Human capital management (HCM) software

Drive the success of every employee and achieve organisational agility with a global, AI-enabled HCM software suite.
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A cloud HCM suite that changes the way you work

When your people operate at their best, so does your business. Built for the cloud, the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite utilises AI to help you optimise the way employees work, managers manage, and organisations adapt.

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Human Resources Management - enhance HR, talent and learning, HR analytics, and experience management for all through:

  • Purpose-built AI for HR self-service, learning, recruiting, performance, and more

  • Single source of people and skills data for HR and your entire business

  • Best practices and all the support you need for faster time-to-value

  • Global partner network to find the perfect fit for your organisation 

Core HR & payroll

Support your employees wherever and however they need to work with global solutions for core HR, payroll, time tracking, benefits admin, HR service delivery, and more.

Talent management

Adapt quickly to address any skill gaps with powerful software for talent intelligence, recruiting, onboarding, performance, compensation, learning, succession, and development.

Employee experience management

Help employees do and be their best. Give them easy access to what they need at work, listen to their feedback, and keep them engaged with exceptional employee experiences.

HR analytics and workforce planning

Improve company-wide performance and decision-making with data-driven people insights, workforce planning tools, and AI-driven recommendations.

Sales performance management

Maximise sales performance with effective sales planning, automated processes, and impactful incentive compensation management.

AI for human resources

Tap the power of AI to cultivate a dynamic, inclusive, and future-ready workforce that is connected, data-driven, and employee-centric.

HR and AI: Your 2025 Playbook On-Demand

Tune in to discover how AI can transform HR. In this session, you’ll gain expert insights and an exclusive demo of Joule that you won’t want to miss!

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Hear from our HCM software customers

Nurturing talent through a consistent HR culture

Find out how Microsoft standardises employee experiences worldwide by centralising data in a single core HR system.

Taking care of the team behind the team

Learn how FC Bayern empowers employees to quickly access their personal data, self-services, and HR tasks—anywhere, at any time.

Increasing employee productivity and satisfaction

Explore how Indevin enables its HR team to respond faster and more accurately to requests and automate time-consuming tasks.

Taking employee experiences to new heights

See how Delta Air Lines unlocked the potential of its workforce by empowering employees and personalising talent experiences.

Let AI do the little things, so employees can think big

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We’ve built AI-enabled processes into our HCM software to help improve the employee experience and guide decisions across the employee lifecycle—from recruitment through succession planning.

Explore our HCM software innovations

AI-enabled career experience helps employees develop skills with confidence

Give employees insights into current career and growth opportunities with our new SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development solution.

New Business AI capabilities help boost efficiency and employee productivity

Empower your employees and managers with new AI features spanning learning and development, talent acquisition, HR operations, and more.

New and improved people profile gives employees a one stop shop

Make it quick and easy for employees and managers to find employee data and AI-generated insights with the newly refreshed experience and detailed views.

Explore research and best practices from HR experts

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Is AI right for your HR organisation?

Learn how to use AI in HR effectively and ethically while producing the best possible outcomes for your organisation.

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Explore the 2024 HR trends

Learn about nine trends shaping the future of work – and how your organisation can stay ahead of the curve.

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Take a skills-based approach to workforce planning

Explore four approaches to incorporating skills into your HR strategy and people practices—and the cloud HR software that can help you get there.

The Future of AI for Talent Management

Put AI at the centre of your people strategy. Hear from experts and see a demo.

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What are experts saying about our HCM solutions?

SAP is named a Leader for cloud HCM suites

Find out why Gartner® named SAP as a Leader in its 2024 Magic Quadrant™ report for cloud HCM suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises.

SAP is named a Strategic Leader in Fosway 9-Grid Cloud HR report

See why Fosway Group placed SAP as a Strategic Leader across cloud HR and payroll, talent and learning management, employee experience, and people analytics.

Best practices for achieving HCM excellence today and tomorrow

Explore the challenges and opportunities of HCM software, an overview of SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and six key lessons from HCM transformations.

Frequently asked questions

Human capital management (HCM) is the set of practices and software used for recruiting, managing, and developing an organisation’s human capital—aka its workforce.

A human resource management system (or HRMS) is used to digitalise, automate, and centralise core HR processes, such as employee data storage, benefits administration, time and attendance, and payroll. An HRMS also provides talent management capabilities such as recruiting, onboarding, performance management, goal planning, learning and training, compensation, and succession planning. HRMS and HCM software are often used interchangeably.

AI in HR is used to streamline and automate HR processes across the employee lifecycle—from recruitment, hiring, and onboarding through talent management, learning, and performance.

SAP SuccessFactors HCM is a suite of cloud-based HCM software applications that supports core HR and payroll, talent management, HR analytics and workforce planning, and employee experience management. The suite provides individualised experiences that keep employees happy, productive, and engaged. Launched in 2001 and part of the SAP family since 2012, SAP SuccessFactors solutions are used by more than 290 million users in more than 200 countries and territories around the world.

SAP HR was a key module in the SAP ERP application that provided comprehensive support for HCM. Now, SAP HR has evolved into SAP SuccessFactors HCM – a cloud-based suite of HR solutions that put employees first. These solutions include a powerful HR information system as well as tools for employee experience management, onboarding, learning, performance management, succession and development, people analytics, and much more.

SAP SuccessFactors HCM includes cloud HCM solutions in four key areas:

  1. Employee experience management – including a wide range of employee surveys, feedback analysis, and guided action
  2. Core HR and payroll – including a powerful HR information system, payroll software, self-service HR, time and attendance, and more
  3. Talent management – including solutions for recruiting, onboarding, learning, performance management, compensation, and more
  4. HR analytics and workforce planning – including AI-powered people analytics, scenario modelling, what-if analysis, and strategic workforce planning

There is a wide range of training and certification options on SAP SuccessFactors solutions for SAP partners and customers to explore. SAP Learning Hub provides customer- and consultant-level courses in e-learning and digital handbook formats, including learning rooms, live sessions, and hands-on learning workshops. Courses on SAP Learning Hub range from payroll, compensation, and performance to people analytics, HR reporting, and much more. For implementation and application consultants, academy training courses for SAP SuccessFactors solutions teach the skills necessary to perform system configuration and implementation. They also offer prerequisite training for the associated certification exam.

Human Capital Management and Human Resources Management are related but have some distinct differences.

 

Human Capital Management:

  1. Focuses on the strategic management of people as assets to achieve organisational goals and objectives.
  2. Places emphasis on developing and optimising the skills, knowledge, and abilities of employees to drive organisational performance.
  3. Involves a more holistic approach to managing talent, including talent acquisition, development, retention, and performance management.
  4. Aligns human capital strategies with the overall business strategy to ensure a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

 

Human Resources Management:

  1. Primarily focuses on the administrative and operational aspects of managing employees within an organisation.
  2. Deals with tasks such as recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, benefits administration, and employee relations.
  3. May have a more transactional approach to managing employees, focused on compliance and day-to-day operational needs.
  4. Generally focuses on ensuring legal compliance and effective workforce management within the organisation.

 

In summary, Human Capital Management takes a more strategic and long-term approach to managing employees, focusing on their development and contribution to the overall success of the organisation, while Human Resources Management tends to focus more on the administrative and operational tasks involved in managing employees.