As a small business owner, it's difficult to ignore human resources. It's not as exciting as corporate operations focused on revenue or growth. The law does not mandate you to have an HR department. Even firms with a small number of employees, however, must perform some HR functions.
HR software is an extremely beneficial solution that helps develop HR processes and automate important functions for a minimal monthly charge in a small business. In 2020, 74% of organizations polled by PWC wanted to increase their investment in HR technology. This article will highlight ten of the ten best HR software for small businesses.
Related: The 5 Best HR And Onboarding Software Apps To Help Your Business Grow
What factors do I consider while deciding on the best HR software solutions for a small enterprise? The rating criteria are summarized below:
- User Interface (UI): In any software, user experience is critical. The finest tools feature a clean user interface that is simple to use on mobile or desktop.
- Usability: HR products for small firms must be simple to use so that anyone can utilize them. Documentation and good customer service might also be beneficial.
- Integrations: Integration with other tools aids in work automation. When creating an employee profile, the small firm may set up an integration that automatically adds workers to a Slack channel. Alternatively, one that connects your payroll program to your small business accounting software.
- Value for money: Small organizations typically do not have large funds for HR software solutions. The following tools are either inexpensive or free.
Key Features of small business HR software:
A comprehensive set of advanced human resource features is not required for small businesses. When choosing the best HR software for your organization, consider your firm's demands and select a solution that excels in these areas. This will help you get the workforce management capabilities you need without going over budget.
- Payroll automation: Payroll is the HR function that all firms must deal with. Payroll automation tools enable you to set up procedures that collect data about hours worked and then make payments with a single click.
- Self-service: Self-service functionality allows your employees to perform simple HR tasks independently. This allows your team members to acquire what they need fast while also allowing you to spend less time on these activities.
- Attendance tracking system: These features help you track who works and when. It gives insight into future staffing concerns and can be integrated with payroll tools to automate payment.
- Hiring management: If a small company is growing fast, then hiring management features are a must. These allow you to produce job advertisements to post on job boards or social media sites, gather applications, and manage candidates.
- Onboarding and off-boarding: Another helpful feature for small but growing businesses is setting up automated employee onboarding and off-boarding workflows. Make a list of everything employees need to complete before they begin, offer them a link to your tool, and they can work through the tasks on their own.
Below is a comparison of the cost and features of the 5 Best HR software vendors available in the market;
Software | Overview | Price |
Eddy is an all-in-one HR Suite created for small, local businesses. Businesses may use Eddy to hire, onboard, manage, and pay employees all with the help of a single piece of software. | $8/employee
| |
Open HRMS is open-source HR software with a slew of features that benefit small businesses. You'll find tools to help you manage things like attendance, vacation, transfers, payroll, and appraisals.
| $499/month | |
Bitrix24 is a web-based human resource management solution designed for small businesses. The program contains a plethora of functions that are advantageous to organizations that do not have a large HR workforce. Among these are a personnel directory, time and attendance features, and document management.
| $159/month | |
Gusto is an easy-to-use HR management software. It comes with all of the tools you'd expect. Payroll software can be configured to quickly organize and authorize payments, or time-tracking software can be used to track paid and unpaid absences. | $6/employee/month | |
| Paylocity is a software suite for payroll and human resources. The small business solution is intended to make HR activities as simple as possible. | Pricing upon request |
How to choose the most suitable HR Software for your business
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1. Feature Sets
The most crucial step in selecting a new HR software platform is determining which capabilities your business requires. This requires looking at every part of your present HR process, including onboarding, off-boarding, and everything in between, to see what works and what doesn't. While most HR software platforms provide all-in-one solutions for managing all parts of your HR department's job, many systems are very customizable. You must first explain the features you wish to see in service providers and pricing before you can evaluate them properly at a set price
2. Budget
You can limit your search by the price after narrowing your choice of characteristics. If you're looking for a one-stop shop with standard pricing, you may check the market by rejecting the few providers who don't offer clear pricing. On the other hand, if you're seeking a bespoke solution that will allow you to continue using some of your existing software partners while adding new tools, you may quickly dismiss many of the providers who only offer certain fixed-price packages.
3. Customer Service and Reviews
The quality of service you may expect is all that matters now that the features have been determined, and the prospective pricing is roughly even among your remaining possibilities. We combined the variables of customer service and reviews since we believe they both tell the same message. While you should always take customer reviews with a grain of salt, understanding that you're probably seeing the best and worst experiences far more than the average customer's perspective, it's still useful to be able to grade a software provider based on its best and worst performance.
Advantages of HR Software for small businesses
1. It increases productivity: Switching to an all-in-one HR software solution can boost your employee's productivity by providing a single, unified platform to complete their tasks.
2. It ensures consistency: With notifications that keep your team on top of critical regulatory duties, having all your data in one place makes it much easier to comply with evolving HR compliance regulations.
3. It is advantageous to your employees: A sophisticated HR software system may assist employees in ways that make their jobs more enjoyable, such as handling financial and health benefits and permitting requests for well-deserved vacations.
4. It enables consumers to make more informed decisions: Many HR software vendors integrate performance management with reporting and analytics, which provide actionable insights to improve employee happiness and performance while minimizing turnover, which boosts your company's bottom line and reputation as an employer.
5. It will save revenue for the small firm: If the small business is currently handling all of the important HR functions with a fragmented solution from numerous service providers, building service through one or a few suppliers may result in considerably better pricing for everything the small business requires. Even if the small firm continues to employ various service providers, connections to consolidate all HR data into a single user-friendly dashboard are typically available.
Related: The Power of HR Software to Cut Costs and Supercharge Productivity
To summarize, newly emerging firms that ignore their HR responsibilities face significant risk, making it more difficult to retain the best employees. The best human resource software enables small businesses without dedicated HR staff to manage their human resources compliant and efficiently.