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Human Resources Software

Human Resource software, also known as Human Resource Information Software (HRIS) or HR Systems, is essential for managing employee data. With HR software, you can efficiently organize contact details, department information, attendance records, salary details, training programs, benefits, and more. HRMS systems also seamlessly integrate with applicant tracking and payroll software, streamlining your HR processes. In Canada, HR Management software is closely related to Applicant Tracking software, Payroll software, Performance Appraisal software, and Workforce Management software. Explore a wide range of HR software options available in Canada to optimize your human resource management.

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Run your workforce on the #1 rated HR system. HR, IT, spend & payroll made easy. All-in-one support for your global business. Learn more about Rippling
Rippling gives businesses one place to run HR, IT, & Finance. It brings together all workforce systems that are normally scattered across a company like payroll, expenses, benefits, & computers. For the first time ever, you can manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in one system. Take onboarding, for example. With Rippling, you can hire a new employee anywhere in the world and set up their payroll, corporate card, computer, benefits, & even third-party apps within 90 seconds. Learn more about Rippling

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
BambooHR is an award-winning HR platform that helps your growing organizations automate, centralize, and connect your people data. Learn more about BambooHR
The BambooHR all-in-one platform gives your growing organization the foundation it needs to build a thriving workplace now and far into the future. It brings together best-in-class solutions, capabilities, and integrations all in one place, with a single source of data. You’ll directly impact the employee experience all while managing important tasks, workflows, and data solutions, functionality, and integrations to build now and into the future. Learn more about BambooHR

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
HiBob operates in 174 countries, and serves over 3,000 modern, global, mid-sized businesses that include more than 600,000 employees. Learn more about Bob
Bob is the modern HR platform that simplifies complexity. With Bob, you can streamline your global core HR processes—such as onboarding, performance management, workforce planning, and compensation management—using automated workflows that increase efficiency and save precious time—even in a distributed workforce. Bob provides real-time quantifiable data that informs strategic decisions and impacts the bottom line. Bob helps dynamic companies bring out the best in their people. Learn more about Bob

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
An HRIS that is built to scale with your company. Your single source of truth for all company and employee information. Learn more about Humi
Keep all your HR information in one place and never lose track of an employee’s start date or vacation usage again. Humi is your source of truth for all company and employee data. Allow your employees to update their personal information without going through HR, keep track of who has read the latest employee handbook, and gain valuable insights on your company with customized reports and analytics. Learn more about Humi

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
An all-in-one HR Management Solution, Folks gives your human resources department the tools it needs to take your team to new heights. Learn more about Folks HR
Folks HR helps hundreds of SMBs save as much as one day a week with its innovative HR features. From employee onboarding to performance evaluation and HR analytics, get everything done and boost productivity with Folks! Our affordable and intuitive solutions are perfect for industries like manufacturing, engineering, construction, nonprofits and so much more. Simply add a little bit of maple syrup on top, and you have Folks HR, the best HRIS for Canadian SMBs! Learn more about Folks HR

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Streamline your day-to-day people management with TalentHR, a fresh take on HRIS. No IT skills required, all at a reasonable price. Learn more about TalentHR
TalentHR is a fresh take on HRIS, an all-in-one tool built for people management success. It’s fully customizable and features time-off tracking, custom fields, employee onboarding, performance reviews, and people analytics to alleviate all your HR management worries. Leave complex HR tools behind and focus on what matters most, your people. No IT skills required, all at a reasonable price. TalentHR is a product of Epignosis, the company that 11,000+ businesses trust for their HR and L&D needs. Learn more about TalentHR

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
We're creating a new standard in global HR, enabling every business to access better payroll, tax, benefits and compliance solutions. Learn more about Remote
Experience limitless global opportunities with Remote's transformative approach to building international teams. Regardless of your company's size, we offer comprehensive solutions for payroll, taxes, benefits, equity options, and compliance in numerous countries. With our network of in-country legal and HR experts, your intellectual property is safeguarded. Whether you're on the path to market expansion or seeking individual talent globally, Remote empowers you with robust global employment solutions that redefine possibilities Learn more about Remote

