Companies need a complete HCM solution, and Microsoft does not deliver

Since its inception over 40 years ago, Microsoft has continued to grow in the depth and breadth of its product offerings. From an HCM perspective, the Seattle-based company presents an interesting patchwork of products and functionality to its customers. Like other product areas, Microsoft has added to its product portfolio both by acquiring other companies and developing its own HCM solutions.

The main components of Microsoft’s HCM offerings are:

• Dynamics 365 Human Resources
  • Offers basic human resources functionality in areas including benefits, hiring, compensation, and absence management[1]
  • Microsoft announced the retirement of Dynamics 365 Talent: Attract and Dynamics 365 Talent: Onboard apps in 2019, and launched Dynamics 365: Human Resources in 2020[2]
  • As of March 2022, Dynamics 365 Human Resources is being merged with the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations infrastructure, though it will continue to be licensed afterward as an independent application. This merger also consolidates Dynamics 365 HR and the previous “HR Module,” which was a standalone legacy application given as part of Dynamics 365 Finance or Dynamics 365 Supply Chain[3]
• LinkedIn
  • Acquired by Microsoft in 2016, the professional networking platform primarily offers recruitment, some learning, and limited talent analytics functions[4]
• Viva
  • Introduced by Microsoft in 2021, Viva is an employee experience platform which currently has four core modules: Learning, Insights (productivity and wellbeing), Topics (knowledge dissemination), and Connections (organizational communications)[5]
  • Microsoft also acquired Ally.io in 2021, an Objectives and Key Results (OKR) company (team goal/corporate mission alignment), Ally.io will be added as a fifth Viva module in 2022[6]
  • Varied integrations, including Qualtrics, ServiceNow, and Workday[7]
• Glint
  • Acquired in 2018, Glint provides employee engagement insights and recommendations and was integrated into LinkedIn[8]
  • In 2022, Microsoft announced plans to add Glint to Viva. Customers can bundle Viva with Glint or continue to purchase it on a standalone basis from LinkedIn for the time being, with existing customers continuing to receive support from LinkedIn[9]
• Power BI
  • Microsoft positions Power BI as an analytics tool to visualize HR data[10]
• SharePoint
  • New Employee Onboarding (NEO) sites are templated options available for clients built on SharePoint[11]

It’s a fragmented assembly of products tied together by Microsoft Teams, not a unified HCM platform.

Having acquired multiple companies since 2016 and launching Viva in 2021, Microsoft had to do something to tie all these components together. That’s where Microsoft Teams comes in.

After launching Dynamics 365 HR in 2020, leadership placed the app inside Microsoft Teams with some limited functionality such as requesting time off[12]. There’s also support for Viva,[13] SharePoint,[14] Glint,[15] and LinkedIn Talent Hub.[16]

A few other integrations helped to tie the different apps together, such as LinkedIn Learning and Viva Learning, and Glint with Viva Insights.[17] The scope of that integration will expand beyond Insights once Glint joins Viva in 2023.[18]

In essence, because Microsoft does not have a unified HCM platform, Teams became the only way to launch apps from a single platform and have any semblance of common integration.

The recruitment narrative is just part of a story that is a bit…repetitive

With the retirement of Dynamics 365 Talent: Attract and Dynamics 365 Talent Onboard, which was initially announced in 2019, and the launch of Dynamics 365 Human Resources in 2020, Microsoft stated it was “aligning future investments in this market with the solutions offered by LinkedIn.”[19] This move implied that Microsoft was focusing more on LinkedIn as its recruitment solution, as opposed to Dynamics 365 applications.

Microsoft announced an integration between Dynamics 365 HR and LinkedIn Talent Hub, which was to be made generally available on December 1, 2020. The announcement noted that the retirement of the Attract applications would leave gaps in employee recruiting functionality, and that gap would be filled by integrations with applicant tracking systems (ATS) from LinkedIn Talent Hub.[20] That integration was short-lived, and was retired on December 31, 2021.[21]

The irony is that Dynamics 365 HR has its own recruitment system as well,[22] though it still advertises use of the LinkedIn ATS on its website, with little mention of its own capabilities.[23] While Microsoft might still lean on LinkedIn Talent Hub as an ATS, why is it necessary to have two solutions with recruitment capabilities?

As if the recruitment narrative was not confusing enough, other products also have repetitive use. An employee whose company runs on Microsoft for HCM would have an experience that travels from one product to the next and then back again, with Teams being the only common factor. Many specific HR needs are covered by more than one Microsoft tool, just in different ways.

