as QuickBooks Online, Gusto, Paychex and Xero streamline business processes and make it easier to manage all payroll and time management activities from one place.
- Increased Engagement: You can give employees badges, complimentary time-offs, certificates and other forms of recognition to make staff members feel appreciated, motivated and valued for their hard work, leading to higher engagement levels.
- Better Outreach: Users can pick from a variety of languages and configure the platform in their preferred dialect. These include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Deutsch, Russian and Italian. It helps people from different parts of the world use the software without any linguistic barriers.
Primary Features
- Dashboard and Reporting: View employee activity centrally on a customizable dashboard. Create custom reports to monitor specific projects or jobs, automate live reports based on employees’ clock-in status and export timesheets to the payroll department.
- Task Management: Create, track and monitor tasks, add descriptions and attachments, and assign single or multiple tasks to employees.
- Leave and Absence Management: Configure time-off policies to set various kinds of leaves, such as sick leave, jury duty and parental leave. Allow employees to request time off, and admins or managers to approve or deny requests. View employee time-offs, availability, schedules and more on a calendar.
- Schedule Management: Use pre-built templates and drag-and-drop functionality to create daily, weekly and monthly employee shifts and schedules. Allow employees to claim open shifts and accept or reject assigned shifts.
- Time Tracking: Use timesheets to track and automatically calculate employee break time, absence, PTO and more. Enable employees to fill work hours manually in timesheets. Create attendance policies to handle issues, such as tardiness, no-shows and early outs.
Some Features Not Included In the Free Plan
- Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for admins
- Active Directory SSO for Admins
- App lock for mobile app
- API Access and Support
Limitations
- Doesn’t support labor forecasting.
Pricing
Connecteam offers five pricing plans (Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills):
- The Small Business Plan (Free Plan): $0 with full access to all features and limited to 10 users.
- Basic: $35/month for the first 30 users and $0.60/user for additional users, billed monthly, or $29/user for the first 30 users and $0.50/user for additional users, billed annually.
- Advanced: $59 for the first 30 users and $1.80/user for additional users, billed monthly, or $49/year for the first 30 users and $1.50/user for additional users, billed annually.
- Expert: $119/month for the first 30 users and $3.6/user for additional users, billed monthly, or $99/month for the first 30 users and $3/user for additional users, billed annually.
- Enterprise: It offers custom pricing for unlimited users.
Note: The solution offers an 18% discount when purchasing a yearly subscription, and the monthly cost reduction equals ten months of use on a monthly subscription.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
OnTheClock
OntheClock offers a range of time tracking solutions to small businesses. Its features include shift scheduling, PTO management, employee profiling, location controls, team communications and more. The solution easily integrates with major third-party payroll software like ADP Workforce Now, Square and Gusto, and offers automated reports about your employees’ hours and clock-ins.
Employee profiles provide access to time entries, PTOs, messages and more. Source
| Users | Business Owner, Administrators, Managers, Employees |
|---|---|
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Company Size | S |
Top Benefits
- Secure Time-Tracking: Reliable time tracking from desktops and mobiles using fingerprint sign-in and GPS control technology eliminates buddy punching and prevents time theft.
- Improved Accuracy: The software automatically adds up regular, overtime and PTO hours, preventing timesheet errors and payroll mistakes, and allows you to set overtime rules to correctly calculate and track employee overtime.
- Operational Efficiency: It offers 6 and 15-minute punch rounding options, making it easier for you to calculate work hours, enforce shift start and end times and more.
- Centralized Management: You can create separate accounts for different business locations and smoothly manage their operations from one location.
- Greater Readiness: Send surveys to employees asking questions about their physical health, available pieces of equipment, current and upcoming schedules and more before they clock in. Doing this ensures that they’re physically fit and prepared to perform their jobs efficiently.
Primary Features
- Schedule Management: Create schedules using color-coded charts and drag-and-drop features to assign employees to different departments. Customize start and end times for specific dates, apply filters for locations, departments, jobs and tasks, and copy schedules to repeat for upcoming weeks.
- Time Tracking: Allow employees to easily track time from tablets and web browsers. Use time cards to capture, edit and track employees’ time related to tasks and projects, and send punch reminders to ensure regular tracking.
- Reporting: Generate automated, real-time data reports to monitor employee attendance, time card notes, audit logs and more.
- PTO Tracking: Track employees’ absences such as vacation and sick days, jury duty or family-related leaves, and personalize PTO scenarios to align with your company’s policies and goals. Get a detailed summary of each employee’s PTO status and view days off and balance amounts from a unified dashboard.
