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Windmill vs Workday: AI Reviews vs Enterprise HCM

Compare Windmill and Workday for performance management. Discover how AI-native automation for agile teams differs from enterprise HCM built for compliance and scale.

Workday is an enterprise HCM platform for large organizations needing comprehensive HR, payroll, and compliance. Windmill is an AI-native performance management platform automating reviews and feedback without overhead.

Many use both: Workday for HRIS and payroll, Windmill for AI-automated performance management.

What Is Windmill?

Windmill automates performance management through AI. Windy works in Slack and Teams, syncing data from 20+ tools (GitHub, Jira, Asana, Salesforce) to understand work without manual input.

Core features:

What Is Workday?

Workday is an enterprise HCM platform combining HR, payroll, talent, workforce planning, and finance. Founded in 2005, it serves large enterprises needing compliance, reporting, and HR integration.

Performance management is part of the Talent Management suite, with customizable cycles, goals, succession planning, and career frameworks.

Core features:

  • HCM covering payroll, benefits, time tracking, talent
  • Configurable review cycles and templates
  • Goal management aligned to objectives
  • Career development and succession planning
  • Workforce planning and analytics
  • Workday Illuminate AI agents
  • Manager Insights Hub
  • Enterprise compliance and reporting

Key Differences

Who It’s For

Windmill: Companies 20-500+ employees doing work online—tech startups, media, investment firms. Teams living in Slack wanting continuous feedback over compliance cycles.

Workday: Large enterprises (1,000+ employees) with complex regulations, multiple business units, international operations, and dedicated HR tech teams.

Implementation

Windmill: Under an hour. Connect integrations, invite team to Slack, launch reviews in 5 minutes.

Workday: 6-14 months (some up to 18 months). Implementation costs $300K-800K—often 100-200% of annual fees. Requires partners and full-time internal teams.

Pricing

Windmill flat-rate:

  • $500/month (under 100 employees)
  • $1,000/month (101-250 employees)
  • $2,000/month (250-500 employees)
  • Enterprise (custom)

Unlimited reviews, feedback, 1:1s, goals.

Workday: $34-42 per employee/month. Mid-sized companies (500-2,500 employees): $100K-300K+ annually. Plus $300K-800K implementation.

For 250 people: Workday costs $100K-250K/year vs Windmill’s $24K/year—but Workday includes payroll and benefits.

Performance Reviews

Windmill: 3+ hours to 6 minutes. Windy chats with employees during the period (self-reviews 80% written), interviews peer nominees, generates complete reports. Managers select themes and edit. Calibration dashboard flags discrepancies.

Result: 86% cycle time savings, 6 hours saved per person per cycle.

Workday: Customizable workflows with templates and 360-degree feedback. But managers get notifications, employees fill forms, HR monitors completion. Illuminate AI helps, but the core process remains manual. Users cite “steep learning curve” and “clunky navigation.”

AI Approach

Windmill: Built with AI doing the work. Windy writes reviews by gathering data and conducting conversations autonomously. Performance management happens continuously in the background.

Workday: Illuminate is assistive AI—helps HR work faster. Managers still log into dashboards and complete manual steps. AI optimizes the process, doesn’t eliminate it.

Data Integration

Windmill: Syncs 20+ tools (GitHub, Jira, Asana, Salesforce, etc.). Pull requests, tickets, tasks, deals automatically feed into reviews.

Workday: Integrates HRIS, payroll, benefits, financial systems. But doesn’t natively sync work tools—performance data requires manual entry. Knows employees as HR records, not daily work.

User Experience

Windmill: Works in Slack and Teams. Conversational interface—chat with Windy for feedback, 1:1 prep, team recaps. No separate login.

Workday: Dashboard accessed via browser. Detailed views of records, cycles, goals, analytics. Users find it “clunky”—simple tasks require clicking through menus. Steep learning curve.

Goals and 1:1s

Windmill: Goal tracking monitors progress automatically, flags at-risk goals. 1:1 agendas auto-generated from Slack, calendar, work data.

Workday: Comprehensive OKRs and goal frameworks, but requires manual updates. 1:1 templates and note-taking, but managers manually gather context and prep.

When to Choose Windmill

Best for teams wanting:

  • AI-automated performance management
  • 86% cycle time reduction (6 hours saved per person per cycle)
  • Data-driven reviews from actual work tools
  • Reviews in Slack/Teams—zero friction
  • Flat-rate pricing ($500-2,000/month)
  • Setup in under an hour
  • Continuous feedback, not compliance cycles

Ideal for tech companies, startups, media, investment firms (20-500+ employees) wanting productivity, not interruption.

When to Choose Workday

Best for organizations needing:

  • Comprehensive HCM (HR, payroll, benefits, time tracking, talent)
  • Enterprise scale (thousands of employees)
  • Compliance for regulated industries
  • Unified system integrating HR with finance and operations
  • Deep customization for complex structures
  • Advanced workforce analytics
  • Established enterprise vendor

Excels for large enterprises (1,000+ employees) with dedicated HR teams and compliance requirements.

Using Windmill on Top of Workday

Already invested in Workday for HRIS, payroll, benefits? Performance reviews still painful?

You don’t have to choose. Many use Windmill’s performance management on top of Workday’s HRIS.

Keep Workday for: Employee records, payroll, benefits, compliance, time tracking, org structure.

Add Windmill for: Performance reviews, feedback, 1:1 prep, goal tracking—via AI automation in Slack.

Result: Maintain compliance in Workday, eliminate performance management overhead. Reviews 86% faster, save 6 hours per person per cycle.

Windmill syncs employee data from Workday (names, roles, structure), operates independently for reviews, then flows summary data back to Workday for records.

Bottom Line

Workday: All-in-one HCM for large enterprises needing payroll, benefits, compliance, and talent in one system. Performance management is one feature—customizable but manual.

Windmill: AI-native performance management eliminating overhead. Makes reviews, feedback, 1:1s, and goals happen automatically.

Decision framework:

  • Need comprehensive HR platform? → Workday
  • Have Workday, hate performance reviews? → Add Windmill
  • Want modern performance management without enterprise HRIS? → Windmill
  • Need compliance-heavy performance management? → Workday

Try Windmill to cut review time by 86%—works standalone or with Workday.