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Cloud-based HCM platform bringing together payroll, time + attendance, and HR for organizations with between 500 and 50,000 employees. Learn more about Dayforce HCM
Today's HR leaders need on-demand access to employee information to support business critical decisions. A single employee record across the Dayforce platform puts all details about your people in one place, from compensation to benefits and performance. Understanding what drives your business is critical to your success. Gain insights through reports and dashboards that span Dayforce, so you can monitor the key indicators and trends – such as turnover by age, location, etc. Learn more about Dayforce HCM

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
AI-driven internal talent marketplace to enhance talent mobility, maximize productivity, and cultivate cost-efficiency. Learn more about Talenteer
Reimagine your HR operations with Talenteer, an innovative AI-driven internal talent marketplace. Talenteer simplifies the process of finding in-house experts, filling open positions, and planning career development paths. With a 360-degree view of your talent pool, Talenteer enhances transparency and boosts mobility within your organization. Our platform helps reduce recruiting costs, improve employee retention, and support proactive career management. Transform your HR strategy with Talenteer and drive your organization's success through smarter, data-driven decisions. Learn more about Talenteer

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
Citation Canada helps businesses master HR and Health & Safety compliance and regulation with expert advice, content and technology. Learn more about Citation Canada
As a business leader, you know that managing HR and Health & Safety can feel like navigating an uncharted wilderness. That’s why for over a decade Citation Canada, formerly HRdownloads, has blazed trails for Canadian businesses through the difficult, ever-changing world of compliance, regulation, and employee management. We’re equipped with the advice, content, and technology you need to overcome any HR or Health & Safety challenges that cross your path, so think of us as a guide towards a smoother, simpler future: the future your business deserves. Learn more about Citation Canada

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Manage your whole international workforce through Deel—from direct employees to international contractors and everything in between. Learn more about Deel
Deel is the global-first HR platform built to scale with your business. Manage your whole international workforce—from direct employees to international workers and everything in between. Save $20,000 a year on your global tech stack while compliantly managing your global team with unmatched coverage. Double your HR effectiveness with 80 integrations. Eliminate duplicate work with the first all-in-one platform combining EOR, contractors, global payroll, and more. Learn more about Deel

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
A purpose-built compensation platform that intuitively gives employers the power to realize comp's full potential from end to end. Learn more about beqom Pay Management
beqom is a purpose-built compensation platform that intuitively gives employers the power to realize comp’s full potential from end to end, every day. We help the world's leading enterprises leverage their talent through complete, equitable, and transparent performance and rewards. With unified data, complete pay management solutions, and AI-enabled pay intelligence, beqom enables companies to comply with regulatory requirements, optimize compensation decisions, and achieve better business results. beqom’s CompComplete offers comprehensive compensation and performance management, based on four product pillars: - Pay Management to deliver total compensation simply and without compromise. - Pay Intelligence to optimize pay with data-driven recommendations. - Pay Equity to close pay gaps for good and create a culture of fairness. - Pay Transparency to provide clarity to employees on compensation and performance. - On a technology Platform to handle enterprise scale and complexity Learn more about beqom Pay Management

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
One Model is a cloud-based human analytics solution designed for HR professionals to view data insights using trend analysis. Learn more about One Model
Unlock the value of your HR data with the most flexible, transparent and all-inclusive people analytics solution. One Model has the most robust data foundation - aggregating and modeling complex HR data into a single source of truth - so you can get deeper insights into your people data. One Model integrates with the worlds top HRIS, payroll, recruiting, learning and survey solutions such as Workday, Successfactors & Oracle just to name a few. In addition to Data Lakes such as Snowflake & Azure Learn more about One Model

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
Together Software enables HR teams to build scalable mentoring programs through our easy-to-use platform with measuring and reporting. Learn more about Together Mentoring
Together Software enables HR teams to build scalable mentoring programs through our easy-to-use platform with built-in measuring and reporting. Our intelligent algorithm creates meaningful connections by analyzing employees’ goals, interests, strengths, and more. It seamlessly integrates with existing HRIS and Calendar tools. Join Heineken, Kelloggs, and Discovery Channel to drive an excellent employee experience all while being supported by our dedicated customer service team. Learn more about Together Mentoring

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
Cloud-based human resources management solution that helps manage payroll, time & attendance, communications, reporting, and more. Learn more about MX-HRManager
MX-Solutions offers an integrated platform for businesses to manage time & attendance, payroll, and human resources. Our solution allows you to transform the management of your business into a unified, collaborative process, with all operations, ranging from punching in to payroll production, regulated within a single database. Our easy-to-use software is guaranteed to save you countless hours of workforce management and eliminate potential payroll errors. Learn more about MX-HRManager

