Is the vendor profit making and does the original promoters have a majority stake demonstrating their commitment & emotional connection with the venture? It is the surest sign of a resilient business in today's recessionary times due to high inflation, slow economic growth and shrinking margins

How many years have the vendor dedicated to the HCM domain? Less than 5 years experience-they are at the start of their journey to climb the mount Everest. If they have 5 year to 10 years domain knowledge-they are at the base camp. If they have 10 to 15 years expertise-they are about 25% from reaching the peak. However, if they have focussed on HRMS beyond 15 years, then they have reached the top.

Has the vendor been able to successfully migrate technologies every few years to keep the HCM software state of the art and to safeguard your investments?

Is the HRMS software integrated with ChatGPT?

Does it have a workflow creator? This is a very important feature allowing the vendor to create any number of application & approval systems without any extra coding helping them to take the projects live rapidly. Less coding also means lesser bugs.

Can it design a form? Any page not already present can be easily created in the software without any need to re-code. Existing fields can be hidden or new fields can be easily added in a form

Does the vendor have a voice bot to handle HR activities?

Is the software 100% usable from a smartphone or Ipad besides a laptop?

Does it have customizable real-time updatable Business Intelligence dashboards?

How strong are the escalations for all workflows?

Does it have proper time zone feature for e.g if the applicant for holiday is in Dubai but the approver is based in London, does it correctly handle date & time differences?

Can it handle multi currency issues?

Does it have multilingual capability?

How many organizational hierarchies / org units / employees groups can be created?

Does the software allow master data to be deleted even if transaction data is available? E.g., If New York City is defined in employee addresses and a user tries to delete this record from the master, then does it allow?

How easy is it to use the employee, managers and HR self service portal?

Is there any hidden cost in adding any new legal entity?

Is the vendor comfortable developing web services to import or export data on a real-time basis from their third party ERPs / CRM / Accounting software?

Is the vendor ISO 27001 certified, showing the highest data security standards worldwide?

Is the vendor SOC 2 certified?

Is the vendor GDPR Compliant?

Are masters based on the date of effect?

Is the software also available on the cloud on pay-per-use model from VM servers based in a reputed data-centers with full Disaster Recovery?

How many number of free reports are provided?

Amount of time invested in developing the software?

How many event reminders are available?

What are the various methods of sending personalized drafted event reminders?

Are activity rules setting based on employee groups? Are rules setting or remapping easy?

How many number of preformatted letter purpose templates can be created?

How is the product implementation executed?

How configurable is the homepage?

How many types of data can be imported? for example doc, xls & txt

Can employees create their custom event reminders with provision to remind x number of days, months or years before it is due?

Does the vendor restrict the number of access levels in the cumulative licenses sold, and are the prices higher for HR and Admin access levels?

Does it have the Geo tagging features?

Does it have the Geo fencing features?

Does it have position management to help define workforce budget, planning and manage positions?

Does it have notifications mgmt?

Does it have user proxy mgmt?

Can the clients label the captions differently to suit their needs using a workflow?

Does it have a 9 or 16-box grid analysis for succession planning?

Can the vendor add several fields asked by the client and decide to make it compulsory or delete the fields that they do not want?

Is the database always encrypted so that even the system administrator cannot see any data fields from the backend?

How easy is it to do Employee Self Service and Manager Self Service?

Does it have the whistle Blower Feature?

Does it have a detailed audit log of who signed in, added, edited, or deleted some records besides imported or exported files?

Does it have drill down reports?

Can it handle inter-company transfers using a workflow and maintain the same emp code to provide a complete career history of an employee?

Does the attendance, leave, loans, claims etc., data flow into payroll automatically?

How nice is the appearance of the pages?

Is the product fully API driven to facilitate instant integration with other products?

How effective is the database structure?

How many dashboards and widgets can be created?

How many ready made widgets can be created?

Is an audit of APIs available?

How strong are the security features?

Is the software using a strong RDBMS?

Can it integrate with multiple mail servers at different locations?

How cool is the mobile app looks?

How indepth are the pages & field rights?

Does it have a single sign-on / Active Directory facility?

Does the software have an inbuilt report designer?

In SaaS, is it multi tenancy based?

Can the client monitor progress of various processes like attendance, payroll or large reports and get email alerts when such work is completed?

Does it have IP locking facility so that employees are restricted to do work from specific office or home locations only having static IPs?

How many tables are present in the entire software?

Are the master's accessing using OTP?

Is the vendor comfortable getting its software installed on-premise if the client insists?

