A human resources information system (HRIS) is a centralized database that houses employee information, automates core HR functions, runs basic reports, and serves as a self-service portal for employees and HR staff. It’s best for businesses with one-person or small HR teams that only need essential HR functions like payroll, benefits administration, and time tracking.

Businesses moving away from traditional spreadsheet programs and paper processes usually start with an HRIS as their first HR software solution and add-on features as they grow. Although all HRIS systems include a centralized and systematic way to manage employee data, some also come with other essential features, like leave management, payroll, and time tracking.

My top picks for the best human resources information system are:

• Rippling is the best HRIS software overall.
• GoCo is the best HRIS software for employee record-keeping.
• BambooHR Core is the best HRIS software for employee experience.
• ADP RUN Essential is the best HRIS system for payroll.
• TriNet HR Platform Essentials is the best HRIS system for benefits administration.
• Honorable mentions:
  • Gusto Simple is the best HRIS software for new businesses.
  • Deel HR is the best HRIS system for global HR management.
  • Bob is the best HRIS system for employee recognition and support.

What are the best HRIS systems?

Product

Expert score

Use case

Free trial

Starting price

Based on annual billing

Learn more

Rippling

Visit website

4.06

Best overall

$8/employee/mo.

Rippling product overview

GoCo

Visit website

3.82

Best for employee record-keeping

$5/employee/mo.

GoCo product overview

BambooHR Core

Visit website

3.76

Best for employee experience

$250/mo. for 1–25 employees*

BambooHR product overview

ADP Run Essential

Visit website

3.76

Best for payroll

Contact sales

ADP RUN product overview

TriNet HR Platform Essentials

Visit website

3.69

Best for benefits administration

$8/employee/mo.

TriNet product overview

Gusto Simple

Visit website

3.65

Best for new businesses

$40 per month plus $6/employee/mo.

Gusto product overview

Deel HR

Visit website

3.49

Best HRIS software for global HR management

Free

Deel product overview

Bob

Visit website

3.29

Best for employee recognition and support

Contact sales

Bob product overview

Rippling: Best HRIS software overall

Visit Website

Overall score

4.06/5.00

User reviews

4.70/5.00

Pricing

2.88/5.00

Platform & interface

4.34/5.00

Core HR

4.35/5.00

Workforce management

4.31/5.00

Pros

• Detailed reporting and analytics are included in every plan.
• Compensation banding to create salary consistency across roles and levels.
• Localized profiles in over 185 countries.
• In-app compliance tracker to avoid potential domestic and international time and labor violations.

Cons

• Expensive solution if you only need an electronic employee record.
• Must purchase additional modules for payroll, time tracking, and benefits administration.
• Learning curve for custom reports and automations.
• Lacks a native employee communication feature outside of its Employee Home Google Chrome extension.

Why I picked Rippling

With a 4.06 out of 5 score, Rippling is the most versatile HRIS software in my lineup. It can easily adapt to your business needs without relying on a patchwork of third-party HR applications or additional Rippling products to meet your requirements. However, Rippling’s HR, Finance, and IT cloud modules build upon and amplify the Rippling Platform so it becomes more advanced as you grow.

That said, Rippling lacks employee communication features that are critical to small businesses that don’t have budgets for apps like Slack. It doesn’t even include an in-app calendar for tracking employee days off; instead, it forces you to integrate with calendar apps like Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud Calendar to view this data.

As a result, Rippling is best if you already have a collaboration tool of choice since it can integrate and even automate notifications within those platforms. This frees up time for lean administrative teams to juggle multiple priorities.

About Rippling

Rippling Platform is the HRIS that serves as the backbone of the entire Rippling suite, so you have to purchase it before accessing other modules in its HR, Finance, and IT cloud product lines.

Surprisingly, looking solely at its HRIS capabilities, Rippling did not rank the highest; that designation goes to GoCo and Bob. Instead, Rippling’s strength comes in its scalability, HR automation, and data analytics that overshadow its competition. This is likely a result of Rippling’s heavy IT focus as it looks for ways to integrate and access the workplace tools you use daily directly from its homepage.

Other clever features include:

• App provisioning and de-provisioning during onboarding and offboarding workflows.
• Compensation banding.
• Employee profiles that transform to capture the necessary data depending on their location.

These features help create a consistent employee experience during hiring and exiting processes. The program can even shorten ramp-up times for employees by helping HR and IT teams distribute and manage devices and apps directly within the program, often with little direct involvement from either department.

Despite this, Rippling is not the best choice if this is your first HR software or if you simply want a place to store your employment data electronically. For example, you must manually establish approval workflows for things like paid time off (PTO) requests. Although Rippling offers “Recipes” or pre-built automation templates, the extra step of choosing and modifying the right recipe can be tedious for new HR software users. In this case, you would do better with BambooHR.

Plus, Rippling’s standard customer service options are relatively disappointing. As a first-timer, you might want to call and speak to customer service representatives to troubleshoot issues. Unless you purchase Rippling’s HR Help Desk module, professional employer organization (PEO), or employers of record (EOR) services, you’re limited to emailing or submitting a support ticket.

If you’re growing and want to layer on capabilities quickly without switching platforms, though, start with the base Rippling Platform first. You can scale Rippling’s price tiers and add on modules, like headcount planning and performance management, as your people’s needs become more complex.

Want to learn more about Rippling’s capabilities? Check out our video overview:

Key features

Workflow automation

Rippling comes standard with Workflow Studio, a customizable automation builder. With it, you can automate processes for nearly every data field in the system.

Although GoCo offers something similar called Workflow Builder, it functions much more as a way to monitor task completion for a process among various collaborators. For example, it helps notify appropriate stakeholders when to perform tasks like reviewing promotions or completing reference checks.

In contrast, Rippling’s automation capabilities support “set it and forget it” workflows. For example, you can automatically assign training courses based on data like employee start date or role. Or you can automatically send reports to relevant stakeholders each month. This can make your HR staff much more efficient so they can focus on more strategic work, like improving employee retention.

Workforce insights

Rippling allows you to customize reports and rich data visualizations, which is impressive compared to most basic HRIS platforms. Plus, as you upgrade to higher Rippling plans or add on optional modules, its workforce analytics capabilities become more comprehensive and complex.

For example, Rippling lets you combine and manipulate data from three or more sources. This allows you to connect and draw insights about the data points that matter the most, like salary change trends relative to learning and development course completion. If you’re a spreadsheet whiz, you can use Excel-like formulas to construct your reports for even more granular conclusions.

Though Rippling’s analytics rival many human capital management (HCM) systems, they may be too complicated for some businesses. Rippling offers pre-configured report templates, but you must create the data visualizations you want yourself, which can take time to learn how to construct. On the other hand, GoCo forces you to start with a report template even if it would be easier to start from scratch.

PEO and EOR services

Rippling offers PEO and EOR services to support your business operations as they grow. While ADP and Deel HR also offer PEO and EOR services, Rippling differentiates itself by making these services more of a strategic choice for your immediate business needs rather than a long-term commitment.

For example, as a small business, you may only have one person looking after HR, accounting, and other administrative responsibilities. In that case, you can leverage Rippling’s PEO services to cover the tedious but necessary processes of HR, like payroll, without compromising labor law compliance.

As you grow and add more knowledgeable HR staff, however, you may no longer need Rippling’s PEO services. Rippling understands this and includes an easy on/off switch directly within the platform so you can sever PEO ties without any long-term contracts. This differs from other PEOs that rely on creating long-term partnerships with small businesses that have limited growth expectations.

The same flexibility extends to Rippling’s EOR services. For example, Rippling will help you transition to hiring, managing, and paying your international workforce once it makes sense for you financially to move these processes in-house. Rippling’s business model lets you transition between these different states, so you’re supported even when growth plans change.

Gallery

Rippling employee onboarding process. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Rippling homepage.
Source: TechnologyAdvice

Rippling Workflow Studio. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Editing a document in Rippling.
Source: TechnologyAdvice

Organizational chart in Rippling.
Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

Rippling starts at $8 per employee per month (PEPM), but depending on your size and business needs, you may also have to pay an additional monthly base fee. Most third-party outlets indicate the base fee to be around $35 per month.

Rippling offers several plans, with the main difference being access to advanced reporting, workflows, and its open API. The plans include Core, Pro, Unlimited, and Enterprise.

Rippling earned 2.88 out of 5 for pricing. It does well for scalability, including modules and services that you can easily add or remove to fit your needs. However, beyond noting a starting price for Rippling Platform, it lost points for not disclosing prices for any of its modules or services. Rippling also doesn’t offer a free trial, which is a drawback compared to other platforms.

Moreover, the starting price for its basic HRIS is quite high, despite lacking native payroll or time-tracking abilities. For example, Sage HR starts at $5.50 PEPM, while GoCo starts at only $5 PEPM. True, Rippling’s workflow, reporting, and compliance features certainly set it apart from traditional HRIS. However, it might be a little too much if you’re only looking to create an electronic system of record.

The chart below outlines Rippling’s plans, add-on modules, and services.

Rippling packages

Core

Pro

Unlimited

Enterprise

• Global organizational chart.
• Global workforce analytics.
• Permissions and access control.
• Approval management.
• Document and policy management.
• Compliance management.
• Salary banding.
• PTO and leave management.
• Localization for 150+ countries.
• Customized workflows (for onboarding only).

Everything in Core, plus:

• Customized workflows (for any event).
• Up to 10 workflows.
• Up to 10 formula fields in reports.
• Up to 10 reports that join data from three or more sources.
• Integrate with Slack for approvals and sending messages.
• Integrate with Microsoft Teams for sending messages.
• Create and send calendar invites.
• Scheduled reports.

Everything in Pro, plus:

• Unlimited customized workflows.
• Unlimited formula fields.
• Unlimited advanced reports.
• Webhooks.

Everything in Unlimited, plus:

• Access to Rippling’s API.

Additional modules

HR Cloud

IT Cloud

Finance Cloud

• U.S. and global payroll.
• Benefits administration.
• Time and attendance.
• Flex benefits (FSA, HSA, and commuter).
• Recruiting.
• Learning management.
• Pulse (employee engagement).
• Headcount planning.
• Performance management.

• App management.
• Device management.
• Inventory management.

• Corporate cards.
• Expense management.

Additional services

• ACA and COBRA administration.
• HR Help Desk (HR Support).
• PEO services.
• Global employer of record services.

*Note: Rippling currently offers a one-month free subscription if you sign up within six weeks. This is subject to end anytime, so please check its website for the latest.

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GoCo: Best HRIS for employee record-keeping

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Overall score

3.82/5.00

User reviews

3.49/5.00

Pricing

2.94/5.00

Platform & interface

4.01/5.00

Core HR

4.38/5.00

Workforce management

3.58/5.00

Pros

• Ability to select authorized representatives to verify new hire’s I-9 identifications, including non-business personnel.
• AI knowledge base to quickly search for information from uploaded documentation.
• Ability to test drive GoCo through its product tour to determine product fit.

Cons

• GoCo requires you to sync payroll with your current provider or to embed payroll through its partnership with Gusto.
• Modules like performance management, time-tracking, and HR support are add-ons.

Why I picked GoCo

If your main goal is to move toward 100% electronic recordkeeping, GoCo is the best choice for digitizing paper files and creating a single source of truth for company processes. GoCo’s ability to automate employee data collection and self-service makes it second on my shortlist, scoring 3.82 out of 5.

While GoCo lost points for its lack of native payroll and lackluster reporting, they may not be issues if you have few employees or do your own payroll. You may also outsource your payroll and benefits administration already; if that’s the case, GoCo can be a great way to streamline those processes when sharing information with third-party providers.

About Goco

Focusing solely on HRIS features, GoCo was the clear winner among the platforms I tested. I was particularly impressed with the software’s auditable document tracking and collaboration features, which earned a perfect 5 out of 5 score.

In addition to pre-built employee preboarding procedures like collecting I-9 and W-4 paperwork, you can also create custom fields that are uniquely relevant to your business in GoCo. For example, you can gather uniform sizes for frontline workers or fun facts to use during orientation training.

If you lack other collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams, GoCo’s homepage lets you send company-wide notifications for things like emergency closures and company events. And, if you add GoCo’s messages module, HR and office administrators can send emails and texts directly to employees within the app.

GoCo also anticipates and accommodates employees’ needs by allowing them to clock in and out of shifts, view upcoming holidays, and see PTO accruals directly from the homepage. Even its knowledge base AI assistant ensures employees don’t have to look through your company documentation to find your bereavement leave policy. No other platform I tested offers conversational AI capabilities.

Despite this, GoCo is very U.S.-centric, so you must invest in other platforms if you need to hire and pay international staff or contractors. Likewise, you will need to integrate with other platforms if you need payroll and recruitment functions, which could lead to difficult data silos long term.

Even so, GoCo is a strong choice for your first HRIS since it’s flexible enough to support teams in and out of the office.

Key features

Customizable documents

GoCo’s document management capabilities allow you to move away from paper processes by uploading paper documents and transforming them into fillable forms that collect legal eSignatures. You can even insert variable fields, like employee name and title, that populate dynamically for each person, reducing the time it takes to complete the form.

One of the most appealing features of GoCo’s Documents module is that you can drag and drop forms into its editor from multiple sources, including Google Drive. Even more unique, you can take a picture of your form and upload it directly within the platform — a helpful feature if you need to digitize old hard copies and don’t have access to a scanner.

Employee profiles

One of my favorite features in GoCo is employee profiles— specifically, its timeline feature. System administrators and managers can add shared or private notes, praise, or feedback within employee profiles to provide a historical record of their successes and stumbles.

You can even share notes with your manager in your profile, including personal achievements, challenges, and one-on-one meeting notes. 

GoCo is not a full-fledged performance management or employee engagement platform. However, these elements make it easier to track employee development, complete performance reviews, and keep employees invested in their own success.

Customizable workspaces

If you’re a small business trying to create consistency in a work process, GoCo’s customizable “spaces” module provides a simple way to centralize a business operation in one place. For example, you might have a space dedicated to expense management procedures. Within the space, you can access the form to request expense reimbursement or start a workflow for managers to collect and review receipts for approval.

In my case, I created a space to help streamline workplace injury procedures. I added widgets to start a workers’ compensation claim, access injury forms, and view workflow process analytics. If managers constantly ask HR staff what to do in certain situations or if you have process documents stored in multiple locations, this is an efficient way to centralize the information.

Gallery

GoCo homepage. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Building a workflow in GoCo. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Viewing a company announcement in GoCo. Source: TechnologyAdvice

GoCo Marketplace. Source: TechnologyAdvice

GoCo AI knowledge base. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

GoCo’s pricing starts at $5 PEPM and has four tiers to choose from, depending on whether you need payroll and benefits administration support. Its lowest tier, Premium HR, comes with onboarding, employee self-service, document management, and simple PTO tracking. You can then add modules like performance management and time tracking.

GoCo scores 2.94 out of 5 for pricing. Although it is one of the more competitive on my shortlist for starting price, it falls short on scalability. As you add more people to GoCo, its features become unwieldy, and maintaining automated workflows becomes time-consuming. Its data analytics will also start to feel too basic as your processes become more complex.

However, GoCo is the most affordable to start with. If you have few employees and budgetary constraints, it’s the best choice. You can also test out the full capabilities of the platform in its product tour.

GoCo packages

Premium HR

Premium HR + Benefits Admin

Premium HR + Payroll

Premium HR + Benefits Admin + Payroll

Starts at $5 PEPM

• Employee database.
• Onboarding and offboarding.
• HR document management and e-Signature.
• Organizational chart and directory.
• Company announcements.
• AI knowledge base.
• PTO tracking.
• eNPS surveys.
• Reporting.
• Mobile application.

Everything in Premium HR, plus:

• Enrollment self-service.
• Event management and documentation.
• Open enrollment administration.
• Automatically calculated payroll deductions.
• EDI feeds and carrier integrations.
• ACA reporting.
• 1094/1095 reporting and filing.

Everything in Premium HR, plus:

• Payroll processing.
• Federal and state tax filing.
• Configurable payroll grid.
• Unlimited payrolls.
• Employee paystubs.
• Direct deposit or paper checks.
• Automatic reconciliation and configurable general ledger.
• W2, W4, 1099, and new hire filing.

Includes all Premium HR, benefits administration, and payroll features.

Additional services

• Performance management.
• Engagement surveys.
• Recruiting (powered by JazzHR).
• Advanced workflows.
• Time management.
• PTO history, balances, & accrual calculations.
• HR compliance.
• Messages.