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Easy to set up and customizable 360 Feedback for organizations of all sizes. Get a demo with a 360 Expert to see Spidergap in action. Learn more about Spidergap 360 Feedback
Revolutionizing 360-degree feedback, Spidergap is the leading choice for businesses seeking powerful insights to drive personal growth and organizational success. Spidergap distinguishes itself by providing flexibility and customization, catering to your organization's unique needs. Proudly adopted by over 3000 organizations in 134 countries, Spidergap is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, ensuring top-tier security for your data. Discover the transformative potential — book a demo today! Learn more about Spidergap 360 Feedback

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
CompLogix Compensation helps organizations automate any pay program (merit, bonus, stock, equity, STIP/LTIP) through an online portal. Learn more about CompLogix Compensation
CompLogix Compensation (formerly Harvest HCM) helps organizations automate any pay/compensation program (merit, bonus, stock, equity, STIP/LTIP, promotion, etc) through an easy to use web-based software solution. Our compensation administration application gives managers an easy to use online system to help eliminate compensation spreadsheets. Our clients include organizations from a variety of industries with 200 employees to organizations with 50,000+ employees. Learn more about CompLogix Compensation

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
Powerful, flexible, easy-to-use Time-capture + HR + Payroll -- in a single integrated system. See it for yourself. Learn more about Umana
Designed for companies with 150+ employees. Powerful, flexible, easy-to-use -- UMANA is the most advanced HR and Canadian payroll system you can buy. Fully integrated HR + Payroll + Time-and-attendance can handle complex remuneration rules, employees who wear multiple 'hats', seniority by job, benefit arrears and waiting periods, and more. Umana can do it : Guaranteed. Learn more about Umana

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Start Free with a World class Employee Portal and HRIS. Upto 25 employees free with many many features Learn more about EmpXtrack
We believe in empowering you, as a business manager, to realize the full potential of your people. We believe that technology can free you up to focus on larger strategic initiatives. We have developed a unique concept "Build your own HR" to help you start immediately, evaluate our product and add features as your need evolves. Empxtrack is offering a Free HR portal for upto 25 employees that contains Employee database, Leave, Attendance, Reporting and helps take your HR to the cloud. Learn more about EmpXtrack

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Our HR Solutions for Workplace Investigations Management give you the clear and consistent processes every ER team needs. Learn more about HR Acuity
Get ER solutions that help you thrive with the data you need to raise the bar. Our platform helps you streamline the HR documentation process, collecting all the information from your investigations in a single place to make finding data easier and faster. This employee documentation software helps professionals keep track of issues in the most consistent and comprehensive manner. Learn more about HR Acuity

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Simple, all-inclusive online HR Management system. Start this month to get 50% off for 12 months! Learn more about HR Partner
Start this month to get 50% off for 12 months! HR Partner is a simple, all-inclusive online HR Management system for businesses with 20 to 500 employees. HR Partner manages your employee records, onboarding, leave requests, renewable documents, performance management, asset tracking, and recruitment - all in one place. Your whole team can use the self-service portal to check their leave balances, submit leave requests, or update their details. Learn more about HR Partner

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Leapsome is a people enablement platform used by CEOs and HR teams to build resilient & high-performing teams Learn more about Leapsome
Leapsome is the all-in-one people enablement platform used by CEOs and HR teams at more than 1500 forward-thinking companies (including Spotify, monday.com, and Unity) to drive employee development, productivity, and engagement. The platform combines tools for Goals & OKRs Management, Performance Reviews and 360s, Development Frameworks, Employee Learning & Onboarding, Employee Engagement Surveys, Feedback & Praise, Compensation & Promotions, and Meetings. Learn more about Leapsome

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
HR document management software for secure, paperless management of employee files and can connect with your HRIS/Payroll system. Learn more about Document Locator
HR teams use Document Locator to eliminate filing cabinets and store employee documents securely in a paperless HR file management system that is affordable and easy to use. Paper is converted to fully-searchable digital files where everything is easy to find. Filing is automated for consistency and organization, and data can be sync’d with your HCM or payroll system. Security maintains control over access. Available on-site or cloud-hosted, with Desktop, Web, and Mobile access, plus an API. Learn more about Document Locator

