This may sound cliché but this statement rings true, now more than ever: a company’s employees are its most important asset.  Businesses that succeed recognize and take care of their staff.  Organizations that strive to take care and value their employees, ensure that they are well compensated, are provided with excellent benefits and foster positive culture and work environment that allow them to grow can gain a workforce that will effortlessly help the business achieve its goals and maximize productivity.  After all, the employees are first and foremost an organization’s brand ambassadors.   

A company’s HR is tasked with an onerous task of having a holistic view of a company, including ensuring that all the right talents are acquired, existing employees are well taken care of and proper tools are used and implemented in the workplace.  An essential tool is a reliable HR platform that lets both employee and employers perform their jobs well, address their needs and empower HR to ensure success for all stakeholders and the company as a whole.

Over the years, the way businesses are run and how talents are hired has undergone several boosts of innovative overhaul.  The traditional workplace has been transformed; instead of the workers commuting to go to work, the work is being moved to the worker.  This shift opens up a nontraditional workplace arrangement to include a myriad of work practices, settings and multiple locations. 

And then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and has radically altered the way people live and work.  This also covers how things are being done and how processes are being performed.  This has elevated the need for tools that will help businesses run remotely and in multiple locations to an even more significance than ever before.

One company’s goal is to create a bridge between the demand for knowledge work and the growing workforce in emerging markets where physical proximity is not a necessity.  This is the idea behind OysterHR.

What is OysterHR?

OysterHR is a distributed HR platform that is ideal for remote companies, allowing for a cross-border implementation.  Its basic premise is to allow a company to acquire, compensate and manager employees regardless of their location.  Hiring talents from different time zones?  This will not be a problem with this utility.  OysterHR supports a fast-paced hiring process for global candidates, helping businesses in scaling up their organizations.  

OysterHR offers comprehensive information about hiring, onboarding and managing talents in more than 180 countries, with information about almost everything that a company might need to consider in talent acquiring and employee management from an operations and legal perspective.  This platform supports multi-language and multi-currency operations.  With OysterHR’s services, HR concerns such as legal and tax compliance, employment laws, health insurance, work permits, contracts, medical benefits, holiday information and other local benefits are taken care of, presenting companies with everything that they need to know, and pay, when hiring employees remotely.  All the nitty-gritty details have already been accounted for, offloading all the complexities in the hiring process so that the HR partners of a company can focus on other important tasks.

The platform, and the company that is behind it, is fairly new.  They started operations in 2019 and has managed to position themselves as a leader in global employment.  The launch of OysterHR could not have come at a more auspicious time.  As all operations have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of the Global Resignation phenomenon, more reasons to attract talent and make the new workplace arrangements have arisen. 

With its focus on global employment, OysterHR has the following features:

1. Employee hiring, which includes candidates for permanent and contractual positions
2. Localized health benefits and employee rewards, with OysterHR partnering with local partners in the countries where talents will be hired
3. Payroll
4. Equity assessment tool
5. Expense reimbursement
6. Employee relocation assistance
7. Paid time off tracker
8. Global payments and invoicing
9. Insurance coverage
10. Compliance, considering local labor laws and employment rules
11. Intellectual property protection

The design of OysterHR’s operations is three-fold:

1. Hiring – OysterHR empowers entities with the tools to fast track hiring with contract templates and information on salary rates, employee benefits and total cost of employment, while considering asynchronous discussions and varying time zones.

2. Payment – OysterHR facilitates a cloud-based solution in managing and automating salary payments to employees including expenses reimbursements and other benefits and rewards.

3. Management – OysterHR provides additional information on how to care for and manage employees such as leaves management, benefits information and other rewards pertaining to remote work setup.

How Does It Work?

Signing up to OysterHR is fairly simple. Creation of an account in the platform will result in an email from a launch specialist, where queries can be documented and a one-on-one session can be arranged.  Offering support as soon as signing up for an account in the platform is a nice touch.

Even without the responses to the queries nor the call with a consultant from OysterHR, one can proceed with the employer onboarding by creating the profile for the company.  This includes the location where the company is located, employee size of the company, reasons for signing up with OysterHR and plans for the company in terms of hiring and scaling up.

As soon as basic information on the company has been provided, one can start with the actual hiring process.  OysterHR has a very simple and easy-to-navigate interface; it is very easy to find the tools and functions that are available.  Settings and preferences configuration is very basic and does not need a lot of menu options.