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BambooHR Core: Best HRIS software for employee experience

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Overall score

3.76/5.00

User reviews

4.38/5.00

Pricing

2.81/5.00

Platform & interface

4.01/5.00

Core HR

4.03/5.00

Workforce management

3.75/5.00

Pros

• Self-service features allow employees to find information and accomplish HR tasks independently.
• Built-in calendar to see employee availability and vacation time for easier PTO management.
• Out-of-the-box reporting and HR analytics for small businesses.
• Access to more than 125 integration partners.

Cons

• Payroll, time tracking, benefits administration, and performance management are add-on features for an additional fee.
• No built-in scheduling tools.
• Must purchase the Advantage plan for onboarding and offboarding modules.
• Customer support in Essential Plan is limited to email.

Why I picked BambooHR

If you have both office and field employees with varying levels of digital literacy, BambooHR’s simple interface and quick access features make it stand out for the employee experience. Coming in with an overall score of 3.76 out of 5, BambooHR Core is an excellent HRIS for first-timers needing a single system of record for their people data.

BambooHR also consistently scored 3.5 or above in every category except pricing, illustrating its jack-of-all-trades HR feature set. While this makes BambooHR a highly accessible platform, it also means its various modules lack some of the features to support more complicated business scenarios, like global payroll.

But, if your goal is to implement and track your HR data processes, BambooHR is the easiest to start with.

About BambooHR

BambooHR Core is BambooHR’s starter plan, with features like document retention, time-off management, onboarding, and access to standard pre-built reports and analytics. Its add-on features and intuitive interface make it one of the easiest HRIS for first-timers to learn.

One way BambooHR does this is by giving managers and individual contributors access to almost all of its capabilities on its mobile app. This is great for HR teams that travel between multiple locations and need a way to complete HR processes on the go. I particularly like how employees can request time off directly from the app’s homepage, which immediately notifies their manager.

You might also like BambooHR Core’s pre-configured approval workflows, reports, and permission sets. Besides speeding up the implementation process, it means less hassle if you’re a small business without clearly defined processes. Core also helps you learn best practices while standardizing your time-off approvals and other company policies.

One of BambooHR Core’s benefits results from changes to its subscription plans in early 2024. Now, all customers have access to its applicant tracking system (ATS), which supports basic candidate sourcing, hiring funnel progression, and job offer management. It’s more manual than a standalone ATS, but it is enough if you only want one platform to manage both your incoming and existing employees.

Key features

Intuitive user interface

BambooHR is one of the easiest platforms to navigate as it uses a simple system of horizontal tabs to organize and access various people functions. It only takes one or two clicks to access the information you need. It also feels significantly less cluttered than alternatives like TriNet HR Platform and GoCo, which list every module and feature on the left rail without any meaningful categorization.

One of the best features of BambooHR is the ability to rearrange and edit your homepage with widgets meaningful to you. For example, if you want your company’s turnover report front and center, you can drag and drop it to where you want on your homepage.

Similar customization options are available in your employee profile, allowing you to move your various tabs — like Personal, Time Off, and Documents — in the order you want. If you have permission access, you can edit and add different fields within each tab, like your address, job, and salary fields in the Personal tab, to quickly access the information that applies to you.

See what BambooHR’s homepage looks like in our video overview:

Employee self-service

BambooHR Core emphasizes employee self-service to free HR staff from completing mundane data entry tasks, like updating an employee’s address. Core places the responsibility on employees to make these changes either on a desktop or within its mobile app.

If you purchase BambooHR’s Pro plan or other add-on modules like time tracking, the number of self-service options employees can access increases. Moreover, employees can access many self-service features directly from BambooHR’s homepage, such as requesting time off or clocking in and out of shifts.

While this may seem small, it makes it much easier for employees to complete everyday tasks with less effort. In contrast, clocking in for a shift on the desktop version of Rippling requires at least three clicks with its time and attendance module add-on. This adds unnecessary complexity to a common task, especially for tech-averse employees.

Gallery

View of individual contributor homepages. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Editing homepage widgets. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Employee turnover report and visualization. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Adding a new employee. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Organizational chart. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

BambooHR overhauled its subscription plans in early 2024, changing its Essentials and Advantage tiers to Core and Pro. Core and Pro now come with more modules; in particular, Core customers now have access to onboarding and hiring, which BambooHR previously reserved for its Advantage subscribers.

The changes align Core with the other HRIS in my roundup, but it retains its 2.81 pricing score. This is because starting with Core is still quite expensive and doesn’t include fundamental HR functions like payroll and time-tracking, continuing to reserve those features as paid add-ons. Though BambooHR does offer discounts to users that purchase the HR, payroll, and benefits modules.

BambooHR only becomes competitive once you can take advantage of its volume discounts, but even then, other HRIS like GoCo and Gusto may be more affordable. BambooHR remains the better choice if you want a cohesive interface built upon native modules, but you should expect to pay more as a result.

BambooHR packages

Core*

Pro*

• For up to 25 employees: $250 per month flat rate.
• For more than 25 employees: $10 per employee per month (PEPM).
• Volume discount applies after 25 or more employees.
• Includes:
  • HRIS and reporting.
  • Hiring and onboarding.
  • Time off and benefits tracking.
  • Access to integrations marketplace.

• For up to 25 employees: $425 per month flat rate.
• For more than 25 employees: $17 PEPM.
• Volume discount applies after 25 or more employees.
• Includes everything in Core, plus:
  • Performance management.
  • Employee experience and rewards.
  • Employee community.

Additional modules

• Payroll.**
• Benefits administration.
• Time tracking.

* There is a one-time implementation fee for the Core and Pro plans and the Payroll add-on. If you have fewer than 25 employees, you can opt for the QuickStart implementation for a lower fee.

** Please note that additional factors, like the number of FEINs or states where you need payroll, can affect this price. Please contact BambooHR for specific pricing quotes.

Special offer

Currently, BambooHR offers a 15% discount if you combine its payroll and benefits administration add-ons with its Core or Pro plans. Visit BambooHR below to learn more.

Visit BambooHR

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ADP RUN Essential: Best HRIS system for payroll

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Overall score

3.76/5.00

User reviews

3.43/5.00

Pricing

3.12/5.00

Platform & interface

4.38/5.00

Core HR

3.63/5.00

Workforce management

3.85/5.00

Pros

• Variety of packages to serve startups and small businesses.
• Extensibility via ADP add-ons and integrations.
• Access to 24/7 customer support, even on its lowest price tier.
• Various ways to pay employees, including on-demand pay through ADP’s Wisely paycard and check processing.

Cons

• Essential and Enhanced packages lack proactive compliance alerts to help with potential labor law violations.
• Time tracking, scheduling, and benefits administration are add-on modules.
• Managers must download two mobile applications (ADP RUN and ADP Mobile Solutions) to complete mobile payroll and access employee self-service features.
• Essential plan is only for companies with 1–10 employees.

Why I picked ADP RUN

ADP RUN Essential is best if you have complicated payroll functions, like multiple payroll schedules, workers in numerous states, or various employee classifications. Its 24/7 customer service, add-on modules, huge integration library, and payroll services make it one of the most adaptable options for a new business.

Coming in at 3.73 out of 5, RUN Essential lost points for keeping most of its employee management features in its higher price tiers and for its lackluster analytics that are limited to payroll reports. However, its compliance-conscious features and ability to move between ADP products make it the best option if you expect your payroll needs to evolve significantly.

About ADP RUN

If you need only an HRIS with payroll, then RUN powered by ADP is a great way to start paying and handling your people operations electronically. It includes a basic employee records database, self-onboarding, and payroll processing.

RUN’s Essential tier also offers employment verification and background checks, services you typically need to outsource or integrate with third-party providers. As you scale RUN’s price tiers, you can access more small-business-friendly features, like salary benchmarking, job costing, handbook creation, state-mandated sexual harassment training, and a simple ATS.

However, RUN’s heavy focus on payroll comes at the cost of core recordkeeping and communication features. For example, its homepage features several widgets to start payroll or view past payroll totals. But it doesn’t have quick access buttons for employee self-service functions, like requesting time off, viewing your paystub, or clocking in and out.

Beyond a simple task list, the platform doesn’t include internal communication features like company announcements or a newsfeed. Document creation and storage are also reserved for its Complete plan and up. As a result, RUN scored the lowest in our roundup for its HRIS alone, at 3.5 out of 5.

Despite this, RUN integrates with over 150 applications, including popular time-tracking, scheduling, and collaboration apps, which can fill these functionality gaps. ADP also offers PEO, EOR, and outsourcing services to handle your payroll process for your small or non-existent HR or accounting teams. This frees up time for you to focus on the money-making aspects of your business.

Key features

User-friendly, multi-state payroll

ADP RUN lets you complete payroll in two steps. In step one, you enter all payroll data, including regular and overtime hours, PTO, expenses, bonuses, or other deductions. RUN will then flag any issues you need to resolve, like missing time information or direct deposits, before step two: preview and finalization.

You can also speed up the payroll process by importing your time data from a third party or adding RUN’s time-tracking module. If you have workers that you pay the same number of hours for each payroll, like salary-exempt employees and contractors, you can enable “RUN & Done” to have RUN automatically process payroll for you.

What’s great about RUN Essential is its variety of payroll features within its lowest price tier compared to others.

For example, unlike Gusto Simple, Essential lets you pay multiple work types in more than one state. Essential deducts and files all federal, state, and local taxes for you, unlike Patriot’s Basic Payroll. And Essential can print and deliver paychecks, so you don’t have to force your workers to have direct deposits or sign up for paycards, especially if they have personal, cultural, or religious objections to electronic banking.

General ledger connection

Because RUN Essential has access to ADP’s General Ledger Interface (GLI), you don’t have to manually enter your data into your general ledger (GL) or download a CSV file. Instead, RUN creates GL journal entries and exports them into QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or Creative Solutions for you.

The one rather tedious thing is that you have to remember to do this process after every payroll, as it does not automatically do so. It can also take a moment for ADP to export the information from its database, depending on the complexity of your payroll. But compared to other HRIS that lack integrated GL exports, this can help keep your small business bookkeeping in order.

Pricing

Like all of ADP’s products and services, RUN does not disclose its pricing. However, you can choose from four different price plans: Essential, Enhanced, Complete, and HR Pro.

ADP RUN’s pricing is based on the number of employees, your payroll frequency, and the add-on modules you need. ADP RUN will invoice you after each payroll run, with a price of somewhere between $4 and $6 per employee per payroll cycle. For 25 people with a weekly payroll, I was quoted $135 per payroll for Enhanced and $150 per payroll for HR Pro.

The price will be much less for the Essential plan since it is for companies with 1–10 employees. Most third-party sources indicate RUN averages at about $79 per month plus $4 PEPM.

With the above in mind, ADP RUN is more expensive than an HRIS with just employee record-keeping features. Despite that, ADP earned a 3.13 out of 5 for pricing because it offers a first three months free promotion and you can easily scale within the ADP product family.*

Moreover, ADP offers more payroll features to start than Gusto or Patriot Payroll while being cheaper than Paycor Basic. So, if you want an employee roster and payroll in one, going with RUN is your best bet.

ADP RUN packages

Essential

Enhanced

Complete

HR Pro

• Multi-state payroll.
• Automatic tax calculations and filing.
• Employee self-onboarding.
• ADP Wisely Direct Debit card access.
• New hire reporting.
• Background checks.

Everything in Essential, plus:

• Garnishments.
• State unemployment insurance management.
• Job costing.
• Job posting via ZipRecruiter.

Everything in Enhanced, plus:

• Live HR support.
• Employee Handbook Wizard.
• Proactive compliance alerts.
• Job Description Wizard.
• Document creation and storage.
• Salary benchmarks.

Everything in Complete, plus:

• Proactive HR support team.
• Learning management system (LMS).
• ATS.
• Employee assistance program (EAP).
• Business, marketing, and legal tools and services.

Additional modules

• Time and attendance.
• ADP-brokered retirement services.
• ADP-brokered health insurance.
• ADP-brokered workers’ compensation.
• Small business marketing toolkit by Upnetic.

*Note: ADP applies a credit to your invoice if you are in good standing with them after processing payroll for three months.

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TriNet HR Platform Essentials: Best HRIS for benefits administration

Visit Website

Overall score

3.69/5.00

User reviews

3.86/5.00

Pricing

2.88/5.00

Platform & interface

3.06/5.00

Core HR

4.15/5.00

Workforce management

4.35/5.00

Pros

• Native time-tracking and scheduling in all plans.
• Mobile app supports everyday tasks like enrolling in benefits and submitting PTO requests.
• Pre-built reports with AI-powered predictive analytics help with strategic decision-making.

Cons

• Payroll, bring-your-own broker, and HR and payroll advisory services incur additional fees.
• In-app Compliance Assistant only includes deadlines for federal HR, benefits, and payroll requirements, not state or local.
• EDI carrier feeds are available only to companies with more than 50 employees.

Why I picked TriNet HR Platform Essentials

At 3.69 out of 5, TriNet HR Platform Essentials is a great choice if you need basic coverage for core HR processes like recordkeeping, payroll, time tracking, and benefits at a competitive price. In particular, its ability to compare various benefits online at your convenience without going through a broker can save you time searching for competitive benefits elsewhere.

Compared to other HRIS, TriNet HR Platform includes its brokered benefits administration in all its product tiers. If you want to provide your employees with benefits coverage at an affordable price and remain compliant with all relevant laws, HR Platform is one of the best options.

About TriNet HR Platform Essentials

TriNet HR Platform Essentials is for companies that prioritize effective benefits administration. It provides the flexibility to use TriNet-brokered benefits at no additional cost or bring your own broker for an extra $5 PEPM. This is unlike other vendors in my top five, where benefits management is included in a higher price tier or as an optional add-on.

Besides benefits administration, HR Platform Essentials offers a fair amount of features in its base plan that others do not, like time tracking and scheduling. As you upgrade your subscription, you gain access to features such as compensation, performance, and employee engagement. This aligns with the HR features most companies need as they grow.

However, HR Platform ranks last in my shortlist for user experience; in particular, the interface is unintuitive, the setup is complicated, and the controls are surprisingly basic.

For example, HR Platform does not organize its HR modules by theme for easy navigation on the left rail. Instead, you must read all the apps on the left rail, which often results in excessive scrolling to find what you need, adding unnecessary time to switch between HR processes.

While HR Platform’s people analytics are more holistic than ADP RUN’s, they are clunky to use. First, you can’t preview any pre-built or custom reports directly in HR Platform; you must download and open them in a separate program that reads .xlsx files, making for a rather cumbersome experience. Plus, its predictive analytics to help forecast HR metrics like turnover aren’t available until its Growth plan and after you’ve accumulated at least two years’ worth of data.

Still, if you need an employee database with benefits, payroll, scheduling, and time tracking for a non-exempt hourly workforce, HR Platform Essentials with the payroll add-on is an affordable option.

Key features

Benefits administration

HR Platform Essentials includes its brokered medical, dental, vision, commuter, 401(k), health savings accounts (HSAs), and flexible spending accounts (FSAs) at no extra cost. You can also shop for plans with popular carriers like UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield through TriNet’s Health Insurance Marketplace. There, you can even compare plans side-by-side and filter results that are compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

For additional fees, TriNet can also manage COBRA and send benefit enrollment changes to carriers through electronic data interchange (EDI) feeds. These, plus ACA employee eligibility monitoring, can help your HR teams completely automate benefits administration and ensure you remain compliant.

Another convenient tool is the ability for employees to connect apps, like Uber and Lyft, to their TriNet HR Platform mobile app to submit claims for their commuter benefits easily. Meanwhile, managers can monitor commuter and FSA invoices directly within HR Platform to understand the value of these programs.

Time tracking and scheduling

HR Platform offers time tracking and time-off management tools that sync with payroll, benefits, and scheduling. Besides making employee time management more efficient, it provides managers visibility over who’s at work and when. HR Platform also includes features like geolocation and picture-taking on its mobile app to prevent buddy punching and time fraud.

HR Platform Essentials’ scheduling tool is also unique for an HRIS. You can assign shifts, copy over schedules from previous weeks, and set up recurring shifts. This is great for small teams with basic shift schedules, but it is rudimentary if you manage multiple locations or require scheduling flexibility.

For instance, it cannot predict staffing needs based on historical data and cannot automatically schedule employees according to their availability, roles, or competency levels. It also doesn’t monitor breaks or shift lengths for minors, so you have to pay extra attention to ensure compliance with federal and state youth labor laws.

That said, if you want to consolidate your scheduling and time clock tasks in one system, HR Platform Essentials will standardize your processes to make them more reliable and efficient.

