BambooHR Reviews

Pros

I personally like that BambooHR has different portals for its users. They've built a database that allows employees to: 1. Maintain their own records (whether the company sends or user uploaded); track time off earned, sick days used, and hours worked; while allowing the user to sign documents easily electronically; and 2. Makes being an HR manager, easy. What I mean is, creating records (employees or temps) and ensuring they have all the blocks checked (background ran, drug test paperwork properly filled out, and any other documentation needing signed) within the timeframe needed to start working - is tracked, maintained, and recorded for you... so all in all, eliminates the monotony of HR and time wasted on paperwork while assisting managers/employees in ensuring proper compliance.

Cons

Well, I still had to scan any documents that weren't created or automated through the software and label them. For example, I work at a satellite location; the warehouse I staff for has a basketball court out back for employees to use on their break. I had to create a document that stated employees for my agency had to make sure they were clocked out, that they were responsible for any risk of injury and that the company and staffing agency would not be held liable for any resulting injury that may occur. The rest of the staffing agency didn't need this so I still had to print out 50 copies, have each employee sign one, upload it, file it in the employee file in the software, label it, then give the copy back to the employee. This really is not an issue unless if turnover is high, this could get annoying.

Pros

The look an feel of BambooHR (BHR) is amazing! Its almost like Facebook for recruiting. It is very intuitive for what it does and offers to the administrator and end user. The applicant tracking system is very easy to use and goes the extra mile with automation and thoughtfulness concerning on-boarding and then " flowing" into the core HRIS. The BHR system was chosen by a previous HR professional that clearly had a recruiting bias. Although important, more vetting should have been done to make a sound choice for long term success regarding the needs of a small to mid-size business.

Cons

Beyond what I described above there is limited functionality without also purchasing and integrating other systems through a "bolt-on" approach. By "Bolt-on" I mean that BHR will not automate between the core HR system of BHR and a timekeeping system, a payroll system, benefits administration system, leave administration system. The ability to have a robust system is possible but is not practical or cost effective with BambooHR. In order to get a full platform, covering the full life cycle of and employee, through BHR, a business would have to pay upwards of 30-40 dollars per employee per month. Simply put other options are available and far more robust with better long term results for less money- See my review of APS Payroll for an example.

Alternatives Considered

APS Payroll, Paycom, ADP Workforce Now, Namely and Paycor

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

Price and lack of proper education as to the actual functionality and potential cost of the system beyond on-boarding.

Pros

I can't say enough good things about BambooHR. I am an HR Consultant so I work with a lot of my client's HRIS systems and this one is, hands down, the best. It is so easy to use and has everything you will ever need. It is the one software program I recommend to all my clients now. I happened upon it because one of my current clients was already using it and I was sold from that point forward. When I see people list cons on there, I wonder if they are really using it to the full capacity or just not sure how to best utilize it. I have yet to have any issues and I've been using it for at least 5 years now.

Cons

The only con I see is when BambooHR does the implementation as it just takes too long. I can do it in a week or less so I usually offer my clients this service when they work with me.

Pros

Bamboo has good features to request and approve annual leaves

Cons

It does not correctly sync with other tools and does not contain local holidays

Pros

The features that BambooHR offer are extremely streamlined and useful. The ease of use of the platform gives our employees an easy way to access and manage all of their information. The best part of BambooHR though would be the customer service and how well they work with you when integrating this software into your business.

Cons

The only con with this software was the lack of integration with other accounting services. IE Quickbooks however, this was easily worked around and they do offer other solutions.

Alternatives Considered

Deel and NetSuite

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

The ease of use this software provides. QB was too manual.

Switched From

QuickBooks Online Advanced

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

The options and streamlined design of this platform fit better with our company.

Pros

Pretty much what you'd expect of any good software, is to work fast and reliably, and to be intuitive to use. Bamboo is good in all those categories, feeling quite responsive and easy to use.The mobile app also works pretty nicely.

Cons

The time tracking feature in particular doesn't work exactly quite well for our concrete use case at our company, so it's something that perhaps could be improved. Overall it works fine but there are some things that could be improved.

Pros

It's a personal file for each member of the company. It gives you most of the information that you'll need. From how long they've been working for the company, their job position, salary, PTOs timeline, goals for the quarter, trainings or lessons that have been taken.
There's even an Organigramm for all the individuals that work with the company and the hierarchy within the same.
Im currently not an administrator, but from my POV it helps us locate our progress within the company, the benefits, and works as a newsletter for important updates about upcoming events or courses.