The administrative tools available for the platform include basic information on the company, administrator and other users’ information, expense approver, departments creation and maintenance and automated invoicing generation setup.

The main tools are grouped into three main functions: people management, payments and company information.

Under the company information management module, a high-level view of the company’s profile is presented.  This includes the number of employees/partners and the number of countries that span the workforce of a company.  This module also allows maintenance of a company’s business registration number, website and address.  This module also features a simple document management tool that HR partners can use to store documents important for employee management functions such as employee manual and handbook, per diem rates, etc.

Finally, still under the company information module, OysterHR comes with 4 built-in reports: payroll, team member, invoice and expenses. The reports would allow generation of simple excel files for each of the four aforementioned domains.

After the company module, the main feature of OysterHR is the people module, where the employee cost calculator and hiring functions are being handled.  The former is probably one of the strongest features of this platform, allowing the calculation of the cost of hiring an employee from a specified country just by giving the location and the gross annual salary.  Supported by a comprehensive information on local benefits, salary rates, tax laws and employment regulations, OysterHR provides an almost exact costing guide including mandatory costs, platform fee, taxes and social security deductions per employee. 

Once the costs for hiring have been estimated, the hiring function can be used to monitor the progress of ongoing hiring activities or to initiate another hiring.  Information such as nationality and country of residence, job title, seniority level will help determine the salary package that can be offered for the person that will be hired.

The people or employee function also allows viewing of all staff, management and capturing of time-off information for employees, information on employee benefits, submission and management of expense reimbursements and employee relocation.  The employee relocation facility allows capturing of data that can aid a company in arranging the secondment or relocation of an employee to another country including visa requirements.

The last function, after company profile and people, is the payments function.  Under this function, payroll, invoices and the company’s bank account setup can be configured.

In addition to these main functions, OysterApp also offers the following tools and resources to organizations:

1. Employment Cost Index
2. Country Profiles including union/labor laws and overtime regulations
3. Employee Misclassification Analyzer
4. Talent Marketplace
5. Benefits Advisor

OysterApp also offers pre-configured documents and forms such as:

1. Service Agreement
2. Confidentiality, Competition and Intellectual Property Agreement
3. Data Processing Addendum
4. General Data Protection Regulation Privacy Notice
5. ACH Authorization Form
6. Equity Side Letter
7. Restrictive Covenant Agreement Template 

Integrations with Other Platforms

Currently, these are the available integrations for OysterHR:

1. QuickBooks Online: Integration with QuickBooks allows consolidation of all the invoices of a company.
2. BambooHR ATS: The link between BambooHR and OysterHR allows a company to streamline its hiring process.
3. BambooHR HRIS: Integrating BambooHR with OysterHR will allow a company to maximize OysterHR’ s hiring and costing capabilities with the IS features of BambooHR

Pricing

OysterHR has three pricing schemes: Lite, Business and Enterprise.

The Lite pricing scheme is free, with unlimited options for hiring of contractual employees from any country covered by OysterHR.  This includes all payment advantages that the platform offers, invoice and expense management and the HR tools and functions.  

Under the Business pricing scheme, all of the features available in the Lite pricing scheme are included.  Full-time employee hiring and onboarding are supported, again, for any country for which OysterHR has coverage for.  In addition to this, under this scheme, end-to-end global payroll, legal, tax and privacy compliance, IP protection, liability insurance, time-off management and localized support and knowledge centers for HR functions are also available.  Pricing is given per employee per month and varies by location where the minimum is $399.00 per employee.

Finally, under the enterprise pricing scheme, OysterHR offers custom pricing.  All features available for the Business pricing scheme are included.  On top of this, custom global compliance support and allotment of a dedicated hiring success team options are included.  

Who is the Product for?

OysterHR is an excellent tool for companies that are operating on a full remote basis, with plans on hiring employees from different locations.

It is also an excellent tool for companies that are not yet equipped with the tools and resources in hiring employees, whether it is local or abroad, and without the means to consider tax requirements, labor and employment laws, and other employee benefits.  All of these matters and complexities will be handled in OysterHR.

This tool can also be useful in getting information on a certain country’s labor requirements and estimated employee hiring cost.