- Location Controls: Track employees’ locations and prevent punch-ins from unassigned locations using geofencing. Assign unique WiFi and internet IP addresses to ensure that workers don’t clock in or out if WiFi or internet connection credentials do not match.
Some Features Not Included In the Free Plan
All software features are included in the free plan.
Limitations
- Doesn’t offer 360-degree feedback.
- Doesn’t allow creating reports from scratch.
Pricing
OnTheClock offers pricing plans based on the number of users.
- Free plan: It’s designed for two employees or less with access to all features.
- Paid plan: It offers various pricing for different numbers of users. Given below is a breakdown of the charges for each user/month.
- $3.50 for 3 to 10 employees.
- $3.45 for 11 to 25 employees.
- $3.40 for 26 to 50 employees.
- $3.35 for 51 to 100 employees.
- $3.30 for 101 to 200 employees.
- $3.25 for 201 to 300 employees.
- $3.20 for 301 to 400 employees.
- Custom pricing for 401 employees or more.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Evolia
Evolia’s employee scheduling, and time and attendance management solutions are designed for businesses in various sectors including healthcare, hospitality, retail, entertainment and manufacturing. You can build office schedules, assign shifts to employees, create and manage tasks, track working hours and more on a cloud-based platform.
Its Android and iOS-compatible mobile app includes features such as recruitment management, real-time collaboration, custom notifications and third-party integrations.
Use pre-populated checklists to add task details. Source
| Users | Business Owners, Administrators, Supervisors, Managers, Employees |
|---|---|
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Company Size | S M L |
Top Benefits
- Greater Savings: You can use the staffing budget management tool to create profitable schedules for every department. Managers get notified about exceeding budgets, while administrators automatically get alerts if a cost overrun is anticipated. This helps you allocate resources optimally and control expenses without compromising on quality.
- Improved Collaboration: Employees can create one-on-one or group conversations to engage and communicate with their colleagues. Participants can add emojis, pictures and attachments to messages, and view new messages or announcements on their home screens.
- Quick Access: The solution allows employees to request time off, swap shifts and pick up extra shifts, all through an easy-to-use mobile app. This gives employees more control over their work schedules, leading to increased satisfaction and morale.
- Easy Compliance: No matter your industry, navigating complex labor laws and union agreements can be a headache. The solution simplifies compliance by factoring in all relevant rules and regulations during scheduling. This means you can be confident your schedules are always compliant, saving you time, money and legal hassle.
- Reduced Understaffing: You can avoid schedule conflicts by allowing employees to register incidents of non-availability in advance, and assign vacant shifts to other workers to prevent understaffing. Self-scheduling tools allow you to release all available shifts to each qualified employee and allow them to select their preferred shifts until the schedules are fully staffed.
Primary Features
- Mobile App: Enable managers to use the Android and iOS-compatible mobile app to set personalized scheduling rules and regulations, allocate work shifts to employees and fill open work shifts by alerting them through email, SMS or push notifications.
- Employee Profile Management: Create employee profiles to store their personal information like name, position, location, address and phone number.
- Integrations: Connect with HR software, such as Folks HR, Humi and ADP Workforce and sync data between the two systems for better operational management.
- Task Management: Create a central library of tasks, assign them to individual shifts based on roles or skills, and leverage them for training. Automate recurring tasks to ensure that essential routines are never missed.
- Dashboard: View replacements, open shifts, shifts to approve, budget distribution and more on an interactive dashboard.
Some Features Not Included In the Free Plan
- Task Management
- Auto-assignment
- Advanced invitation rules
- Automated premium and overtime management
- Payroll Integration
- Multiple or advanced integrations
- Public API access
- 1000 invitations to all shifts
- Personalized service offering
Limitations
- Doesn’t offer multi-factor authentication for security
Pricing
Evolia offers three pricing plans billed monthly:
- Essential plan (Free): $0 for unlimited users.
- Business plan: $3.50/user for a minimum of 20 users.
- Enterprise plan: $4.50/user.
Jibble
Jibble offers mobile and web time tracking solutions to enterprises, lawyers, accountants, freelancers and more. Its features include attendance tracking, face recognition, NFC and RFID attendance, project time tracking and time clocks. The solution integr target=”_blank”ates with third-party apps like Asana, BambooHR, Any.do, Basecamp and ClickUp.