Cons

It seems like an old interface, the timeline for the PTOs could be more intuitive (it's from the oldest to the newest request, I think it could be the other way around), and the breakdown of the requests needs to be more clear since the format can be a little bit confusing

Pros

UI; really easy to follow. Didn’t need to look at any documentation to learn how to navigate itCelebrations; I like the way it shows employee birthdayWhitelabel; we are able to whitelabl the product in line with our company brandingIntegrations; okta is nice

Cons

I am unsure if this may be a feature, but it would be nice if there were more alerting capabilities around the time tracking feature. For example, maybe an integration with slack to prompt employees to clock in/out. Even email prompts. Or even OS notifications?

Pros

I love that the user interface is clean, simple and easy to navigate. Honestly that makes it very attractive in that sense because when I am at work or looking for something after hours, I do not want to spend half of the time searching through. I also love that as a new employee at my company, the onboarding information was up front and easily accessible, therefore I did not need to go far to find out about my fellow co-workers or managers!Not only that, the name BambooHR makes it sound so cute and friendly, it personally makes me happy to see, and the fact that you can personalize your widgets and customize your front page to how you like it, 10/10 I recommend!

Cons

I wish there was a dark mode feature, that is something that eases my eyes, especially when I am looking at BambooHR at nighttime!

Pros

The product is very intuitive and easy to use. Customization of some features is also a big plus. Customer service is excellent!

Cons

It would be great to have more templates provided for onboarding/offboarding processes

Pros

Modern HR information system with great broad feature set for medium size businesses. Excellent for leave management, request, approval and tracking.

Cons

Is based out of the US and orientation is by default to US customers. Works for Australia customers but is a bit short on handling contractors, more permanent focused, and support hours do not cover Australia timezone which has caused some issues.

Alternatives Considered

Employment Hero

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

BambooHR offered us so much more in terms of features and functionality than we would ever invest to build internally. The user experience was modern and easy to use from signing up a new staff member, to onboarding them and maintaining their HR and Leave records. Removed significant risk from process errors, failed notification of employment changes and record keeping for signed contracts. Moved from paper to fully online!

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

Great user interface, custimisable, simple to use and configure, right featureset and complexity for our size of organisation.

Pros

Our business truly benefits from being able to track due dates for trainings and documents. Because we are education, there are a ton of clearances, health forms, and professional development that must be completed. Keeping this all up to date has been done in the past on spreadsheets and not available to everyone to see. Now we can access this as admins and be able to verify things are being done when they are needed.

We have also really enjoyed the integration of time tracking, to timesheets, to payroll. It has made our managers lives easier and saved a ton of time for them. it has also made everything seemless for me to run payroll and process benefits without thinking about it too much or taking multiple days to get it done.

Cons

I feel like we would really benefit from a follow up training or someone to talk to. Kind of like implementation where someone would just check in to see if you could be using things better or differently to be more effective. We do reach out to support a ton and they are great!!

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

Cost, customer service, ease of use

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

Bamboo seemed much more user friendly. We really wanted the system not to be scary to our staff and managers.

Pros

The software does have some nice features like Performance Management.

Cons

The worst payroll software in history! Sold me a bill of goods that everything was integrated, however, they use a remote link which is clunky and extremely frustrating to use unless everything is "just right". Do your research - there is better out there along with excellent customer support. I had to manually add employee PTO each pay period as their system was not integrated with their Payroll software.

Alternatives Considered

Gusto, QuickBooks Time and TriNet Zenefits

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

Was moving from three HR systems into one, although in actuality, it was really moving into two systems - BambooHR and Trax.

Switched From

Gusto

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

We didn't consider other alternatives as we were already using BambooHR for everything except Time Tracking and Payroll. This was a HUGE mistake on our part. We have now completed a change away from BambooHR after doing a complete review of alternative products. Much happier without the frustration of using their antiquated payroll system.

Pros

Easy to integrate and use, very user friendly, very useful reporting tools.

Cons

To be able to make reports on a chosen date and not only on the current date. Be able to identify managers more easily.

Alternatives Considered

Bob

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

PeopleHR is the worst HRIS on the market. Difficult to use, very unreliable and not user friendly at all. I implemented BambooHR in 3 different companies and I love this tool.