Pros and Cons

Here are the factors that makes OysterHR an excellent tool:

1. An easy to use, uncluttered and user-friendly interface
2. Not bogged down by a ton of features that do not add value to the platform
3. Very easy to navigate and learn 
4. Provides a smooth onboarding experience
5. Offers a comprehensive employee cost calculator supported by information on rates, tax, legal and labor laws
6. Includes a wide coverage in terms of location
7. Really invested in learning employee laws and local benefits
8. Supported by local HR experts
9. Allows payroll functions, automatic invoicing, deduction and tax deductions
10. Provides excellent customer support

On the other hand, these are the possible flaws of this platform:

1. Very expensive and costly.  For example, hiring a manager in Singapore would cost SGD 11,806.00 annually in OysterHR fees
2. Onboarding time varies, depending on the location and local labor laws 
3. Limited options for integration
4. Very basic procedures for onboarding and document management 
5. Few options for reports and those that are available are not configurable

Conclusion?

OysterHR is an excellent global talent hiring and acquisition platform.  It has a user-friendly interface with clean aesthetics.  Setting up a company during onboarding and doing the cost calculation and hiring processing is very intuitive.  OysterHR’ s strength lies on the wealth of information that it has on local rates and resources when it comes to salary rates, compliance, tax regulations and labor laws.  This platform makes it easy to hire talents from anywhere around the globe without burdening the company with the complexities and intricacies of local factors.  This global reach is probably the trade-off for the steep price for the fees.

In addition to these excellent features, supplemental tools such as the Oyster Academy and Oyster Library – online resources and library that are helpful for HR functions and tools, and the Virtual Fireside Chat that aims to provide additional support for teams in strengthening and empowering their teams, information on tried and tested and best practices for workplace methodologies, demonstrate how committed the company behind the platform is in promoting a distributed working model.  

The OysterHR and the company’s vision offer an ideal perspective in weathering all the changes that are affecting the traditional workplace, and the factors that hinder companies from adapting to these changes are managed effectively, and remotely, allowing both employer and employee to thrive.

Job seekers, when searching through job listings, in addition to compensation are also considering the benefits included in the employment package.  On the part of employees and applicants, these benefits are essential; these benefits can be used to take time off, stash away funds for retirement or pay for healthcare. Providing excellent benefit packages can help a business attract more aspirants and retain talented employees in its workforce.

In addition to salary or compensation and career growth, employee benefits boost the merits of working for an organization and can give its workers the chance to promote their health and enhance their quality of life. When employees are satisfied with all aspects of their employment and work environment, this may lead to better job satisfaction, work-life balance and increased productivity.

This is what Benely, previously known as Navali and Company, is focusing on. Benely is a provider of HR solutions and employee benefits.

What is Benely?

Now, more than ever, for the workforce, employee benefits that are flexible, bespoke and digital are crucial.  Benely focuses on this aspect of employment, allowing the formulation of the ideal and attractive employee benefits package suitable for a business given its needs and challenges.

Benely posits itself as a provider of human resources essentials by providing two main streams of services: HRIS and employee benefits. Under HRIS, Benely’s HR solution covers employee onboarding, management of employee data, attendance tracking and leave management.  Benely also supports companies in validating compliance and in assessing efficiency through HR audit.  This platform allows aid in supporting and addressing HR concerns, provides necessary support and training for employees and offers analytics and reports based on employee data. For onboarding, it offers document management and e-signature services, use of templates for contracts, offer letters and other documents and requirements necessary for new joiners.

Under the benefits management domain, Benely offers a full suite of consultancy services, covering assessment and benefits health check of an organization’s employee benefits package, evaluation of all vital perquisites including medical, dental, vision and health insurance plans. Also included in what the company is offering are updates and upkeep of benefits, insurance and dependents data, management of an employee’s life changes and impact of these on benefits, assistance for claims and insurance needs and employee wellness programs. 

How Does It Work?

Benely offers analysis and evaluation of a company’s benefits process and particulars.  Provided with what a company is already offering or what it would want to give its employees, Benely can then devise a program or benefits packages by curating and compiling a list of health care providers, insurance companies and other third parties that can comprise the benefits that the company will endow.  The company will then evaluate existing benefits as well as other options available in the market after performing full market analysis, company goals assessment and can provide comparison among viable options.  