Gallery

TriNet HR Platform homepage. Source: TechnologyAdvice

TriNet HR Platform homepage with left navigation rail open. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Clocking in for a shift on TriNet HR Platform. Source: TechnologyAdvice

TriNet HR Platform employee directory. Source: TechnologyAdvice

TriNet HR Platform employee organization chart. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

TriNet HR Platform Essentials scored 2.88 out of 5 for pricing, dropping slightly from its previous score for its lack of a free trial following its branding change at the end of 2023. While it can be affordable for payroll and time tracking, this is if you have fewer than 41 employees. Otherwise, you’ll pay less by purchasing Gusto Plus, which includes payroll, time tracking, recruiting, and performance management modules.

HR Platform also has a five-employee minimum requirement, meaning you pay at least $40 monthly even if you only have one or two employees. This is costly if you’re only looking for a more efficient way to manage your employee database. In this scenario, it’s better to go with GoCo.

The HR Platform’s limited customization options and support for employees in multiple time zones make it less scalable than Rippling or ADP. Although this hurt its pricing score, if you don’t expect to expand internationally, this might be a non-issue.

TriNet HR Platform packages

Essentials

Growth

Zen

Price (billed monthly): $10 PEPM

Price (billed annually): $8 PEPM

Includes:

• Onboarding.
• Employee management.
• Time off management.
• Scheduling and time tracking.
• Basic reporting and analytics.

Price (billed monthly): $20 PEPM

Price (billed annually): $16 PEPM

Includes everything in Essentials, plus:

• Customizable reports and analytics.
• Prediction trends.
• Compensation management.
• Performance management.

Price (billed monthly): $33 PEPM

Price (billed annually): $27 PEPM

Includes everything in Growth, plus:

• Employee engagement surveys.
• Company announcements and newsfeed.
• Task manager.
• Payroll.

Additional modules

• Payroll: $6 PEPM
• Advisory services: $8 PEPM
• Benefits admin using own broker: $5 PEPM
• Recruiting by JazzHR: Starting at $35/mo.

Note: New customers who subscribe to an annual contract and pay upfront will save 20% on their HR Platform plan for a limited time.

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Honorable mentions

Many platforms I reviewed have great features that might better appeal to your particular needs. If the above platforms don’t quite fit, one of these might.

Human resources information system FAQs

Types of HRIS systems

As a repository for employee data, the HRIS system houses various employee data to support the full scope of HR. There are five main types of HRIS: tactical, operational, strategic, comprehensive, and specialized.

What are the benefits of HRIS systems?

HRIS systems offer several key benefits for businesses. Though the exact features and benefits will vary based on the HRIS technology vendor that you choose. Here are the biggest benefits that you can expect when investing in an HRIS platform for your organization.

Unsure of what an HRIS can do for you? Learn about The Key Benefits of HRIS Software or check out our video below:

Better employee onboarding experience 

HRIS platforms can support paperless onboarding for a more efficient and organized onboarding process. This makes it easier to onboard remote employees who will not be coming into the office in-person to fill out their paperwork. It also cuts down on filing time and ensures that no paperwork goes missing as the electronic onboarding documents can be instantly stored in the employee’s digital file.

HR analytics and reporting

Workforce analytics help your HR department make more informed, data-driven decisions. For example, HR analytics can help you monitor turnover rates to identify trends or potential contributing factors and implement an effective employee retention strategy. While the reporting capabilities of an HRIS may not be as robust as an HCM platform or full-service HR suite, HRIS systems can still be used to analyze employee data and generate basic reports. 

Compliance support

HRIS systems offer a compliant solution for storing sensitive data. Electronic file management helps employers meet document storage requirements and provides a paper trail in the event of an audit. Some HRIS systems even offer federal, state, and local compliance tools or add-ons to help employers comply with meal break regulations, time off, and leave of absences like FMLA.

Scalability

The HRIS functionality is the backbone of most HR software systems and HCMs, so investing in an HRIS is a smart investment for growth-stage businesses. For example, many HR software vendors offer a bare-bones HRIS that you can supplement with add-on modules and integrations as your employee headcount grows and your business needs begin to change. Then, once you’ve reached a critical mass, you’ll have the option to upgrade your HR software to the next tier of functionality without needing to switch vendors.

Fewer manual HR tasks

HRIS systems increase efficiency by streamlining common administrative HR workflows. The electronic paperwork management features of HRIS systems also cut down on filing and makes it quicker to access and organize employee paperwork and information.

Looking for more advanced automations? Check out our roundup of the best HRMS software to find solutions with great workflow customization and automation tools.

What does an HRIS cost?

The cost of an HRIS will vary based on several factors, including your employee headcount, feature requirements, and deployment expectations. HRIS features are often wrapped into full-service HR software suites, which will typically cost more than a standalone HRIS system.

Most HRIS software vendors use a per employee per month (PEPM) pricing model, which is usually the most affordable structure if you have a low headcount. However, keep in mind that cost comparisons between vendors will likely change as your organization grows, so it’s worth factoring in your future hiring plans as well.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly HRIS solution, you can find options in the $5-$10 PEPM range. GoCo, the cheapest vendor to make our list of top picks, starts at $5 PEPM. TriNet and Rippling also offer plans starting at $8 PEPM.

For more information on the cost of HRIS systems and other HR software options, explore the resources below:

• How Much Does HR Software Cost?
• Paid vs Free HR Software: Which is Right For You?

How to choose the best HRIS systems

There are tons of HRIS platform options on the market today, making it tough to decide which one is the right fit. However, consider the below to help you find the right HRIS solution for your organization’s needs:

• Choose Rippling if you need a balance of core HR features and service options to support you as you grow.
• Select GoCo if you’re looking to move all your people data to a digital platform.
• Go with BambooHR Core if you prioritize a jack-of-all-trades HR platform that’s easy for your staff to learn.
• Pick ADP RUN Essential if you have complex payroll and compliance needs.
• Choose TriNet HR Platform Essentials if you want more robust and customizable benefits for your staff.

Not ready to buy yet? Check out our comprehensive HR Software Guide to compare more solutions and find the best HR software for your needs.

The post Best HRIS Systems of 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

What are employee benefits?

Employee benefits are non-monetary compensation that employers offer workers. In the U.S., employers usually share the cost of most benefits with their employees.

Benefits are different from employee perks. Although similar, employee benefits are must-have offerings that employees would otherwise pay for out of their income. If you use a house as an analogy, you can think of benefits as your utilities, like water, electricity, and gas.

Perks are nice-to-have offerings that your employees may or may not pay for themselves. They usually reflect your company values since most employees, regardless of classification, can access them. Perks include things like free meals, professional development courses, and discount programs. Using the house analogy, perks are like your fenced-in backyard, attached garage, and garbage disposal.

Outside of benefits required by law, employers in the U.S. have the freedom to customize their employee benefits packages to fit their company’s circumstances and industry expectations.

For example, you may offer benefits that align with employee tenure, like increasing the number of paid time off (PTO) days employees receive in a benefit year with each year of service. Or, you may offer insurance packages based on the employee’s full- or part-time status. However you organize your benefits, make sure all employees in the same or similar circumstances have equal access.

Advantages of offering employee benefits

Employee benefits are a net good for your organization despite the increased labor costs. This is because employee benefits help you:

• Comply with labor laws: You’ll avoid fines and penalties from laws like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA).
• Attract top talent: Offering top-tier benefits as part of your recruitment strategy can encourage qualified candidates to apply since they help you stand out from competitors.
• Retain talent longer: Employees are more likely to stay long-term if you offer great benefits since they improve employee morale, satisfaction, and well-being.
• Support a diverse workforce: Benefits can support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through comprehensive PTO to support religious and cultural observations, more affordable healthcare, and flexible work for employee caregivers.
• Align with company values: The benefits you offer can demonstrate your commitment to values like inclusion, teamwork, and community, plus strengthen your company’s brand image.

Global benefits

Compared to other countries, benefits in the U.S. are much more employer-centric. While this allows you to curate employee benefits that fit your industry or company’s unique circumstances, it also means acknowledging that employees rely on you for benefits that other countries mandate by law.

For example, countries like Japan and the United Kingdom have universal healthcare coverage, meaning residents do not have to depend on their jobs for access. Many more countries have robust PTO laws that require employers to pay for parental leave and medical procedures. In 2023, Spain even passed a menstrual leave bill that requires employers to pay for three days of leave for women who experience painful, disabling periods.

Being mindful of benefits worldwide is vital for developing culturally appropriate and relevant benefits offerings for your distributed workforce. It also ensures your benefits align with your company’s values and culture by supporting the range of human needs and experiences.

For instance, if you have employees in both the U.S. and the U.K., you may offer health insurance free of cost to your employees in the U.S. to mirror the benefits coverage of their U.K. counterparts. Such offerings demonstrate your commitment to equity by providing equal access to opportunities and benefits company-wide, regardless of your employees’ locations and backgrounds.

Learn more about how to create an equitable global benefits strategy: An Employer Guide to Global Employee Benefits

Examples of employee benefits

The table below breaks down the most common employee benefits in the U.S., including those mandated by law and popular fringe (voluntary) benefits:

Types of employee benefits

The benefits you can offer employees fall into two categories: legally mandated or fringe.

Legally-mandated benefits

Legally-mandated benefits are benefits you must offer your employees by law. In the U.S., federal law requires employers to provide and pay in whole or in part the following employee benefits:

• Workers’ compensation.
• ACA-qualifying health insurance.
• Social Security.
• Medicare.
• Family and Medical Leave (FMLA).
• Unemployment insurance.

Fringe benefits

Fringe benefits are benefits you offer employees outside of those required by law. Because of this, you can also think of fringe benefits as voluntary or discretionary benefits.

There are several types of fringe benefits, but you can sort most into the following categories:

• Health and wellness.
• Financial security.
• Work and life balance.

Health and wellness

Health and wellness fringe benefits comprise any non-compensation benefit related to an employee’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The most common include the following:

• Medical insurance.
• Dental insurance.
• Vision insurance.
• Prescription and pharmacy insurance.
• Wellness programs.

Most of these benefits aim to cover the costs of various health-related services, from doctor and hospital visits to dental cleanings and gym classes. Usually you’ll partner with an insurance carrier that manages, pays for, or reimburses employees on eligible health claims.

Considering health insurance benefits account for about 6.9% of an employee’s total compensation package, according to September 2023 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, many employers are finding low-cost health benefit alternatives. This may include access to onsite nurses, therapists, and wellness classes.

Financial security

Financial security fringe benefits are any benefits that help employees manage their finances for future expenditures and retirement.

Most financial security benefits revolve around wage replacement following an injury, illness, retirement, or death. Others help to pay for life expenses, including education and moving. Below are some of the most common:

• Short-term and long-term disability insurance.
• Retirement plans, like 401(k) or Roth 401(k).
• Pension plans.
• Annuities.
• Life insurance or death benefits.
• Employee savings plans, like health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible savings accounts (FSAs).
• Relocation assistance.
• Tuition assistance.
• Equity.

What is financial wellness?

Financial wellness refers to the ability of someone to manage their money in a way that provides them peace of mind. As an employer, financial wellness benefits typically refer to a variety of tools you can offer employees to ease financial stress, such as:

• Financial literacy classes.
• Discount programs.
• Budgeting and saving tools.
• Earned wage access (EWA).

According to a 2023 TransAmerica Institute Report, only 28% of employers offer financial wellness programs compared to 77% of employees who consider them important. This is surprising since most financial wellness tools are free or low-cost. Many human resources (HR) platforms even include financial wellness tools with their subscription.

Gusto, for example, gives employees access to Gusto Wallet, which allows them to track and add money to multiple savings goals within their mobile app. Meanwhile, Paycor offers on-demand pay, financial coaching, and self-paced learning courses to educate employees and provide a financial cushion for unforeseen expenses.

Wallet lets employees budget their spending into different categories to maximize each paycheck. Source: Gusto

With Paycor, employees can get free advice, schedule a financial counseling appointment, and take financial learning courses directly from their mobile phones. Source: Paycor

Visit Gusto

Visit Paycor

Work and life balance

Fringe benefits that balance work and life make it easier for employees to be successful in both their professional and personal lives. The most popular work and life balance benefit is job-protected paid leave that allows employees to miss work for various personal reasons without fear of termination.

Other standard work and life balance benefits include:

• Paid time off (PTO).
• Holiday pay.
• Premium pay.
• Employee assistance programs.
• Commuter benefits.
• Flexible work.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have placed greater importance on these benefits. Flexible work options, for example, are attractive to groups like single parents, caregivers, and people with disabilities, where traditional nine-to-five work is incompatible with their day-to-day realities.

SHRM’s 2023 Benefits Survey notices this shift, with 62% of employers now offering hybrid work opportunities and 59% subsidizing at-home office equipment. These benefits significantly open up your candidate pool, allowing you to source talent from a wider array of backgrounds.

Uncommon employee benefits

If you already offer most of the above benefits in your total compensation package, many lesser-known benefits are growing in popularity. Adding these unique benefits can modernize your employee benefits and make your workplace stand out.

100% employer-paid health plans

Because of the ACA, most employers with over 50 employees offer health insurance benefits. However, health insurance costs and plan coverage vary wildly. Many employees also don’t have a choice in the doctors or care they receive, especially if they choose low-cost, high-deductible plans.

However, completely covering the cost of healthcare plans for employees and dependents can ease employees’ financial stress. This is especially important for employees with ongoing or upcoming medical care needs, such as pre-existing conditions, disabilities, or surgeries.

As a result, 100% employer-paid plans are often more equitable since there are no barriers to enrollment, and employees don’t have to pay more for comprehensive coverage options.

Paid family and caregiver leave

The federal FMLA program only guarantees unpaid leave to eligible employees who work for FMLA-qualifying employers. Offering a paid leave program is extremely attractive to employees, especially those with a medical condition or looking to start a family but concerned about wage loss.

Plus, according to Cheri Wheeler, Vice President and Senior Consultant at Kelly Benefits Strategies, paid caregiver benefits can be a net positive for your company culture and bottom line.

“Caregiving benefits can help improve employee productivity, as employees who are able to manage their caregiving responsibilities effectively are more likely to be focused and engaged at work,” explains Wheeler. In other words, these benefits can reduce employees’ feelings of financial insecurity, stress, and burnout since they have more support and flexibility to manage their personal and professional lives.

The U.S. is only one of six countries without a national paid parental leave policy. Even if you don’t have employees working internationally, offering paid family leave on par with the world can make global expansion easier when the time comes. More importantly, it can keep your employees invested long-term, knowing they are financially protected when they decide to grow their families.

Child care

Childcare benefits can take on a variety of forms, such as:

• Stipends to lower costs for child care services.
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (DCFSA).
• Discounts at local child care facilities.
• In-office child care centers.

The goal is to help working parents reduce child care costs while continuing to work. If you’re a small business with a limited budget, assisting employees with finding or paying for child care can be more affordable than an employee missing work due to unreliable or unaffordable child care.

Family-building and reproductive assistance

Family-building and reproductive assistance benefits help employees who want to start a family but face obstacles. It includes employer-sponsored offerings like:

• Fertility assistance, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).
• Adoption.
• Egg or sperm donors.
• Surrogacy.

While some health care plans and EAPs cover these, carving out family-building benefits can be especially attractive to employees who are:

• Single by choice.
• LGBTQ+.
• Struggling with fertility.

One advantage of offering family-building and reproductive assistance is that it can be unique to your company’s culture and budget.

For example, Cyndi Wenninghoff, the Director of Employee Success at Quantum Workplace, explains that they reimburse employees up to $10,000 per family per year for fertility and adoption services. Such reimbursement programs allow employees to choose the services they want without the limitations of insurance plans.

Mental health support

Mental health support includes benefits that cover the costs of services that improve employees’ psychological and emotional well-being. Most modern health insurance plans include in-network support for mental health, such as counseling, medication, and substance abuse and psychiatric treatment.

You also have options if you don’t offer health insurance or want to fill the gaps in your plan’s mental health coverage. For example, you may wish to add designated mental health days to your PTO plans to provide a reprieve for employees experiencing a crisis. Onsite counselors or applications like Calm and Headspace are other ways to support employees’ mental well-being.

Pet insurance

Pet insurance is an increasingly popular benefit for employees. 2023 PEW research indicates 62% of Americans own a pet, with 97% saying they are part of the family. Considering the costs of veterinary checkups and routine and preventative care like vaccinations, dental cleanings, and medications, the price of owning a pet can make a severe dent in an employee’s income.

Many businesses are noticing the value of pet insurance for their employees. SHRM’s 2023 Benefits Survey notes that about one in five employers (19%) now offer the benefit compared to 14% in 2022.

Most pet insurance plans reimburse employees for qualified vet expenses for their eligible household pets. Plans can be “illness” or “wellness.” Illness plans cover pets for any unexpected illness or injury, such as cancer, while wellness plans cover routine vet care like exams, vaccinations, and bloodwork. Survey your employees to see which option is the most valuable to them, especially if you want to start offering this benefit.

