In 2024, the global Absence and Leave Management software market grew to $1.1 billion, marking a 12.6% year-over-year increase. The top 10 vendors accounted for 52.3% of the total market. UKG led the pack with a 25.9% market share, followed by Workday, Oracle, and Dayforce.
Through our forecast period, the Absence and Leave Management applications market size is expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2029, compared with $1.1 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2%.
Top 10 Absence and Leave Management Software Vendors in 2024 and their Market Shares
Source: Apps Run The World, July 2025
Other Absence and Leave Management software providers included in the report are: 7shifts, Access Group, Adequasys, Alvaria, Inc., AFAS Software, AGroup, AMG Employee Management Inc, ADP, Apex Time Solutions, Attendance on Demand, Inc., BambooHR, Bilin Yazılım, BiznusSoft Inc., Bullhorn, Bodet Software, Calabrio, Inc., Constellation Software Inc., Cornerstone OnDemand, Cezanne HR, Crown Computing, Deskera Singapore, DATEV, Dayforce, Dileoz, Deputy, DLI-IT Systems Group, Empxtrack Inc, Endeavour Africa Limited, Eviska Infotech Private Limited, Farsight IT Solutions, Flex Applications, Gusto, Grosvenor Technology, HeavenHR, HITS Solutions, Holy-Dis, HR Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., HRWare, Indeavor, Info-Tech Systems Integrators Pte Ltd, IFS, Interbiz Solutions LLP, iqDynamics Pte Ltd, IRIS Software, Lucca, Mark Information, MHR International Ltd, Zellis (ex NGA Human Resources UK & Ireland), Nice Systems, Octime, Odoo, OrangeHRM Inc., PARiM, Payworks, PeoplesHR, Paycom, PeopleStrong, PeopleWorks IN, Qcera, Quinyx, Reynolds and Reynolds, SD Worx, SIGMA-RH France, Sopra Steria Group SA, SEPTEO (Legal Suite), Tambla Limited, Tanda, TCP Software, TechnologyOne Limited, TimePlan Software, Times Software Pte Ltd, TimeTec Group, The Access Group, UNIT4, XCD HR Limited, XperienceHR, Yonyou, ZingHR, Zebra Technologies (including Reflexis), and others.
Vendor Snapshot: Absence and Leave Management Market Leaders
UKG
UKG is anchoring its absence and leave management solutions in a new generation of agentic workflows through its Bryte AI Agents and integration with ServiceNow’s AI Agent Fabric. Bryte agents autonomously handle leave requests, eligibility checks, reminders, documentation, and policy enforcement, reducing compliance risk and manual touchpoints across enterprise and frontline workforces. The strategic partnership with ServiceNow extends this agentic layer into broader HR task orchestration, creating a unified, low-code/no-code agent ecosystem that automates complex absence scenarios in real time and elevates employee self-service.
Workday
Workday’s absence management is now embedded within its Illuminate Agent System of Record (ASR), a centralized framework for managing role-based AI agents that streamline leave approvals, absence policy enforcement, accrual calculations, and absence analytics in a unified, compliant workflow. The Illuminate agents draw on Workday’s two decades of clean, cloud-native data to deliver predictive absence forecasting and proactive notifications, reducing manual administration and enabling dynamic, intelligent automation across HR and planning functions.
Oracle
Oracle’s cloud-based HCM absence module is evolving into an agentic engine where embedded intelligent assistants monitor leave patterns, enforce policy rules, and deliver conversational interfaces for self-service leave interactions. Utility-grade governance and auditability are becoming central as agents coordinate with payroll and scheduling systems, automating complex absence logic without sacrificing compliance.
Dayforce
In Ceridian’s leave management domain, autonomous eligibility checks and conversational agents are becoming intertwined with compliance workflows. These agents proactively detect policy infractions, trigger manager approvals, remind staff of upcoming leaves, and update time-off balances, reducing administrative cycles. Ceridian is layering RAG-powered logic into its Dayforce platform to help HR teams build rule-driven absence agents using configuration rather than code.
