UKG + Rival: Turn Workforce Management into a Full Employee Experience
In industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and retail, best-in-class scheduling and payroll aren’t perks—they’re survival tools. You need proven workforce management software to keep the lights on. And for that purpose, UKG is the undisputed leader.
And yet running payroll and scheduling shifts is just one piece of a bigger employee story. UKG keeps time and pay running smoothly, but it doesn’t always keep people engaged. Gaps in recruiting, onboarding, and retention often lead to manual workarounds and disconnected systems that slow HR down.
Here’s where Rival can help carry the rest of the employee experience. Rival layers on top of UKG as the automation and experience engine that helps HR connect every moment—from sourcing to scheduling to compliance and connection.
Let’s explore how Rival can help you get more out of your UKG investment by turning your workforce system into an employee experience platform.
What UKG Does Well
For many organizations with frontline or hourly workers, UKG is indispensable. HR and operations leaders trust it because it’s:
✔️ A workforce management powerhouse: Best-in-class for time, attendance, and shift scheduling
✔️ Strong in payroll: Deep compliance coverage in both U.S. and global payroll
✔️ Focused on hourly and shift-based work: Purposely built for industries like healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and public sector
✔️ Mid-market friendly: Seen as more flexible and service-oriented than larger HCM firms like Workday or SAP
UKG is your payroll and scheduling backbone, ensuring people are paid on time and shifts are covered.
Where HR Teams Hit Friction
Although UKG excels in compliance and scheduling, there are limits to what HR teams can do with the platform, such as:
⚠️ Recruiting gaps: Candidate portals are dated and not mobile-first, leading to drop-offs.
⚠️ Weak onboarding: Journeys are manual, inconsistent, and often skipped entirely for contractors or frontline roles.
⚠️ Limited workflow automation: Preboarding, crossboarding, and offboarding lack built-in engagement and automation.
⚠️ Weak analytics: Although UKG provides time and pay reporting, there’s limited visibility into retention, onboarding success, and candidate funnel health.
⚠️ UX complaints: Portals outside of payroll and benefits can feel like a maze to navigate.
⚠️ Slow adaptability: Updates or changes require IT or long vendor cycles.
UKG was built to manage hours, not experiences.
How Rival Complements UKG
With UKG as your pay and compliance foundation, Rival layers on to create a seamless people experience. Here’s how Rival fills the gaps:
⚡ Modern recruiting: AI sourcing, matching, and automated outreach turn reqs into proactive talent pipelines
⚡ Seamless onboarding: Automated workflows for IT setup, compliance checks, and day-one readiness for every role and region
⚡ Preboarding and crossboarding: Nudges that keep new hires and internal movers connected before they start
⚡ Workflow orchestration: Automated processes that bring together HR, IT, and compliance—no coding or consultants required
⚡ Manager and employee dashboards: Clear visibility into tasks, progress, and compliance to keep things moving
⚡ Self-service powered by ROSI: Rival OS Intelligence (ROSI) gives employees an easy way to ask questions, check onboarding status, and manage forms without tickets or delays
⚡ Deep analytics: Connect UKG data with Rival’s insights on hiring, onboarding, and retention
You don’t have to give up experience for compliance. Together, Rival and UKG give you operational reliability and employee engagement.
Unlock More Value From Your UKG Investment
Formed through a merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos, UKG excels at workforce management, not journey orchestration. Trying to cover the full employee lifecycle with UKG just leads to manual workarounds, patchwork integrations, or third-party bolt-ons. In other words, time and budget you probably don’t have.
Rival works with UKG to fill the gaps. HR teams can automate preboarding, onboarding, and crossboarding journeys themselves, while ROSI provides true self-service for easy HR questions. So you have both a system of record to keep your workforce compliant and a system of action to keep your people engaged.
