BambooHR Reviews

Pros

Ease of use, Staff can easily use this product.

Cons

Not really any cons come to mind about this.

Pros

Design, user-friendly, easy of use, easy to set up.

Cons

Would like file signature to work differently. It would be great if forms were available to all employees to just fill out and then it would move through the pre-set approval process. Not require a form to be emailed by a management member to someone or themselves to fill out.

Would also like training to be more robust and have more function. Especially would like to see training assignments as of a specific date entered rather than hire date. Would also like employees not to see future trainings until 30 days before the due date. Seeing annual training all year is confusing to them and they get desensitized to seeing that training and ignore it when it comes due again.

Alternatives Considered

Workday Talent Management

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

BambooHR website gave me detailed information and pricing. Initial responsiveness to my request was quick. We decided on BHR before others even responded to request for information.

Pros

They made the administrative side of HR so much easier for us. Easy tracking, automatic reminders, clearly display everything to staff, conduct performance reviews, onboarding and offboarding simplified. All great. Really helped our business get to the next level with staffing. We were so deeply upset when their business practices forced us to find a different product.

Cons

After almost 4 years as a loyal customer, they restructured their subscription packages moving us from top tier to mid tier and moving some of the add-on features we were paying extra for into the top tier. At that point they told us that unless we upgraded with a 75% price increase we would no longer receive upgrades to those features. The point of subscription software is that we are paying for the continual development and upgrades. It is totally not ok to force existing customers to pay monthly for legacy software.

I tried to negotiate with them and ask for some kind of compromise, like grandfathering us into top tier only for those features or perhaps a discount on top tier for a period of time. They absolutely refused to work with me, straight up refused to let me talk to a manager, insisted that I had to take the full price increase to retain updates for the features I'd already been using for years. When I told them that was a terrible way to treat a loyal customer and that I would take my business elsewhere they were fine with it. Perhaps because we are a small business, they don't see it worth their time to keep us as a customer.

I would warn everyone away from BambooHR as you can't trust the prices they tell you you'll pay. Unreliable, predatory, and awful way to treat loyal customers. From a company that preaches about treating people well from an HR perspective, they sure don't understand how to treat customers.

Alternatives Considered

Humi

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

I liked that Humi was Canadian but at the time, BambooHR was more established and more of the features I needed.

Pros

Simple user platform that out performs the competition.

Cons

Reporting could use some work in payroll.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

Ended the service and was forcing everyone to go online. The implantation process was horrible with them so we cut our ties.

Switched From

QuickBooks Desktop

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

All in one system and was the most affordable.

Pros

Houses all Employee HR info in one easy to locate place. It also has variable access levels to allow trainers, supervisors, managers and IT support all different access levels.

Cons

We had to custom build a place to keep employee notes. It works well enough for us and is functional, but I am not sure why the software doesn't have that feature included. It is basically just a historical table with a few fields and a notes section. I hope that it doesn't keep getting too ala carte for every new improvement they make, sometimes it feels like companies are adding feature after feature to run up the price and make more money off of existing loyal customers.

Pros

Good interface for time tracking, requesting time off, and general HR management.

Cons

Takes a considerable amount of time to properly configure for complex organizations.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

HR functions were better suited for the organization.

Pros

Everything HR is in one place. Time clock, files, payroll & PTO. Excellent layout

Cons

Reports - Wish it had reporting that matched what we needed without customization.

Alternatives Considered

Gusto

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

Felt BambooHR offered more features that we wanted and was easier to navigate.

Pros

It makes organizing multi-faceted processes, like new hire onboarding, easy to organize, track, and execute.

Cons

Some of the add-on features weren't what I was expecting. For example, the performance management add-on had a rigid interface that didn't allow for sending feedback to more than just the employee's manager.

Alternatives Considered

Gusto, Rippling, Salesforce Sales Cloud and Tableau

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

BambooHR is scalable for what we need. We're a small business, but plan to grow, and BambooHR would be able to meet our needs at a larger size as well.

Pros

Easy to set up and use. BambooHR runs smoothly and efficiently exactly as expected. Very user friendly.

Cons

I can't find a fault with BambooHR, the system has worked incredibly well for us and I am very happy with the outcome.

Pros

The UI of BambooHR is very impressive and well organized. We are using it actively for managing HR operations.

Cons

More features may be added to BambooHR for increasing the functionality.

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

I have gone through implementation of payroll services with four different providers over the years and BambooHR was by far the easiest process with the fewest issues. While there was work involved, their expectations were very clear and they worked with us to determine the best way to manage unique situations specific to our company. The system is very intuitive and easy to use.