Switched From

Access PeopleHR

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

The main reason is the price. The functionalities are a bit more advanced than BambooHR, but the implementation is longer and the tool is less user friendly

Pros

I advocated for BambooHR for my company as its first HRIS, and I believed it would be a major benefit to our company, and it has been. It's a major bragging right of mine that I found BambooHR at a conference, convinced my boss to sign off on it, and executed the roll-out and got most staff on-board with it as a concept. So, I like most things about BambooHR. It's intuitive for users and administrators alike. The setup was as easy as setting up a new company-wide software could be, with hands-on customer service and a robust information center. The hiring tool is phenomenal, and I have gotten so many positive comments from managers about how much easier their hiring process was with the hiring tool. I like how y ou can submit software suggestions to customer service and they take your feedback into consideration, and new features get rolled out constantly. It's just a great place to keep everything in one place and make HR more efficient, and it's a super dynamic tool.

Cons

Honestly, there's not a lot I don't like about the software. When we first got it, I would say its lack of payroll integration, but it's since integrated TRAX payroll with the software, which our accounting team is now switching to.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

It had a smarter, more dynamic, and less corporate-y interface than ADP. ADP felt very old school HR, while we are not old school at all, and Bamboo just made more sense in every aspect (besides payroll, initially, until Bamboo added TRAX) for our company.

Pros

We are a small HR team and tracked everything on spreadsheets. This took an exorbitant amount of staff time to keep updated. I love the time tracking, our mother organization deducts leave one month after it is taken and so no one ever really knew how much leave they had. The electronic signature feature has been a game changing time saver. Supervisors being able to view employee documents at any time without having to come to our main location to pull the heavy paper file has been fantastic. And I always have current data at my fingertips including historical items that we used to have to go wade through old memos to reconstruct.

Cons

There's not much to not love. I wish there were a few more features on the application part. I wish I could have files stored that employees could fill out and forward to us without having to ask us to send them a signature request.

Alternatives Considered

Paycom and Paycor

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

Customer service, they offered a free trial, user interface, and ease of use

Pros

The HR software is all-encompassing and user-friendly. Administrators and end users alike will appreciate the streamlined UI and pleasant UX they provide. My team has found the platform to be very user-friendly and productive.

Cons

It irritates me because any time I make an update to anything, it needs to be approved first, but I don't think this is something that happens everywhere; rather, I think it's more of a company permissions issue.

Pros

BambooHR is a popular human resources management software that offers a range of features designed to streamline HR processes and improve employee management.Here are some this I mostly like about this software:User-friendly interface: BambooHR has an intuitive interface that is easy to navigate, making it easy to manage employee data, track performance, and run reports.Comprehensive HR features: BambooHR offers a range of HR features, including payroll, time tracking, applicant tracking, onboarding, and performance management, all in one platform.Customizable options: BambooHR can be customized to fit the unique needs of your organization, allowing you to add custom fields, workflows, and reports.Strong reporting capabilities: BambooHR provides extensive reporting options that allow you to generate data-driven insights into HR metrics, such as employee engagement and performance.Good customer support: BambooHR provides excellent customer support, including a knowledge base, training resources, and live chat support.

Cons

Limited integration options: BambooHR has limited integration options with other software, which can make it difficult to sync data with other business tools.Expensive pricing: BambooHR can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses, as the pricing is based on the number of employees.Limited customization options: While BambooHR can be customized to fit the unique needs of your organization, there are some limitations to the customization options available.Limited mobile app functionality: While BambooHR has a mobile app, it has limited functionality, which can be frustrating for employees who need to access HR information on-the-go.Limited recruiting features: BambooHR's recruiting features are somewhat limited compared to other recruiting-specific software on the market.

Pros

There are so many positive things I can say about this software that I am not sure I even know where to begin. Implementation was a breeze, the look and feel of Bamboo is clean and intuitive, and there are so many options for an organization to really make it their own through branding and customization. Additionally, I am a huge fan of the amount of administrative control I have within the system. For me, this was a huge selling point.

Cons

Nothing is perfect. Not even Bamboo. Although they have made great strides in enhancing some of their features, they're still not as robust as some other systems in some areas. However, as an administrator and an end-user, I do appreciate how they listen to feedback from their customers and it shows in their efforts to continuously improve their product. The only "con" that would make me reevaluate our relationship with Bamboo would be a drastic price increase without any new features to justify it.

Alternatives Considered

Namely and Paylocity

Switched From

isolved

Pros

The idea of on-boarding a new employee electronically is a huge plus. It engages employees before they start and makes it so that they come in with paperwork already filled out and spend their first day doing more than just paperwork.
Most of the framework is in place, but EACH area needs improvement, both in the functionality for administration and the ease of use for employees. The sections offered are vital, but aren't complete.

