BambooHR Review and Pricing
Thanks to its customizable plans, easy-to-use software, and advanced recruitment and onboarding tools, BambooHR is our choice for the best HR software for businesses prioritizing employee onboarding. BambooHR’s flexible packages include traditional HR management features like applicant tracking, onboarding and offboarding, document storage, benefits tracking, time-off management, reporting, workflows and approvals, and employee self-service functions. If you want a more comprehensive platform, you can easily add enhanced functions like payroll processing, benefits administration, time tracking and employee performance evaluations.
BambooHR and Pricing
The Verdict
BambooHR is ideal for small businesses that are seeking HR software with performance management capabilities. You can easily add features such as goal tracking, peer feedback, assessments and performance reports to complement traditional HR tools.
BambooHR Editor’s Score: 9.1/10
Price/value | 8.5/10 |
|---|---|
Features | 9.0/10 |
Customizations, add-ons and integrations | 9.3/10 |
Ease of use | 9.6/10 |
Customer support | 8.9/10 |
Why We Chose BambooHR for Employee Onboarding
Every version of BambooHR software comes with essential features for managing your workforce, such as employee records, benefits tracking, document storage, time-off management, and workflows and approvals. We like that select plans also include the features you need to take your employee recruitment and onboarding to the next level. For example, BambooHR’s applicant tracking system allows you to post open positions on job boards, career pages and social media. You can filter candidate resumes and cover letters based on keywords to create talent pools of viable candidates. Applicant tracking isn’t something all competitors offer, but it can be a key element to effective hiring.
Once you find the perfect candidate, you can create an effective onboarding process with BambooHR by sending out offer letters, welcome emails and new hire packets. You can also create, assign and track other essential onboarding activities for your new hires and current employees. The software’s automated workflows help ensure no onboarding task slips through the cracks. We appreciate that BambooHR also offers similar features for employee offboarding, so you can manage employment from start to finish.
BambooHR is also a top HR outsourcing service, which means you can use it as an alternative to relying on an in-house team for your HR responsibilities.
BambooHR helps you automate the employee onboarding process. Source: BambooHR
What We Like About BambooHR
- BambooHR offers an applicant tracking system to streamline the hiring process.
- Select plans include training monitoring to help ensure compliance and development.
- You can add benefits administration features, like the ability to customize open-enrollment windows, edit benefit coverage levels and dates, and approve employee elections.
What We Don’t Like About BambooHR
- BambooHR requires you to call the company for pricing.
- Only certain plans include BambooHR’s marketplace and open API access.
BambooHR’s Ease of Use
When we tested BambooHR, its usability was of its most appealing aspects. Because the platform is web-based, anyone on your team can access the software from any device, including smartphones and tablets. Employees can use the self-service portal to manage their time off, review their benefits and training and access company calendars.
The user-friendly dashboard doesn’t require much training to navigate the various features, which wasn’t the case for some other HR software solutions we examined. Even though the software is intuitive, BambooHR still offers several online videos that break down each tool and function for those who favor online tutorials. To make the platform even easier to use, BambooHR integrates with more than 100 third-party applications — in addition to boasting an open API — to give you a unified system that can handle multiple critical workflows.
Access BambooHR’s marketplace to integrate the HR platform with other apps and software you may already use, including Slack, Checkr, 15Five, Leapsome and Deputy.
Features
BambooHR has two primary HR software plans: Essentials and Advantage. For this review, we evaluated the features of the Advantage plan.
Recruiting and Onboarding
BambooHR enables you to manage employees from the recruitment stage to offboarding. The software lets you post job openings (via social media, job boards and your website’s career page) and track them, which makes recruiting easier for busy hiring managers. You can easily search for keywords in applicant resumes, cover letters and application questions and filter those results based on other features. We like that you can review and rate applicants, send emails and track the status of candidates, distribute offer letters and new-hire packets, and onboard remotely with e-signature capabilities.
If you aren’t ready to make a hire just yet — or you received too many qualified applicants — we love that the BambooHR software can be used to create talent pools. This lets you nurture previous candidate relationships to keep them in your pipeline for when you’re ready to fill your next open position.