Cons

There are some small things here and there that we have encountered and have to work around, but customer services is always very responsive and help us find a solution. We have made suggestions to BambooHR's feedback team and they have already implemented some changes to help with some of these issues. They are always making improvements and additions to their products.

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

We love the customer service Bamboo provides. 90% of the time I have someone helping me within 2 minutes. And they always know the answer. If what I am wanting to do is not an option, they push it up the line and a group reviews these requests constantly. Bamboo is always looking to improve their product, which I appreciate and I want to be a part of a company that is always looking forward to the future's possibilities.

Cons

Our main issue is with payroll. We would love to utilize it, but you can only have one tax ID. We have multiple tax IDs for multiple locations and employees cross over between them constantly. The work around was for us to have multiple Bamboo accounts to accommodate for the multiple tax IDs. But this is not cost efficient for us.

Pros

Being able to bring so many various aspects of my job together in one platform has made me much more efficient in areas such as applicant tracking, time tracking, and payroll processing!

Cons

One of my Bamboo HR wish list items is a scheduling feature! I would like to see this feature combined with the time clock function to help us enforce policies about clocking in early, as well as sending a reminder to clock in or out for scheduled shifts. I would also like to see improved calendar functionality. Currently, the only way to add items to the calendar are through the time off policies. I would like to be able to manually add events and other items to the calendar.

Alternatives Considered

Paycom, GoCo, ADP Workforce Now and Paylocity

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

BambooHR offered the best "bang" for our buck. Although it wasn't the least expensive option, I was impressed by everything they had to offer. The system was the most user friendly of all the ones we demo'd and I really enjoyed knowing BambooHR could integrate with several other products and services (background checks, benefits programs, etc.) to make things more efficient. BambooHR is also great at keeping customers informed, involved, and included with updates and improvements.

Pros

BambooHR is an easy to use and very comprehensive HR software that offers a lot of valuable and high-use out-of-box features. Our initial primary uses of the software were aggregation and consolidation of personnel information, PTO tracking, and general communication of company announcements to the team. As we got further into the product offerings, we also began to heavily utilize the onboarding, offboarding, and recruiting features, all of which were previously done using very manual processes. BambooHR allowed us to discontinue using spreadsheets and other manual forms for very common and basic HR functions, while housing them under one roof. It also provided our employees with a easier way to contribute to their own personnel profiles, and while as request and track PTO.

Cons

To properly utilize BambooHR according to your companies specific HR processes, there is a lot of individual and time-intensive setup involved. The platform is fairly customizable, but only if you are willing to invest significant time into configuring the features. While we expected a significant time investment into setting up the application, we were disappointed to learn that we would not have a dedicated account manager to help us with the setup process. We had to learn everything about the platform on our own through the BambooHR help portal, or by calling the customer service number and waiting for a representative to be available. We also experience a price increase only a few month after signing up for the service. We were also disappointed to learn that the integrations with Google and Slack are very limited, and while some information can be passed between the systems, we needed to customize some of the API calls in order to share more useful information with the team. There are definitely some limitations to their integrations.

Alternatives Considered

Zoho People and Rippling

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

Pingboard had very limited features and they were implementing a 700% cost increase.

Switched From

Pingboard

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR

BambooHR has the best features and the best price.

Pros

I really enjoy many aspects of BambooHR. It is a cost effective solution for small to medium businesses. Great with onboarding/hiring, employee documentation & profiles, UI and navigation, etc. Also, the payroll part of the system has come a long way and is now a well designed feature that is easy to use.

Their customer support team, when you can get ahold of them, is fantastic. One of the best things about BambooHR.

Cons

It lacks either features entirely, or lacks complexity of competitors. The ATS and Performance parts are extremely lacking with limited options to customize or enhance. Missing many common features that other platforms have had for many years now.

A general theme with BambooHR is that you can only go so deep when it comes to how you can customize things. The two built in surveys they offer, for example, have no option to customize, nor can you run custom surveys at all, which is a shame.

Additionally, BambooHR recently decided to completely redo their package and pricing structure and it is not a good change. We are on a grandfathered package that they are going to be dropping support for in some cases. There is no incentive to switch to one of the other packages because one offers less at almost the same cost, and the other adds on 3 features that are either redundant, not really a full feature, or that we already have. Performance was an add-on and is now included with the Pro package, which is way more costly.