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
One stop HR software with integrated Payroll, Scheduling, Talent and Performance management with HR Analytics and Reporting functions Learn more about StarGarden HR Suite
StarGarden HCM is an integrated HR, Payroll and Time management system with Workflow automation capabilities. It provides all the capabilities required to efficiently run your whole HR department. From core human resource functions like maintaining employee records, payroll, benefits & compensation, time and attendance to advanced functions like succession planning, reporting, and analytics. Our system is designed as a position based application suited for industries with complex requirements. Learn more about StarGarden HR Suite

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software
Canada Local product
Workzoom offers HR, Workforce, Payroll, and Talent software to consolidate and automate your people management. Learn more about Workzoom
Workzoom is an all-in-one people management solution that helps businesses consolidate and automate their data. Workzoom provides businesses with the ability to manage their people from hire to retire in one easy-to-use solution that includes HR, Workforce, Payroll, and Talent. Stop chasing your company data around and get started with no long-term commitment for $4 per employee per month. Learn more about Workzoom

Features

  • Employee Management
  • Performance Management
  • Applicant Tracking Software
  • Recruitment Management
  • Time & Attendance
  • Compensation Management Software
  • Benefits Management
  • Payroll Management
  • Onboarding Software

Human Resources Software Buyers Guide

Introduction

Human Resource (HR) software enables organizations across Canada to manage employee records and other human resource information in a straightforward and accurate way. Also referred to as Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) or Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS), HR software is often designed for large corporations with significant HR teams running anything from dynamic resource allocation to payroll functions. However, today's generation of HR software also offers scalable options, so is suited to organizations of all sizes that need to streamline their HR responsibilities and procedures.

Plenty of HR software will work in multiple ways, sometimes on a modular basis and sometimes as a complete business solution. For example, typical functions expected of an HR software platform will help to organize employee contact details in a central database. This might also include their department, job description, attendance record, pay history, training information, and any key skills they might have.

SMEs and start-ups in particular can often benefit from investing in HR software. Bridging the gap between large organizations with a full team of skilled HR professionals and small organizations that might not require—or have the budget for—a team of dedicated full-time HR employees, HR software packages can help middle-managers and business owners facilitate all of their HR functions.

High-quality HR software will often automate many of the processes involved in running an HR department, ideal for smaller enterprises with only limited resources at their disposal. Some HR packages will also integrate with accounts payable software for running payroll or have their own module for this purpose. Other common integrations include compatibility with workforce management software–ideal for scheduling employee workloads, for example–as well as performance appraisal software, which can keep tabs on the progress of staff members as they proceed in their careers.

In general, HR management software will be able to:

  • Store staff members' personal records on an employee database
  • Facilitate planning and human resource allocation using workers' profiles
  • Create reports that help managers to make strategic decisions based on available resources
  • Manage payroll processes so that salaries are paid accurately according to hours worked and bonuses earned
  • Generate time and attendance records to help managers improve productivity
  • Offer self-service portals to allow employees to update and manage their own records
  • Provide new employee training and orientation programmes, also known as onboarding programmes

What is HR software?

Human resource (HR) software assists businesses and other organizations with the management of employee records and personal information. This can range from contact details and attendance records, through to training schedules and performance management documentation. Ultimately, human resources management systems in Canada use employees as their primary resource, offering an easily accessible overview of the ‘human’ aspect of any business.

Designed to provide users with swift and efficient access to employee details, HR management software can provide on-premise solutions as well as cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) deployment options. As with all data repositories, security is key—much of the information stored within HR software packages is either private, commercially sensitive, or both, so in-built access controls ensure data protection protocols are adhered to.

Yet the primary function of human resources in business is to facilitate efficiency. Automating a large number of HR tasks, Canadian human resources software for small businesses in particular can allow for a more cost efficient allocation of financial resources. For larger Canadian companies, there are HR platforms capable of handling scheduling issues in multiple time zones, permitting real time updates that can be simultaneously accessed, shared appropriately, and administered from locations anywhere in the world.

Related to applicant tracking software, payroll software, and performance appraisal software, HR systems software will either integrate with workforce management software or include a module that handles the human resource allocation function. From SMEs to large multinationals, HR software systems can provide organizations of all sizes across Canada with operational advantages.

