Modernizing Public Sector HCM: Bridging the Gap Between Investment and Impact

Federal and state agencies are investing heavily in modernization initiatives—particularly for HR, payroll, and administrative systems. In FY 2025, the Department of Defense alone allocated $10.9 billion across 24 major IT business programs.

Yet more than 68 percent of that funding was spent on operations and maintenance, not modernization projects. The result? More than half of these federal transformation programs reported cost overrun and delays extending as long as 48 months.

But these aren’t just infrastructure issues—they often reflect a breakdown between system deployment and user adoption. GAO’s most recent reviews (GAO‑25‑107649, June 12, 2025; GAO‑24‑106912, July 11, 2024) confirm that many federal agencies’ IT programs proceed without detailed user readiness planning—notably, a lack of defined training strategies and role-based usage expectations—which contributes to underutilization, schedule delays, unnecessary rework, and diminished transformation value.

Legacy Systems and Low Adoption Are Stalling Transformation

While systems may technically go live, the absence of user-centered enablement means employees either fail to adopt them or revert to legacy workarounds.

These gaps show up in the field as:

• High volumes of avoidable support tickets

• Process errors in timekeeping, personnel actions, and payroll execution

• Limited insight into who is using the system correctly—and who is struggling

• Fragmented workflows that increase compliance risks and reduce operational agility

As of January 2025, more than 460 GAO recommendations on IT modernization remain open, with several tied directly to the lack of workforce preparedness, unclear usage metrics, and insufficient post-launch enablement.

A Defense-Wide HCM Transformation Powered by Whatfix

In 2024, one of the largest branches of the US Armed Forces rolled out a unified personnel and pay platform to support more than 1.1 million service members. Recognizing that adoption—not infrastructure—would define success, the agency selected Whatfix as its Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), working in partnership with Insight Public Sector.

Whatfix addresses core usability challenges by embedding:

• In-app guidance customized by role

• Compliance prompts and workflow enforcement

• Analytics to detect friction and drive continuous improvement

With more than 47,000 HR professionals relying on IPPS-A daily, Whatfix will play a vital role in empowering users, reducing errors, and enhancing trust in personnel and pay processes.

“This partnership underscores Whatfix’s capability to execute and secure mission-critical implementations in the most complex and high-stakes environments. By enhancing IPPS-A’s accessibility and usability, Whatfix is not only elevating operational efficiency but also reinforcing trust and accuracy in data and payroll management, ensuring the Army’s personnel receive the exceptional support they expect seamlessly and reliably.” — Khadim Batti, CEO & Co-founder, Whatfix

Breaking Down HCM Transformation Barriers

Whatfix addresses four core public sector roadblocks for HCM transformation projects:

Enabling HR Modernization Across Public Agencies

Whether you’re running On Prem with Oracle Peoplesoft or in the Cloud, or you’re planning to implement Oracle, Workday, or another application, Whatfix supports:

• Federal: OPM/CHCO-aligned HR transformation, DEIA tools, workforce analytics

• Defense and VA: Personnel, payroll, audit compliance, high-volume onboarding

• State and local: Payroll, timekeeping, civil service systems, self-service portals

Whatfix helps agencies move beyond go-live checklists to achieve actual measurable impact. By embedding guidance, training, and analytics directly into the system interface, Whatfix ensures employees don’t just access new tools—they understand and adopt them.

Whatfix Digital Adoption Platform embeds role-specific, contextual in-app guidance across complex HCM platforms like Oracle, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, and UKG, helping federal employees easily navigate HR tasks. This is crucial in the public sector, where legacy transitions often overwhelm users and slow down mission-critical functions like benefits enrollment or performance evaluations.

With Smart Tips, Flows, and Task Lists, government agencies can support HR admins, people managers, and frontline employees in completing tasks such as updating personal records, managing payroll changes, or initiating performance reviews—without the need for external manuals or IT support.

Whatfix Mirror provides sandbox environments that simulate live HCM applications—ideal for training government staff before system rollout or before employees are equipped to use the live systems. Federal and public sector agencies can safely validate workflows like open enrollment, hiring workflows, or leave approvals without touching production data. This is especially critical in high-stakes HCM scenarios where data accuracy and process compliance are non-negotiable.

These replica environments are used to accelerate user confidence, support UAT, and conduct role-based training across HR modules—helping reduce change resistance and increasing first-time task success in platforms like Oracle, Workday or SAP SuccessFactors. With Whatfix Product Analytics, federal HR and IT teams gain real-time insights into application usage, workflow drop-offs, and task completion rates across HCM systems. These analytics help identify friction points in processes such as onboarding or performance reviews, enabling rapid remediation through targeted guidance interventions.

Incomplete implementation begins when systems are launched but people are left behind. Whatfix closes that gap—so agencies can unlock the ROI of their modernization efforts.

Learn more at whatfix.com/solutions/public-sector.