Check user activity in the Action Log. Source
| Users | Administrators, Supervisors, Managers, Employees |
|---|---|
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Company Size | S M L |
Top Benefits
- User-Friendly Interface: Follow Jibble’s set-up wizard for easy installation. Staff can log in and out of the workplace with a single click, and its knowledge bank contains several reference articles to get started.
- Easy Customizations: You can customize the platform to suit their unique workflows and processes. Easily create custom views, fields, calculations, objects and rules, and use customizable modules to monitor employee work time effectively. The free basic version can be upgraded with various modules.
- Buddy Punching Prevention: Rein in buddy punching by leveraging shared GPS locations and activating facial recognition. Location tracking ensures that staff punches in from the location they’re supposed to, and photo verification helps curb logging in for others.
- Increased Savings: The solution charges customers by the number of active users per month, making it an affordable option for businesses with a fluctuating workforce.
- Advanced Integrations: Integrate with popular HRMS, finance and CRMS solutions using IST connectors to seamlessly complete workflows. APIs allow integration with objects, data and logic from other applications. The solution integrates with collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack while letting employees punch in and out of the workplace using the Jibble bot.
Primary Features
- Biometric Clock: Use AI-powered facial recognition technology to help employees clock in and out by looking at the camera, ensuring accurate time records. Face spoofing prevention allows checking both static and dynamic 2D images for identity verification, preventing impersonation and sending alerts when there’s a mismatch.
- Automated Timesheets: Log in to the system at any time to monitor team members’ activities and time spent to complete a specific task. Track the number of hours employees need to complete their assigned tasks, and when they started or finished their work. Automated timesheets for every employee along with deductions and overtime computations simplify payroll calculations.
- Budgeting: Export time data to payroll applications for computation of employee salaries. Control labor costs with predictions for the number of employees required to meet anticipated demand and examine employee data to create baselines for an optimal workforce.
- Collaboration: Access staff attendance logs and timesheets from anywhere using the mobile app. Easily activate time clocking by task completion to monitor project progress. Built-in text and email functionalities foster communication with team members and streamline leave request submissions.
- Employee Self-Service: Allow staff members to access their updated schedules, submit leave and time-off requests, and indicate availability and work preferences by logging in to their profiles on the self-service portal.
Some Features Not Included In the Free Plan
- Custom Break Types
- Auto Clock Out
- Face Spoofing Prevention
- Custom Verification Rules
- Live Location Tracking
- Group Activity Assignments
- Project and Client Tracking
- Group Project Assignments
- Timesheet Approval Workflow
- Pay Period Timesheets
Limitations
- Doesn’t support generating direct reports to PDF.
- Doesn’t offer a native survey builder tool.
Pricing
Jibble offers four plans:
- Free: $0 for unlimited users with limited features.
- Premium: $3.99/user per month (billed monthly) or $2.49/user per month (billed annually).
- Ultimate: $7.99/user per month (billed monthly) or $4.99/user per month (billed annually).
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for more than 500 users.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
SocialSchedules
SocialSchedules offers a range of time tracking and employee scheduling solutions to retail businesses, hotels, restaurants and bars and educational institutions. These include attendance management and payroll exports, data reporting, labor compliance, third-party integrations and real-time collaboration.
Create and manage schedules using a central calendar. Source
| Users | Business Owners, Administrators, Managers, and Employees |
|---|---|
| Mobile App | Yes |
| Free Trial | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud |
| Company Size | S M L |
Top Benefits
- Error Free Schedules: You can create and update accurate schedules on the fly on the mobile app. Use templates to publish your schedule within minutes and share them with employees.
- Multi-Language Support: Users can configure the system in various languages, such as English, French and Spanish. It helps you reach a wider audience and attract users from different backgrounds by ensuring that people can interact with the software in their native language.
- Streamlined and Error-Free Scheduling: Advanced scheduling features help you create weekly rosters in minutes, avoiding conflicts and accidental overtime. This eliminates manual processes and reduces the risk of human error, saving you valuable time and ensuring smooth staff coverage.
- Greater Flexibility: Employees can swap shifts, pick up extra hours and request time off directly through the app, increasing flexibility and ownership over their schedules.
- Centralized Storage: You can manage and keep track of training material, licenses and professional development certifications required by workers in an online repository.
Primary Features
- Time Tracking: Enable employees to clock in from a tablet onsite, and view real-time attendance, break times, lateness and other clocking trends. Track crucial metrics like schedules vs actual hours, labor cost vs sales, break punctuality and overtime hours using insightful data reports.
- Break Management: Set break rules to auto-allocate paid and unpaid breaks based on the scheduled shift duration.