Sensory- and disability-friendly workplaces

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires you to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities. It also provides public and commercial facility accessibility guidelines. However, sensory- and disability-friendly workplace benefits add a layer of intentionality beyond what the law mandates.

For example, you could create quiet or low-sound rooms with dim lighting to accommodate neurodivergent employees. You may also offer adjustable tables, desks, and chairs in your employee break rooms and office areas to accommodate employees of different heights. Wide walkways also make it easier for employees in wheelchairs to navigate.

PwC, for example, redesigned its office spaces in 2021 with these exact features, along with pink noise and soundproof areas. Such inclusive workspace design allows employees to work in an environment that helps them succeed.

Employee benefits FAQs

How to choose the right employee benefits for your company

To choose the right employee benefits for your company, ask yourself the following:

• What resources, like time and money, do I have for my employee benefits packages?
• What benefits do employees expect in my industry?
• What is the culture and demographics of my staff?
• Where are my employees located?
• What tools do I have to manage my benefits package?

But most importantly, ask your employees: “What benefits do you want?”

Employee engagement software can facilitate surveying employees on your benefits offerings. Culture Amp, for example, offers a U.S.-specific benefits survey to gather insight into the effectiveness of your current benefits and interest in new ones.

Once your benefits packages are in place, most HR software lets employees self-enroll in the benefits they want during onboarding while keeping track of employee and employer contributions. Paycor even provides a benefits advisor feature that improves the employee experience by helping new hires select the benefits that best suit their circumstances.

If you want to learn more, peruse our HR Software and Benefits Administration Software guides for a complete list of software options.

Culture Amp offers a library of employee engagement survey templates to gain insights into your organization with little administrative effort. Source: Culture Amp

Paycor offers a benefits cost calculator and questionnaire to help employees choose the best benefits package during enrollment. Source: Paycor

The post Employee Benefits Guide: Types of Benefits to Offer in 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• BambooHR is the best HR software for small businesses.
• TriNet HR Platform is best for core HR.
• Rippling is best for rapidly growing businesses.
• Paycor is the best HR software for midsize businesses.
• UKG Ready is best for robust analytics.
• Honorable mentions:
  • Gusto is best for small businesses new to HR software.
  • RUN Powered by ADP is best for small business payroll.
  • Zoho People is best for affordability.

What is the best HR software for small and medium businesses?

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need HR software to automate repetitive HR tasks, consolidate employee records in one place, and support broader company goals. My roundup focuses on versatile all-in-one HR solutions to satisfy your tactical needs, plus features to support your increasingly strategic people operations as you grow.

Overall score

Use case

Starting price*

Company size**

Learn more

BambooHR

Visit website

3.69

Best for small businesses

$250/mo. for first 25 employees

1–300 employees

BambooHR product overview

TriNet HR Platform

Visit website

3.58

Best for core HR

$8/employee/mo.

5–300 employees

TriNet HR Platform product overview

Rippling

Visit website

4.03

Best for rapidly growing businesses

$8/employee/mo.

2–2000 employees

Rippling product overview

Paycor

Visit website

3.64

Best for midsize businesses

$99/mo.. + $6/employee/mo.

1–1,000+ employees

Paycor product overview

UKG Ready

Visit website

3.99

Best for robust analytics

$21–$29/employee/mo.⁺

2–1,000+ employees

UKG Ready product overview

Gusto

Visit website

3.51

Best for small businesses new to HR software

$40 per mo. + $6/employee/mo.

0–250 employees

Gusto product overview

RUN Powered by ADP

Visit website

3.48

Best for small business payroll

$4–$6/employee/pay cycle⁺

1–49 employees

RUN Powered by ADP product overview

Zoho People

Visit website

3.18

Best for affordability

$1.25/user/mo.

1–500 employees

Zoho People product overview

*Starting prices based on annual contracts (if applicable).
**These are estimates based on the vendor’s breadth of features and capabilities.
⁺Based on third-party sources.

BambooHR: Best for small businesses

Visit Website

Overall score

3.69/5.00

User scores

4.32/5.00

Pricing

2.75/5.00

Platform/interface

3.89/5.00

Core HR

3.94/5.00

Workforce management

4.04/5.00

Talent acquisition

3.46/5.00

Performance management

2.75/5.00

Pros

• Pre-built workflows for automating repetitive HR tasks.
• Basic applicant tracking system (ATS) for occasional hiring needs.
• Easy-to-use time-off management to promote consistency and fair practices.
• HR mobile app for on-the-go workforces.

Cons

• Payroll, benefits, and time tracking are add-ons not included in either plan.
• Support for payroll and benefits administration is limited to the U.S.
• Lacks native scheduling capabilities for shift workers.
• Need to purchase its Advantage plan to access onboarding and eSignature features.

Why I chose BambooHR

BambooHR is a well-balanced HR platform with modules covering most HR operations within the employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding to performance appraisals and termination. Its overall score of 3.69 out of 5 reflects this, as do its user-friendly interface and simple workflows. If you’re new to HR software or looking to centralize your HR data, BambooHR is a great choice.

BambooHR lost points for pricing, scalability, and the absence of more complex modules like succession planning and career development. Its lack of specialization in any particular area also means that small businesses needing advanced features will find BambooHR quite rudimentary.

Its performance module is also lackluster, with goal creation and cascading limited to teams and individuals. This makes it challenging to view goals holistically across departments to align employees with company objectives and impact big-picture changes.

But, if your goal is to start monitoring all HR processes electronically and in the same place, BambooHR is a great option.

About BambooHR

BambooHR is a human resources management system (HRMS) that markets itself as a solution for small and medium business needs. However, its simple user interface (UI), extensive integration library, and pre-built HR workflows make BambooHR a clear winner for small business HR.

What makes BambooHR stand out?

It’s easy to navigate. BambooHR adopts a series of horizontal tabs to access various HR modules, including your company’s employee directory and recruitment processes, making it simple to switch between different workflows. 

It has one of the most info-rich homepages. BambooHR allows you to customize the homepage with widgets vital to you, like your team and company announcements. For example, managers can use the Who’s Out widget to adjust workloads and expectations based on attendance. Expanding the widget lets you see more granular information, like the complete time-off calendar for the month.

Its features acknowledge small business needs and challenges. Most of BambooHR’s workflows are plug-and-play, so you don’t have to start from scratch. It also includes ready-made fillable forms for critical documents like W-4 and I-9 forms, plus out-of-the-box reports on salary history and paid time off (PTO).

What are BambooHR’s limitations?

It lacks advanced customization and automation options. This makes BambooHR unwieldy with higher headcounts since some modules still require significant manual data entry and is a major pain point for mid-to-large companies growing quickly. 

Its ATS is very simple. For example, BambooHR’s ATS lacks automated decision tools to help with candidate pipeline movement, a crucial element in high-volume hiring. 

You can’t make people data charts and graphs from scratch. BambooHR does not allow you to create data visualizations, like graphs depicting labor costs between various business entities, for more calculated decision-making. Instead, you’re limited to pre-defined charts on standard HR metrics like turnover and headcount.

But if you’re a small business, you might prefer BambooHR’s hands-off, no-fuss modules and workflows that are a step up from tracking tasks, paperwork, and leave management in an Excel spreadsheet.

Did you know?

BambooHR continues to upgrade its software and expand its product offerings as it moves toward more advanced HR support. Within the last year alone, BambooHR added electronic data interchange (EDI) carrier connections to its benefits administration module to rival competitors like TriNet HR Platform. It also continues to iterate on its current features; its new Employee Community module, for example, expands upon its company announcements feature by allowing employees to interact and react to posts from their coworkers.

BambooHR’s commitment to refining the platform ensures it remains intuitive and modern. You can check out how it stacks up against others in other software roundups below:

• Best Human Resources Software.
• Best Human Resources (HR) Software for Small Businesses.
• The Best HRIS Systems.
• Performance Management Software Guide.
• Employee Onboarding Software Guide.
• Best HR Apps.

Key features

Employee self-service

Like many HR software, BambooHR offers employee self-service features so employees can access their employment information, such as: 

• Paystubs and W-2s.
• Personal demographics.
• Performance reviews.
• Timesheets.
• Benefits.
• Training courses.

Using the self-service feature means employees no longer need to contact their manager, HR department, or office administrator to access their data. 

This feature particularly stands out for its range of functionality. For instance, frontline workers can use BambooHR’s mobile app to clock in and out of shifts, request time off, sign company paperwork, and access the company directory — all from the app’s homepage. This alone made it one of my top favorite HR apps for mobile.

The relative ease enables non-tech-savvy employees to find critical information quickly. Details like accrued PTO balances and task lists require zero clicks since they are displayed on the home screen.

Meanwhile, more advanced users with the right access controls have options to customize and organize their homepage widgets to their preferences. They can

• Customize their self-service experience and rearrange their homepage widgets. 
• Modify the tab arrangement of their employee profiles and edit fields, like their address, without submitting change request forms to the HR department.

Set-up, implementation, and training

Besides its easy-to-use interface, BambooHR takes minimal time to set up because it has:

• Standardized automations for onboarding, offboarding, job pipeline management, notificatio8ns, access controls, and approval flows. 
• Video tutorials and an in-depth knowledge base to help you get the most out of the system.

In fact, if you have fewer than 20 employees, you can set up BambooHR through its QuickStart process, which provides videos and training guides to get started. But if your small business doesn’t have an IT team or the time to tweak the system how you want, BambooHR offers a dedicated HR software implementation team to onboard you within four to six weeks.

Compared to other vendors, BambooHR’s ramp-up process is relatively quick, especially for small businesses that don’t have the time or staff to dedicate to the project. In contrast, Zoho People expects you to implement the software independently with little to no assistance from their customer support team. Even enterprise customers must use Zoho People’s long, in-app video tutorials and PDF manual to set up the application, resulting in users contacting third-party consultants for assistance.

Still don’t believe me when I say BambooHR provides you with the tools to manage small business HR? Check out BambooHR’s dedicated YouTube channel for live demos and easy tutorials.

Gallery

View of BambooHR’s general account settings page. Source: TechnologyAdvice

View of homepage in BambooHR as a system administrator. Source: TechnologyAdvice

New employee view of BambooHR. Source: TechnologyAdvice

View of employee profile in BambooHR. Source: TechnologyAdvice

View of company calendar in BambooHR. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Organizational chart in BambooHR. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

You can choose from two plans in BambooHR: Core or Pro. These plans function as BambooHR’s core human resources information system (HRIS).

BambooHR reserves more advanced HR processes to its add-on modules, including U.S. payroll, benefits administration, and time tracking. Considering that companies with 25 employees or fewer have to pay at least $250 per month to access the Core plan, BambooHR is a costly investment, resulting in a score of 2.75 out of 5 for pricing.

New businesses that only need software to manage processes in heavily regulated areas, like payroll and benefits, would save money going with platforms like Gusto that include these options in its lowest priced plan.

But BambooHR offers volume discounts once you reach 25 employees. Plus, it may be worth spending a little extra to house all your core HR processes in one place rather than integrating multiple systems and risking data loss or repeated data entry. 

 

See below for BambooHR’s price breakdown by plans and add-ons:

BambooHR subscription plans

Core*

Pro*

Price

• 1–25 employees: $250 per month.
• 25+ employees: $10 PEPM.
• Volume discount applies after 25 employees.

• 1–25 employees: $425 per month.
• 25+ employees: $17 PEPM.
• Volume discount applies after 25 employees.

Included modules

• HRIS and reporting.
• Hiring and onboarding.
• Time off and benefits tracking.
• Access to integrations marketplace.

• HRIS and reporting.
• Hiring and onboarding.
• Time off and benefits tracking.
• Access to integrations marketplace.
• Performance management.
• Employee experience.
• Employee community.

BambooHR add-on modules

• Payroll.**
• Benefits administration.
• Time tracking.

*There is a one-time implementation fee for the Core and Pro plans and the Payroll add-on. If you have fewer than 25 employees, you can opt for the QuickStart implementation for a lower fee.
**Please note that additional factors, like the number of FEINs or states where you need payroll, can affect this price. Please contact BambooHR for specific pricing quotes.

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TriNet HR Platform: Best for core HR

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Overall score

3.58/5.00

User scores

3.58/5.00

Pricing

2.75/5.00

Platform/interface

3.16/5.00

Core HR

3.63/5.00

Workforce management

4.31/5.00

Talent acquisition

4.16/5.00

Performance management

3.13/5.00

Pros

• Flexible benefits offerings to accommodate diverse businesses, plus COBRA and ACA support.
• Time-tracking and scheduling modules included in every plan.
• Built-in compliance tools to mitigate small business risk.
• Optional HR advisory services for compliance, payroll, and employee management support.

Cons

• TriNet TimeKeeper kiosk timekeeping app is only available for Apple iPads.
• Company announcements and other cross-team communication elements limited to the Zen plan.
• Lacks third-party plug-and-play payroll integrations.
• nterface navigation is unintuitive.

Why I chose TriNet HR Platform

If you’re a small business looking for coverage of essential HR operations at an affordable price, TriNet HR Platform is your best bet. With its starter Essentials plan, you get employee recordkeeping, leave management, TriNet-brokered benefits administration, time tracking, and scheduling. This is the only platform in my roundup that offers all these HR modules in its lowest-priced plan.

Plus, if you’re relatively new to HR software, HR Platform’s limited customization options mean faster setup. It also adds consistency to your HR processes as you solidify your company processes, like time-off approval workflows and schedule posting cadences, that you may never have formalized.

However, HR Platform is not the best choice if you have complex needs, like labor cost scheduling or global contractor payroll. Switching between modules is time-consuming, while features like its newsfeed for employee engagement don’t provide nearly the same capabilities as alternatives like Paycor.

As a result, be prepared to switch to a more advanced solution as your headcount grows or integrate with standalone HR platforms to fill in functionality gaps.

About TriNet HR Platform

TriNet HR Platform (previously TriNet Zenefits) is all-in-one HR software with modules covering simple personnel document management to essential workforce management features like payroll, benefits administration, and time tracking.

What makes TriNet stand out?

It supports critical HR processes in its lowest price plan. This differentiates TriNet from competitors, which reserve these features in higher-tier subscriptions or add-ons.

Its efficient benefits administration module. TriNet’s health insurance marketplace lets you compare benefit options from certified brokers online without picking up the phone. Its EDI carrier feed feature prevents you from manually completing forms and sending them to carriers following enrollments, changes, or terminations.

It incorporates more strategic HR. Through TriNet’s partnership with Visier, you can customize your reporting and analytics with AI-powered predictive insights. Its Compliance Assistant monitors federal changes to HR, payroll, and benefits and supplies a tasklist of compliance to-do’s with deadlines. And it offers compensation management and customizable employee engagement surveys that ADP Run and BambooHR do not.

What are Trinet’s limitations?

Its cumbersome if you have more than 250 employees. TriNet’s platform is clunky, lacking icons to identify different modules in its navigation sidebar quickly. Plus, if you’re a system administrator and want to access TriNet’s self-service features, like clocking in and out, you must reenter modules from an employee’s view. This differs from competitors like BambooHR and Rippling, where the platform changes based on your access level.

Its HR Platform requires more manual legwork. For instance, TriNet’s Compliance Assistance feature monitors federal labor law changes but requires you to input deadlines and tasks related to state and local labor laws. This means HR Platform is not an effective compliance backstop, especially if you have entities and locations in multiple states.

However, if you’re a small business, you may not mind the extra clicks to access various processes, especially when HR Platform offers capabilities typically reserved for human capital management (HCM) systems.

Key features

Time and attendance

TriNet HR Platform includes time and attendance features in all its pricing plans, making it an affordable option if your workforce is comprised primarily of non-exempt, hourly employees. Its time-tracking module also includes scheduling. While it lacks customizable rules or automatic scheduling like When I Work or Homebase, it’s better than manually creating schedules by hand every week.

Here are some of TriNet’s time and attendance features:

• Location-restricted clock-in/clock-out via TriNet Mobile.
• Time theft controls like geolocation and onsite timekeeping kiosk.
• Project-based time tracking.
• Compliance error and overtime alerts.

Reporting and analytics

TriNet HR Platform provides comparable reporting and analytics options to BambooHR, with pre-built report templates available within every module. While this makes it easy to access standard reports as needed, it does make ad hoc reporting tedious. For example, you have to access TriNet’s separate business intelligence (BI) module to create custom reports.

However, the People Analytics tab in TriNet’s BI module lets you create people data visualizations to identify trends in various HR metrics. Real-time report updates save time and reduce the need for additional spreadsheet or BI software subscriptions.

What’s more, TriNet’s People Analytics comes with predictive analytics capable of forecasting outcomes up to one year in advance. Although you need at least two years of data before TriNet can produce a predictive model, you can leverage the models to gauge the effectiveness of various small business functions.