ADP
ADP is modernizing its absence management through AI-assisted chat and agentic decision support embedded within payroll-adjacent leave workflows. Its latest agent deployments help employees request time off, understand accruals and eligibility conversationally, and help HR teams correct leave data autonomously. ADP is advancing toward a unified digital assistant that spans attendance, absence, and payroll, reducing manual reconciliation and streamlining compliance using agent orchestration layered over its core systems.
Visma
Visma is enhancing leave management by introducing invisible agentic layers into HR policy flows, automating accrual updates, reminding employees of proximal leave thresholds, detecting anomalies, and enabling self-service via chat or mobile UI. Their low-code automation toolkit empowers back-office teams to configure triggers and conversational leave agents without heavy IT involvement. These agents feed analytics dashboards and support proactive planning, reflecting Visma’s move toward an end‑to‑end autonomous absence and time-off operation.
AbsenceSoft
AbsenceSoft is positioning itself as a niche leader in agent-infused absence automation. Its leave management logic layer now incorporates predictive analytics and rule-based agents that flag leave liability trends, auto-generate manager alerts, and optimize scheduling coverage. Configurable no-code templates allow HR teams to deploy conversational leave guides and automated policy enforcement agents, bridging policy, compliance, and employee experience into a cohesive system.
SAP
SAP is incorporating agentic automation into Employee Central Time Off via its broader HXM strategy. Expect policy agents that analyze leave balance impacts on scheduling, alert compliance officers of overutilization trends, and deliver guided no-code assistants for employees querying leave or planning time off. SAP’s broader work on Joule and agent orchestration layers suggests a future where absence management is embedded in an autonomous HR continuum.
Paylocity
Paylocity is infusing its Time and Labor module with automated leave logic that uses conversational user interfaces to guide absence requests, evaluate eligibility, and forecast accruals in natural language. Emerging agentic workflows can initiate leave approvals, recommend staffing adjustments, and alert supervisors proactively, all configured via template-based automation kits.
Zucchetti
Zucchetti is weaving intelligent rule-based engines and interactive leave agents into its workflow automation layer. Through its timeline-based visualization, HR teams can define leave policies that auto-fire conversational prompts, self-service options, and anomaly flags. Behind the scenes, autonomous agents enforce compliance workflows and trigger escalations or documentation tasks, integrated end-to-end with Zucchetti’s HR and payroll pipelines via visual, no-code agent configuration.
ARTW Technographics Platform: Absence and Leave Management customer wins
Since 2010, our research team has been studying the patterns of Absence and Leave Management software purchases, analyzing customer behavior and vendor performance through continuous win/loss analysis. Updated quarterly, the ARTW Technographics Platform provides deep insights into thousands of Absence and Leave Management customer wins and losses, helping users monitor competitive shifts, evaluate vendor momentum, and make informed go-to-market decisions.
List of Absence and Leave Management customers Â
Source: ARTW Buyer Insights Technographic Database
Custom data cuts related to the Absence and Leave Management Applications market are available:
- Top 180+ Absence and Leave Management Applications Vendors and Market Forecast 2024-2029
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Vertical Market (21 Industry)
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Country (USA + 45 countries)
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Region (Americas, EMEA, APAC)
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Revenue Type (License, Services, Hardware, Support and Maintenance, Cloud)
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Customer Size (revenue, employee count, asset)
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Channel (Direct vs Indirect)
- 2024 Absence and Leave Management Applications Market By Product
Through our forecast period, the HCM applications market is expected to reach $81.1 billion by 2029, compared with $58.7 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7%.
Through our forecast period, the Core HR and Talent Management applications market, which is comprised of nine subsegments, is expected to reach $48.6 billion by 2029, compared with $35.5 billion in 2024 expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 11.6%. For the Top 10 vendors in each of the nine subsegments, please check their own index page by following the link below.
Through our forecast period, the Talent Acquisition applications market, which is comprised of six subsegments, is expected to reach $20.3 billion by 2029, compared with $14.5 billion in 2024 expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7%. For the Top 10 vendors in each of the six subsegments, please check their own index page by following the link below.
Through our forecast period, the Workforce Management applications market, which is comprised of six subsegments, is expected to reach $12.1 billion by 2029, compared with $8.7 billion in 2024 expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 12.1%. For the Top 10 vendors in each of the six subsegments, please check their own index page by following the link below.