- Collaboration: Allow employees to share messages, logbook notes and documents, and get notified when they’re read. Notify staff of schedule changes, send automated reminders for upcoming shifts and see who’s read your private or group messages.
- Compliance: Create custom compliance rules and enforce them in your schedules. Track daily and weekly overtime, auto-allocate meal and rest breaks, apply special pay rates for public holidays and more.
- Third-Party Integrations: Integrate with popular POS and Payroll apps like Square, Heartland, CoastalPayroll, POSitouch and ADP Workforce Now.
Some Features Not Included In the Free Plan
- Multiple Locations Scheduling
- Shift Confirmation
- Sales Forecasting
- Manager Logbooks
- Multiple Compliance Rulesets
- Break Notifications
- Mobile time clock with GPS Radius
- Early clock in prevention
- Certification Management
- Overtime Reports
Limitations
- Doesn’t offer task management.
- Doesn’t offer a native labor forecasting tool.
Pricing
The solution offers four pricing plans:
- Basic (Free): $0 for users with limited features.
- Starter: $15.99/location per month (billed monthly) or $12.99/location per month (billed annually).
- Premium: $39.99/location per month (billed monthly) or $33.99/location per month (billed annually).
- Enterprise: It offers custom pricing for unlimited users.
Note: It offers a discount of (20%) when purchasing a plan on a yearly.
Who Needs Free Workforce Management Software?
With 43% of executives making budget cuts to tackle economic downturns in 2023, a free workforce management system is an ideal way to automate and simplify HR and employee monitoring processes without spending a dime. It allows you to focus on what matters most – driving growth and achieving strategic objectives.
- For small businesses and startups with limited budgets, a free solution can be accessible and practical, especially if they’re just starting and need to keep expenses low.
- If an organization has relatively simple workforce management needs, such as basic scheduling, time tracking and absence management, a free solution provides sufficient functionality without the need for more advanced features.
- Free WFM solutions can adequately meet the needs of small businesses with a small number of employees and straightforward scheduling requirements.
- Organizations that are unsure about their long-term WFM requirements can start with a free solution to experiment with the features and evaluate the impact on their operations before committing to a paid solution.
- Some free solutions have active user communities where organizations can find support, share best practices and learn from the experiences of others without relying on formal customer support.
Key Features
In Gartner’s 2024 Top 5 HR Priorities report, 56% of HR leaders said their HR technology solutions and strategy do not match their current and future business needs.
Embracing free workforce management software isn’t just about saving costs; it’s about equipping businesses with the tools they need to thrive in a dynamic and competitive environment.
In a time when replacing an employee costs organizations as much as twice their annual salary, it’s important to find a solution that offers all the capabilities required to keep your employees organized, productive and happy.
Let’s discuss some essential features you should consider while evaluating workforce management software to find the right tool for your business:
Time and Attendance Tracking
The solution offers a variety of methods for employees to clock in and out, including biometric systems, web-based interfaces, mobile apps and badge readers. You can accurately record and manage employee work hours, breaks and absences.
Get an overview of time-off requests and trends on a dashboard. Source
Automated time-off request workflows allow employees to submit requests for vacation time, sick leave or other absences through self-service portals. Managers can then review, approve or deny these requests within the system to ensure consistent application of leave policies.
The software includes tools for enforcing time and attendance policies, such as automated alerts for late arrivals or early departures, as well as notifications for approaching overtime thresholds, helping you maintain operational discipline and compliance with labor standards.
Scheduling
Scheduling features provide visibility into employee schedules, enabling you to make real-time adjustments, track shift swaps and communicate schedule changes with employees.
You can create and manage employee schedules based on factors such as employee availability, skills and labor laws to ensure optimal staffing levels and effective deployment of workforce resources. The software provides tools to manage shift patterns, adjust shifts based on demand fluctuations and accommodate varying employee preferences and availability.
The ability to forecast labor needs helps you anticipate staffing requirements based on historical data, sales projections and other factors. By leveraging these forecasting capabilities, you can optimize your workforce planning strategy, allocate resources effectively and ensure that staffing levels align with demand.
Leave and Absence Management
You can track and manage employee leaves, including vacation time, sick leave and other types of absences. The software offers tools to track and report on various types of leave, analyze absence trends and monitor compliance with leave policies.
Track and manage all types of leaves and absences centrally. Source
Automated approval workflows for leave requests enable managers to review and approve requests within a centralized system. By automating this process, you can ensure consistent application of leave policies, reduce administrative overhead and maintain accurate records of employee absences.
