The Best Employee Management Systems Shortlist
- Deel
Best for managing global teams of international employees and contractors
- Paycor
Best for comprehensive hiring or training initiatives
- monday.com
Best for employee time & task tracking
- Rippling
Best all-in-one platform for managing HR, payroll, and IT needs efficiently
- Leapsome
Best for people enablement & learning
- Eddy
Best all-in-one HR software for small, local businesses
- Connecteam
Best employee management app for mobile teams
- Gusto
Best payroll service for international contractor-based teams
- Zenefits
Best for paperless employee onboarding
- Bullhorn
Best for employee staffing & recruitment
An employee management system is a core part of HR. This article will go over the best tools to manage employee records, work history, and other important employee data.
If you’re researching HR technology, you’re probably doing so for one of two reasons. 1) You need an improvement to the system you currently use and are looking for an employee management app that has more (or better) features than what you are used to. 2) You are a growing business looking to implement employee management software for the first time. Either way, we can help.
Whether you’re here to find a new tool or perhaps introducing an employee management system for the first time, this article will help you quickly compare and evaluate the best employee management system along with other human resources software. So let’s dive in!
HR Management Tools Comparison Criteria
What are we looking for when we are looking for HR online systems and tools? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training?
- Features & Functionality:
- Engagement and Productivity - Are there features designed to encourage employee engagement and monitor satisfaction and other moods? Are there any productivity tools that can be put to use?
- Employee Record Keeping - Is there a functional employee database for record-keeping? Are the employee records easily searchable? Can you search with filters and keywords?
- Surveys & Feedback - Are employees encouraged or enabled to provide some sort of feedback? Is work culture signifiers like mood, conflict, and satisfaction recorded somehow?
- Real-Time Reporting and Analysis - Are the reporting features useful and intuitive? Is there a variety of export and visualization options? Can you easily pull information for top performers?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools? Any pre-built integrations? This is not strictly vital for employee management software but is a huge plus.
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent and flexible?
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Overviews Of Top 10 HR Management Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the employee information systems that are featured on this top 10 list.
Deel
Best for managing global teams of international employees and contractors
Deel is a global employee management platform that enables hiring in over 150 countries. You can hire full-time employees from anywhere in the world and manage their payroll, compliance, and administration from one single platform.
Deel gives you management features for both contractors and employees. For employees, Deel works as the employer of record, handling payroll and benefits, so you don’t need to open up a foreign entity. Their full-featured UI also includes features such as contract management, expense reimbursements, and off-cycle payroll adjustments too.
Compared to other employee management systems, Deel stands out with several new offerings over the past year, including global payroll, global mobility support, integrated Slack tools, and advanced integrations. The global mobility service helps companies with visa sponsorship, allowing them to bring in candidates from abroad. The Slack plugins can be used to create an accessible organizational chart, provide self-service PTO management, and even track applicant referrals.
Deel integrates with major HR and accounting platforms and complies with SOC2 and ISO 27001 security standards, meaning it follows international guidelines for securing your data.
Deel offers flat rate pricing upon request, as well as a free demo.
Paycor
Best for comprehensive hiring or training initiatives
Paycor is a comprehensive employee management system that helps businesses manage payroll, employee hours, HR, and benefits. Its ability to track employee time and attendance helps employers identify patterns of absenteeism and tardiness, allowing them to take steps to improve employee productivity. The software includes a dashboard that allows managers to track the progress of each new hire, as well as a set of tools for creating and managing employee files. Its onboarding software integrates with Paycor's performance management and time-tracking software. Also, it includes a built-in e-signature function, which allows new hires to sign their employment contracts electronically.
Users can track and manage employee performance with customizable templates, goal setting and tracking, real-time feedback, and 1-on-1 sessions. Its payroll software offers a range of features, including direct deposit and tax filing. Paycor also provides a mobile app that allows employees to access their payroll information on the go with features that enable them to view pay stubs, request time off, and check accruals.
Paycor's analytics feature allows users to access detailed information about their employees' pay and benefits. By tracking this data, employers can identify trends and make informed decisions about compensation strategies. Users can generate reports that show employee pay by job title, location, or department. Additionally, the feature provides data on employee benefits usage, such as vacation days and health insurance coverage. Businesses can choose from various pricing plans based on the number of employees and the level of service required.
Integrations include HireTech, Emburse Certify, Zillion, Points North, FMLA, Tapcheck, Instant Pay, Sterling, Wageworks, Ignite, and other digital workforce tools.
Pricing for Paycor starts at $199/month.
monday.com
Best for employee time & task tracking
monday.com is marketing mainly as a workflow tool for scaling organizations, but they’ve also built in several HR features, many of which can be used well for employee management. The platform has features to build collaborative workflows and schedules, assign tasks and projects to your team, track time, report on key performance indicators (KPIs), solicit feedback from your staff, and send automated reminders for important to-dos.
Managers will appreciate the customizable reports and dashboards which can display valuable metrics needed for employee management: capacity limitations, progress tracking, time management, budget totals, and missed deadline warnings.