For example, if you’re in a seasonal industry that cycles through hiring and layoffs, you can predict your headcount needs season-by-season. Its attrition predictor can also identify employees at risk of leaving so that you can take proactive measures to train successors. As a result, TriNet can prepare you for workforce shifts that could be difficult to recover from, especially if you have a small staff of key players.

Gallery

TriNet HR Platform homepage. Source: TechnologyAdvice

TriNet HR Platform scheduling module. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Organizational chart in TriNet HR Platform. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Payroll dashboard in TriNet HR Platform. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

TriNet HR Platform offers three plan tiers: Essentials, Growth, and Zen. As you progress through its tiers, you gain access to performance management, compensation management, advanced analytics, and employee engagement features. You also have the option for add-on advisory services, payroll, recruiting, and benefits administration with your own broker.

TriNet HR Platform scored 2.75 out of 5 for pricing, losing points for its lack of a free trial and limited scalability. Although TriNet’s starting price does well compared to vendors like BambooHR and Rippling — especially considering the number of core HR features in its lowest plan — it falls short on customization and automation features to support company growth.

Plus, despite its new home on TriNet’s website following the Zenefits rebranding, you can’t leverage TriNet’s HR outsourcing or professional employer organization (PEO) services while using HR Platform. If you’re interested in those services, they come with a completely different software product and pricing, unlike Rippling’s PEO.

However, if you have 40 employees or fewer, going with TriNet HR Platform’s payroll add-on is less expensive than Gusto’s Plus plan with time tracking. Even then, HR Platform has scheduling capabilities, which Gusto does not. So, if you need simple payroll, benefits, time tracking, and scheduling, HR Platform is the most cost-effective option in my top five list.

TriNet HR Platform subscription plans

Essentials*

Growth*

Zen*

Price

• Billed monthly: $10 PEPM.
• Billed annually: $8 PEPM.

• Billed monthly: $20 PEPM.
• Billed annually: $16 PEPM.

• Billed monthly: $33 PEPM.
• Billed annually: $27 PEPM.

Included modules

• Onboarding.
• Employee management.
• Time off management.
• Scheduling and time tracking.
• Basic reporting and analytics.

Includes everything in Essentials, plus:

• Customizable reports and analytics.
• Prediction trends.
• Compensation management.
• Performance management.

Includes everything in Growth, plus:

• Employee engagement surveys.
• Company announcements and newsfeed.
• Task manager.
• Payroll.

TriNet HR Platform add-on modules

• Payroll: $6 PEPM.
• Advisory services: $8 PEPM.
• Benefits admin using own broker: $5 PEPM.
• Recruiting: Starting at $35/mo.

Note: New customers who subscribe to an annual contract and pay upfront will save 36% on their HR Platform plan for a limited time.

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Rippling: Best for rapidly growing businesses

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Overall score

4.03/5.00

User scores

4.77/5.00

Pricing

3.00/5.00

Platform/interface

4.34/5.00

Core HR

4.19/5.00

Workforce management

4.38/5.00

Talent acquisition

3.78/5.00

Performance management

3.2/5.00

Pros

• Employer of record (EOR) services and dynamic employee profiles for over 150 countries.
• Device management capabilities, including an offsite warehouse for inactive device storage.
• IT and finance products available to consolidate business software applications.
• Advanced workflow creation features to automate rote HR processes.
• Compliance 360 for time and paid leave labor law compliance monitoring both domestically and globally.

Cons

• Payroll, benefits administration, and time tracking are paid add-ons.
• Lacks scheduling, geofencing, and mobile recognition options to support frontline workers.
• Reporting, workflow automations, and notifications can overwhelm small businesses needing plug-and-play solutions.
• Device inventory management limited to the U.S., Canada, and the UK.

Why I chose Rippling

Scoring 4.03 out of 5, Rippling is best if you’re growing quickly and want to avoid switching HR software providers every few years. Rippling offers compliance controls that monitor your HR wage and time policies to ensure they meet regulatory standards, even as you expand to new states or internationally.

Other features create a more cohesive experience for your employees as your workforce becomes more diverse. For example, platform localization in over 150 countries makes employee profiles match regional text, date, and currency formatting. This means the platform feels made for them, even if your headquarters are in the U.S.

Rippling also leverages its IT and finance solutions to serve your distributed teams better. Even if you lack an IT department, you can provision and deprovision company applications and set up, ship, and deploy electronics to your teams. And you can create easy if-then workflows in Rippling to automate onboarding, review cycles, promotion approvals, and report runs for consistent and streamlined processes by entity, location, or department.

Despite this, I wouldn’t recommend Rippling if you’re new to HR software. While the software is easy to navigate, Rippling’s customization options create a steep learning curve for newbies. Its reporting module alone is complicated since the formula language Rippling uses for reports is not a one-on-one comparison to Excel. Creating visualizations also requires a lot of trial and error to get right.

Plus, Rippling focuses on expanding its software capabilities at the expense of its customer service. For instance, you have to pay to access HR phone support. Employees also can’t contact Rippling for questions on their accounts, forcing them to contact you for technical issues.

About Rippling

Rippling is a comprehensive HR platform that focuses on streamlining the operational side of HR. I particularly like its payroll module, which supports multiple currencies, identifies global compliance risks, and automates approval workflows. But beyond payroll, Rippling’s support for benefits administration, recruitment, and performance management meets or exceeds that of other all-in-one HR software competitors.

What makes Rippling stand out?

Employee personnel records are its main data source. Unlike all-in-one platforms that use payroll as the source of your HR data, Rippling uses your employee’s personnel record. This simple change means you don’t have to wait to complete a pay cycle for changes like promotions to update across the platform.

Its modules interconnect. For example, as your workforce grows, you can use Rippling’s headcount planning to prepare for needed roles and control labor costs among various locations. The plan then connects with your recruiting and offboarding modules by automatically creating job requisitions for backfills following staff terminations or new roles based on company needs.

And because your headcount plan has customized approval workflows, this capability:

• Reduces the back-and-forth between hiring stakeholders to keep your team agile. 
• Decreases the time-to-fill recruitment metric since hiring managers can post open jobs and engage with top talent faster.
• Helps strategize and plan for minimum staffing requirements based on your company’s unique growth journey.

What are Rippling’s limitations?

The drawback of Rippling is that the speed at which it adds new features means existing modules are less refined. Here are some examples:

• Global payroll and EOR services are only available in 50 countries, compared to competitors that typically support over 70. 
• There isn’t a sandbox feature for you to test new workflow automations before implementing them company-wide. 
• Rippling’s interface is occasionally glitchy and slow, so you have to start your work over again.

Nevertheless, as a growing company, you may enjoy trying new, modern features without switching vendors or integrating with third-party platforms. In 2023 alone, Rippling released recruiting, headcount planning, and performance management features to continue building its strategic HR capabilities.

New Feed and Goals features

As of April 2024, Rippling discontinued its Google Chrome Employee Home extension. The good news is that you can now access its News Feed app, which appears as a new “Feed” tab on Rippling’s homepage. It functions as a central communication hub to share company announcements, praise peers, and view calendar events like birthdays and who is out of the office. Rippling also released its Goals module and performance review calibration feature to support OKRs, cascading goals, and performance rating consistency.

Key features

Support for global workforces

Rippling differentiates itself from other global payroll vendors by providing a native way for you to hire and pay international contractors and employees within the platform. Even its EOR services are a result of Rippling-owned entities in 50 countries. By comparison, many U.S.-based competitors rely on partnerships or integrations to accomplish this.

For instance, Gusto’s EOR services result from its partnership with Remote. And ADP’s ability to accommodate payroll in over 140 countries is because it works with outside local entities. This can result in data silos and employee payroll processing delays because of a lack of control over these vendors.

Instead, you can stay entirely within Rippling to manage your international workforce. You can move from paying your international contingent workforce to subscribing to Rippling’s EOR services to managing global workers through your own entities. Rippling’s Compliance 360 tool even monitors wage and hour violations, including employee misclassifications, reducing the chances of labor law violations in unfamiliar locations.

Housing your domestic and international employee data in one place allows you to drill down on cross-country data points. You can use your locations as an attribution to monitor labor costs and employee engagement and sentiment. The data can serve as a way to track the success of your expansion and what you can do to improve employee satisfaction in different cultural climates.

Flexible PEO

Rippling offers PEO services for U.S. businesses that want to offload HR administrative services to focus on the day-to-day operations of managing their business. Although Rippling is not the only HR vendor to provide both HR technology and services, it is one of the most flexible on the market.

Rippling lets you choose when and how often you need its PEO capabilities. For example, as a small business, you may want the extra support of a PEO. Rippling’s PEO can help you establish your leave policies, streamline your payroll, and even provide you with affordable, high-tier benefits and workers’ compensation policies for your employees.

When you grow and hire more HR staff, handling payroll, benefits, and workforce management processes becomes more cost-effective in-house. Instead of providing cancellation notice and potentially paying fees if you terminate your PEO contract early, Rippling lets you turn on and off its PEO service directly within the platform. You can continue using the Rippling platform even after you cancel its PEO services.

Competitor PEOs don’t offer the same service flexibility. For example, Justworks PEO requires you to house your PEO and EOR employees on separate platforms after acquiring Via. Rippling is the better option if you expect your outsourcing needs to change frequently.

Gallery

Homepage in Rippling. Source: TechnologyAdvice

U.S. payroll overview dashboard in Rippling. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Global payroll dashboard in Rippling. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Organizational chart in Rippling. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Setting up a workflow to send a report automatically in Rippling. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

All Rippling customers must purchase its core Rippling Unity platform before accessing modules in its HR, IT, or Finance clouds. Rippling Unity also has four plan tiers based on the number of workflows, advanced reporting, and integration capabilities you need.

Although its base plan starts at $8 PEPM, prepare to pay more based on the Unity plan, add-on modules, and HR services you need. Rippling may also add a monthly base price, depending on your company’s circumstances. Most third-party sources state its base price starts at $35 per month.

Rippling scored 3 out of 5 for pricing, only slightly better than TriNet HR Platform and BambooHR. This is because Rippling includes far more scalable features and options than either platform. Its compensation reviews, headcount planning, salary bands, and IT device management also make it a more capable solution for midsize companies with distributed workforces.

However, if you only need essential HR functions like payroll and benefits administration, you should expect to pay more than alternatives like Gusto and TriNet. Fluctuating headcounts are also expensive because Rippling charges you based on your highest number of active employees, reimbursing you only for temporary employees that separate within 90 days.

Nevertheless, Rippling may be more cost-effective than switching or integrating with third-party solutions for more advanced options.

Rippling Unity subscription tiers

Pricing starters at $8 PEPM.

Core

Pro

Unlimited

Enterprise

Includes:

• Global organizational chart.
• Global workforce analytics.
• Permissions and access control.
• Approval management.
• Document and policy management.
• Compliance management.
• Salary banding.
• PTO and leave management.
• Localization for 150+ countries.
• Customized workflows (for onboarding only).

Includes everything Core, plus:

• Customized workflows (for any event).
• Up to 10 workflows.
• Up to 10 formula fields in reports.
• Up to 10 reports that join data from three or more sources.
• Integrate with Slack for approvals and sending messages.
• Integrate with Microsoft Teams for sending messages.
• Create and send calendar invites.
• Scheduled reports.

Includes everything in Pro, plus:

• Unlimited customized workflows.
• Unlimited formula fields.
• Unlimited advanced reports.
• Webhooks.

Includes everything in Unlimited, plus:

• Access to Rippling’s API.

Rippling add-on modules

HR Cloud

IT Cloud

Finance Cloud

Additional services

• U.S. and global payroll.
• Benefits administration.
• Time and attendance.
• Flex benefits (FSA, HSA, and commuter).
• ACA and COBRA administration.
• Recruiting.
• Learning management.
• Surveys (employee engagement).
• Headcount planning.
• Performance management.

• App management.
• Device management.
• Inventory management.

• Corporate cards.
• Expense management.
• Bill pay.

• HR Help Desk (HR support).
• PEO services.
• ASO.
• Global employer of record services.

*Note: Rippling currently offers a one-month free subscription if you sign up within six weeks. This is subject to end anytime, so please check its website for the latest.

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Paycor: Best for midsize businesses

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Overall score

3.64/5.00

User scores

4.05/5.00

Pricing

2.19/5.00

Platform/interface

3.71/5.00

Core HR

3.6/5.00

Workforce management

4.44/5.00

Talent acquisition

3.78/5.00

Performance management

3.13/5.00

Pros

• Physical time clocks to support more accurate time punches for onsite workers.
• Earned wage access (EWA) options to give employees access to their funds sooner and support financial wellness.
• Risk assessment team to prepare against cybersecurity threats and monitor and update the system against data vulnerabilities.
• AI-powered advanced analytics.
• 14-day free trial demo on HR, payroll, onboarding, and time modules.

Cons

• Expensive solution for small businesses.
• Does not support international operations.
• Several core HR features are reserved for higher plans and add-ons, like onboarding, benefits administration, leave management, and customizable reports.

Why I chose Paycor

With a 3.64 out of 5 score, midsize businesses will like Paycor’s breadth of offerings that support core HR and long-term business objectives. I was particularly impressed with its support for complex payroll cadences, like shift differentials, plus its modules pinpointing employee engagement and retention.

For example, Paycor’s compensation management module lets you monitor pay equity as your company becomes more diverse and segmented. Meanwhile, its learning management system (LMS), performance, and feedback features facilitate consistent training cadences across the company while giving employees room to develop professionally in the areas that interest them.

Despite this, Paycor is confusing to navigate and requires more training during the implementation process. Many of its modules outside of payroll lack refinement compared to standalone solutions, including its HRIS, document creation, chat function, and employee recognition functions. Even so, Paycor’s customization and cross-module people analytics make it a worthy choice for more complicated business needs.

About Paycor

Despite the name, Paycor is a full-scale HR platform that offers more than just payroll. Its features range from onboarding to talent acquisition, analytics, and learning and development (L&D). This makes Paycor best suited for midsize businesses needing flexible, tactical HR functions.

What makes Paycor stand out?

Paycor’s features are customizable enough to support businesses in various industries. Geolocation, geofencing, and mobile kiosks prevent time theft and buddy punching for field employees. Its scheduling module outdoes TriNet’s, with features like budget controls and availability rules to support shift workers in retail, hospitality, and manufacturing industries.

Other versatile features of Paycor include:

• Desktop and mobile chat functions so deskless employees can reach out to teammates, even if they lack their contact information.
• Customized overtime policies to accommodate employees in various states plus any collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).
• Benefits advisor to help employees determine the right insurance plan for them during open enrollment.
• In-app company newsfeed and recognition modules for cross-company communication and public praise.
• ACA, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), ERISA, applicant flow, and Equal Employee Opportunity (EEO) data tracking in the event of a government audit.

What are Paycor’s limitations?

Its interface is difficult to navigate. Most of Paycor’s modules display data in a spreadsheet similar to UKG Ready, making for a dated appearance. As a result, it may take longer to familiarize yourself with the platform, especially if you’re transitioning from more beginner-friendly software like BambooHR or Gusto.

It can’t support international teams. Despite its in-app compliance controls and alerts, Paycor cannot support your international teams. Instead, you’ll have to integrate with one of its global payroll partners or choose to manage your international operations through a third party. I’d look to Rippling or UKG Ready instead if your company has global ambitions.

Key features

Customizable pay grid

Paycor uses an advanced spreadsheet-like interface to run payroll. Its pay grid organizes payroll attributes in columns arranged by employee name. Columns typically include data like an employee’s regular rate of pay plus regular and overtime hours. But you can also add columns for information unique to your company, like commission pay, bonuses, PTO accruals, or equipment deductions.

Once you modify the pay grid view for your company and integrate it with Paycor’s time and attendance module, it’s possible to complete payroll faster than others, including Rippling. This is because all payroll adjustments occur on one screen instead of a multi-step workflow.

Another great feature is the ability to review and edit payrolls far in advance. For example, say you plan to issue employee holiday bonuses two months from now. You can add the pay code and amount to that particular pay cycle in advance so you don’t forget.

However, Paycor’s pay grid can also hurt payroll efficiency. This is because it expects you to be familiar with your company’s pay practices to customize the grid to fit your needs. While a midsize business will like the flexibility to add, remove, and change payroll data on any pay run at will, small companies developing their pay practices will find it hard to follow.

Did you know?

Paycor’s pay grid is great for users who want more control over their company’s pay processes. Its AutoRun feature, multiple pay schedule support, and ability to run off-cycle pay runs at your convenience rival competitors like Rippling, Gusto, and ADP Workforce Now.