Customer support team, as mentioned in Pros, is great, but the chat feature is never available anymore and sometimes it feels like they have so many inquiries that they would rather point the finger at other things versus solving problems and working with customers.

If you are an international company, BambooHR is extremely lacking in support there. You can tell that BambooHR was built with US employees in mind first and many things just don't work in other countries, or you have to find workarounds.

In my opinion, BambooHR has become what I think they have tried to not be, which is a corporate entity selling a product versus selling a mission/vision of setting people free to do great work. They claim to listen to their customer base, but it is clear when talking to other customers that they don't.

Alternatives Considered

Rippling, Paylocity and Paycor

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR

We wanted to consolidate systems and save on costs

Switched From

Lever, Calamari and RUN Powered by ADP

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

My favorite thing about BambooHR, in general, is that they are always trying new things and releasing new features. They just released a sync feature that syncs with TRAX Payroll software and cuts out the time needed to reconcile the 2 systems. The software is very user-friendly and you are able to find a help article about nearly anything you could ever want to know. One of my favorite features is the e-signing you can set up for HR documents. Our on-boarding goes a lot smoother not having to print out each form and fill out by hand. The Hiring module also works great. In that module, I love the ability to rate each individual candidate and keep internal notes about them. I really appreciate the ability to track conversations had with that candidate within the module so I don't have to hunt down the communication in my inbox each time.

Cons

I've only been able to find one single thing that I would change about the software and that is that I would make it possible for one person to be a manager for operations purposes and another person manager for compensation purposes. I've ran into the problem where the operations person doesn't need to see the compensation of their co-worker, but another person at a VP level should be able to request and approve compensation, essentially skipping over the Operations Manager for compensation purposes. I haven't yet found a way around it, so we just eliminated the Operations Manager from the profile and have the VP listed as manager, but this doesn't change my opinion that I would recommend this to anyone!

Pros

Very structured and helpful implementation, and very responsive support.
Love the ability to request custom fields to be created, including calculations.
Great standard, out-of-the-box reports, like Additions & terminations over a period of time, Headcount as of a certain date, Employee Turnover (that one was a lifesaver when it was realeased, much better than what we were doing internally so far!), Change History over a period of time for job-related changes.
I also love the fact that they are intentional in their product development: even though they request and collect product feedback, they want their product to remain coherent, i.e. they know what makes sense for them to propose as features vs. not (and recommend one of their specialized integrated partners if not), so that their tool always remains simple, legible, etc.
And I like their Panda mascot and in-navigation messages, down to humanizing error messages.

Cons

It will be pretty minor details, part of which will simply have to do with their client size positioning. As we were growing, I encountered director-level newcomers in our HR department who were used to the more prominent HRIS players, and to the ability to set up more complex workflows than BambooHR allows (example: self-service on employment letters, sending change notifications to other people than change approvers, allowing back-up assignees for tasks, etc).

One feature that I feel might need adjusting (but again, that's detail) is their "Who's Out" calendar, which is synced with their time-off feature: regardless of whether the person has booked 1 hour off or the full day off, it will look like the person is away for the whole day, which looks confusing.
Then two things come to mind on the analytics side, but again, they are minor and for more advanced users: I would love the ability to report on changes for personal details (beyond the audit trail report) and on custom fields. Then, custom calculation fields (which are already a great thing to have!!) are limited to the employment profile itself, i.e. you cannot return data fields from other employees' profiles, for example, who the manager of their manager is, etc.

Pros

The product is easy to implement , out of the box. The product is best for small to mid size companies, but especially if you have minimal processes to manage. The add on features of Performance and eNPS are simple to use and very effective. You can find workarounds for unique processes.

Cons

As a company continues to scale and grow, the incremental processes added become more difficult to manage with the system. A simple example is onboarding. Onboarding is only geared to true new hires. If you have an employee who is transferred to a new division within the organization and needs to be assigned new tasks that are well documented, the software does not have the ability to manage transfers.

The ability to format a document for e-signature would be incredibly helpful.

A little more flexibility in problem solving rather than simply suggesting to put suggestions on a future product launch list.

Pros

BambooHR is very user-friendly. It has a clean layout and can be customized based on the needs of the organization. The overall site is easy to navigate and has the tabs that I need to manage employee data. I like that the HRIS acts as an internal intranet site for employees.