What are the benefits of HR software?

The benefits of HR software are numerous, but all are focused on consolidating the control of human resource functions in a single package. HR management software that is specialist in nature will offer different benefits to one that provides a suite of functions as an overall solution. For example, HR software for small businesses might not suit large multinationals and vice versa. That said, all good HR systems software will provide several distinct advantages that include:

  • Time-saving through automation: automating many of the background functions that would otherwise have to be done manually—such as assigning employee numbers to tasks or payslips, for example—allows a reduction in human resource allocation. In turn, this means that small business owners can spend more time doing other jobs and large corporations can more efficiently deploy the HR professionals it employs. Saving time means boosting operational efficiencies and, ultimately, lowering overheads.
  • Dataset integration functionality: centralizing datasets via integration allows all relevant records to be more easily accessible and updated. Anything from home addresses and phone numbers to next of kin information and overtime records may need to be amended multiple times over the course of a year. organizations may also hold additional records for employee skills and training, the number of internal courses attended and pending deadlines for recertification. From payroll records to disciplinary documents, consolidating all employee data and centralizing access routes via an employee database helps improve the speed of operations and the accuracy of the data that is stored.
  • Local employment practice accommodations: localized professional HR solutions software provide human resource managers with everything they need to comply with geographically relevant employment regulations. This includes accommodating employees who are based overseas or who work in other jurisdictions. Most Canadian HR software, however, is specifically geared to the needs of Canadian-based businesses. Additionally, Canadian businesses might also benefit from systems that take account of Canadian legal frameworks that deal with other areas of employment law, such as the right to ask for flexible working practices, parental leave, and formal complaints procedures.
  • Analytic capabilities: real-time analysis of employee data is a huge benefit to businesses of all types, but it is especially advantageous to those going through a restructuring process. organizational change is only effective when decision-makers have the right information at their fingertips, especially concerning human resources. Knowing how and where to deploy employees is an important part of today's corporate thinking. Strategic decisions should be made with verifiable data to back them up, and the latest generation of HR software provides this. Such data might include staffing levels over time, or the availability of people with key skills, for example. Even better, cloud HR software, which stores data securely in third-party servers, allows decision-makers to access the information they need at any time and from any portable device—a big plus for small, agile firms and multinationals alike.
  • Drives down recruitment costs: streamlining all the processes associated with hiring personnel can help to reduce recruitment costs. Any expenditure on recruitment adds to a business’ operational overheads, particularly if outsourcing is otherwise necessary to any or all of the relevant tasks. With good HR software recruitment packages, the costs associated with hiring new employees can be reduced by maintaining records on all applicants that can be evaluated fairly at any time, while also prompting contact with people who have been unsuccessful in the past for future jobs that might become available. In many cases, this sort of applicant tracking will speed up contacts between internal decision-makers and preferred candidates.

What are the features of HR software?

HR systems software offers a wide range of core and common features, as well as more specific features that are designed for particular industries or business requirements. Here are some of the most common features and functions of human resource management:

