Productivity Gains For Managers

Evidence and data. Interviewees said managers saw significant value from IWant, and several identified them as the cohort that benefited the most. Managers at interviewees’ organizations used IWant’s role-based access to quickly retrieve information, including but not limited to employee compensation, history with the company, certifications, time off, daily scheduling, and contact information. Their use extended to frontline settings and other instances when managers were away from their desks, as they could easily access IWant through the Paycom mobile app. Interviewees typically reported more than 1 hour saved per manager per month due to IWant. Beyond time savings, interviewees noted that the greater information access and retrieval speeds ultimately led to more confident and better decision-making, such as reviewing recent attendance or performance notes before making staffing decisions, ensuring certifications or deadlines were met for upcoming assignments, and considering tenure and role history when evaluating a direct report’s needs.

• The director of HR in entertainment described the ease of information retrieval and resulting improvement in productivity for managers with IWant: “Managers are able to find the employee information they need efficiently. It’s a great tool from an on-demand perspective. In one click, they put in what they need and find it versus navigating the system.”

• The payroll specialist elaborated on how managers used IWant at their healthcare organization: “Our managers use IWant to look up seniority, pending expenses, attendance, and who’s on shift for the day. They also use it for certification management — looking up if an employee has a certification and when it expires — without having to go into the dashboard.”

• Interviewees emphasized that in addition to saving time, the faster and broader access to accurate information with IWant also led to managers improving decision-making. The CEO in technology explained, “The reality is the ROI [with IWant] is not just about saving manager time, but about how their decisions are getting better.”

• The chief HR officer in consumer goods added that Paycom empowered managers with data and that IWant furthered this: “My job is to empower managers, so Paycom has been critical in that because it gives them data. And now with IWant, it’s data at their fingertips.” This included instant visibility into team schedules, time-off balances and requests, certifications and deadlines, current compensation, and recent performance and attendance history.

• The same interviewee described how IWant helped managers build trust with their employees by enabling them to confidently and accurately answer common questions about time-off balances, schedules, and job duties. The interviewee added: “With IWant, managers can better answer employees’ questions. That helps communication and builds trust. [It’s a benefit that] you can’t put an ROI on.”

• Some interviewees noted that managers leveraged IWant for a more efficient and informed employee review process. The interviewees said the easier access to review history and supporting data served as helpful context when preparing for reviews.

• Several interviewees highlighted the convenience of using IWant within the Paycom mobile app for frontline leaders. The chief HR officer in consumer goods added: “Managers working on the floor love the [Paycom] mobile app and not having to be in front of a computer. IWant makes the mobile app that much more manager friendly.”

• Interviewees also noted that the solution’s 24/7 mobile availability enabled managers to get answers from IWant anytime and act immediately.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 40 managers.

• Due to IWant, each manager saves between 1.1 (low) and 1.25 (high) hours per month. This results in up to 600 hours saved per year.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for managers is $60.

• The productivity recapture rate for managers is 50%. This means managers convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $39,000 (low) to $45,000 (high).

Improved Information Access And Insight For Executive Leadership

Evidence and data. Interviewees said executives gained immediate insight into their workforce with IWant without needing to master Paycom. Leaders at interviewees’ organizations used the tool to retrieve employee-specific data around compensation, tenure, education, job descriptions, organizational structure, review history, schedules, time-off status (including approved and denied requests), work history details, and contact information directly from Paycom’s single database to learn in real time and make informed decisions. Interviewees typically reported up to 1 hour saved per executive per month due to IWant but emphasized that the greater impact was the quality and immediacy of insights. IWant also prompted executives to engage more with Paycom’s reporting and analytics.

• Interviewees said IWant made valuable data in Paycom easily accessible to executives, many of whom had not previously engaged directly with the broader system, by featuring IWant at the top of the home screen upon login. The director of HR in entertainment said: “We don’t expect executives to master Paycom. With IWant, they have an easy tool to find things quickly. They can just ask IWant and be navigated directly to [the information they want].”

• Interviewees noted that executive leaders saw immediate enablement with IWant as it could be used without any assistance or Paycom training. The director of HR in retail added, “An executive with no knowledge of the [Paycom] system can just jump in and use IWant.”