A hypothetical scenario involves getting hired over LinkedIn[24] or Dynamics 365 Human Resources[25] and onboarded using either LinkedIn content[26] or a site built on SharePoint.[27] Self-service tools are managed in Dynamics 365 Human Resources,[28] though employee experiences take place in Viva.[29] Performance management and compensation are in Dynamics 365 Human Resources again,[30] but part of career development is managed through Glint.[31] Learning content is integrated within Viva Learning and LinkedIn Learning,[32] but the learning goals are back in Dynamics 365 Human Resources.[33] Payroll is managed via a third-party integration, with expenses tracked in Dynamics 365 for Finance.[34] Meanwhile, Glint is measuring employee[35] insights alongside Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, which Microsoft repurposes as part of Dynamics 365 Human Resources to serve a very similar purpose.[36] An employee using common HR functions involves potentially moving between multiple products as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Even despite the slight consolidation realized by adding Glint to Viva—a logical step for two employee experience solutions—employees and HR administrators need to constantly change and weave together solving employee needs from a patchwork of different tools, with Microsoft Teams in the middle.

With Oracle Cloud HCM, users have one consistent experience and complete solution across devices for every HR process.

Figure 2.

Companies need full HCM. Microsoft does not have it

Microsoft acquires companies with seemingly new and different technologies, but its focus on pulling in these “shiny objects” comes at the expense of creating a unified HCM solution with real depth.

Companies need the depth of HCM functionality required to manage the entire spectrum of HR processes. This means one source of truth for HR data to improve decision-making and effectively and efficiently manage a global workforce. It also means a best-in-class employee experience that is both consistent and seamless, delivered by a complete cloud HCM solution that is natively built in the cloud from the ground up.

Microsoft through Dynamics 365 Human Resources offers some core functionality such as hiring, help topics, self-service tools, employee profiles, and benefits administration. However, it does not go far enough into areas such as a help desk beyond basic self-service and case management. On the other hand, the solution drives social collaboration and personalized HR service delivery among stakeholders[37] and provides advanced controls to promote compliance which are purpose-built for HR.[38]

Payroll is also essential to any HCM solution, and Microsoft leverages third-party integrations to offer this functionality, using Dynamics 365 Finance for expense tracking.[39] Microsoft had native payroll as part of Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations until 2021, however it is unclear why this solution was retired and replaced with third party integrations.[40]

Health and safety functionality is also key to preventing workplace injuries and illnesses—and while Dynamics 365 HR does allow for logging and reporting injuries and illnesses, it does not do enough to promote a culture of workplace safety and compliance through embedding learning content and implementing core HR data as a part of the entire HCM solution.[41]

The overall weaknesses of Microsoft’s HCM offerings are such that it is not even considered in key HCM evaluation reports written by leading analysts.

Microsoft does not use its own system, so why would you?

In 2021, Microsoft officially completed implementation of its new HR platform: SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central. SAP noted that Microsoft “needed a cloud platform that could deliver on its mobile-first, cloud-first philosophy and provide a foundation for future transformations.” While acknowledging that SAP SuccessFactors does run on Azure,[42] and Qualtrics (which is primarily SAP-owned) does integrate with Viva,[43] implementing a competitor is not a vote of confidence for Dynamics 365 HR, or its predecessor module.

Oracle Cloud HCM is a complete solution

Oracle offers a complete cloud HCM solution for workforce planning, recruiting, global HR, talent management, learning, work life solutions, time tracking, and payroll. Everything is provided within common business processes with a single underlying data model and system of record. Among the key benefits:

• A homepage featuring a newsfeed-style display with quick actions to take, things to finish, and a dashboard that can be personalized with key analytics
• A consistent, seamless, and hyper-personalized experience across multiple devices that learns and adapts to employee behavior
• Technology that employees are familiar with, such as Digital Assistants and conversational user interfaces (UI)
• Seamless integration with financials, customer experience (CX), and supply chain management (SCM) software to better align HR with business goals and improve operational excellence
• High adaptability and configurability—and a robust database focused on data security and privacy
• Ability to integrate with LinkedIn, combining the power of Oracle Cloud HCM’s robust functionality with LinkedIn’s global member base and talent platform

Analysts also rank Oracle Cloud HCM as an industry leader.  

MCM Telecom chose Oracle Cloud HCM after evaluating multiple solutions—including Microsoft—for its capabilities, service, reliability, and price. The Mexico-based company increased its training capacity by 200%, reduced training costs by 50%, and connected its system directly with LinkedIn to upload positions to automatically look for profiles that align with job characteristics.

Want to learn more about Oracle Cloud HCM?

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