After a full evaluation of options, Benely can then provide options on what platform and solutions are necessary in order to realize the plans and goals that have been laid out after the assessment.  This list could comprise of Benelys’ technology partners, in addition to Benely’s HRIS and admin platform.

Benely can perform education of employees by providing benefits summaries, vendor and provider information and enrolment guides.  These costing information and comparison data could be beneficial for both the employee and employer in deciding what options are well-suited for their needs.  The company may conduct in-person or virtual presentations and counselling, prepare documents and guides to aid in assessment and selection and handle submissions and filing.

Integrations with Other Platforms

Benely allows integration with a number of benefits, insurance and health care providers; it would then collate of all these benefits into its platform with a single point of access for users, making it easy to determine what benefits are available for an employee, and the organization as a whole.  This also makes it easy to manage claims pertaining to medical and insurance concerns.

The platform allows linkage with payroll systems and applicant tracking system to boost its core HRIS with needed payroll, hiring and recruitment capabilities.

Benely provides integration with fitness devices (smart phone applications and smart watch devices), well-being assessment utilities and other e-learning tools for its wellness services. For this sphere, the company has partnered with Wellworks For You, a provider of wellness programs.

Benely allows integration with solutions such as Rippling, Ease, Paycom, Zenefits and ADP.

Pricing

Pricing for Benely’s services is largely dependent on what a company will craft for its employee benefits package. The cost will be determined after the assessment of the company’s policies and practices have been done.  

Who is the Product for?

Benely is a notable company in the employee benefit business, offering an excellent approach for employers in determining affordable, sustainable and accessible programs.  The employee benefits solution is ideal for employers who wish to offer their employees benefits that could aid in promoting their health and well-being.  The company can take care of evaluating providers for insurance and other health service providers.

Pros and Cons

Here are the factors that makes Benely an excellent employee benefits provider:

1. Focus on a niche
2. Bespoke packages and solutions for its clients
3. Open enrolment for benefits
4. Management and assessment of providers

On the other hand, these are the possible flaws with Benely’s approach:

1. Basic HRIS
2. Lacking information on the tools that it provides
3. Limited to U.S. clients

Conclusion?

Benely offers a very focused and specialized set of services targeted at the niche market of employee benefits, supplemented by standard HR functions and services.  What they provide are excellent supplements to what a company is already providing to its employees and an extension of HR services.  Unfortunately, their services are limited to a specific geographic location, and have not yet been extended to cater to clients from other regions.  This probably might be due to the very nature of the services they provide such as sourcing of health care providers and insurance companies.  Having said that, a business model that can provide localized support at a global scale would be an outstanding solution, something that can expertly handle employee benefits needs especially for small and medium enterprises.

Here at The Business Blocks, we try to do things a bit differently. When reviewing the best employee onboarding tools for 2022 we took a step back and thought to include some ‘non’ dedicated employee onboarding tools where you can build your own custom processes in.

Also we wanted to give a bit of theory and insight into HR software and management systems as well.

7 Platforms for employee onboarding automation

1. Airtable
2. Sharepoint
3. Monday.com
4. Asana
5. Trello
6. BambooHR
7. Breakout

HR Software

The task of the HR department does not end with the hiring of people. It is also responsible for their compensation, training, and development. It must also ensure that the company complies with government labor and employment laws.

If there are disputes among employees, it has to investigate and resolve the issues impartially. HR has to secure the welfare of the employees while at the same time protecting the interest of the company.

With the massive volume of tasks that have to be handled by the department, HR software that can manage, organize, and process tasks become necessary.   

HR Software is a digital solution that assists the HR department in managing its daily administrative activities and overall HR goals. It processes data more efficiently and optimizes the quality and accuracy of outputs.

It reduces HR’s time and resources in performing repetitive administrative tasks, enabling HR to allocate its time to more productive ones.

The three basic HR software types are HRMS, HRIS, and HCM. 

Human Resource Management System (HRMS)

HRMS has common Human Capital Management (HCM) and Human Resources Information System (HRIS) features but may lack some talent management capabilities that HCM offers.