Our HCM Top 500 research team also tracks Time Clock Hardware vendors separately by zeroing in on their embedded software as well as their extensive use of OEM and distribution partners.
Exhibit 3: Worldwide HCM Software Market 2024-2029 Forecast, $M
Source: Apps Run The World, July 2025
Exhibit 4 shows our projections for the HCM enterprise applications market by HCM sub-segment, based on the buying preferences and the customer propensity to invest in new software within those industries as they continue to upgrade and replace many legacy industry-specific applications that have been identified and tracked in our Buyer Insight Database.
Methodology
Similar to any of the hundreds of reports that we have published since 2010, HCM Top 500 is a labor of love. Since 2013, our team of researchers have been conducting rigorous research on thousands of HCM vendors, surveying them quarterly, reviewing their products at even shorter intervals because of the compressed Cloud release cycle, and discussing HR vision with their customers to better understand user needs as well as different paths to upgrade and replace their existing systems.
Each year we also attend many industry-wide and vendor-specific user conferences – HR Tech, Dreamforce, SAPPHIRENOW, Oracle Open World, just to name a few, to gauge what customers are looking for.
Throughout this process comes a rich database of more than 2,000 HCM vendors as well as over 50,000 HCM customers that have been touched one form or another through regular surveys, phone and in-person interviews, email exchanges, and social media interactions, etc.
On a proactively basis, we contact the vendors directly to tabulate their latest quarterly and annual revenues by HCM segment, vertical market, revenue type, region, country and customer size.
We supplement their written responses with our own primary research to determine quarterly and yearly growth rates in each of the 22 segments and 21 verticals, in addition to customer wins to ascertain whether these are net new purchases or expansions of existing implementations.
Another dimension of our quantitative research process is through continuous improvement of our customer database, which stores more than one million records on the enterprise software landscape of over 100,000 organizations around the world.
The database provides customer insight and contextual information on what types of HCM, enterprise software systems and other relevant technologies are they running and their propensity to invest further with their current or new suppliers as part of their overall HCM and IT transformation projects to stay competitive, fend off threats from disruptive forces, or comply with internal mandates to improve overall enterprise efficiency.
The result is a combination of supply-side data and demand-generation customer insight that allows our clients to better position themselves in anticipation of the next wave that will reshape the HCM marketplace for years to come.
HCM Market Taxonomy
Definition of Human Capital Management (HCM) Applications
Core HR and Performance Management
| Core HR and Performance Management | Description |
|---|---|
| Personnel and Organization Management | Core human resource management system, personnel records, HR master file, accruals, organizational development, org chart visualization |
| Payroll | Payroll processing, tax filing, language support, country-level updates, payslip calculations, automatic deductions and other government requirements for proper disbursement of employee compensation. |
| Benefits Administration | Benefits and health administration. Plan and design benefits lifecycle, billing and payment. Carrier solutions are also included for integration purposes. |
| Pension Administration | Pension and retirement fund(401K) administration as well as software that helps manage profit sharing plan, defined benefit plan, or cash balance plan. |
| Compliance | Compliance, regulatory updates and reporting including such laws as Affordable Care Act, Overtime Regulations, Fair Labor Standards Act |
| Performance and Goal Management | HR performance management applications are designed to automate the aggregation and delivery of information pertinent to the linking of job roles and the mission and goals of the organization. More specifically, the system allows users to automate the performance review process by using mechanisms such as training and key performance indicators to continuously track and monitor the progress of an individual employee, work team, and division. Some of the key features include: Assessment of individual career objectives and organizational skills gaps that impede performance and job advancement. Continuous reviews and establishing milestones. 360-degree evaluation and real-time feedback. Performance appraisal automation. Goal setting and tracking. Employee surveys. Alignment of human assets to corporate objectives. Fast tracks for top performers. |
| Learning and Development | Learning management systems refer to applications that automate the administration, tracking, and reporting of training events. Other tools may include courseware and other delivery, management, tracking, or integrated solutions whose focus is on the learning environment, including learning content management systems. Career development tools include apps for coaching, mentoring, employee development planning, and diagnosing of development needs. |
