In 2024, the global Performance & Goal Management software market grew to $5 billion, marking a 10.8% year-over-year increase. The top 10 vendors accounted for 42.5% of the total market. Workhuman led the pack with a 7.6% market share, followed by O.C. Tanner, Qualtrics, and SAP.
Through our forecast period, the Performance & Goal Management applications market size is expected to reach $7.5 billion by 2029, compared with $5 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5%.
Top 10 Performance & Goal Management Software Vendors in 2024 and their Market Shares
Source: Apps Run The World, July 2025
Other Performance and Goal Management software providers included in the report are: Agile-1, Alvaria, AppVault, Arcoro, Achievers, Alight Solutions, Avature, Avionte Staffing Software, BambooHR, Benify, Blackhawk Network, Bullhorn, Calabrio, Inc., Dayforce, Capita Software, CareerArc, CatalystOne Solutions, Cegid, ClearCompany, ELMO Software, Empxtrack, Saigun Technologies, Enghouse Interactive, Epicor, Exact Holding BV, ExactHire, Exela Technologies, Fourth Enterprises, Five9, GR8 People, Greenhouse Software, Harri, Haufe, HALO Branded Solutions, Haiilo, HealthStream, Hilan, HR Cloud, Infor, Insperity, Inc., InMoment, iSolved, KNOLSKAPE, Lattice, TELUS Health (including LifeWorks ), Madison Performance Group, Medallia, MHR International Ltd, Namely, a Vensure Employer Solutions Company, NEOGOV, Netchex, Poppulo + Four Winds, P&I Personal & Informatik, PageUp, Paychex, Paycom, Paycor, Pilat HR, PlanSource, Randstad Sourceright, SHL, Sprinklr, ServiceNow, Rival (formerly SilkRoad Technology), SmartERP, Skillsoft, Talentia Software, Tivian (formerly Questback), Tyler Technologies, Visma, Zellis (ex NGA Human Resources UK & Ireland), ZingHR, Zoho Corp., Zebra Technologies (including Reflexis), and others.
Vendor Snapshot: Performance and Goal Management Market Leaders
Workhuman
Recent innovations, including the Human Intelligence 2025 release, feature a generative AI assistant, Recognition Advisor for emotionally intelligent feedback, and iQ Snapshots that deliver real-time insight into retention, engagement, and values alignment. By enabling agentic‑style coaching (Recognition Advisor), semantic insight (iQ Assistant), and intelligent cultural storytelling (Culture Hub, Reward Stories), it augments goal-focused HR platforms, ensuring that recognition behaviors and culture signals inform performance processes in real time.
O.C. Tanner
Culture Cloud added like Recognition Coach, a generative AI engine trained on over 100 million recognition moments to improve message tone and substance, plus the Job Transitions Dashboard, enhanced team-level reporting, and cross-departmental recognition analytics. O.C. Tanner’s market strategy centers on combining deep research-based recognition science with flexible configurability, seamless mobile and integration experiences (Slack, Teams, Workday gold partnership).
Qualtrics
As of late 2024 and into 2025, Qualtrics has doubled down on AI, unveiling Experience Trends for 2025, which emphasize AI‑driven feedback analysis, real‑time adaptive surveys, and passive listening to transform employee insights into action at scale. Its AI-infused listening and analytics capabilities enable HR leaders to detect engagement drift, sentiment around goal progression, leadership behavior alignment, and real‑time sentiment flows.
SAP
SAP debuted its Performance and Goals Agent, as part of the broader SAP Business AI strategy. SAP’s market strategy emphasizes embedding agentic AI assistants like Joule into every layer of HR, governed through a centralized AI Agent Hub and built atop the new SAP AI Foundation architecture to support governance, multilingual support, and cross-module integration for performance management, recruiting, and learning.
Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone integrates goal‑setting, continuous feedback, and 360‑degree reviews, strongly tied into learning and development. Its digital learning architecture positions it to evolve with autonomous agents that proactively coach users toward goals, trigger learning suggestions based on performance gaps, and align competency development with individual and business targets.