It has the following features:  

• Time and Labor Management enables HR to keep track of the employees’ ongoing activities. 
• Payroll Processing allows automatic salaries and deduction computation and direct deposit to employees’ accounts. 
• Employee Onboarding feature aids HR in the onboarding of new employees. 
• Performance Analytics makes keeping track of progress and productivity easier. 
• Its role organization feature assists HR in defining and assigning positions. 
• HR Services makes all HR data more accessible for processing. 
• The Global feature supports multi-lingual and multi-currency options.  
• Recruiting allows posting jobs, scheduling interviews, and managing CVs of potential and current employees.  
• The attendance management feature enables keeping track of attendance, unplanned absences, authorized and unauthorized leaves. 
• Workflow aids in enhancing the productivity of employees.  
• The Employee Training and Development feature helps employees acquire more skills for their career growth and development.    
• Benefits Management enables HR to enroll and manage employees’ benefits aside from their existing compensation.  
• The self-service portal feature enables the employees to manage and update their personal information.  
• Compensation Management enables the management of salaries, overtime pays, and bonuses. 
• Personnel Information Management stores and organizes employees’ information.  

Human Resource Information System (HRIS)

HRIS is considered the most basic HR software solution. It focuses on managing people and process organization. It has the following features.  

• Recruiting allows posting jobs, scheduling interviews, and managing CVs of potential and current employees.  
• The attendance management feature enables keeping track of attendance, unplanned absences, authorized and unauthorized leaves. 
• Workflow aids in enhancing the productivity of employees.  
• The Employee Training and Development feature helps employees acquire more skills for their career growth and development.    
• Benefits Management enables HR to enroll and manage employees’ benefits aside from their existing compensation.  
• The self-service portal feature enables the employees to manage and update their personal information.  
• Compensation Management enables the management of salaries, overtime pays, and bonuses. 
• Personnel Information Management stores and organizes employees’ information.  

Human Capital Management (HCM)

HCM is a management system that combines HRIS features and talent management capabilities.

It has the following features: 

• Employee Onboarding feature aids HR in the onboarding of new employees. 
• Performance Analytics makes keeping track of progress and productivity easier. 
• Its role organization feature assists HR in defining and assigning positions. 
• HR Services makes all HR data more accessible for processing. 
• The Global feature supports multi-lingual and multi-currency options.  
• Recruiting allows posting jobs, scheduling interviews, and managing CVs of potential and current employees.  
• The attendance management feature enables keeping track of attendance, unplanned absences, authorized and unauthorized leaves. 
• Workflow aids in enhancing the productivity of employees.  
• The Employee Training and Development feature helps employees acquire more skills for their career growth and development.    
• Benefits Management enables HR to enroll and manage employees’ benefits aside from their existing compensation.  
• The self-service portal feature enables the employees to manage and update their personal information.  
• Compensation Management enables the management of salaries, overtime pays, and bonuses. 
• Personnel Information Management stores and organizes employees’ information. 

In addition, HCM has the following talent optimization features: 

• Career path planning and tracking 
• Competency monitoring 
• Succession planning 
• Learning and development 
• Employee engagement features 
• Budgeting 

Employee Onboarding Automation

Automating an onboarding process involves streamlining processes. It establishes conditions that, once met, trigger a series of actions. It transforms a traditional onboarding process into a more efficient one and enables effective interactive communication between the company and its new employees.  

Here are some of the benefits of an automated onboarding process: 

• It provides more security since HR does not have to store physical documents that may eventually be lost or altered.  

• It enhances productivity as HR can spend more time fulfilling productive activities instead of performing routine administrative tasks.  

• New employees will feel more welcome since the automated onboarding process provides new employees with easy access to tools and information that a traditional onboarding process lacks.  

• It enables effective and speedy communication among employees.   

• It makes the organization of new, ongoing, and completed activities easier.   

If you want to learn more about onboarding automation, check out our article here where you will learn the basics of automating your onboarding process.

Important factors to consider when deciding on a new HR software platform 

When choosing a new HR software, companies must consider the following factors: 

Security features 

HR is responsible for storing, maintaining, and securing a large volume of data of employees that are susceptible to unauthorized access, alteration, and loss.

Due to their confidentiality in nature, the HR software must have a high level of data security. Companies shall determine the data storage, encryption levels, and other tools associated with managing and securing the data.  