Part of managing your employees is making sure they aren't bogged down in admin and data entry when they could best be using their skills elsewhere. monday.com offers automations that can handle basic, recurring tasks without live intervention, freeing up your people for more creative and complex work.
monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Workspace, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier.
monday.com costs from $8/user/month and offers a free trial.
Rippling
Best all-in-one platform for managing HR, payroll, and IT needs efficiently
Rippling is an employee management system with modules for HR, payroll, IT functions, and more that allows organizations to streamline their personnel management processes and save time on mundane tasks. Their system makes it easy to manage remote employees through an intuitive interface that tracks every aspect of your employees' work from one central location.
Rippling's digital payroll software helps manage employee paychecks quickly and easily. You can easily add bonuses, deductions, and other adjustments per employee. You can set up custom roles and permissions for individual employees so they can easily access the information they need when they need it without having to navigate around complex menus or search functions.
The platform offers powerful analytics tools so you can easily track performance metrics across your entire team. Managers can access real-time data about their employees to get an accurate picture of their overall performance at any given time.
Rippling also automates the onboarding process so you can quickly onboard new employees and equip them with the tools they need to be productive. This includes setting up all employee accounts, such as email and software logins, in one place, eliminating the need for manual account setup, and ensuring new employees have access to everything they need immediately. You can also set up automated messages, so new hires receive all the information they need on time.
Their comprehensive offboarding tools simplify the process of terminating employees. Rippling stores all necessary documents for easy access, and helps employers comply with state and federal regulations regarding employment termination.
Integrations are available with 1Password, Asana, Atlassian, BrightHire, Checkr, DocuSign, Dropbox, GitHub, Google Workspace, LinkedIn, Microsoft 365, Netsuite, Sage Intacct, Slack, Typeform, QuickBooks, Zendesk, Zoom, and many other systems.
Due to the modular nature of their system, pricing details are customized upon request. You can also request a free demo through their website too.
Leapsome
Best for people enablement & learning
Leapsome’s all-in-one platform helps companies strengthen their employee satisfaction through a comprehensive suite of tools focused on employee engagement, performance and learning & development. Their performance review system includes modern elements like 360 degree feedback, agile project reviews, and anonymous leadership reviews, to give employees a voice during the feedback process. Goal setting is also well-integrated into the system so employees always know what’s expected of them, and how their goals are contributing to the bigger picture.
To help with employee upskilling, their learning and development module can create learning paths using customized curriculum, or curated third-party content from their built-in learning library. Knowledge acquisition can also be measured using short quizzes with a variety of question formats. Their learning path dashboard also makes it easy to keep track of internal enrollment numbers, progress status, and completion rates for individuals or at the company-wide level.
Leapsome integrates with 15+ common HR software applications including Personio, BambooHR, Bob, Workday, Rippling, PayFit, ADP, Active Directory, SFTP, Okta, OneLogin, GSuite, Slack, Jira Software, Microsoft Teams and common calendar apps.
Leapsome costs from $8/user/month. A 14-day free trial and free demo are also available.
Eddy
Best all-in-one HR software for small, local businesses
Eddy is an all-in-one HR Suite built for small, local businesses. With Eddy, businesses can hire, onboard, manage, and pay employees with one easy-to-use software.
Founded in 2017 by former professional basketball player turned entrepreneur, Travis Hansen, Eddy has grown rapidly due to its simple but powerful product, highly-rated customer service, and focus on local businesses with deskless workforces.
Key features include job posting management, tracking incoming candidates, and a full-scale applicant tracking system (ATS). The onboarding system lets HR managers create custom onboarding packages, assign tasks, and easily collect digital signatures.
A core function of Eddy is people management—users can access company directories and store important employee documents, notes on performance, and training and certifications in employee profiles. You can also create custom PTO policies and approve or deny requests; tap into their time tracking tool, which allows employees to easily clock in and clock out; and navigate payroll processes using Eddy’s full-service payroll system that includes support for multiple pay periods and end-of-year W-2 preparation, filing, and distribution.
Eddy starts at $8/employee/month plus a $49 base fee, and offers a free demo.
Connecteam
Best employee management app for mobile teams
Connecteam is an employee management app that allows HR people, employee managers, and business owners to communicate, operate, and train remote employees.
The tool is available on mobile, desktop, or as a kiosk app for tablets, and it’s intended for organizations where employees don’t spend their working time in the office. Connecteam can adapt to the needs of a variety of industries, including retail, restaurants, manufacturing, construction, field services, and healthcare.
Connecteam’s features include a dedicated employee communication channel with targeted updates, team engagement features, surveys, polls, a suggestion box to collect employee feedback, a searchable company directory, organizational charts, training and onboarding capabilities, a company library, time management, digital forms and checklists, quick tasks, and more.
Connecteam is designed for out-of-office use, and it’s easy to use, customizable, and quick to set up. Connecteam can automate daily procedures, help improve team communication, and help boost employee engagement.