  • Comprehensive employee database: Managers who have HR responsibilities can store all of their staff's personal information in a single location. Certain aspects of the database may be made available to middle managers and supervisors; typically, this would include training records or information about an employee's relevant skills to help them be deployed more usefully in an organization. In addition, an HR software employee database will hold more personal information, such as home addresses, records of illness, and disciplinary records. Well-designed HR databases will only allow access to such records by authorized people, usually HR professionals or senior managers. Other information typically stored on an employee database these days would include annual leave records, employee qualifications, timesheets, and individuals' length of service.
  • Central storage of employee profiles: Employee profiles are stored centrally to make record-keeping easier. Another key aspect of many HR systems, in many cases, although not all, employee profile entries will be integrated into an employee database. Typically, HR professionals will use coding in a profile to help them perform certain functions. For example, rather than listing all of the in-house training modules an employee has taken and passed, as you might expect with an employee database, their profile will use codes to show which skills they are trained in and how long ago they took the relevant course. HR professionals can then use their employee profile software to plan future courses to ensure, for instance, that a sufficient number of staff members have the right health and safety updates. Employee profiles are not limited to training issues, however. They will often cover the full range of HR records. A profile might also include coding to quickly determine whether an employee works full or part-time, whether they have any holiday remaining in the current year, or whether they make voluntary contributions to the employer's pension scheme. This way, assigning tasks or performing certain functions with a certain class—or group—of employees becomes much simpler.
  • Reporting/analytics with real-time data: Access the data surrounding employees as and when it changes. Planning a shift rota, for example, may mean understanding a company's order book to determine how many employees will be needed for a certain period, but it will also mean knowing who is available for certain shifts, especially when specialist skills will be required. Especially with online HR software, managers can run the necessary HR reports to better manage their workforce without needing to come into the office. HR cloud software, which stores data on third-party servers, means secure reporting is possible from anywhere in the world. This is something that is particularly useful for businesses that run on a 24-hour basis. Even Canadian HR software designed for SMEs rather than big corporations often includes access to analytics which help to simplify the large amounts of data stored in, for example, digital timesheets and so on. Many HR software solutions include standard reports as well as versions that users can program to perform specific analytical functions.
  • Payroll management system: Process employee transactions with integrated payroll software. Even businesses outsourcing their payroll functions to a third-party provider can use HR management software with a payroll module—even if they don't intend to process payrolls themselves. That said, a payroll management system will help many businesses, large and small, to ensure that their weekly employee payments or monthly salary transactions are fair, accurate, and legal. In particular, Canadian HR software will help HR professionals running payroll functions to ensure that all the necessary deductions are carried out before payments are sent to employees. Typically, software for HR and payroll will work out how much needs to be deducted for employee pension contributions, student loan repayments, National Insurance Contributions, and income tax. Many will also produce payslips for employees so that they have a clear understanding of how much they have been paid and what for, including overtime, performance-related bonuses, and so on. Furthermore, HR payroll management will often integrate with HR database information so that annual P60 forms can be automatically generated and sent to employees' home addresses. It also means their bank details can be securely accessed so that salaries can be paid directly into them each month.
  • Up to date time & attendance records: Track employees' attendance and the hours they have put in. As accuracy is critical to employers, up to date time and attendance records are a feature of the best HR software. In the past, employees might have had to manually clock in and clock out when they started and finished work, but this is now often done electronically instead. For example, when people log on to their terminal, they will often create a digital record of their attendance and availability for work. Essentially, HR software stores all of this information in order to create a record of staff members' working hours. Where people are paid by the hour, being able to access their digital records in a software system helps to improve accuracy and saves time among HR professionals. Even when employees are not paid for specific attendance times, such records can help work out the productivity of certain employees compared to others. This can help identify underperformance as well as highlight those who might be working too hard and may be liable to burnout. In addition, most time and attendance systems will allow managers to work out who might be taking too many sick days and who is next in line for the opportunity of working overtime. In short, access to these sorts of records helps with a raft of HR and resource allocation issues.
  • Self-service portal employee access: Employees can access their employer's HR software and update it according to their individual requirements. Self-service portals are not a feature of all HR software systems, but they're increasingly more common nowadays. Basically, a self-service portal allows employees to access their employer's HR software and to update it according to their individual requirements. An example of the way this might work would be when an employee changes the bank account that they would like to receive their salary in. Rather than filling out a form that an HR professional or a manager has to process, the self-service portal allows an employee to enter the new details at a time that suits them. The record will then be updated automatically in time for the next payroll. Furthermore, self-service portals can be used to book holidays, to handle in-house training appointments, and for employees to alter other personal information, such as their address or next of kin records. Crucially, self-service portals only allow employees access to their own records and not to any other information that might be stored on the organization's HR software database.
  • Onboarding programme management: Automate the provision of orientation courses, policy documents, video presentations, and scheduling to more easily commence a new employee's work within the employer's organizational structure. In fact, any organization that wishes to streamline its onboarding programmes for newly recruited personnel is likely to benefit from this useful HR software feature. Many organizations, particularly larger ones, have onboarding programmes for new employees so that they can become better acquainted with the organizational structure of their employer. This might mean attending different team meetings or holding one-to-one sessions with managers in different departments. Scheduling all of these appointments can be a headache, especially when the relevant people who a new employee should see have busy and changing schedules of their own. Onboarding modules in some HR software systems can also automatically allocate initial tasks to new employees, enabling them to become more familiar with work patterns and employer expectations.
  • Anonymous 360-degree feedback processes: Utilize anonymized feedback to encourage more honest responses. HR software that runs 360-degree feedback programmes with built-in anonymity leads to more open employee engagement. When an organization adopts a culture of 360-degree feedback, all employees are asked to offer feedback on each other. However, in order to prevent people from becoming upset by their peers, their manager, or the people they manage, anonymity must be maintained. For this reason, HR software is invaluable because it can be used to gather all of the feedback without the need for who said what about whom to become known. Many HR software solutions include 360-degree feedback modules these days. Typically, they won't just gather feedback using predetermined templates but present it with average ratings, statistical dashboards, and word clouds, to name but a few functions.