BambooHR offers a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which is on par with industry standards. The mobile version of BambooHR’s software helps employers and HR staff stay organized even when they’re on the go. Plus, rather than being restricted to the office, you can manage your recruiting and onboarding process from any location.
Benefits Administration
Part of onboarding new hires includes administering employee benefits. We like that BambooHR now offers benefits administration as an add-on feature to its plans (for U.S.-based employees only). This enhancement allows you to customize and manage open-enrollment windows, edit benefit coverage levels and dates, communicate benefit plan information, and review and approve employee benefit elections — all from one platform. We found this service comparable to what others in the industry offer.
Time and Attendance
If you want time and attendance features included with your BambooHR software, you can add the company’s time-tracking package. This module provides access to valuable tools such as daily time entry, employee timesheets, automatic overtime calculations and payroll reports. It even gives you the ability to create approval workflows. For example, you can create a workflow that automatically sends timesheets to managers at the end of each pay period for approval. We found BambooHR’s time-tracking features to be on par with its rivals.
With BambooHR’s mobile app, it’s easy for employees to clock in and out, check their timesheets, and request time off from their phones. Source: BambooHR
Payroll
Companies that need basic payroll functions can add on BambooHR’s in-house payroll solution. It provides help with tax filings and end-of-year tax forms and syncs your financial data in the BambooHR platform with wages, hours worked, employee benefits, account numbers, federal and state withholding, and deductions. We like that the payroll system comes with HR reporting features that let you quickly analyze critical payroll summaries and data. BambooHR uses security measures like data encryption and continuous monitoring to ensure sensitive data is secure. [If you’re looking for a vendor that automatically includes payroll in its HR software plans instead of offering it as an add-on, read our review of Gusto.]
Performance Management
After your employees are onboarded, you can easily assess how they’re performing through BambooHR’s performance management add-on. You want to ensure your new hires are the right hires, so these assessments can quickly identify and address areas that need improvement, as well as increase employee engagement. We like that the performance management add-on also has a peer feedback feature: Employees answer questions about their co-workers, and you can use their answers to gain a clear view of your team’s overall performance, as well as each staffer’s strengths and weaknesses.
When we tested BambooHR’s performance management features, we saw how easily the software can create and monitor employee goals. Instead of guessing how close each person is to achieving their specific objectives, managers can use the program to track employee success. If a worker isn’t meeting their goals, you can address the problem, provide additional assistance if needed, and restructure their objectives to meet the needs of both the employee and the business.
Additionally, a unique tool that BambooHR offers is the ability to view employee and company performance reports. These reports provide a visual indication of which employees or teams are your highest performers. They also show you how employees feel about your organization. You can use these reports to predict performance issues before they occur. This feature can play a critical role in managing performance and setting employee goals.
Your employees can track and manage their goals within the BambooHR platform. Source: BambooHR
Legal Compliance
You can use BambooHR to create custom access levels that protect employees’ privacy and ensure that only team members with the appropriate level of authority can view specific HR information. An essential but somewhat unique HR compliance feature BambooHR offers is its audit trail function, which tracks each change a staff member has made to the system. This trail helps ensure you always know who is making changes to the software should any issue arise. [Interested in HR software that lets you create custom workflows for HR processes other than approvals? Read our review of GoCo.]
Reporting and Analytics
The level of reporting included in BambooHR software depends on the plan. The Advantage plan gives you access to custom reports and email alerts, which allow you to view the HR data that is relevant to your business’s needs. When you sign up for the Advantage plan, you also receive employee satisfaction (employee net promoter score, or eNPS) reports, which tell you how your employees feel about your organization. Although not all of BambooHR’s competitors offer eNPS reports, team member satisfaction tracking is becoming more common.
BambooHR can aggregate data into meaningful reports and charts. Source: BambooHR
BambooHR Pricing and Terms
As mentioned above, BambooHR has two HR software plans: Essentials and Advantage. You can customize each plan with add-ons, including payroll, benefits administration, time and attendance tracking, and performance management. As with other HR solutions we evaluated, you are charged monthly on a per-employee basis. We appreciate that the vendor doesn’t charge cancellation fees.