• The CEO in technology explained how they utilized IWant in practice: “IWant helps me build my company IQ as a CEO. I get more knowledge and insight about the people that work for me. I might look at someone’s educational background, compensation, PTO, [or] how long they’ve worked at the company.”

• Interviewees described additional IWant use cases for executives, such as quickly reviewing the organizational chart and related employee data to prepare for budget or review meetings.

• Interviewees highlighted that quick and easy access to information with IWant resulted in better decision-making. The CEO in technology emphasized that IWant reduced the lag in obtaining relevant data, stating, “A value [of IWant] is the fact that I get information immediately now from my cell phone.”

• The CEO in technology also noted that IWant was an easy way for executives to gain familiarity with Paycom, engage with the automated software more broadly, and ensure its insights are being effectively leveraged. The interviewee said: “As a result of using IWant, I’m now getting inside of Paycom and seeing all the other great stuff I can do. I’m blown away from how much insight I get from all the other modules inside Paycom.”

• The same interviewee said IWant made Paycom more user-friendly than their other, non-Paycom enterprise solutions: “I’m realizing that Paycom is very, very simple to go in and navigate around. IWant provides that hook. It’s simple and interactive. I don’t have that for my accounting or ERP [enterprise resource planning] solutions. Paycom is ahead of the game.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are five executives.

• Due to IWant, each executive saves between 0.8 (low) and 1 (high) hour per month. This results in up to 60 hours saved per year.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for executives is $150.

• The productivity recapture rate for executives is 50%. This means executives convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $9,000 (low) to $11,000 (high).

Time Savings For Employees Across The Workforce

Evidence and data. Interviewees said employees across their organizations used IWant to streamline their use of Paycom and enable greater self-service. Instead of navigating the system or contacting HR, employees simply used IWant as they updated personal information, put in time-off requests, referred to their benefits, checked expense report status, learned the organization chart, or reviewed their paychecks and tax details. Interviewees reported that whenever employees interacted with Paycom, IWant saved time. At interviewees’ organizations, these time savings typically added up to about half an hour per employee per month, which interviewees observed were substantial since it applied across the workforce.

• Interviewees noted that IWant allowed employees to find the forms and information they needed in one click, enhancing the value of Paycom. The director of HR in retail added: “For employees, Paycom is straightforward in finding what you want. But IWant makes it even easier.”

• Employees used IWant to access information around their time off, pay, and other personal information. The director of HR in entertainment said: “IWant is a great tool for employees. It saves time. [For example], they can use the tool to understand how much time off they have and how to put in a PTO request.” The chief HR officer in consumer goods added: “Employees use IWant to understand their paychecks and time off. It’s fewer clicks for them.”

• Interviewees highlighted that IWant enabled after-hours self-service, supporting employees as they made personal decisions. The chief HR officer in consumer goods explained: “IWant being 24/7 helps us after hours. Employees can ask questions themselves. They don’t necessarily have to put in a ticket and wait for HR. They’re getting their responses when they’re booking a vacation and doing their bills.”

• In addition to quickly accessing their own personal data, employees used IWant to better understand their companies. For instance, the manager of people in professional services said: “If you want to know your section or find an organization chart, for example, IWant is really good for that. It gives you insight into who your peers are.”

• IWant also drove consistency for the interviewees’ organizations’ employees who occasionally received inconsistent answers when interacting directly with their colleagues in the HR department, giving them confidence in the information they received. The payroll specialist in healthcare said, “IWant gives employees their time back and provides consistent information that employees are able to rely on.”

• The same interviewee described the value of IWant’s translation capabilities: “IWant is especially helpful for our Spanish-speaking employees. I would say 100% of our Spanish-speaking employees are using IWant. It’s easy to navigate [with the translation feature]. They can just type in what they need in Spanish, and IWant brings it up for them. It’s very helpful.”

• Interviewees noted that IWant has role‑based permissions and returns only the information an employee is authorized to see, keeping the data within Paycom’s single‑database environment private and secure.

• Interviewees also noted that IWant helped new hires and employees unfamiliar with Paycom learn the system quickly. By allowing users to ask questions in plain language and click directly to the relevant area of Paycom, IWant shortened the learning curve during onboarding and supported faster adoption across the workforce.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are 450 employees across the workforce who are not in executive, managerial, or HR roles.