Connecteam starts from a flat fee of $39 a month. The tool also offers a free 14-day trial.
Gusto
Best payroll service for international contractor-based teams
Gusto is an all-in-one HR solution with scalable pricing and features that work for smaller businesses with simple salary structures all the way up to complex, sophisticated international teams. Their Core level functions primarily as a payroll system with hiring and onboarding tools, with additional support for benefits management included. Their platform really comes alive at the Complete level, which includes team management tools, performance reviews, time-off management, and employee engagement features.
Gusto’s full-service payroll automatically files your corporate taxes with each payroll run, and includes a helpful AutoPilot feature to make submitting payroll even faster than most other systems. In today’s work-from-anywhere world, it’s common to have a global workforce, rather than all employees residing in the same place. Gusto has you covered there too, as it supports payments to international contractors in over 80 countries. As well, it also has a built-in device management tracking system that helps with inventory control, network access, and keeping your company data secure.
The list of integrations for Gusto is very comprehensive, with over 135 options to choose from. Commonly used options include Asana, Bonusly, ChartHop, DropBox, GitHub, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Sage Accounting, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Webex, Zipbooks and Zoom.
Gusto costs from $6/employee/month plus a $39/month base fee. A 30-day free trial is also available.
Zenefits
Best for paperless employee onboarding
Zenefits has created an HRIS platform that alleviates common HR headaches by integrating core HR functions like payroll, benefits, and time-off tracking, all within one system. In their higher service tiers, modules are also available for compensation management, performance management and several in-depth employee engagement tools.
Their automated and fully digital onboarding process supports offer letters, background checks, e-signatures, and employee self-onboarding. Once new staff enter their personal details, the information is automatically synced to benefits and payroll without the need for additional HR admin support. The platform is also accessible via mobile devices, making it easy for new staff to get up-to-speed even before day one.
Zenefits integrates with 45+ applications including Google Suite, Office 365, Slack, Salesforce, Expensify, Bonusly, BetterWorks, Zapier, and many others.
Zenefits costs from $8/user/month. A 14-day free trial and free demo are also available.
Bullhorn
Best for employee staffing & recruitment
Bullhorn has a whole range of items useful for HR management built for staffing firms, like recruiting and applicant tracking tools, middle and back-office support, onboarding software, and their “Pulse” relationship intelligence feature.
Bullhorn scored well in the integration segment of the evaluation criteria, as it promotes a dedicated solution for VMS and ATS integration. Bullhorn can connect with the likes of Fieldglass, Beeline, IQ Navigator, and at least 40 other options.
Internal search capabilities were a bit weak, making the database a bit of a slog to navigate. It’s mostly built for staffing agencies and may not be appropriate for companies just looking for internal HR.
Bullhorn starts at $300/month.
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Best Employee Management Systems Software Summary
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Deel Best for managing global teams of international employees and contractors | Free demo available | From $49/user/month | Visit Website |
2 | Paycor Best for comprehensive hiring or training initiatives | Free demo available | From $99/month + $5/employee/month | Visit Website |
3 | monday.com Best for employee time & task tracking | 14-day free trial + freemium plan available | From $10/user/month | Visit Website |
4 | Rippling Best all-in-one platform for managing HR, payroll, and IT needs efficiently | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
5 | Leapsome Best for people enablement & learning | 14-day free trial | From $8/user/month | Visit Website |
6 | Eddy Best all-in-one HR software for small, local businesses | Free demo available | From $8/employee/month + a $49 base fee/month | Visit Website |
7 | Connecteam Best employee management app for mobile teams | 14-day free trial | From $35/month | Visit Website |
8 | Gusto Best payroll service for international contractor-based teams | 30-day free trial | From $6/employee/month + $39/month base fee | Visit Website |
9 | Zenefits Best for paperless employee onboarding | 14-day free trial | From $8/user/month | Visit Website |
10 | Bullhorn Best for employee staffing & recruitment | Not available | From $300/month | Visit Website |
Other Employee Management Systems
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list. If you need additional suggestions for handy HR systems, check these out.
- Workday
Best for business & professional services companies
- Saba Cloud
Best targeted employee development plans
- SAP SuccessFactors
Best EMS for enterprises
- Sagar Informatics
Best employee data & record management
- 15Five
Best for linking employee performance with OKR management and employee engagement
- Buddy Punch
Best online time clock with scheduling
- Remote
Best global employee management system for international teams
- Officevibe
Best for goal setting and employee engagement
- Kissflow
Best project & task management for HR
- Namely
An award-winning people operations platform with tools for engagement, onboarding, payroll, and analytics
Worker Management Software FAQ
Have some questions about employee management systems before we dive into our summaries and reviews? Start here.
What's Your Top Employee Management System?
Any of the tools above can be of help to employees managers, it’s just a matter of deciding which one is best for you. Have you tried out any employee management systems listed above? Do you have an HR tool that you would add to the list? Let us know in the comments.
Looking into a more comprehensive solution such as ERP Software or maybe a less comprehensive solution? Check these lists out: