The five HCM applications

Spark HCM is sold and installed as five applications. Each one has its own landing page, side menu, roles and release cycle. You can install one, several, or all of them (the suite).

Application	What it covers	Landing page
Core HR	Employees, organization, positions, employment, HR services, documents, onboarding, separation, compliance, settings	/app/core-hr/home/dashboard
Talent	Recruitment, performance, learning, talent management, engagement	/app/talent/home/dashboard
Workforce	Attendance, timesheets, shifts, leave, workforce planning	/app/workforce/home/dashboard
Payroll & Rewards	Payroll, compensation, benefits, expenses, travel	/app/payroll-rewards/home/dashboard
People Analytics	HR dashboards, reports, workforce analytics, AI insights	/app/people-analytics/home/dashboard

Core HR is the base

Core HR owns the employee record. Talent, Workforce, Payroll & Rewards and People Analytics all need it, so installing any of them also installs Core HR. The four other applications do not depend on each other: Payroll works without Leave installed, and Leave works without Payroll.

How the applications share data

• One data store. All five applications keep their data together in the same HCM database schema, so employee data is never copied between stores.
• One employee record. Other applications keep a reference to the employee and never copy the master record.
• No direct table access. An application never reads another application's data directly.
• Events and APIs. When one application needs to react to another, it listens for an event (for example, an approved leave request reaching Payroll) or calls a documented API. Events are delivered at least once, and receivers ignore duplicates.

Switching between applications

Use the application switcher at the top of the side menu. Applications your organization has not installed show as locked.

Country and industry packs

Country packs (India, UAE, UK and others) and industry packs extend these applications with local rules, fields and forms. They add to the five applications and do not replace them.

Moving from the single HCM application

You decide when to move. Until you switch, your organization keeps the single HCM application exactly as it is, and nothing changes for your users.

1. Open Administration > Upgrade to five HCM apps. You need the tenant.upgrade right (tenant owners and administrators have it).
2. Press Switch to the five applications. The app launcher now shows Core HR, Talent, Workforce, Payroll & Rewards and People Analytics instead of the single HCM tile.
3. Changed your mind or need more time? Press Go back to the single application at any point.

Your data, roles and settings are not touched by the switch. Only the way menus and landing pages are grouped changes. Employee Self-Service is part of the full suite and shows all five areas together.