• Due to IWant, each of these employees saves between 0.4 (low) and 0.5 (high) hours per month. This results in up to 2,700 hours saved per year.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for these employees is $30.

• The productivity recapture rate for employees is 50%. This means employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $81,000 (low) to $101,000 (high).

Improved Efficiency For HR

Evidence and data. Interviewees said the HR team benefited from a reduction in inquiries and tickets as the workforce, including executives, used IWant to self-serve. Moreover, HR employees themselves used IWant to more efficiently complete their work, quickly retrieving information from Paycom’s single database and often incorporating IWant into their workflow. Interviewees typically reported up to 4 hours saved per HR employee per month.

• Interviewees reported that employee self‑service with IWant alleviated inquiries to HR and resulted in meaningful time savings for the team. The director of HR in entertainment said, “The new standard is employees, instead of calling us first, will instead go to IWant once they’ve had a successful experience with it.”

• The reduction in routine tickets allowed HR employees at interviewees’ organizations to focus on more complex inquiries that actually required their involvement.

• HR employees also directly used IWant themselves for greater efficiency as they executed their day-to-day job duties. The payroll specialist in healthcare explained: “IWant pulls all the information, whether it’s from the HR, payroll, or even talent management side. It reiterates that Paycom is one system. HR can just type in the question and get that information as IWant pulls from all those sections in Paycom.”

• The same interviewee noted that the HR team often kept IWant open during the workday and incorporated it into their workflow: “I always keep IWant open in a tab. So, I don’t have to open up other screens and move around. HR can just [use IWant] and grab information really quickly.”

• Interviewees also said IWant was incorporated into onboarding and team training, shortening the ramp time for new HR employees.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• There are five employees in the HR department.

• Due to IWant, each employee in the HR department saves between 3.2 (low) and 4 (high) hours per month. This results in up to 240 hours saved per year.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for HR employees is $55.

• The productivity recapture rate for HR employees is 50%. This means HR employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Results. This yields a three-year projected PV ranging from $13,000 (low) to $16,000 (high).

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Faster onboarding and system learning. Interviewees highlighted that IWant helped new hires and other users unfamiliar with Paycom learn the system quickly. Several interviewees described how employees could simply ask IWant where to find information rather than navigate menus or contact HR, which accelerated onboarding and increased confidence when using Paycom. The CEO in technology described using Paycom effectively through IWant alone without prior training.

• Improved insight through a single, unified source. Interviewees said IWant surfaced reliable employee insights directly from Paycom’s single database, prompted leaders to explore additional automated modules, and ultimately led to deeper insights and better and more confident decision-making. The CEO in technology said, “Having insight [with IWant] into your employee base and understanding things like how long they’ve been there and their compensation without having to go through complex systems [allows for] better decisions.”

• Secure, role-based access to information. Interviewees noted that IWant returns permission-based results and accesses and keeps data within the single Paycom database. The manager of people in professional services explained: “From a security and data safety standpoint, there’s an advantage because everything is in Paycom. So it’s very helpful to have an AI tool that can directly interact with that data rather than congregate it from different sources.”

• Improved transparency and company culture. Interviewees observed that easier access to accurate information with IWant strengthened trust and manager-employee relations. The payroll specialist in healthcare said: “IWant provides access to information and that brings yet another layer of transparency that Paycom already offers to our employees. It builds trust.” The CEO in technology added that the cultural impact of IWant improved employee retention: “IWant is about culture, too. You tend to value employees more when you understand more about them. Creating better culture makes the employee journey better and helps retention.”

• Ability to focus on higher-value work. The time savings that employees at interviewees’ organizations saw with IWant allowed them to focus on higher-level work. The director of HR in entertainment described how this played out in the HR department, noting, “[With the time IWant saved], we can focus more on programs and policies versus telling someone how to submit a PTO request.”

• Supportive of modernization and AI adoption strategy. Interviewees noted that IWant aligned with their organizations’ broader goals of AI adoption and leveraging modern tools to enhance efficiency and ease of use.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement IWant and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Greater use of analytics. Interviewees anticipated additional analytics use cases as IWant develops, including insight into matters that would further inform planning and decision-making, such as overtime trends and attrition risk.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).