Cloud-based capabilities 

Companies need not update every application with a cloud-based system as it has a centralized employee database, enabling it to update all applications at once. Cloud computing has the following capabilities: 

• Managed Interface enforces security rules and manages the flow of information using automated mechanisms. 
• Location independence allows the access of cloud services regardless of location. 
• Sourcing independence pertains to the ability of companies to change any IT sources and their IT services regardless of the platform.   
• Ubiquitous network access enables access to computing facilities anywhere using various devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. 
• Virtual environments pertain to a group of cloud services and workflows where processes occur.  
• Traceability capability allows verification of location, history, and application of data in the cloud.  
• Elasticity capability allows the scaling of services in response to the customers’ or clients’ needs. 

User Interface

Companies must consider software that has an interface that employees can easily use. A complicated interface discourages employees, and employees may have difficulties using the software.  

Integration 

The software must be compatible with the other systems that the company currently uses. An incompatible software may disrupt operations and result in decreased productivity and loss of profit.  

Scalability 

Companies must consider the ability of the software to change in size quickly. It involves determining the number of its current employees, whether there will be a significant change in number in the future, and whether the software can support this change.  

Customer Support 

It will be better to have HR software with reliable customer support when a problem arises.   

Cost and Payoff 

The cost of the HR software and the expected returns thereof shall be a significant factor in determining which software to choose. A company may not want to buy the cheapest software if it results in inconvenience and will not be sufficient to cater to its needs.

Buying expensive software that covers many features may not pay off if the company does not need these features. Hence, companies must consider all the associated costs and expected benefits before selecting suitable software.  

Top 7 Platforms that can do Employee Onboarding Automation

1. Airtable 

It is an intuitive platform that offers great flexibility to its clients. It allows the companies to create solutions that are suitable for their operations. With their user-friendly, yet powerful interface, companies can immediately start utilizing this software by bringing all their information into the platform. Depending on their needs, they can organize the information and change it whenever they want.  

It has the following features: 

• Interface Designer – Companies can create an interface from their Airtable bases without using codes. It promises to handle the simplest to the most complex data. Also, it has drag-and-drop elements that make customizing easy and fast. With their flexible interface, companies can also tailor dashboards that cater to every stakeholders’ needs. They can even customize the interface that matches companies’ workflows. 

• Actionable Views – This feature offers different angles to view the data. A Timeline view allows companies to track resources, events, and more at specified dates. Collaboration becomes more manageable with the Kanban view as members can easily track project progress, stakeholders, and deliverables. On a Gantt view, employees can map out their activities and manage their schedules. Team members can also share their dates with other members so that everyone is on the same page with the help of Calendar view. Airtable also offers the viewing of data in Gallery view and Form view. 

• Workflow Automation – Companies can create a single notification or build a multi-sequence workflow through various triggers and action logic. They can also integrate this software with multiple tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Slack, and Google Workspace.  

• Sync – This feature promises real-time data from different sources that members can access simultaneously. Also, they can integrate their data with tools like Google Calendar, Jira, Salesforce, and Box to sync data from members that work outside of this software. 

• Reporting – Airtable promises to generate reports that cater to every stakeholder’s needs. It uses out-of-the-box applications to create dashboards of graphs, metrics, and charts to suit the users’ reporting needs. They can also sort their data and build their reporting systems using scripting, SDK, or developing APIs.  

Airtable offers four different plans. Companies can choose from Free, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise Plans.  

*Read our full Airtable review*

2. Sharepoint 

It is a web-based platform that makes collaboration easy and productive among the team members. It empowers dynamic team performance through team sites for every project of teams, divisions, and organizations. It makes sharing files, resources, and information through different devices fast, manageable and convenient. 

Some of its features are the following: 

• Information Management – It allows organizing, maintaining, retrieving, and reporting of electronic records and documents. This feature is designed based on various legal and process requirements of different organizations to cater to most of its clients’ needs.  

• Network – Members can share common resources and applications on home sites and portals with this feature. Its intranet portals enable the centralization of information and communication, helping the companies to manage their data more efficiently while still maintaining effective communication among their members.  

• Collaborative software – Sharepoint has collaboration groupware capabilities that include project scheduling and shared mailboxes. This feature enables members to collaborate and access information while working simultaneously. It has powerful search and intelligent ways to discover data based on set criteria.  

• Synchronization – With its One Drive for Business, Sharepoint enables storage synchronization and sharing of members’ documents. This feature allows for all the members’ devices to access the same information whenever a member makes updates on one device.  