| Succession and Leadership Planning | Identify and address current and potential talent gaps to create succession management reporting. Develop and maintain a continuous supply of internal talent to fill critical job roles. Improve employee engagement through digital tools to advance career path development opportunities. |
| Compensation Management | Compensation management applications are designed to automate the process of providing cash, noncash, variable and nonvariable compensation to employees through advanced modeling, reporting, and built-in interfacing to payroll processing systems. Other key features include seamlessly manage compensation budgets and allocation in a single, shared tool. Streamline pay recommendation workflows and approvals. Support multiple pay and incentive practices. Ensure budget compliance and adherence to compensation guidelines. Quota and territory management. Calculation and distribution of commissions, spiffs, royalties, incentives to employees, and channel and business partners. Compensation analysis using internal and external data for retention risk analysis. Linking salary, commission and incentives — cash and noncash — to business objectives. Payroll and payment engine interfaces. Account payables integration. |
Talent AcquisitionÂ
| Talent Acquisition | Description |
|---|---|
| Applicant Tracking | Applicant tracking software automates such functions as management of resumes, applicant information, scoring, workflow, matching, search, interview scheduling, job descriptions, EEOC reporting, job postings and notifications |
| Recruiting | Recruiting applications are designed to automate the recruitment process of salaried and hourly employees through screening and skills assessment, as well as automated selection processes to improve hiring pipeline by identifying talent inside or outside the organization. Other key features include: Manage skills inventories. Create and manage job requisitions. Coordinate team collaboration within hiring processes. Video Interviewing, team building and digital coaching. |
| Candidate Relationship Management | Applications designed to attract and engage candidates and employees. Other tasks automate functions such as candidate relationship management apps, career site technology, social recruiting, employee referrals, branding, video engagement, campus recruiting and internal hiring |
| Contingent Labor Management | Processing of hiring of contingent labor, search, skills matching, assessment, interview scheduling, negotiation of rates, approvals, project milestone payments, project completion tracking, performance ratings |
| Sourcing | Facilitate resource planning for staffing firms as well as vendor managed system, allowing for front office integration for employment agencies as well as talent acquisition apps designed for staffing firms. |
| Onboarding | Applications designed to deploy workers to appropriate jobs, projects, or teams for accelerated on-boarding. |
Workforce Management
| Workforce Management | Description |
|---|---|
| Absence and Leave Management | Absence management applications offer automated features to support employee leave management, employer authorized leave, Short-Term-Disability/Workers’ Comp coordination, federal and state compliance, customized leave correspondence, medical certification processing, insurance premium payment tracking as well as employee self-service capabilities. Leave Management supports compliance activities related to government regulations such as the Family and Medical Leave Act in the United States and other local leave laws in different countries. |
| Workforce analytics | Workforce analytics are used to analyze compensation, benefits, and other employee variables. These applications can also be used to analyze and optimize labor allocation for particular projects. |
| Fatigue Management | Fatigue Management apps help automate key facets of fatigue risk mitigation, enforcing employee work-hour limits and aligning with fitness for duty best practices. Similar apps may act as electronic work diaries for real-time reporting and compliance with transportation laws. |
| Hardware (Time Clock) | Time capture is the hardware platform that provides authentication features for clock-in and clock-out times, meal and rest breaks, as well as timesheet and payroll reporting and compliance. |
| Scheduling | Products are designed to Increase forecasting accuracy by factoring in a variety of methods and historical patterns. Create optimal schedules to meet customer demands, while reducing costs and maximizing resources |
| Task Management | Task Management offers labor management capabilities such as task-based and project-based activity tracking as well as measurement and reporting functions against performance standards like engineered labor standards, team standards and reflective standards. |
| Time & Attendance | Time and Attendance applications are designed to automate employee time tracking in different locations, help reduce overtime expenses, improve payroll accuracy, eliminate pay errors and adjustments, along with the need to simplify and optimize administrative tasks and complex rate calculations by making available accurate and current labor data and full audit trail of payroll data. |
- Baker Tilly Advisory Group, a United States based Professional Services organization with 43000 Employees
- Internet Archive, a United States based Non Profit company with 169 Employees
- University Of Saarland, a Germany based Education organization with 375 Employees
| Logo | Company | Industry | Employees | Revenue | Country | Evaluated |
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