Coupled with its powerful mobile app, Paycor is a worthy choice for companies with both frontline and remote employees. Check out how it compares against competitors in our buyer’s guides below:

• Payroll Software Guide.
• Best HR Apps.

Manager talent development

Paycor offers several modules that work together to support managers in leadership training and career development:

• Paycor Paths lets managers launch leadership and pulse surveys to their direct reports to understand the behaviors that drive engagement and productivity.
• Leadership scores highlight each manager’s strengths and opportunities for improvement.
• Coaching tips and resources help managers make behavioral changes and strengthen their soft skills.

For example, managers struggling to give effective feedback may want opportunities to improve their communication skills. Paycor will walk them through lessons on feedback and send feedback requests to direct reports. It also tracks and suggests how to set up effective one-on-one meetings and recognize others.

This can be a major contributor to employee retention efforts for your midsize businesses. Strong managers are more likely to successfully align their teams with bigger-picture company objectives, inspire teamwork, and reduce the chance of burnout, turnover, and job hopping.

Gallery

Paycor homepage. Source: TechnologyAdvice

People dashboard in Paycor. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Paycor’s payroll review dashboard. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Paycor’s recognition dashboard in its performance module.

Paycor’s time off requests calendar view. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

Paycor has two pricing schemes based on the size of your company. If you have fewer than 50 employees, you can choose from four small-business plans: Basic, Essential, Core, and Complete. Pricing starts at $99 per month plus $6 PEPM.

If you have between 50 and 1,000 employees, you can access Paycor’s mid-market plans. Pricing depends on your employee count and the modules you need.

Paycor only received a 2.19 out of 5 for pricing. Although it is the only product on my shortlist with a 14-day free trial, it lost points for offering one of the most expensive small business plans. For context, Gusto starts at $40 per month plus $6 PEPM for single-state payroll. It also includes onboarding, time-off management, and Gusto-brokered health insurance benefits that Paycor doesn’t. 

While small businesses might balk at Paycor’s prices, this may not be a big issue for a midsize company. It might be worth the extra cost to unite all your HR functions on one platform to drive process efficiency, especially if you’re using multiple standalone platforms to manage your people needs.

Still, be prepared to sign a 24-month contract if you decide to take advantage of any Paycor promotions or risk cancellation penalties.

Paycor subscription tiers

Basic

Essential

Core

Complete

Starts at $99 per month plus $6 PEPM.

• Federal, state, and local tax filings.
• Client-managed garnishments.
• Check stuffing.
• Basic reporting (pre-built reports and scheduled reporting).
• New hire filing.
• On-demand pay.
• AutoRun payroll.
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC).

Includes everything in Basic, plus:

• Labor law posters.
• Onboarding.
• Time off management.
• Report builder.
• Job costing.
• 401(k) integrations and EDI processing.
• General ledger report and electronic GL.
• E-Verify service.
• Recruit and hire.
• Basic analytics.
• HR support center.

Includes everything in Essential, plus:

• On-demand HR support.
• Expense management.
• Employee import.
• HR, COR leadership, and engage modules.

Includes everything in Core, plus:

• Career management.
• Compensation planning.
• Talent development.

Paycor add-on modules

• Workers’ compensation.
• Time and scheduling.
• Benefits administration.
• Recruiting.

Note: Paycor offers a 50% discount on all its small business plans for the first six months, plus waived setup fees. For its mid-market tier, you can get HCM Cor free for one month, which includes payroll, HR, onboarding, and analytics modules.

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UKG Ready: Best for robust analytics

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Overall score

3.99/5.00

User scores

3.86/5.00

Pricing

1.13/5.00

Platform/interface

3.94/5.00

Core HR

4.81/5.00

Workforce management

4.73/5.00

Talent acquisition

4.69/5.00

Performance management

4.63/5.00

Pros

• Modules covering strategic HR processes like succession planning, employee development, skills gap analysis, and compensation management.
• Advanced recruiting with résumé parsing, knockout questions, pre-employment assessments, and sentiment analysis.
• Access to UKG products supporting industry-specific needs, like time and scheduling solutions for casinos, healthcare, public safety, and government contractors.
• UKG Bryte generative AI for action planning, Q&As, and workforce insights.

Cons

• Complicated user interface requiring significant training.
• Does not reveal pricing.
• Lacks human resources outsourcing (HRO), PEO, or EOR services.
• Users report implementation typically takes longer than expected.

Why I chose UKG Ready

UKG Ready may have only received a 3.99 out of 5, just a hair below Rippling’s 4.03, but don’t let that dissuade you. Its powerful analytics and real-time reporting are leagues ahead of other SMB HR platforms on this list. In fact, UKG Ready’s customizable reporting dashboards and charts in every module make it stand out as a platform personalized to each business rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

This is especially important for midsize businesses with increasingly diverse operations by location, department, and team. UKG Ready accommodates these through support for multiple business entities, highly configurable settings and access controls, and industry-specific data collection. As a result, it’s flexible enough to support businesses with a mix of in-office and deskless employees, unlike Rippling’s very tech-focused solution.

However, UKG Ready is not the best if you need an immediate HR solution. Implementation is slow, requiring significant training and customization to fit your business operations. The UI is complicated, with some tasks as simple as inactivating an employee taking minutes to complete. And it doesn’t have HR outsourcing (HRO), PEO, or EOR services if you want to offload or share some of your HR responsibilities.

But for a platform targeting midsize businesses, UKG Ready’s access to high-tier analytics features, including narrative generative AI insights, makes it an effective solution for big-picture business strategy and planning.

About UKG Ready

UKG Ready is UKG’s all-in-one HR solution for mid-to-large-sized businesses. While it can support teams with fewer than 100 employees, UKG Ready is better suited for companies looking to automate HR operations for a larger workforce and gather holistic insights into their people talent.

What makes UKG Ready stand out?

It streamlines data collection and analysis capabilities. System administrators, for example, can access vast amounts of employee user data in UKG Ready, from login attempts and password changes to approval workflows and compliance tracking. Besides strong recordkeeping for workers’ compensation (WC) and Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) audits, it also allows you to comply with laws on time off, OSHA injury reporting, and ACA eligibility.

Its modules function as customizable reports. Navigating UKG Ready’s modules involves manipulating spreadsheets in real-time to fit your needs. For example, instead of a list of employees and their contact information like in BambooHR, UKG Ready’s staff directory is a spreadsheet of employee data fields of your choosing.

In addition to filtering and sorting the spreadsheet, you can add and remove columns representing any employee data field, change your default view, or save multiple views for quick reference. It also unifies data across modules like payroll, benefits administration, and performance management.

For instance, instead of running a termination report for the last three months, I can modify my employee roster to display terminated employees in the previous 90 days and save it as a view. Unlike TriNet HR Platform, I don’t need to run a report and download it to view in a spreadsheet program, so I can act on insights faster.

What are UKG Ready’s limitations?

It has a huge learning curve. Because UKG Ready’s UI does not mimic other HR platforms or social media sites, expect it to take longer for your HR team to learn.

Support for global teams requires a separate product. You will need to purchase UKG One View to process international payroll since it does not integrate with third-party providers. One View itself is a recent addition to UKG’s product line following its acquisition of Immedis in 2023.

That said, UKG Ready provides one of the strongest platforms for compliance controls, workforce planning, and talent management. It outshines Rippling and Paycor’s data collection processes, making it easier for your midsize business to make informed decisions about expansion, workplace safety programs, and employee happiness initiatives.

Did you know?

UKG Ready targets midsize businesses with two to 1,000 employees, but you may notice lag times and process inefficiencies as your headcount approaches the upper limit.

If this is you, learn more about UKG’s mid-enterprise HCM product, UKG Pro, in our UKG vs. ADP deep dive. Or, explore other top enterprise-grade software in The Best Enterprise HR Software & Solutions.

Key features

Dynamic report views and visualizations

UKG Ready categorizes its data across the platform using a series of reports and analytics dashboards. It is unique because it updates these reports in real time without opening results in new application windows or waiting for runs to process.

Like BambooHR, you can customize UKG’s homepage with a selection of widgets that are important to you. However, UKG Ready allows you to add pre-built widgets alongside custom-made reports and charts. As a result, you can skip building and running reports for data you access often, such as the cost of your most recent payroll.

UKG Ready uses a similar process when you move across different modules or “domains.” You can customize each module’s homepage with widgets and charts to your liking, and you can dive deeper into any of these items simply by clicking on them.

You can also change the access settings of any report, chart, and view across the platform. Beyond giving you access to what you need quicker, distributed teams can work or view data in similar environments. It also enables specialization within your HR department, creating spaces for effective work among recruiters, payroll specialists, benefits administrators, and L&D teams.

Analytics for strategic business goals

UKG Ready includes several enterprise-grade analytics that far outdo most small and midsize HR solutions.

Its AI capabilities unite data from across the platform for more compelling insights. For example, UKG Ready’s succession planning module draws data from recruitment, onboarding, offboarding, performance, and learning modules to suggest and predict relevant replacements and flight risks in critical roles. It also creates nine-box matrices to categorize employees’ potential and readiness for roles based on competency levels.

You can also use UKG Bryte, its generative AI assistant, to aid in strategic business planning. Bryte analyzes your company data to understand the reasons impacting productivity and employee sentiment, like low work-life balance and fatigue. You can even ask it to offer suggestions for solving issues, like how to improve scheduling practices to reduce burnout.

Paycor offers similar analytics capabilities, but its AI assistant is limited to workforce data analysis instead of a two-way conversation. As a result, HR professionals using Paycor may need to perform more manual steps to solve issues than UKG Ready, which can diagnose, plan, and implement changes much faster.

Gallery

UKG Ready timesheet dashboard with employee fatigue analysis. Source: UKG Ready

UKG Ready time homepage. Source: UKG Ready

UKG Ready recruitment homepage. Source: UKG Ready

UKG Ready goals tracking. Source: UKG Ready

UKG Ready payroll checklist. Source: UKG Ready

Pricing

UKG Ready does not disclose its pricing online, so you will have to contact it for a customized quote. Like Paycor’s mid-market tier, pricing depends on your employee headcount and the modules you need. You may also be required to pay an implementation fee, which is a percentage of your annual software fee. Third-party sources indicate that UKG typically bills its subscription fees quarterly or annually.

Because UKG Ready lacks a free trial, monthly billing, and transparent pricing, it performed the worst on our list for pricing, scoring only 1.13 out of 5. Given its features and customization, you should expect a much higher PEPM price than most alternatives.

However, as a midsize business, you may be less concerned with price and more concerned with the HR platform’s functionality and potential to improve process inefficiency. For instance, UKG Ready’s automated workflows and generative AI capabilities can speed up HR action planning, making it cheaper in the long term than hiring staff to tackle these projects.

If UKG Ready seems right for you, remember that you can negotiate your price, and you may even have access to promotions and discounts based on your headcount and industry. Many HR vendors typically offer reduced pricing for non-profits, for example.

Below are the different modules that UKG Ready offers:

UKG Ready available modules

HR

Payroll

Talent

Time and attendance

• Onboarding.
• Self-service.
• Benefits administration.
• ACA management.
• COBRA administration.

• Compliance.
• Insights.
• Tax services.

• ATS.
• Succession planning.
• Compensation.
• Performance management.
• Learning management.

• Timekeeping.
• Absence tracking.
• Leave management.
• Compliance rules management.

Analytics

• Automated schedules.
• AI suggestions.
• Compliance guidelines management.

• Reporting.
• AI insights.
• Benchmarks.
• Sentiment analysis.

Special price package that includes:

• HR.
• Payroll.
• Timekeeping.
• 100-day implementation timeline.

Note: Paycor offers a 50% discount on all its small business plans for the first six months, plus waived setup fees. For its mid-market tier, you can get HCM Cor free for one month, which includes payroll, HR, onboarding, and analytics modules.

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Honorable mentions

Many platforms I reviewed have great features that might better appeal to your particular needs. If the above platforms don’t quite fit, check out my runners-up.

Gusto: Best for small businesses new to HR software

Alternative for: BambooHR and TriNet HR Platform

When to choose Gusto: Gusto provides easy step-by-step instructions and implementation services to set up your business and HR workflows for the first time. Gusto-brokered benefits, tax notice investigations, and state tax registration services are particularly noteworthy if you’re a startup with an administrative team of one and need support developing compliant business and people operations.

Why it didn’t make the list: Gusto’s bare-bones system is excellent if you’re a small business, but its reporting module lacks tools to craft custom visualizations for more detailed data insights. Its employee-training feature is also limited to state-mandated anti-harassment courses while onboarding workflows are little more than to-do lists sent to various stakeholders. As a result, expect more manual data entry than competitors like BambooHR and TriNet HR Platform.

Our Rating:  3.51/5

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Did you know?

Gusto is slowly expanding its international payroll capabilities through its partnership with Remote. It currently offers EOR services in Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom and expects to roll out to more countries soon. This is welcome news if you want to transition your international contractors into full-time employees.

RUN Powered by ADP: Best for small business payroll

Alternative for: BambooHR

When to choose ADP Run: If you have fewer than 50 employees and only need payroll, then ADP Run is your best bet. Besides multi-state payroll support on all tiers, your accounting or payroll specialists can run payroll on the go using the ADP Run mobile app. You can also offer your employees on-demand pay through its Wisely debit card alongside financial wellness tools similar to Paycor.

Why it didn’t make the list: ADP Run becomes costly if you have multiple pay schedules since it charges per payroll. While it offers an ATS, basic HR forms, a handbook creation wizard, and HR support in its higher plans, they’re lackluster compared to BambooHR. It also requires running processes like performance reviews and engagement surveys off the platform, preventing you from moving your people operations to a wholly digital environment.

Our Rating: 3.48/5

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Zoho People: Best for affordability

Alternative for: Rippling

When to choose Zoho People: Zoho People offers various modules to support most of your HR needs, including advanced workflow automations, recruiting, reports, analytics, and a learning management system (LMS). You can access all of these features at an extremely competitive price. Its highest tier, People Plus, costs $9 PEPM, only one dollar more than Rippling’s least expensive Rippling Unity Core plan. And, if you’re really on a budget, Zoho People also has a free plan.

Learn more: How Much Does HR Software Cost?

Why it didn’t make the list: Zoho People includes a lot of functionality at a great price, but its platform is clunky and confusing. Users report that customer service is unhelpful, and you have to perform software data migration and implementation yourself. Plus, Zoho People only offers payroll support in 21 states and requires you to file payroll taxes yourself.

Our Rating: 3.18/5

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Why do small businesses need HR software?

Human resource software helps HR teams at small businesses stay organized with hiring, training, and managing employees. HR software solutions do this by providing a central interface to manage and even automate these different functions.

HR software also offloads tasks from HR staff to employees by offering self-service portals. There, employees can view and edit their personal information, make changes to their benefits, or connect with coworkers.

Why do medium-sized businesses need HR software?

Medium-sized businesses require HR software that can accommodate their growing workforces and handle more complex automations. As a result, most medium-sized HR software solutions offer enhanced reporting features, internal ATS or recruitment support, and robust workforce management features, including performance management.

These HR tools aid organizations in transitioning from purely operational HR processes to more strategic ones to keep the business growing.

Also read: HRIS vs. HRMS vs. HCM: What Is the Difference?

Types of HR software and tools SMBs need

Human resource software allows HR teams at SMBs to manage and automate core and strategic HR functions, including:

• Payroll.
• Benefits administration.
• Time tracking.
• Recruiting.
• Performance management.

Also read: 14-Must Have HR System Features

The right combination of functionalities will depend on your size, industry, and needs. For example, smaller businesses often can’t afford to purchase a fully integrated human resources information system (HRIS) platform that bundles all core HR features together.

However, as you grow, comprehensive HR platforms become more cost-effective, secure, and user-friendly than stitching together disparate apps.

How to choose the right HR software for small and medium businesses

Small and medium businesses need HR software to automate rote HR operations, like paystub delivery, so their small or non-existent HR teams can focus on higher-priority work. They also need solutions that provide the flexibility to quickly add or remove features as their needs evolve.

Our picks below help you with the above, plus emphasize particular focus areas to satisfy your needs:

• Choose BambooHR if you’re a small business needing an easy-to-use product with pre-defined HR workflows.
• Select TriNet HR Platform if you want an affordable platform covering all small business core HR processes.
• Pick Rippling if you’re experiencing rapid growth and need customizable features to support your changing business operations.
• Go with Paycor if you’re a midsize U.S. business looking for more advanced modules across the employee life cycle. 
• Select UKG Ready if you’re a midsize business requiring more advanced analytics for strategic people operation planning.

If you’re still unsure what the best solution is for your company, explore our HR Software Guide for a list of options that fit your needs.

The post Best Human Resources (HR) Software for Small Businesses in 2024 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

What is an employee wellness program?