• Process transformation – Sharepoint promises to increase employees’ productivity by transforming the company processes by creating digital experiences using forms, custom apps, and workflows in various devices. It can automate simple and complex tasks such as notifications, approvals, and complex operational workflows. 

Sharepoint offers plans for online, small businesses, and enterprises.  

*Read our full Sharepoint review*

3. Monday.com 

Even a beginner can quickly get into the action with monday.com. Employees do not need training as they can create workflows within minutes or choose from various templates designed to cater to the needs of clients.   

It has the following features: 

• Docs – This feature emphasizes three steps: collaborate, connect and execute. With monday.com, team members can collaborate by co-editing in real-time without disrupting the work of the other team members. Members can easily connect by embedding boards, dashboards, and more into work docs. Execution involves turning your data into actionable items. Monday.com empowers teams by transforming elements of work docs into live-action objects that connect with workflows.  

• Integration – Teams can integrate Monday.com with their existing tools without disrupting their workflows, such as Outlook, Microsoft teams, Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Excel, Gmail, and many more.  

• Automation – This feature enables employees to leave repetitive tasks and unnecessary meetings, lengthy email chains, and more. Companies can easily set up code-free automation to create a suitable workflow for their teams. Employees can now focus their time on more productive activities instead of writing emails and status updates.  

• Dashboards – This platform allows companies to customize their dashboards, depending on their information needs. The dashboards provide a birds-eye view of the project’s status, enabling members to immediately understand their projects’ status. Also, they can run status reports in an overview or detail.  

• Kanban – Its Kanban software enables the handling of complex and straightforward workflows. It is easy to set up, fully customizable, and scalable. This software also enables effective collaboration and makes integration with the companies’ existing tools easy and fast.  

• Gantt – Its Gantt software enables the company to plan, execute and track projects. Employees can set important dates, milestones, and dependencies for their projects to avoid missing deadlines.   

Monday.com offers clients individual, Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plans.  

*Read our full Monday.com review*

4. Asana 

This platform promises to give teams everything they need to stay in sync, meet their deadlines, and achieve their goals.  

It has the following core features: 

• Project Views – It enables companies to plan and structure their work however they want. Under this, we have the following sub-features: Board, List, Timeline and Calendar

• Project Management – This feature allows the teams to monitor their projects from planning until completion. Under this are the following sub-features: Projects, Tasks, Subtasks, Milestones, Task assignees, Sections, Custom Fields, Due dates and times, Start dates, Attachments, Forms, Rules, Likes, Approvals, Project Overview, Project Brief, Sync tasks across projects, Dependencies, Custom Templates, Copy projects 

• Views and reporting – Teams can easily view and generate reports regarding the status of their projects. It has the following sub-features: My Tasks, Timeline, Workload, Portfolios, Goals, Inbox, Dashboards, Accessibility, Calendar view, Files view, Advanced Search, Teammate view, Project export 

• Admin Controls – Companies can customize which to give access to certain information to secure that only authorized persons have access to certain information. Its sub-features are the following: Teams, Guests, Permissions and privacy controls, Comment only projects, Team management, Data security 

• Communication – Asana enables members to tie their communication with teams, projects, and tasks to provide a clear view of the project status. Its sub-features are the following: Task comments, Followers, Status, Messaging, Project conversations, Team conversations 

• Mobile – Companies can access the platform on any device, such as iOs and Android 

• Integrations – Companies can integrate Asana with their other existing tools, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack, and many more. 

• Success and Support – Asana provides reliable customer service to help its clients answer their questions about the platform. It comes along with the following sub-features: Help and Premium Support 

Asana offers its customers Basic, Premium, and Business Plans. 

*Read our full Asana review*

5. Trello 

This intuitive platform promises a unique working experience by allowing any team to quickly set up and customize workflows for anything.  

It offers the following features: 

• Boards – This feature enables teams to view and analyze data from different angles, enabling the members to understand project status better and plan their future actions. Below is the list of board views: Timeline view helps teams in project planning, Calendar allows teams to manage their time better, Table view connects tasks across boards, Dashboard feature provides board status of projects. 