Does it have context-sensitive help on every page with detailed transaction steps explained in the e-manual?

Can it generate QR codes instead of requiring visiting cards to be printed for all employees?

Does it have a voice assist facility like Alexa?

Does the system have attendance tracking tool wherein it takes the screenshots of the desktop screen at regular intervals to ensure that the employee is actually working in front of the system?

Simplicity of workflow display

Modules and pages layout

Does it pick up currency exchange rates instantly using an API?

Does it have FAQs on various processes and pages?

Does it have 100s of inbuilt greeting cards and provision to add your greeting cards?

Does it have a city-state-country relation master to ease data entry, reduce time wastage, and reduce manual errors?

In a group of companies, can it display a logo specific to a company which is different from the group logo?

In case it can create workflows without any recording, does it also have import export feature of it?

Does it have hundreds of motivational thoughts of the day?

My task, opinion poll, suggestion box, contacts, home page message etc

Can it maintain employee data import / export audit log?

Does it have employee engagement activities, including News and Events?

Does it have a detailed workforce budgeting system based on recruitment year & monthly, quarterly or half-yearly cycles?

Does it have a workforce workflow?

Does it have import export facility for positions?

Can the client change language captions rapidly using the import export facility?

Does it have a requisition workflow?

Does it have auto requisition assignment feature?

Can you do bulk import of candidate data from excel along with their resumes?

Can it import candidates CVs from a jobsite you have subscribed or from your website?

Can you upload approved requisitions directly onto job sites you have subscribed to for such a facility?

Does it have Internal Job Posting process?

Can any Online Psychometric, IQ etc. be created? Can tests be conducted for Candidates and Employees on any topic?

Does the product have resume parser?

Can you set Time Bound tests with Multi - Choice parameters?

Does it have the feature of setting subjective test questions?

Does it have the functionality of setting negative markings and cut-off marks?

Can a basket of topics be merged to create a test?

Can you upload an image for conducting the Picture Thematic Test?

Can it import questions of the online test papers?

Campus recruitment management

Can you manage interview questions and rounds of the candidates to select the best?

Can it manage placement consultant profiles and CVs uploaded by them

Does it have the candidate offer workflow?

Can it send email to the references given by the candidates to check their background & suitability for the job offered by your company?

Does it have the pre-boarding feature?

Is the recruitment module connected with other modules?

How many number of predefined fields per employee are present-more the fields, better and more powerful will be your HRIS

How in depth is the Pay Heads Master?

After an employee joins, can the system automatically send emails to the asset owners to make provisions for assets to be given to the new joinees?

Can all employees log in to view their saved details and correct some personal data?

Can you import new joinee excel data in the system?

Is there a maker checker facility?

Does it have the search Buddy facility?

Can the employee code pattern be based on any permutations & combinations on an auto sequence basis?

Does it have the provision to manage the list of all the documents submitted by all the employees?

Can a list of employees be automatically assigned to a user? E.g., can department heads see only their subordinate's data?

Does it have the provision to upload employee reports such that all the employees can download such reports specific to them whenever required?

Can it display a detailed career display of all the employees right from their first date of joining your group in one legal entity and moving into different companies till today?

Can the pay review data be exported and all calculations or modifications done rapidly in excel and then imported back for speedier increment process?

Does it have Letter application workflow?

Induction policies feedback form

Can the policy documents, like travel, leave rules etc., be seen by employees to whom it is relevant only?

Does it have a detailed On-boarding Mgmt?

Can it display your organization chart?

Does it have the feature of an employee's position reporting chart?

Can a client create any survey or poll with a graphical display of results?

Does it have rewards and recognition with the facility to gamify and nominate employees for rewards?

Can the list of rewards given to all the employees be exported for quick decisions as to the next most eligible employee and such data imported back?

Online test management

Does it allow import online test questions data?

Does it have employee transfer workflow?

Does it have a resignation application approval workflow?

Can Full and Final Settlement be done from the front end?

Can you set different exit interview questions for different hierarchies?

Can the exit form be escalated to Multiple levels, and can conditional policies be set between levels?

Can it also trigger a mail for exit clearance & emails sent to the relevant employees?

Can it do the replacement online for the exited employee leading to the transfer of all responsibilities to the respective replacements?

If the employees do not return any asset at their exit, does it mention it in the FFS?

When you need to fill mass exit forms, does it provide import / export for speeding it up?

Does it have exit interview workflow?

Depth of offboarding management

Does it have a handover duty workflow?