Employee wellness programs are initiatives by companies to improve their workers’ physical, mental, financial, and intellectual well-being. Companies may use wellness programs as an employee engagement strategy, like facilitating activities during National Wellness Month in August, or as a part of their employees’ larger benefits package. 

Traditional wellness programs, like company-wide weight loss contests, biometric screenings, and dieting, usually focus on improving employees’ physical health. The idea is to promote healthy habits and a more productive workforce through shared challenges that foster company camaraderie and accountability.

However, wellness programs like these often do more harm than good. For example, wellness programs that emphasize weight loss and diet changes can promote harmful stereotypes, like weight stigma. What’s more, they can actually demotivate employees, encourage unrealistic goal setting, and negatively affect employee mental health.

However, if implemented correctly, holistic wellness programs targeting the entire spectrum of well-being can be a positive move for your company. Besides providing diverse options for employees, they are more inclusive since they help employees wherever they are in their wellness journeys.

For example, Mark McShane, Managing Director of AED Training, found that offering a variety of wellness activities that addressed different needs and interests increased employee satisfaction by 15%.

The most common holistic wellness programs include initiatives from the following dimensions of human well-being:

• Physical.
• Mental and emotional.
• Financial.
• Intellectual.

You may consider offering wellness programs that also cover the social, occupational, and environmental aspects of well-being for a more well-rounded approach.

Benefits of employee wellness programs

Wellness programs provide major benefits for your business and workforce alike. Some of the main ones include:

• Improves work-life balance or integration.
• Attracts top talent.
• Retains talent longer.
• Strengthens company culture.
• Increases productivity.
• Decreases health risks.

Improves work-life balance or integration

Wellness programs make it easier to balance work and life responsibilities. For example, financial planning and counseling programs can lower employees’ stress related to personal financial or emotional insecurity, which may indirectly impact work performance. By managing these stressors, employees can better reinforce work-life boundaries for more focused work.

Alternatively, wellness programs can make it easier to integrate work and life. For instance, onsite fitness centers, nap pods, and meditation rooms give employees the flexibility to leave work to pursue personal wellness goals and return to work as needed.

The point is that wellness programs allow employees to craft lifestyles that work for them, especially in an increasingly remote-friendly world.

Attracts top talent

According to Transamerica Institute’s 2023 Stepping Into the Future study, 70% of employees find offering workplace wellness programs important, but only 34% of employers do. In a highly competitive job market, including wellness programs as part of your total rewards package can help your recruiters market your positions to the best talent.

Retains talent longer

Employees with access to wellness programs meaningful to them are more inclined to stay with your company long-term. This is because wellness programs lead to more engaged and satisfied employees when you provide ways for them to meet their physical, psychological, emotional, social, and intellectual needs. And with an engaged workforce, retention increases since there is less incentive for workers to leave.

Strengthens company culture

Your wellness programs can reinforce your company’s values and culture. For example, company-wide wellness events, like community volunteering and meditation, can foster teamwork and positive working relationships. You can even use your diverse wellness offerings to showcase your support for the diverse and nuanced employee experience, making employees from various walks of life feel heard and seen in the workplace.

Increases productivity

With wellness programs that address all areas of employee health and happiness, employees are more likely to produce their best work. Some also argue that wellness programs reduce employee absenteeism since they tend to be healthier. While certainly a factor, it is much more complex than this. In reality, wellness programs provide employees the tools to recognize and address their needs to adapt, prioritize, and focus better on the work that positively impacts the company’s bottom line.

Decreases health risks

Wellness programs that target the various dimensions of employee well-being are more likely to decrease health risks in those areas. For example, tobacco cessation programs lower employees’ risk of cancer, counseling reduces the likelihood of a mental health crisis, and employee resource groups (ERGs) decrease feelings of social isolation and marginalization. 

While decreased health risks for your employees can certainly increase your company’s productivity and profitability, as well as lower employee healthcare costs, it also empowers your employees to live happy and more fulfilled lives.

Examples of wellness programs

Physical wellness programs

Physical wellness programs target the healthy function of bodily systems, like musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and digestive, plus regulate sleep cycles.

Health reimbursements and stipends

Reimbursements or stipends for various physical health activities are popular employee wellness programs. They could include reimbursing employees for gym memberships, fitness classes, or personal trainers. You may also consider reimbursements and stipends for less traditional health options, like reiki, massage, yoga, pilates, and acupuncture sessions or courses.

One drawback of these wellness programs is that they can be expensive for smaller companies. For example, according to Compt’s 2024 Lifestyle Benefits Benchmarking Report, reimbursement claim amounts for health and wellness can cost between $79 and $109. If this is too expensive, try looking for healthcare plans with some of these options included, such as gym discounts.

Fitness and nutrition resources

Fitness and nutrition resources include a range of options, including the following:

• 100% employer-paid onsite or virtual fitness or nutrition classes.
• Free vaccinations.
• Nutrition counseling.
• Tobacco cessation groups.
• Onsite healthy snacks.
• Partnering with local food vendors for more diverse food options.
• Health applications.

Resources like the above can be less expensive than reimbursements. This is because you only pay for one group class at a time rather than multiple employee reimbursement claims.

However, these may disadvantage remote employees since they don’t have access to the same perks. Mobile health applications like Personify Health (formerly Virgin Pulse and HealthComp) and Wellable can democratize fitness and nutrition resources for your workforce. For example, these applications can offer personalized fitness tracking, coaching, and better navigation of healthcare benefits.

Whatever you decide to offer, remember to make these resources optional, not prescriptive. You may not be aware of individual employees’ physical and food journeys, so forcing company-wide fitness class attendance and eating health campaigns can negatively impact employee morale and their physical and mental health.

Plus, you could violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by forcing particular protected groups to participate, such as those with:

• Personal, cultural, regional, or religious objections.
• Allergy or dietary restrictions.

Personify Health (Virgin Pulse) lets employees craft personalized wellness goals and earn points toward rewards. Source: Virgin Pulse

Wellable offers employees a variety of options to manage their physical health, like classes, challenges, and fitness analytics. Source: Wellable

Mental wellness programs

Mental wellness programs focus on employees’ emotional and psychological health. Initiatives revolve around employees’ ability to cope with stress, manage work and life, express and read others’ emotions, maintain relationships, and contribute to society.

Counseling

Luckily, most modern employee healthcare plans include support for counseling and other forms of psychotherapy. If they don’t, you should invest in counseling services as part of your employees’ total rewards packages. This may include onsite individual or group counseling sessions or reimbursement for therapy sessions to make them more affordable for your employees.

Despite significant strides, seeking help for mental or emotional problems is still uncomfortable for many. Employees’ backgrounds, such as gender, age, culture, religion, or ethnicity, can also affect their receptiveness to counseling.

Offering some of these services onsite or virtually can remove barriers for employees hesitant to seek help during off-work hours. However, remember your responsibility as an employer to HIPAA confidentiality should you decide to facilitate any of these sessions onsite or virtually.

Mindfulness breaks

Company-wide short breaks for mindfulness sessions, like guided meditation and breathing exercises, can give employees’ minds a short rest from the day-to-day. You may also consider creating mindfulness or quiet rooms onsite to facilitate these breaks. Besides helping with employees’ mental health, they also provide inclusive and sensory-friendly spaces for neurodivergent workers.

Studies prove the positive effects intermittent mindfulness breaks can have on humans. For example, several studies published by the National Library of Medicine indicate that mindfulness breaks reduce stress, anxiety, and emotional reactivity.

McShane notes the impact of offering mindfulness sessions and other mental health resources, like counseling and stress management workshops, on his employees. “In two years, we saw a 20% stress-reporting reduction from employees,” he says. Combined with participating in other wellness program initiatives in the company, McShane says team collaboration also improved since less stressed employees tend to work better together.

Mental health and mindfulness applications

Similar to physical fitness wellness applications, there are several applications available to assist employees on their mental health journeys. Depending on your employee demographic, you can give them access to mobile applications to manage stress, regulate meditation and sleep schedules, or provide employee assistance program (EAP) resources.

For example, TechnologyAdvice reimburses us for our annual subscription to Headspace. Through the application, we can access guided meditation lessons and other courses to help with stress, anxiety, and sleep management. Headspace and other applications, like Calm, also provide business subscriptions that give employees access to their app and mindfulness classes.These apps can be a great way to give employees the tools to personalize their mental health journeys without worrying about cost. It also allows employees to manage their emotions and burnout privately.

Headspace gives employees access to meditation courses that they can customize to fit their daily schedules. Source: Headspace

Employees have access to on-demand meditation, relaxation, and anxiety reduction courses on its mobile app. Source: Calm

Financial wellness programs

Financial wellness programs involve initiatives to help employees manage their income, expenses, and debts effectively.

On-demand pay

On-demand pay, also known as earned wage access (EWA), gives employees access to their money as soon as they earn it rather than waiting for the next payday. If you are a large enough company, you may have the HR staff to make on-demand pay a regular pay schedule for your company. Alternatively, you can give employees access to EWA through payroll software providers like ADP.

On-demand pay can be a lifesaver for employees facing financial insecurity, hardship, or unexpected expenses. Because employees have already earned the money, it is much easier to access than alternative (and often predatory) sources like payday loans. Moreover, offering this benefit costs little to nothing since the software automatically reconciles the amounts due to employees on their next regularly scheduled payday.

Financial counseling and planning

Financial counseling and planning give employees the opportunity to speak with expert advisors about their financial situation. These sessions allow employees to plan ahead for future large expenses, such as purchasing a house, retirement, education, and college tuition for their children. The services can also assist employees in making the most of their company-sponsored 401(k) and pension or non-retirement investments.Offering on-demand financial planning services can come at a steep price per employee. Luckily, your 401(k) plan administrators typically provide your employees with free financial counseling services, courses, and seminars. Alternatively, your payroll providers may also have services you can leverage. Paycor, for example, connects employees with financial advisors plus offers on-demand financial learning courses directly from its mobile HR application.

Intellectual wellness programs

Intellectual wellness programs focus on providing fulfillment and enrichment to employees through educational, cultural, and community participation endeavors.

Tuition reimbursements

Tuition reimbursements help employees pay for higher education goals by lowering the cost of their overall education expenses. You may offer this benefit to any employee interested in achieving a degree in a field of their choice, or you may add particular eligibility requirements.

For example, you could make tuition coverage based on the employee’s grade point average, the courses they take, or both. While this is one strategy to ensure your education investment goes far, especially if they take courses related to their role or field, be sure first to have a conversation with the employee about expectations. Sometimes, allowing employees to pursue their personal intellectual interests can reap benefits for you, like innovative ideas to address current company pain points.

Company library

A company library is a low-cost way to foster personal and professional development. The library itself can function much like a real one, with employees checking out books for a limited time and returning them before the end of that period.

You may also consider making your library digital by offering book summaries on your learning management system (LMS) or purchasing a subscription to services like OverDrive and BookFusion. This can help democratize your remote employees’ access to your library and make it easier for them to see content in their preferred format.

Your company library can offer books on various topics, from technical skills training to self-help and popular fiction. The goal should be to satisfy employees’ intellectual curiosities and keep them energized and motivated in their work.

How to implement an employee wellness program

Implementing an employee wellness program is a collaborative effort between employees, HR teams, and executives. It starts with researching what will be the most beneficial for your employee demographic before budgeting and execution.

1. Evaluate the needs of your employees

Employees should be the driving force behind your wellness programs, not you. While you may want to use Wellness Month to raise awareness of the various dimensions of human well-being or sponsor a company wellness challenge, your workers should decide on your wellness initiatives.

The best way to determine what your employees want is to ask. A company-wide benefits and wellness survey can be your research starting point. Many employee engagement platforms facilitate this, allowing you to ask specific questions about wellness program interests. Culture Amp, for example, offers employee well-being and benefits survey templates to start the process.

2. Designate a wellness committee

Consider appointing a wellness committee once you have a few wellness program ideas of interest. The committee’s sole duty will be to research, evaluate, budget, implement, and advocate for the new wellness program. Ensure you have a committee of employees from various departments, roles, levels, and backgrounds for fairness and inclusivity.

If you lack the funds, time, or resources to fund a wellness committee, consider having your HR team work alongside existing employee groups. For example, working with your DEI committee or employee resource groups (ERGs) allows you to vet potential wellness programs before implementation to ensure they don’t negatively affect particular employee demographics.

Christine Stewart, former CHRO at EagleView, notes the company’s Well Being ERG’s success in creative wellness initiatives and participation: Through the ERG, they’ve been able to organize steps challenges, participate in United Way Day of Caring, and plan Earth Day activities.

3. Provide diverse options

You should provide a variety of wellness programs to your employees, not just the initiative that generated the most interest in your employee survey. Most likely, the definition of wellness differs from employee to employee, so you’ll want a few options to make everyone feel included.

For example, some employees may prefer gym membership reimbursements, while others may enjoy in-person company classes for accountability. Still, others may dislike or avoid these classes for personal reasons, instead hoping for access to company development courses. The point is that wellness differs for everyone, so more options mean more chances for employee participation.

4. Develop a budget

You’ll need to develop a budget for your wellness programs. Costs can vary widely between programs, so you’ll need a way to compare various vendors. Most accounting software includes budget plans, but a simple spreadsheet program can work just as well. You’ll need to measure programs against competitors in the space alongside your overall business expenses.

5. Align with your company values

Consider choosing wellness programs that align with your company’s core values. This is a great way to demonstrate commitment to your values instead of appearing performative. Plus, if you need help narrowing down your wellness offerings, you can use exemplifying a core value as a determining factor.

For example, one of our core values at TechnologyAdvice is to “crave knowledge.” To that end, we receive reimbursements for any personal or professional development books we purchase as long as we share key takeaways from the read with our manager.

6. Promote awareness

Be sure that your employees are aware of the wellness programs once you’ve put them in place. This can take several different forms:

• A wellness policy outlining different program eligibility rules and benefit perks.
• Updated job descriptions highlighting these programs to applicants.
• Explanations during onboarding to notify incoming employees of their wellness options.
• Periodic company announcements to remind employees of what’s available to them.

The more often you inform employees about your wellness programs, the more likely they are to use and benefit from them.

7. Track return on investment

After implementing your wellness programs, monitor usage or adoption rates to begin tracking return on investment (ROI). You’ll also want to monitor your turnover, attrition, and recruitment metrics to understand how adding your wellness programs affects employee retention and attraction. You may even monitor how wellness program usage rates line up with company revenue for insight into their impact on productivity.

But most importantly, solicit feedback from employees regularly through follow-up surveys. This will allow you to understand where your wellness programs do well and fall short so you can take measures to address concerns. After all, your wellness programs are for your employees, so you should look to them to understand sentiment and your programs’ effectiveness.

Employee wellness program FAQs

What are the goals of an employee wellness program?

Wellness programs have only one goal: to improve the various dimensions of employee well-being. The more wellness initiatives target the physical, mental, financial, and intellectual aspects of well-being, the more opportunities employees have for fulfillment on their terms. This affects employees’ overall happiness, which, in turn, can improve workplace productivity. 

Want to increase employee satisfaction in the workplace? Explore How to Engage Employees in the Workplace for more information.

What are some wellness program pitfalls to avoid?

Common wellness program pitfalls include:

• Wellness challenges: Not all are bad, but if poorly planned and researched, some can encourage negative and unsustainable behaviors, like dieting, that can adversely affect employee’s health and morale.
• Mandating company-wide participation: Not everyone will want to participate in wellness programs, especially if some have personal reasons to avoid them, so always make them optional.
• Incentivizing particular behaviors: Wellness challenges usually have prizes or other rewards at the end, but you may want to reconsider; for example, rewarding gift cards, cash, or other items at the end of a weight-loss challenge could encourage the wrong people to participate, like those struggling with an eating disorder.
• Shaming employees for failure: Never publicly point out whether an employee doesn’t reach a personal wellness goal or falls behind in a wellness challenge; this only causes employee unhappiness and sets them back in their pursuit of holistic well-being.
• Disclosing sensitive employee data: Besides being unethical, public disclosure of private employee data, like weight, during a wellness challenge is illegal under HIPAA.

What is employee wellness software?

Employee wellness software provides tools and services to facilitate employee wellness programs. Several wellness platforms, like Personify Health, can help manage your existing employee benefit plans, track usage, and make them easier for your employees to access. Others, like Headspace and Vantage Fit, provide wellness services, such as fitness and meditation courses.

Visit Vantage Fit

The post What is an Employee Wellness Program? appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• Rippling is the best HRMS overall.
• ADP Workforce Now is best for scalability.
• BambooHR is best for ease of use.
• UKG Ready is best for customization.
• Paycor is best for workforce development.
• Honorable mentions: 
  • Paylocity is best for recruitment.
  • Namely is best for employee engagement.
  • Gusto is the best value for your money.