• Cards – Cards enable teams to organize their work better from any part of the globe. It allows efficient updating, tracking, and sharing tasks among team members. With this feature, teams will be able to do the following: Manage and meet deadlines, Give and track reviews and feedback, Assign activities, Connect work with other team members 

• No-code automation – With Butler, Trellos’ built-in automation, companies can automate their processes without codes. It enables them to eliminate repetitive administrative tasks and allocate their time to more productive activities: Automate logical actionsCreate buttons to support process workflows, Automate notifications to team members, Schedule tasks, assignments, and other events.   

• Integration – Companies can connect their existing applications with Trello to better cater to their needs. Some of these applications include the following: Slack, Evernote, Google Drive, Confluence, Dropbox 

Customers can choose from Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise Plans of Trello. 

*Read our full Trello review*

6. BambooHR 

This platform offers an all-in-one HR software that focuses on companies’ most important asset – the people. It helps companies gather, organize, and analyze the data from employees throughout the employee life cycle to acquire valuable insights in achieving success.  

It has the following features: 

• People Data  and Analytics – BambooHR provides a single, secure database for all company employee information. With this software, companies can gather, store and analyze accurate data without spending too much time and resources. It has powerful reporting tools and editing capabilities that aid companies in generating reports quickly and faster.  

• Hiring – This HR software prevents a slow and inconsistent hiring process and aids the companies in searching for the right people for the roles. Its modern approach to hiring ensures fast communication and the elimination of bottlenecks in the hiring process. BambooHR provides a smooth and speedy hiring process from job posting to job offers.    

• Onboarding – The purpose of onboarding is to provide employees with the necessary tools and information to be productive company members. With BambooHR, companies can add personal touches while still ensuring that employees fulfill the necessary forms, ensuring a satisfactory onboarding experience.  

• Compensation – Tracking hours worked by employees can be a source of headache for companies. With Bamboo HR, companies can automatically calculate employees’ actual hours, salaries, deductions, and benefits accurately. 

• Culture – BambooHR enables measuring employee performance and gauging overall satisfaction to create a company culture where employees feel valued. Companies can gain valuable insights into ensuring employees are happy and satisfied in their roles and work through this platform.  

BambooHR offers Essential and Advantage plans to its clients. 

7. Breakout 

Companies can design their business workflows code-free with Breakout. Through this platform, companies can create processes and bring teams, tools, and other stakeholders so businesses can run smoothly.  

Its main features are the following: 

• Control – It has a drag-and-drop flow builder that makes designing business processes faster and more manageable. Employees and departments can track requests and approvals automatically, whether they are still being processed, reviewed, or approved. All this and more through digital documents, hence there is no need to print out forms that are susceptible to alteration and loss. 

• Customizable and Scalable – Teams can assign tasks and dates based on customizable logic. Also, companies can dynamically update their processes with intelligence to avoid delays and make them scalable.  

• Efficient work – Breakout also ensures proper onboarding and management of teams in the workspace. Companies can create groups, add members, and set their access to information. This collaborative platform allows team members to work on their projects more efficiently by automating unnecessary repetitive tasks, such as custom alerts and emails. This way, employees can prioritize activities that are more urgent and productive. With automation, companies can streamline their processes and automate them to get their work done quickly.  

• Integration – Companies can integrate Breakout with their existing tools and applications, such as Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.   

• Customer Support – Breakout has reliable customer support that aids companies in answering their questions about the platform and when troubleshooting.  

Breakout offers four plans to its customers – Starter, Better, Bolder, and Bigger Plans.  

Conclusion 

HR Software is a digital solution that assists the HR department in managing its daily administrative activities and overall HR goals. It processes data more efficiently and optimizes the quality and accuracy of outputs. It has three types – HRMS, HRIS, and HCM. 

HRMS or Human Resource Management System has common HCM and HRIS features but may lack some talent management capabilities that HCM offers.  

The Human Resource Information System is the most basic HR software solution that focuses on managing people and processes.  

Human Capital Management (HCM) is a management system that blends HRIS features and talent management capabilities. 

In terms of tools, HRMS may be broader in scope as it has all the features that HRIS has to offer and incorporates all HR-related applications. In contrast, HCM may be more comprehensive in terms of functions, as it is a management system that provides more features to maximize employees’ talents. 

In deciding which HR Software to use, companies must determine which suits them best. They must define first their current challenges and goals. It must also consider user interface, cloud-based capabilities, scalability, customer support, and cost and payoff of the software.