Integration with scheduling and time tracking tools automatically adjusts employee time and attendance records to reflect approved leave. It also facilitates accurate payroll processing by automatically adjusting employee time and attendance records to reflect approved leave.
Compliance and Reporting
Advanced compliance tools ensure adherence to labor laws, regulations and internal policies. Tools for tracking and managing employee work hours, breaks and overtime ensure compliance with labor regulations such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other industry-specific requirements.
Customizable reporting templates and dashboards allow you to easily visualize and analyze data to identify trends, patterns and areas for improvement. You can generate detailed insights into workforce-related data, including attendance, scheduling and leave management, which can be crucial for regulatory reporting and audits.
These reports can be tailored to specific compliance requirements and can be shared with regulatory authorities, stakeholders and internal management as needed.
Integration with payroll systems facilitates accurate and compliant wage calculations and ensures that your organization meets tax and payroll reporting obligations. Some solutions also incorporate predictive analytics and forecasting tools to help you anticipate and address compliance challenges.
You can enable automated alerts and notifications to flag potential violations, and proactively address issues before they escalate.
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Task Management
The software allows you to create, delegate and prioritize tasks, and help allocate work based on employee availability, skill sets and workload. You can efficiently assign, monitor and track tasks across the workforce.
It includes the ability to set deadlines, establish task dependencies and track task progress, facilitating effective project management and ensuring that work is completed on time.
Collaborative task management features enable teams to communicate, share updates and collaborate on tasks within a centralized platform. Automation capabilities help you streamline repetitive tasks, trigger notifications and optimize task workflows, reducing manual workloads.
Real-time visibility into workloads balances task distribution and prevents overloading individual employees. By offering insights into task status, resource allocation and potential bottlenecks, reporting tools empower you to make informed decisions and adjust priorities as needed.
Mobile App
With more companies adopting hybrid work models, a mobile app allows employees, managers and other team members to efficiently handle workforce-related tasks on the go.
Access key software features on the mobile app. Source
For employees, mobile apps provide self-service functionalities, allowing them to view their schedules, request time off, swap shifts with colleagues and clock in and out from their mobile devices.
Managers can use mobile apps to approve time-off requests, manage employee schedules and send real-time updates about shift changes or staffing issues. Some apps include geolocation features to verify employee locations when clocking in or out, enhancing accountability and compliance.
Staff members can access important HR documents, company policies, training materials and other important paperwork they need in the content repository.
Integration with communication tools, such as instant messaging or push notifications, enables seamless communication between employees and managers, facilitating quick responses to scheduling changes.
Employee Self-Service
Self-service tools empower employees to independently handle administrative tasks and access important information. These features typically include a web-based or mobile interface through which employees can access and update their personal information, such as contact details, emergency contacts and direct deposit preferences, reducing the administrative burden on HR staff.
Create unique employee profiles to store their information. Source
Benefits enrollment allows employees to review available benefits, make selections and update their coverage as needed. Tools for performance management enable them to set and track their goals, participate in performance evaluations and access feedback and reviews.
Self-service tools facilitate training and development by providing access to eLearning resources, training schedules and performance support materials.
Payroll Management
WFM systems offer tools that help calculate wages by factoring in variables such as hourly rates, overtime, bonuses and deductions, while also accommodating different pay schedules and labor laws. Direct deposit and electronic pay stub delivery provide employees with convenient access to their compensation details.
These systems often support tax calculations and withholdings, helping you stay compliant with tax laws and regulations. You can generate payroll reports on tax filings, wage summaries and labor cost analyses.
Time and attendance tracking integrations allow you to automatically capture and reconcile employee work hours, ensuring precise payroll calculations and compliance with labor regulations.
Geotagging and biometric verification features authenticate employee clock-ins and prevent time theft, further enhancing the accuracy of payroll data.
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Next Steps
Free workforce management solutions are an economical and effective way for businesses to optimize their daily operations without incurring any monetary expenses. By leveraging these innovative tools, you can streamline key workforce management processes, reduce administrative burdens and empower employees to perform at their best.
As we look into the future, it’s clear that embracing free workforce management software can drive growth and long-term success for your business. Kickstart your software search with our free comparison report to get valuable insights into top market solutions and their capabilities.
How many employees are you planning to train using free workforce management software? Which features are a must-have for your business needs? Let us know in the comments!
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Comparison Report: An interactive analyst report with comparison ratings, reviews and pricing for Workforce Management software