Cons

The benefits area is lacking a lot of common sense tools - like the ability to attach plan documents to an insurance plan (only a link can be used), display plan cost information to an employee BEFORE they sign up (the pricing is only available AFTER they sign up and become eligible). Many things like this create double the amount of work for the administrator.
The actual on-boarding process was a struggle because even though the forms were done properly by the employees (I sat with a few and watched them), it didn't save all information in completed fields. Employees were frustrated when they had to fill out forms multiple times because you cannot edit once saved.
I love that employees can e-sign documents, but preparing the forms is cumbersome and they can't be customized easily. For instance, if you need to update a form because something has changed or didn't save properly, you have to delete the task and resend to any employees who need an updated form.
When I discussed a few very basic items with support, they just offered a work around that many clients use. These are obvious flaws in the system that need to be addressed, but aren't necessarily a priority. Bamboo HR seems to focus more on flashy design than actual content. It makes them seem like a leader in the industry, but as soon as you dig in, the flaws are obvious.
For the price, there needs to be more development in the software.

Pros

Love the simplicity of the HRIS system to allow for tracking personnel

Cons

The payroll system and time management are not as robust as it needs to be. Unlike optional features such as performance or applicant tracking that are not critical to risk management, the payroll and time management must be up to par to ensure customers are compliant with state regulations, able to identify and correct discrepancies quickly, and able to customize reporting to identify labor cost trends. Unfortunately, the payroll and time tracking doesn't relate.1 Example: We cannot track if meals are being taken or the system does not alert us when someone does not take their required lunch breaks. Depending on state, there are penalties associated with this2 Example: If an employee is scheduled to be terminated on a specific day, they are automatically taken out of the system before ensuring they were paid their last check. States have many different regulations around when a former employee must be paid their final check. We would have to alter the person's last day and final pay date in order to process their last check, which can cause incorrect records if we forget to switch the dates back to correct separation date. If we schedule termination ahead of time, we have no way of tracking who is up for termination soon or no notice that the person was removed from payroll ensuring timely payment. 3 Example: Timetracking is more than just about having the ability to clock in and out with approval. There is very limited reporting that can be pulled to track labor cost

Pros

The best thing about BambooHR is how user-friendly it is for all of our employees. The interface is so efficient which limits the amount of time we spend training new employees on the software. I also love the level of support we receive from BambooHR when we need it. Their customer service is top-tier!

Cons

Although we have seen Bamboo grow and adapt in many ways over the years, there are still features that we'd love to see come to life. I appreciate the ability to suggest new product developments, but I sometimes feel limited when it comes to exit interviews and report customization.

Alternatives Considered

PowerSchool and Paycor

Switched From

Paycom

Pros

I found BambooHR very easy to set up, with a very clear, clean interface, a great mobile app and very easy to use for the employees. I am very impressed with the ease with which I was able to set up time-off policies and performance management, and the applicant tracking system is simple and collaborative. A great strength of Bamboo is the customer service - everybody I have spoken to is communicative, responsive, helpful, knowledgable - they seem to genuinely want to help. Their help documentation is very good and they keep clients up to date monthly with product developments and tips via video. Setting up forms for e-signature is awesome, and the newly introduced COVID tracker and storage of information has sensibly (and for legal reasons) been separated from other HR files.

Cons

I'd like to see more flexibility in creating sub-folders for file storage, and integrations with more payroll providers and the time-tracking could use a little more development, but I do like that Bamboo continues to improve in all these aspects and that stops me jumping ship even when there are limitations.

Pros

Onboarding, employee database, time off tracking, performance management, reporting, customization, friendly and functional user interface. Users like using it!

Cons

Hard to say really - it's a pretty great system. The benefits section doesn't seem to be set up to be useful for our kind of benefits program (typical health and dental plan in Canada). I'm still exploring some functions...for example, we haven't really put their ATS to the test yet as it seems a bit basic vs. our current system but I want to give it a try since BambooHR has a way of delivering the needed functionality in a deceptively simple interface. I do need to maximize my use of BambooHR functions further given the investment we have made in it - I have a lot of faith in their products and am confident I will find even more value there if I look. I hope they can keep up the amazing customer and user experience I have had these last few years as they continue to expand their functionality.

Pros

Just being able to organise all employee information and documents in one, safe, place is great, as well as easy time off booking and tracking.
The recruitment side of things is so easy with Bamboo - again, it keeps everything together in one place, including correspondence with candidates, and the application, offer, and onboarding processes are easy to set up and save an enormous amount of time.
Signature templates - we really love these! Being able to send out documents and get proper electronic signatures on them is a huge benefit for us.

Cons

We would love to be able to use the Payroll function, but we are UK-based, and it only works in the US.

It is very American in language, and it would be good to be able to change some of that, e.g. use CV instead of Resume. Small things, and certainly not game changers in terms of us using Bamboo.