Workday
The unified Workday Assistant, rolled out in late 2024 and broadly available in early 2025, allows employees and managers to interact conversationally with HR and performance data, while integrations with Slack and Microsoft Copilot deliver seamless in-flow task automation and insights. Workday emphasizes a skills-based, agentic AI approach, promoting continuous alignment by wrapping performance with career mobility, internal talent opportunities, and AI-generated actions.
ServiceNow
ServiceNow’s market strategy centers on leveraging its Now Platform to transform Employee Experience into a unified, intelligent workflow hub, fueled by its $2.85 billion acquisition of Moveworks in 2025 (its largest ever), which adds powerful conversational AI assistants for automated support, seamless onboarding, payroll interactions, and employee engagement across HR processes. ServiceNow’s Employee Experience has rapidly expanded its AI-powered talent development offering, particularly through Talent Development integration into Manager Hub.
Press Ganey Forsta
Press Ganey Forsta’s HX Platform has significantly advanced through a $500M investment in generative AI, unveiling new features in early 2025, such as AI Summarize, AI Compose, AI Recommend, conversational dashboards, adaptive surveys, summary widgets, and triage bots. In May 2025, Press Ganey Forsta announced the acquisition of InMoment, dramatically enhancing its AI, NLP, and omnichannel feedback capabilities, strengthening cross-industry reach and accelerating real-time actionable insight delivery.
UKG
UKG’s Performance Reviews, offered via both the enterprise-tier UKG Pro and the SMB/medium-sized UKG Ready platforms, continue advancing through its AI-first strategy with UKG Bryte AI Agents, integrated across both suites. In early 2025 UKG launched its AI Hub on the UKG Marketplace, curating partner AI tools that extend Bryte’s capabilities for smarter workplace experiences across performance and service delivery use cases. ounded from the 2020 merger of Kronos and Ultimate Software, UKG has since acquired multiple capabilities: including Great Place To Work Hub, infused with decades of culture survey data.
Oracle
Oracle’s Cloud HCM Performance Management, embedded within the Fusion Cloud HCM suite, has seen ambitious AI enhancements including role-based AI agents and generative capabilities that assist goal‑setting, performance form creation, feedback authoring, and manager survey analytics. The platform leverages Oracle Dynamic Skills, an AI‑powered open skills architecture now enriched with data analysis, enrichment, and library services, enabling seamless alignment between skill profiles, goals, and performance outcomes.
ARTW Technographics Platform: Performance and Goal Management customer wins
Since 2010, our research team has been studying the patterns of Performance and Goal 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 Performance and Goal Management customer wins and losses, helping users monitor competitive shifts, evaluate vendor momentum, and make informed go-to-market decisions.
List of Performance and Goal Management customers Â
Source: ARTW Buyer Insights Technographic Database
Custom data cuts related to the Performance and Goal Management Applications market are available:
- Top 160+ Performance and Goal Management Applications Vendors and Market Forecast 2024-2029
- 2024 Performance and Goal Management Applications Market By Vertical Market (21 Industries)
- 2024 Performance and Goal Management Applications Market By Country (USA + 45 countries)
- 2024 Performance and Goal Management Applications Market By Region (Americas, EMEA, APAC)
- 2024 Performance and Goal Management Applications Market By Revenue Type (License, Services, Hardware, Support and Maintenance, Cloud)
- 2024 Performance and Goal Management Applications Market By Customer Size (revenue, employee count, asset)
- 2024 Performance and Goal Management Applications Market By Channel (Direct vs Indirect)
- 2024 Performance and Goal 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. |
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a Canada based Banking and Financial Services organization with 48726 Employees
- Internet Archive, a United States based Non Profit company with 169 Employees
- PricewaterhouseCoopers, a United Kingdom based Professional Services organization with 370000 Employees
| Logo | Company | Industry | Employees | Revenue | Country | Evaluated |
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