Does it generate a ticket number when a particular request is submitted and does the applicant get an email on the request closure? Can you also CC / BCC email to other employees? Can you send attachments? Can you set a priority? Can you set who to approach?

Does it have a Helpdesk workflow to allow the client to create any customized workflow in the flick of a button?

Does it have Insurance management section?

Can it export all insurance plans data for faster entries in excel and imported quickly?

Does it have minimum wages feature based on various factors like zones, industries, pay heads etc.?

Is the concept of assets within assets available?

Asset Responsibility and Eligibility

Does it have a provision for storing details of assets issued to employees like name, asset value, taxable value, when an employee returned such asset, and in what condition?

Does it have the facility of importing asset stocks?

Does it have the facility of importing asset allotted details?

Does the software maintain asset inventory details?

Does it have an asset allotment workflow?

Does it have an asset clearance workflow?

Does it have a detailed project management module?

Can it import the client database?

Can you define the tasks as per Project?

Can you import all the projects your company is handling for all the clients

Does it have the workflow to ask for project resources, and when approved by the concerned seniors, such employees get automatically assigned on such projects with effect from certain dates?

Does it have a project time sheet workflow?

Can you email the time sheet to the client for approval?

When the time sheet is approved, does the time-in time-out automatically update the attendance for that date?

Does it have the public holidays dashboard?

Can any number of attendance heads be created?

Can a set of employees choose the maximum number of holidays they can avail themselves in a year?

Can HR admin / Supervisor import the shifts of the employees?

Can it accept a master permission attendance card for time-in and time-outs?

Is 31 hour day concept available? i.e. an employee enters the office at 23 hours and exits at 7am the next day such that the attendance is marked present for the previous day

Can any number of shifts be created?

Can it create flexi shifts, semi-flex shifts, half day shifts apart from fixed shifts?

Can auto-shift rostering / rotation be done for any set of employees?

Can it create any weekly off combinations for Monday to Sunday based on whether it is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, even monthly, odd monthly, even yearly or odd yearly?

Shift scheduling

Can employees apply for shift change?

Can default shift be automatically assigned to a new joinee?

Does the vendor have an attendance service installed on the client's PC to post attendance as & when required without sharing their server IP with the vendor?

Can daily, weekly or monthly shift rostering be done using import/export?

Does it have the provision to set the shift automatically as per the in-time of the employee on a particular day?

Does it have the provision of defining break times like lunch, etc., to calculate the actual working hours properly?

Late / Early / OT calculation depth

Late, Early, Deficit, Missing minutes and Extra work Policies

Can it calculate monthly deficit hours and deduction rules?

Methods of attendance reading

Can it automatically pick up attendance data from a swipe card system on a real-time online basis from all locations?

Can employees fill out the attendance record and submit it to their department heads for approval?

Does the system force the user to apply attendance irregularities after login into the system?

Does the system allows to apply attendance irregularities from time sheet page itself?

Can the attendance regularization application be used for daily activity tracking?

Does it have the facility of importing / export of the swipe card data?

Does it have the workflow for extra hours worked?

Can a department head approve extra hours for their team members using a workflow?

Does it have the provision to give gate passes to employees when they go outside the office / factory premises and whether it is paid or unpaid?

In extra work application, do the applicant gets the facility to get the extra hours worked in salary or leave?

Does it have the workflow for optional holidays?

Does it have the workflow for extra hours correction?

Does it have the workflow for On Duty (out-of-office work)?

Does it have the workflow for Missing minutes condonement?

Does it have the workflow for Late minutes condonement?

Does it have the workflow for Early minutes condonement?

Does it have a GPS-based attendance tracking system showing the employee's current position on the map?

Does it have the facility of reminding employees in various situations when they come late / go early / were absent or other such attendance-related issues?

Does it have the provision to manage deduction policy exceptions in the case for certain employees like directors etc., rules like OT, late coming or early going etc., not apply?

Does it have the feature of entering of monthly time sheets?

Can attendance processing be done? How easy and user friendly is it?

How in depth are the leave rules?

Can the leave accounting year be different for different employees for every leave type?

Does it have formula builders to handle any rule settings for any hierarchies?

Can we import the opening balance / leave transaction in the system?

Leave availing workflow simplicity & depth

Does it have a Leave availing workflow?

Can leave be applied for a few hours?

Can it handle quarter day leave applications?

Can leave credit be done on an online basis through a workflow?

Can leave encashment be done on an online basis through a workflow?