However, while some HR vendors we reviewed list their pricing online, BambooHR does not. Instead of offering a preset package at a predetermined rate, the company provides you with a custom quote based on a plan that fits your business’s HR needs. Your costs will hinge on how many employees you have, the types of HR functions you want, and how soon you want to implement the software.
If you want to try the BambooHR software before making a purchase, you can take advantage of the company’s online demo. Unlike many competitors, BambooHR also offers a seven-day free trial.
Implementation and Onboarding
BambooHR is one of the more intuitive and simple HR platforms we investigated, with a relatively straightforward implementation process. Once you upload your employee data to the software, you can customize the system to meet your company’s needs and then train employees on how to use it. We like that BambooHR has several employee self-service features, which employees can use to manage their own information.
According to the vendor, the average implementation period is four to six weeks. While some providers, like Gusto, can set up their HR systems more quickly, BambooHR’s implementation time frame is in line with those of many similar services. Fortunately, as noted above, it doesn’t take much time to learn how to use the BambooHR software, and there is plenty of instructional material available if needed.
Customer Support
Users can turn to BambooHR’s blogs, podcast, online library, webinars, HR glossary, guides, online calculators and HR crisis recovery platform for help regarding any issue or question. We like that the company also provides a page on its website that outlines product updates about new features and fixes. This shows clients that the company is actively listening to and acting on product enhancement suggestions.
If you have a question or concern and prefer to speak with a BambooHR representative, you can call or email the vendor. There’s also an option to fill out a contact form on the company’s website that will relay your message to the right person. One thing to note is that BambooHR’s phone support is limited to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. MT, whereas some competitors we reviewed offer 24/7 support.
Limitations
Although BambooHR has several great features that make it an attractive choice for businesses in need of HR software, one downside during the buying process is that, unlike some rivals, the vendor doesn’t list its pricing online. Instead, you need to contact a BambooHR representative for a customized quote. This may be a turnoff for business owners who prefer to have a general idea of pricing upfront to know whether the solution fits their budget before getting further into the sales process.
Another potential drawback is that BambooHR doesn’t offer all of the advanced employee scheduling features that some competitors provide, such as adding and editing shifts, building schedules around roles and times, and allowing employees to trade and drop shifts. However, BambooHR does integrate with third-party employee scheduling software. If you’re looking for an HR solution that can more readily provide employee scheduling, check out our review of Zenefits.
Methodology
We researched and analyzed dozens of human resources systems to identify the best HR software on the market. We looked at pricing, contracts, recruiting and onboarding capabilities, employee benefits administration, time-tracking features, payroll processing, performance management tools, reports, integrations, legal compliance assistance, usability, and customer support. We also watched product videos and conducted demos when possible.
When looking for the best HR software to use for employee onboarding specifically, we prioritized features for recruiting, applicant tracking, hiring and onboarding, as well as e-signature capabilities, usability, reporting, employee self-service and customer support.
FAQs
Is BambooHR free?
No, BambooHR is not free. However, the vendor does offer a seven-day free trial for those who want to test the software before making a commitment. Once you’re ready to sign up, there are two paid plans to choose from, as well as four optional feature sets (payroll, benefits administration, performance management and time tracking) that you can add on to each plan. BambooHR doesn’t list pricing online, so you will need to contact a company representative for a quote.
Is BambooHR a CRM?
No, BambooHR is not customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Rather, it’s an HR software solution designed to help you recruit, hire and onboard employees. With its additional features, the system can also help you track employee hours, administer benefits, pay workers and manage employee performance.
Is BambooHR compatible with QuickBooks?
Yes. BambooHR is compatible with more than 100 third-party applications, including QuickBooks.
Bottom Line
We recommend BambooHR for …
- Companies that want to streamline the employee hiring and onboarding process.
- Small businesses that want an easy way to track employee performance.
- Organizations that prefer software with an intuitive user interface.
We don’t recommend BambooHR for …
- Very large businesses with complex HR needs.
- Organizations that want pricing information upfront.
BambooHR and Pricing
The Verdict
BambooHR is ideal for small businesses that are seeking HR software with performance management capabilities. You can easily add features such as goal tracking, peer feedback, assessments and performance reports to complement traditional HR tools.