Cons

Training tab - employees are not able to upload their own certificates. For example, if there are 6 mandatory training modules and I have 6 new hires, I would need to upload 36 files into their training tab. It's tedious and time consuming for the admin.Templates - while this is a smart feature, I think it should be broken down into two. One is for an actual template that applies to all staff (primarily forms). For contracts that require signature, it is not necessary to upload the contract as a template (since it's only used once) and request for the signature. With this, we usually use an external party to get the signatures from both parties and upload it into documents. It would be nice if this can be integrated in BambooHR so everything is in one place. Also, if the "contract" specified to an individual becomes a template, there is a risk of uploading/ sharing it by error to another employee.Cost - I wish there was an option for non-profit to save money on the software especially we're a smaller company. The cost increased a lot from July and it is also in USD which impacts the overall fee since we're a Canadian organization.

Pros

It allows employees to update their personal information, request time off, view their pay It allows companies to track job applicants, schedule interviews, and manage the hiring process. Streamlines the process of onboarding new employees with the company, including paperwork and compliance..Allows employees to log their work time, and allows managers to approve and track leave requests.Helps managers track and evaluate employee performance, set goals, and provide feedback.It allows companies to store and manage employee-related documents such as contracts, resumes, and performance appraisalsProvides access to data and insights about employee information, such as headcount, employee turnover, and demographics.

Cons

Cost: BambooHR can be relatively expensive compared to other HR software options on the market.Limited integrations: BambooHR may not integrate with all of the other tools and systems that a company is already using.User interface: Some users may find the BambooHR user interface to be less intuitive or harder to navigate than other HR software.Limited Reporting: Some users may find the reporting capabilities of BambooHR to be limited.Limited customization: BambooHR may not offer as much customization as other HR software options.Limited Self-Service: Some users may find the self-service capabilities of BambooHR to be limited.Limited Support: Some users may find the support provided by BambooHR to be limited.Human resources staff complain of the Athea Salary Management within the company Some staff have been difficult to sign part of the documents

Pros

It's completely utilitarian, you'll clock in and out (and it's geotagged, so no cheating), you'll be able request days off, see pay stubs, etc. BambooHR has made one of the leading HR stages on the advertise. Favorite highlights incorporate the capacity to onboard or unlink representatives utilizing numerous distinctive workflows and choices, we too cherish the capacity to keep track of representative data, counting reports that require marks. BambooHR permits you to turn any archive into a signature layout with custom areas, signature order, and other alternatives. BambooHR Finance offers a simple way to oversee finance and match up it with data put away within the entry, there are numerous more highlights we utilize counting execution administration, time following, candidate following, etc., our group adores you. adore it since they can log in and see their pay stubs and other pertinent data.

Cons

The speed of the execution caused us to miss a few points of interest that we had to burrow up afterward, but the bolster group was exceptionally supportive and a few of the extra information areas we needed were not a issue at all to execute. So distant, the as it were drawback I've seen when exchanging to BambooHR is that our pay stubs aren't accessible until payday. The execution module can be progressed by pleasing non-calendar year survey cycles, they did post advertisement hoc surveys a whereas back, but it would be accommodating to be able to set our plan based on the commemoration of the contract date.

Pros

We experienced a disaster when we migrated from Zenefits to another HRIS. While we experiencing such challenges, we found BambooHR and made the immediate switch. It has been a huge, pleasant adjustment for our company! After dealing with the customer service from Zenefits and the overall issues with the other HRIS, we finally landed in a place that provides a great product and great customer service that suits our needs. The implementation was incredibly smooth. Our rep, was knowledgeable, helpful, friendly, available, efficient, loyal to the brand, etc... She went above and beyond on all of her commitments, worked hard to keep us on track, and was available throughout all of implementation. Once we were in the product, I was concerned about not having an assigned Account Manager. But the customer service desk is well trained and a wealth of knowledge, so we have not needed an assigned account manager. Reports are incredibly easy to access, company metrics are incredibly easy to understand, the features provided solve all of our business needs, and employees enjoy using the product. Time off works well, the app is super helpful, the esign feature makes any HR project easier to complete, the approvals have kept all the correct parties in the loop. Onboarding has been a major improvement - new hires get to see their teammates before their first day, which new hires have loved! No glitches every time. So reliable. Lastly, they don't have contracts. They are a month-to-month service.

Cons

We wish there was more flexibility for integration, but I understand why they are choosy with their partnerships. We have to manually upload data into our payroll which has caused some errors. Also, the approvals aren't flexible. It's either all or nothing meaning - if a single participant involved in a multilevel workflow is out of the office, the entire approval is bypassed. I would like the flexibility to approve on the behalf of the absent individual while allowing the other participants to still play their part. Outside of that, we are very happy with the product.