Using powerful formula builders, can it create travel expense heads based on different hierarchies and set per day, per unit or per trip limits? Can it handle complex cross-currency calculations?

Can it create dynamic city classifications like metro, tier 1, tier 2, rural areas etc.?

Does it have the travel request workflow?

Once the travel plan has been approved, does it automatically update the On Duty status in the attendance for those days?

Can all employees fill their daily expense applications for approval through a workflow?

Can Project based travel expenses be mapped?

Is the travel expenses workflow tax compliant?

Does the product maintain expenses incurred towards candidates like accommodation, travel, food etc.?

Can it handle any complex payroll conditions? What can max number of options be given per Head of Pay?

How many pay heads can be created?

Does the software have the provision for designing your pay slip format, including fields and columns like standard salary, earned, arrears, adjustments and total in that month?

Can it handle multi currency payroll?

Can you work on multiple accounting years?

Does it have Income Tax calculator?

Can the employees change their flexible pay heads themselves online through a workflow?

Can loans granted be imported?

Does it calculate complicated loan calculations on simple, reducing or PMT methods?

Can cash payment of the EMI so calculated, or is the period changed or interest calculation modified after the loan has been granted to the employee?

Does it have a loan application approval workflow?

Can payroll processing be done from many locations using a centralized database server?

Can it handle complicated Increment and Union agreement calculations?

Salary process

Are all the salary recoveries and payroll adjustments automatic or have to be done manually module-wise?

Can arrears payment be done in salary or outside the salary?

Can arrears calculations be done on an online basis from the front end?

Does it have canteen deductions?

Does it have a formula builder to calculate loan entitlements based on the experience of the employees or their salaries or age or grade etc.?

Can it process salary per employee in less than 1 second?

Can Full and Final Settlement data be imported?

Can the client do payroll processing?

Can payroll processing be done for 1 employee or for 1 department rather than all employees?

Can it import past processed salary data?

Can it import one time variable / adhoc payment data while doing payroll processing?

Does it calculate bonus calculations?

Can you process salary for a month, assuming employees are present after that month's set attendance cutoff date?

Does the vendor have the provision to hold or unhold salaries of certain employees for various reasons, like employees who have resigned?

Does it have the feature of salary reconciliation across multiple months?

Does it have the feature of creating bank statements such that after the payroll is calculated, it can directly take that data and import it into the bank account login, and salaries can be directly transferred into individual employees' bank accounts?

Is claim management available?

Claim management depth

Can claim data be imported?

Does it have claim workflows for mediclaim, travel reimbursements etc.?

Competency Page options

Can it import competencies?

Can it import KRAs?

Can goal settings be auto scheduled?

Is Goal Year Till Date Dashboard available?

Can it import goal setting data for employees?

Does it provide workflow for goal setting?

Can it import goal review data for employees?

In what all different ways can task setting be done?

Goal Owner

Is the appraisal system fully present through a workflow and does it give bell curve analysis? (360 degree / KRA's / Competencies etc) and is entirely flexible?

Can the setting of reviewers be changed when required?

Goal Transfer

Does it have the confirmation process?

Does it have Goal setting and Goal review import / export?

Does the appraisal module have options of giving scientific ratings to the total competency group / individual / final and overall basis?

Can it create different performance review periods for separate employees?

In performance evaluations, can employees be nominated for such competency development methods if they are weak in certain skills?

How many employees' summary information is displayed at the beginning of the appraisal form?

PMS Score Calculation

How many kinds of recommendations are available?

The number of options available in Normalization?

Does it have the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)?

Can tasks be defined at Organization levels and distributed downwards?

Is succession planning module available?

Does it have the mechanism for Learning management, Knowledge Storage, Dissemination & Authentication

Can it create a training calendar based on employees group-wise?

Can the training cost components be created using formula builders?

Does it have a training agency and faculty master?

Can it import training faculty / institution data?

Can it import training program / training topic data?

Can employees fill up their training needs online?

Can the department heads & the HRD nominate employees to participate in a training program using a workflow?

Is training nomination workflow available?

Training Program Master

Is self online training facility available?

Can it store estimated and actual costs incurred on training programs?

Can a faculty fill up the training participants' evaluation form after the program has been finished?

Can employees fill up their training feedback form after they have attended the same?

Does the product have the workflow to add post-training effectiveness feedback evaluation of the trainees?

Is the vendor comfortable in adding new features for it to be able to automate your entire current & future business needs and are such enhancements added free of cost in the same software code to benefit all the other clients?