Achieving compliance using Workday and ClearTalents: Why both are essential 

Increasingly, organisations are concluding that while Workday is essential, it is not designed to meet the practical, cultural and legal realities of modern workplace adjustment management. This is why many Workday customers choose to augment their HR technology with ClearTalents. 

Different systems, very different purposes 

Workday is an enterprise HR platform. It excels at managing structured, transactional data such as roles, grades, performance, learning, absence and payroll. Its design strength lies in standardisation, control and consistency across large workforces. 

ClearTalents, by contrast, is a specialist workplace wellbeing solution focused on employee voice, insight, early intervention and culture. It is not intended to replace Workday, and nor should it. Instead, it operates in the space where traditional HR systems are weakest: understanding what employees need in order to work well. 

This distinction becomes especially important when looking at workplace adjustments. 

Why workplace adjustments are fundamentally different 

Effective adjustment management relies on employees feeling able to share information about their needs early, informally and without fear of negative consequences. 

Core HR systems, including Workday, are not designed for this kind of trust-based, voluntary self-disclosure. They are designed to store employment data, not lived experience. 

What Workday offers – and where it falls short for adjustments 

Workday can support adjustment management in limited, indirect ways. Organisations may record that an adjustment exists, link it to absence data or store documentation. With sufficient configuration, custom workflows and internal capability, it can be adapted to support elements of the process. 

However, there are structural limitations when it comes to effective adjustment management: 

• Adjustment data is typically manager- or HR-entered rather than employee-led 

• Informal or temporary adjustments are difficult to capture 

• Disclosure tends to be binary, not nuanced or evolving 

• Insight is retrospective rather than preventative 

• The system is not designed to encourage early, psychologically safe sharing 

The result is often a process that is compliant on paper, but reactive in practice. HR gains records, but not insight. Managers gain process, but not confidence. Employees gain formality, but not always timely support. 

What ClearTalents does differently 

ClearTalents is designed specifically to address these gaps. 

It enables employees to voluntarily and safely share information about what helps them perform at their best. This includes workplace adjustments, fluctuating conditions, neurodivergent working preferences and other factors that may never surface through a traditional HR process. 

Crucially, this insight is not passive. ClearTalents includes case management functionality that supports timely action. Relevant individuals are notified when action is required, and reporting enables HR to identify unresolved or overdue cases at a glance. This directly addresses one of the most common risks in adjustment management: delay. 

For managers, the experience is intentionally light-touch. ClearTalents does not require managers to become legal experts or process owners. Instead, it provides clarity on what has been agreed, what needs review and when follow-up is required, reducing uncertainty rather than adding burden. 

Timely adjustments reduce risk and cost 

One of the biggest risks for employers is not refusing adjustments, but delaying them. 

Delays increase the likelihood of sickness absence, disengagement, performance concerns and employee relations cases. They also weaken an organisation’s ability to demonstrate that it has acted reasonably and proactively. 

Organisations using ClearTalents report improved engagement, stronger retention, reduced absenteeism and productivity gains. Some report significantly fewer staff tribunals or compromise agreements following implementation, with several reporting none within a 12 month period. 

These outcomes are rarely driven by expensive interventions. They are driven by early, proportionate and well-matched adjustments, supported by visibility and follow-through. 

Compliance is about confidence, not just documentation 

From a legal perspective, employers must be able to demonstrate that they have taken reasonable steps to identify, consider and implement adjustments. 

ClearTalents supports this by encouraging ongoing, up-to-date employee input. Employees are reminded on a regular basis, including at their 11 month anniversary, to review and update their profile. This proactive approach helps ensure that information remains current and that adjustments are revisited rather than quietly drifting out of date. 

ClearTalents provides adjustment and DEI insight that enables organisations to identify patterns, highlight unmet needs and evidence proactive action. This supports compliance not just with UK legislation, but with equivalent frameworks internationally. 

ClearTalents is designed to meet regulatory requirements in each country in which it operates. In the UK, this includes alignment with GDPR, public sector equality obligations, clear controller and processor separation, and ethical handling of sensitive data. This approach is applied consistently across geographies, without relying on heavy customisation. 

A proportionate cost for a critical capability 

How organisations use Workday and ClearTalents together 

In practice, the most effective approach is layered: 

• Workday remains the system of record for core HR data 

• ClearTalents provides the engagement, insight and case management layer for wellbeing, adjustments and inclusion 

ClearTalents lightly integrates with Workday, avoiding duplication while enriching understanding. Workday answers “what role does this person have?”. ClearTalents answers “what does this person need to work well, and where are we exposed?”. 

This separation of roles is often reassuring for HRIS and IT teams, as it avoids overloading a single system with competing purposes. 

The real comparison – and the urgency 

This is not a question of which system is “better”. It is about whether a generalist HR platform can realistically meet the complex requirements of effective, timely and compliant workplace adjustment management. 

For many organisations, the answer is increasingly clear. Adjustment requests are rising, expectations are higher, and tolerance for inconsistency and delay is falling. 

For a relatively small additional investment, ClearTalents provides confidence, consistency and visibility in an area where legal, cultural and reputational risks intersect. For organisations serious about workplace adjustments, compliance and risk reduction, ClearTalents does not replace Workday. 

It augments it – and closes a growing gap.