Not sure what kind of HR software you need? Explore our HR Software Guide for a complete list of options.

What is the best HRMS software?

Human resources management systems (HRMS) expand upon core human resources information systems (HRIS) through more extensive automations, workforce analytics, and customization. The best ones cover all these areas to support midsize businesses looking to attract and keep top talent for long-term business growth.

My top five choices below do just that plus offer unique capabilities to address the needs of your business.

If you need help determining what kind of HR software you need, learn more at How to Choose the Right HR Software for your Business.

Expert score

Best for

Starting price

Rippling

Visit website

3.92

Best overall

$8 PEPM

ADP Workforce Now

Visit website

3.85

Best for scalability

$18–$27 PEPM*

BambooHR

Visit website

3.75

Best for ease of use

$250 per mo. for first 25 employees

UKG Ready

Visit website

3.66

Best for customization

$21–$29 PEPM*

Paycor

Visit website

3.63

Best for workforce development

$99 per mo + $6 PEPM

* The vendor’s pricing is quote-based; the prices in the chart are estimated based-on third-party sources and user reviews.

Rippling: Best HRMS overall

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Overall score

3.92/5

User scores

4.64/5

Pricing

2.75/5

Platform/interface

4.28/5

Core HR

4.44/5

Workforce management

4.38/5

Talent acquisition

3.94/5

Performance management

3.15/5

Employee relations

3.18/5

Pros

• PEO and EOR services available for HR support.
• Intuitive user interface (UI) and design.
• Quick release schedule for access to new features.
• Device management and app provisioning and de-provisioning for tech-heavy businesses.
• Platform localization for more than 150 countries and native payroll capabilities for 50 countries.

Cons

• System occasionally lags or breaks after frequent use.
• No sandbox feature to test new workflow automations in a closed environment.
• Lacks phone support, unless you purchase its PEO, EOR, or HR Help Desk module.

Why I picked Rippling

With a 3.92 out of 5 score, Rippling is the best HRMS overall because it balances advanced HR features geared toward growing businesses with an approachable, easy-to-navigate interface. You can customize workflows, approvals, access levels, reports, and analytics for more pointed insights into your company’s workforce to drive a more efficient, productive, and engaging company culture.

Your HR teams can also offload some of their more repetitive work, like training course assignments, document collection, and task follow-ups, by having Rippling automate it for you. Moreover, most of Rippling’s modules are robust for an all-in-one HR solution. Its payroll solution is particularly noteworthy since you take care of domestic and international pay within the same platform to speed up processing times.

Although Rippling has great integration options with Slack, Google Workspace, and Zoom, it’s not the best option for companies with primarily frontline workers. It does not support employee private messaging and shift scheduling, for example. Its mobile app also does not have nearly the same capabilities as its desktop counterpart, forcing on-the-go teams to manage functions like payroll in an office.

But if you already have third-party solutions for these areas, Rippling’s vast integration library and app management features make it the best choice for consolidating your tech stack.

About Rippling

Rippling is a comprehensive HR software with an IT-forward feature set and design. Unlike other HRMS, Rippling intentionally includes IT features, like app provisioning during new hire onboarding, to unify the company tech stack. Far from alienating HR professionals without IT backgrounds, these capabilities make Rippling more accessible to companies that need custom processes but lack in-house tech expertise.

Some of Rippling’s stand-out features, such as its Workflow Studio for in-app process automation, are advanced for a non-enterprise HR system. For example, you can send reports, schedule Google Calendar meetings, and even adjust employee paid time off (PTO) accruals based on almost any data attribute.

This is especially important when you have a company of over 250 employees but an HR department of two. Rippling can take care of the administrative side of HR, like sending new hire surveys or collecting policy acknowledgments, while your HR team of two works with managers and executives to improve employee experience and retention.

However, one drawback of Rippling is that it has a fast feature release schedule that can lead to a lack of refinement in existing modules. Major modules like its global payroll, recruiting, and performance management modules were released in 2022 and 2023 but fall behind some competitors. 

For example, Rippling only supports payroll for 50 countries compared to the 70 or more for platforms like Deel. Recruiters still have to schedule interviews with candidates manually in its recruitment module. It doesn’t offer devices like physical time clocks or digital signage software for frontline teams. And, although Rippling is a major player in the PEO market, it lacks IRS and Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC) certifications. 

Even so, Rippling’s quick release schedule means you can access features that work natively with Rippling without relying on integrations. It also creates a more seamless experience than Paylocity and UKG, which rely on acquisitions and mergers for new features.

Learn more about Rippling →

Key features

Risk management support

Rippling offers features to support businesses experiencing transition and, therefore, at greater risk for compliance errors. For example, Rippling comes standard with its Compliance 360 feature, which monitors processes within the platform and notifies you of potential global, federal, state, and municipal time and pay violations. This safeguards against labor law violations as you expand into unfamiliar states and territories.

Likewise, Rippling offers a flexible professional employer organization (PEO) service option, which adds worker classification monitoring to its Compliance 360 capabilities. This can help you reduce the risks associated with employee misclassification, including penalties, back pay, and tax violations. And, after you build out your HR team and don’t need Rippling’s PEO support anymore, you can “turn it off” directly within the platform without incurring a fee, switching systems, and losing data.

You can use Rippling’s Workflow Studio and approval workflows to manage your company risk further. Although it’s not the same as UKG Ready’s accident tracking feature, you can create custom fields that trigger workflows for collecting essential information with strict deadlines — like injury paperwork — timely. You can also save this data in the employee profile for recordkeeping and audit purposes.

Customizable report builder

Rippling’s report builder lets you build dynamic reports in real time without the need to run the reports or download them to an external spreadsheet software. Its reporting capabilities are also not isolated in various modules, so you don’t have to switch between modules to access payroll, benefits administration, performance management, or recruitment reports.

Instead, Rippling unites data from internal HR modules and some external integrations, like Jira. This means you can link information and draw conclusions from data you would otherwise have to manipulate off the platform manually.

For instance, you can gather usage reports for various apps through Rippling to determine their return on investment (ROI). You can even calculate the minutes employees spend in meetings to inform employee productivity during performance reviews. With this data, you can evaluate your organization’s risk for meeting fatigue and burnout.

Although Rippling lacks advanced report capabilities like ADP Workforce Now’s benchmarking and AI narrative descriptions, you can use Excel-like formulas and charts for more granular insights. It is also more approachable than UKG Ready, whose report-like interface takes time to understand.

Gallery

Rippling homepage. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Rippling News Feed application. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Rippling report and analytics. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Rippling organizational chart. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Viewing a candidate application in Rippling. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Rippling lets you draw from internal and external data sources to understand your HR processes from a broader perspective without needing spreadsheet or business intelligence software. Source: TechnologyAdvice

You can use Rippling’s workflow studio to set multiple processes in motion, including managing risk levels based on triggers like employee injury dates. Source: TechnologyAdvice

Pricing

Rippling starts at $8 per employee per month (PEPM). Depending on your business circumstances, it may also charge you an additional base fee per month, with most third-party sources stating the base price is $35 per month.

All customers start with Rippling’s base platform, Rippling Unity, which is its core human resources information system (HRIS). It includes main features like its Workflow Studio, Compliance 360, onboarding, and leave management modules. After purchasing a Rippling Unity plan, you can add on the modules you need from its HR, IT, or Finance clouds.

Rippling scored moderately well for pricing at 2.75 out of 5. Although it does provide a starting price for its platform, it does not share details on pricing for any of its modules. It also does not include a free trial or free plan, which can be a turn-off if you need to test specific features before purchasing, especially if those features are in modules outside Rippling Unity.

That said, Rippling shares similar pricing to competitors like TriNet HR Platform; it can even be cheaper than Gusto Simple if you have fewer than 20 employees and only need Rippling Unity. But this also means that the platform becomes significantly more expensive for the more tactical and analytics features that are hallmarks of HRMS, including workforce planning and performance management.

Below is an overview of the four different plans of Rippling Unity:

Rippling Unity

Core

Pro

Unlimited

Enterprise

Includes:

• Global organizational chart.
• Global workforce analytics.
• Permissions and access control.
• Approval management.
• Document and policy management.
• Compliance management.
• Salary banding.
• PTO and leave management.
• Localization for 150+ countries.
• Customized workflows (for onboarding only).

Includes everything in Core, plus:

• Customized workflows (for any event).
• Up to 10 workflows.
• Up to 10 formula fields in reports.
• Up to 10 reports that join data from three or more sources.
• Integrate with Slack for approvals and sending messages.
• Integrate with Microsoft Teams for sending messages.
• Create and send calendar invites.
• Scheduled reports.

Includes everything in Pro, plus:

• Unlimited customized workflows.
• Unlimited formula fields.
• Unlimited advanced reports.
• Webhooks.

Includes everything in Unlimited, plus:

• Access to Rippling’s API.

Additional modules

HR Cloud

IT Cloud

Finance Cloud

• U.S. and global payroll.
• Benefits administration.
• Time and attendance.
• Flex benefits (FSA, HSA, and commuter).
• Recruiting.
• Learning management.
• Pulse (employee engagement).
• Headcount planning.
• Performance management.

• App management.
• Device management.
• Inventory management.

• Corporate cards.
• Expense management.

Additional services

• ACA and COBRA administration.
• HR Help Desk (HR Support).
• PEO services.
• Global employer of record services.

Note: Rippling currently offers a one-month free subscription if you sign up within six weeks. This is subject to end anytime, so please check its website for the latest.

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ADP Workforce Now: Best for scalability

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Overall score

3.85/5

User scores

4.17/5

Pricing

2.75/5

Platform/interface

4/5

Core HR

4/5

Workforce management

4.29/5

Talent acquisition

4.19/5

Performance management

3.66/5

Performance management

3.45/5

Pros

• Huge product line covering solopreneurs to enterprises.
• Support for HR and payroll in more than 140 countries.
• Comprehensive and standalone HR products available.
• HRO, PEO, and EOR services to fit your level of service needs.
• Customer support is available through phone, chat, email, and online knowledge base.
• Open API to support integration with niche industry tools.

Cons

• Difficult-to-navigate UI with multiple pop-up windows.
• Benefits and time management features are only available in higher plans.
• Recruitment is managed through an integration with ZipRecruiter, limiting candidate diversity.
• Users report slow issue resolution with customer service.
• Must integrate with Kudos for employee recognition and rewards.

Why I picked ADP

ADP Workforce Now comes in with a total score of 3.85. It impressed me for its sheer number of features that allow companies to digitize almost all of their HR processes.

What’s more, Workforce Now is the backbone platform for most of ADP’s other offerings, including its PEO product and global payroll add-on. Its other services, like EOR, HRO, tax, and unemployment claim services, mean that you can access the level of HR support you need during various stages of growth.

As a result, you can stay with one company as you scale, aiding in knowledge retention, data migration, and employee satisfaction and experience. This makes Workforce Now your best bet if you want support for more complex needs, like multiple entities, divisions, departments, and employee types.

About ADP

Workforce Now is ADP’s mid-market HR and payroll product for businesses with 50 to 1,000 employees. Although ADP is well known for its payroll features, Workforce Now modules cover the complete employee life cycle with capabilities for strategic HR, like compensation management and DEI benchmarking.

In particular, ADP Workforce Now gives equal attention to the concerns of HR staff and individual contributors. Employees rate ADP’s Mobile Solutions, Workforce Now’s mobile app, a 4.4 and 4.7 on the Google Play and Apple App stores, respectively. Little things, like an “undo” button in the app to quickly fix an accidental punch-in and quick-access buttons for recent paychecks, benefits, and the staff directory, make it a straightforward tool for frontline employees.

Other employee-centric features include financial wellness tools like on-demand pay, discounts, and savings through ADP’s Wisely paycard and app. Onboarding from the employee side is also very appealing since you can customize the experience based on the new hire’s role and location.

For example, you can include a custom message from the new hire’s manager, welcome videos, interactive team profiles, and a map around their new office. The experience becomes less about completing mandatory paperwork, like the I-9 form, and more about providing a great first impression of your company.

Administrators also have access to many features and people data in Workforce Now. ADP’s payroll capabilities and compliance monitoring are particularly strong, with customizable elements to address more complex needs like shift differentials and tip credits.

Despite this, Workforce Now suffers from the issues of many legacy systems: a complicated system layout and an outdated appearance.

For example, it takes multiple clicks to hire an employee, requiring you to navigate to its HR dashboard, then its hiring and onboarding module, and finally, its various hiring workflows. This is before you even begin entering any new hire information. Compare this to Rippling, which has a handy add or remove employee button in its navigation side rail.

But Workforce Now is exceptionally feature-rich, especially for complex payroll and time clock needs, including support for certified payroll, check delivery, and geofencing. So, if you’re looking for a mainstay product with years of expertise, ADP is your best choice.

Learn more about ADP →

Key features

ADP product integrations

ADP is a long-standing company that has acquired or partnered with several companies to build its HRMS capabilities. Workforce Now integrates with nearly 500 products, including industry-specific ones like safety management programs for construction and POS systems for restaurants, retail, and hospitality. This means you can connect Workforce Now’s employee data and management features to the tools you already use to facilitate cross-system data flow while limiting double data entry.

ADP even offers standalone portions of its Workforce Now product, allowing you to extend the capabilities of your already existing systems without purchasing entirely new software. For example, if you like Bob’s employee engagement features but want Workforce Now’s payroll, you can embed Workforce Now into Bob’s Payroll Hub module. Similar capabilities exist for ADP’s compliance, tax, and global payroll products.

The one drawback is that connecting these products can create a clunky experience. For example, just pushing your payroll data into your accounting software’s general ledger (GL) in Workforce Now requires you to remember to do this manually after each payroll. Occasionally, modules open in other browser windows instead of happening seamlessly within one window. This can be frustrating, especially if you want a cleaner way to interact with your HR data.

Workforce trends and analytics

Workforce Now offers advanced workforce analytics through its ADP DataCloud add-on. Here, you can access ADP’s dataset of over 30 million employees to compare your organization to others in your industry. You can even “mash up” or combine your people and financial data for more effective hiring and budgeting.

Workforce Now also uses narrative insights, or natural language descriptions of your workplace data, in its storyboards feature. ADP walks you through common questions, such as the cost of turnover and pay equity, in a more approachable manner than Rippling and UKG Ready. This makes addressing these issues faster since it requires much less manual data manipulation.

In particular, if you’re intentional about DEI initiatives in your company, Workforce Now’s DataCloud has some useful, pre-built tools to understand how your hiring and termination processes affect your diversity landscape. You can even monitor diversity in your organization’s leadership team over time to see if organizational strategies like DEI training and employee resource groups (ERGs) impact your business at its highest executive levels.

Gallery

ADP Workforce Now homepage. Source: ADP

ADP Workforce Now’s DataCloud uses storyboards to help you understand various HR metrics, like turnover cost, plus drill down into the data affecting outcomes. Source: ADP

Setting up a customized report. Source: ADP

Pre-built payroll reports. Source: ADP

View of recruitment dashboard. Source: ADP

Viewing salary ranges based on ADP benchmarks. Source: ADP

View of employee timecard. Source: ADP

Pricing

ADP does not disclose pricing for its Workforce Now product. Pricing depends on several factors, including headcount, modules needed, and the complexity of your payroll needs. Third-party sources indicate that ADP Workforce can cost anywhere between $18 and $27 PEPM, plus a percentage of your annual subscription cost for implementation.

Workforce Now received the same score as Rippling for pricing: 2.75. Like Rippling, it does not provide a free trial or free plan. But it frequently offers promotions and discounts, which can be attractive if you want to try the software at a reduced cost. Plus, all ADP Workforce Now plans have payroll as a standard feature.

However, other critical features, like benefits administration, leave management, and time tracking, are reserved for higher tiers, making it less likely you can operate with its lowest Select plan. Moreover, users note that ADP has a reputation for low starting prices but lots of service charges for things like garnishments, tax notice inquiries, and custom reports.

ADP also charges an administrative fee for every payroll you run, meaning it’s more expensive if you have multiple payroll schedules or run off-cycle payrolls for bonus checks or to fix payroll errors.

Workforce Now plans

Select

Plus

Premium

Includes:

• Payroll and tax.
• Basic reporting and analytics.
• Onboarding/offboarding workflows.
• ADP Assist (virtual assistant).
• Voice of the Employee (employee engagement surveys).
• Digital recordkeeping and unlimited storage.

Includes everything in Select and:

• Benefits administration.

Includes everything in Plus and:

• Time tracking.
• Leave management.
• Scheduling.

Additional modules

• Talent acquisition.
• Performance management.
• Compensation management.
• HR Assist (regulatory compliance assistance).
• Analytics and enhanced insights.
• Learning management.

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