What should be considered when purchasing HR software?

The most important considerations prior to purchasing HR software will depend on the size and the structure of the organization concerned. What will be of most importance to an SME with only a small HR team will not often match a large multinational corporation's requirements. Equally, what might suit a non-profit organization may not be adequate for the needs of a commercial business even though both run HR software systems. Predominantly, however, the following considerations will be the most significant for the majority of businesses, charities, and other professional organizations.

  • Which modules are included in the HR software? Some HR solutions software provide all of the modules organizations might ever need within a single package. Others are more modular and allow users to pick and choose. For example, businesses that want an HR self-service system and an employee database but which outsource their payroll function may want a modular HR management software system rather than a complete solution.
  • Is the HR software free to use? Some free HR software will work with only a limited number of employees or will only allow users to operate certain modules before a payment needs to be made. It is worth checking out whether a free HR software system will work for only a trial period and which functions are not available if a freemium HR platform is selected.
  • Does HR cloud software offer additional benefits? Many organizations use cloud-based software solutions these days because it means not having to use their own servers. Certainly, there is a great deal of flexibility on offer for businesses that adopt online HR software. However, it doesn't suit every organization because third-party servers will necessarily hold some private data. For organizations with employees in some countries outside of the Canadian, this may cause a potential regulatory problem if private data storage outside of their jurisdiction is a consequence of choosing a cloud-based system.
  • How is the HR software charged for? Some HR software can be purchased outright. Other HR management software systems are provided on a licensed basis such that only a limited number of users can access the system simultaneously. This may suit organizations with small HR departments, but it would not necessarily lend itself to a company that wished to operate a self-service HR function among all employees. There again, some HR software packages are charged for on a modular basis, so organizations that choose this type will only pay for the elements of the system that they actually make use of.

Like all software developed for commercial usage, there are identifiable trends associated with HR platforms. The latest trends in HR software include:

  • More machine learning: Artificial intelligence (AI) is now being deployed in numerous software applications, and HR software systems are no exception. One area where AI is being used at the moment is prediction. For example, using past records to establish what future time and attendance statistics will look like and even, in some cases, automatically rostering shift patterns.
  • Online HR software for SMEs: Although larger organizations often adopt an entire HR software solution to meet all their needs, this can sometimes be too much for smaller businesses. That's why many developers now offer online HR software which can be accessed in a modular fashion only when it is needed. Cloud storage means that data is available 24/7, and SMEs don't need to pay for their own servers or the attendant cybersecurity infrastructure because this is all taken care of by the software supplier.
  • Greater user-friendliness: With the advent of self-service HR software platforms, so general users are using these sorts of packages more and more. In other words, HR software is no longer the domain of HR professionals only. Consequently, intuitive design, user-guided operations, and even chatbots that help to resolve common problems are now very much in vogue among software developers.

Sources

The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra’s directory that offer them. The following sources were used for this document:

  1. 5 key benefits of an integrated HR system (Date accessed: Thursday, July 1, 2021)

  2. 10 Benefits of a Recruitment Software (Date accessed: Thursday, July 1, 2021)

  3. Everything you need to know about HR Databases (Date accessed: Thursday, July 1, 2021)

  4. The Benefits of Using Time and Attendance Software (Date accessed: Thursday, July 1, 2021)

  5. 10 Features every Employee Self Service Portal should have! (Date accessed: Friday, July 2, 2021)

  6. What is 360-Degree Feedback? (Date accessed: Friday, July 2, 2021)

  7. 6 HR technology trends to anticipate in 2021 (Date accessed: Friday, July 2, 2021)