BambooHR® vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BambooHR®
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
BambooHR is an cloud-based human resources solution that provides onboarding, payroll, and benefits management. It also offers automated time-off management and employee self-service.
$10
per month per user
Paylocity
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
Pricing
BambooHR®Paylocity
Editions & Modules
Core
$10
per month per user
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®Paylocity
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®Paylocity
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®
Chose BambooHR®
Loved BambooHR and was looking to move to them with my last company until I decided to make a job change. Paylocity was very difficult to use and their customer service was abysmal. I did not use the payroll feature. The reporting with Trax was not as robust as we would have …
Chose BambooHR®
I did not select BambooHR, it was already in use and it works well for the size of the company so there is no reason to change it. Paylocity has better payroll functionality but is lacking on the HRIS side, so BambooHR and Paylocity are somewhat comparable. In my opinion, avoid …
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR was a significant cost savings for us compared to Paylocity. As we compared both systems, Paylocity might have a few more bells and whistles, but BambooHR's simplicity and price tag made It a much better fit for us as we transitioned to an HRIS and payroll platform.
Chose BambooHR®
scalability is an issue with BambooHR (missing lot of competent), integration with other tools (EDI feed, compliance etc)
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR is the best, but unfortunately, it doesn't currently have an adequate payroll module for our needs.
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR is easy to use whether you have one or 1,000 employees.
Chose BambooHR®
Bamboo's simplicity in utilization beats all the above. The functionality isn't as robust as some, but it gets the job done well and has no huge misses, especially as I believe the simplicity outweighs the lack of functionality in small areas!
Chose BambooHR®
We have BambooHR because of its great interface and user-friendly design. It meets our employees' needs as well as our employer's needs. We have integrations with some programs where Bonusly isn't able to cover.
Chose BambooHR®
Although there are many products in the marketplace, there is no perfect system. BambooHR is the most economical HRIS for a small business, start-up, or business that has never had HR software. BambooHR was selected for its affordable functionality. However, if they continue …
Chose BambooHR®
I used to use that software but couldn't meet up my demand. But in BambooHR workforce management platform features are really amazing than that. Platforms, content and overall everything of BambooHR is work-worthy.
Chose BambooHR®
Other tools with a more unified platform (including a more mature payroll solution) have been much more robust in terms of their data and reporting capabilities. BambooHR, however, has the edge on having a flashier look that may be more appealing to some up-and-coming …
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
Used to use ADP. We're transitioning from ADP. We looked at BambooHR and we looked at Workday when we were trying to decide who to use. But we decided to go with Paylocity as we think it was the best choice. I've had 5 years of using it and been more than happy with it.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has much more functionality than BambooHR. I think BambooHR was simpler to use and had a cleaner look, but it did not have integrated Payroll, and it could not report out at the level that Paylocity reports out on. BambooHR is too barebones for the needs of our …
Chose Paylocity
I think all of those software's are well suited. I am so invested in Paylocity, that I won't go back just to try them.
Chose Paylocity
I didn't select Paylocity. It was here when I arrived.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is light years ahead of BamBooHR. The payroll reports in BamBooHR is a joke. Spend more time dumping information into excel to get logical data.
Chose Paylocity
In my opinion, Paylocity is a marked improvement over BambooHR. Certain employee payroll interactions are much more streamlined.
Chose Paylocity
Airbase has more features and functionality than ADP when it comes to expense reporting
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was very user friendly from the beginning and the cost compared to other products was a no brainer.
Chose Paylocity
Bamboo is a little bit harder to understand and sends you a million notifications. Paylocity advises about what needs to be done and gives easy access to what we need.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was the best value, most user friendly, and most robust modules.
Chose Paylocity
Bamboo is significantly better in usability. We had it previously. We only chose to leave because we have a unique unemployment tax situation that Bamboo and QuickBooks Online were both unable to handle.

QuickBooks Online had the advantage of fully integrating our regular …
Chose Paylocity
Well, one of the things that make our organization unique is many of our employees have multiple jobs and so we really needed a platform that could accommodate that and that was something that many other platforms, either their ability to accommodate that was very rigid and …
Chose Paylocity
Originally it was due to integration with our 401k provider. Paylocity was the only one with a partnership at that time.
Chose Paylocity
The two were obviously good, but as for Bamboo, once you cross the 150 plus employees and need deeper compliance, it starts to feel lightweight. Paylocity scaled better. UKG on the other hand had a user experience that felt dated and the admin overhead was just too high. …
Chose Paylocity
The user friendly and intuitive system allows for efficiency and simplicity.
Chose Paylocity
It has a bit more functionality and better features for compensation, time & labor, recruiting, and performance.
Chose Paylocity
Workday seemed to be more set up for larger pools of employees and information. For a small employer this is fine.
Chose Paylocity
The systems functionalities are very similar, but no matter how great a system may be is good customer care does not represent the program, the reviews will always be poor.
Chose Paylocity
I think Paylocity is robust. While it still has some kinks to iron out, it is building out over time nicely. ADP is a really nice system, but a bit dated. PeopleAdmin requires an immense amount of time to build ones system. BambooHR and Gusto aren't as robust in my opinion.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity beats all of these hands down. I will give credit to ADP for having a good payroll system, but everything else they have is terrible. Bamboo HR is a really simple to understand and use platform, but that's also it's downside, it's too simple and not robust where …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is more cost effective than ADP. It offers more features and more payroll enhancement capabilities than Bamboo.
Chose Paylocity
It is better than Paycor and Bamboo, AS good as ADP, and gives UKG and SAP a run for their money. Paycor has more than most and almost as much customization as UKG and SAP. For smaller businesses (less than 1000), by far Paylocity is my choice.
Features
BambooHR®Paylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
255 Ratings
4% below category average
Paylocity
7.9
1502 Ratings
3% below category average
Employee demographic data8.3228 Ratings8.41432 Ratings
Employment history8.1233 Ratings8.21382 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.9228 Ratings7.81287 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.7215 Ratings7.71302 Ratings
Organizational charting7.5235 Ratings7.51197 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1226 Ratings8.01172 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.3131 Ratings7.51006 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.6
172 Ratings
7% below category average
Paylocity
8.3
1440 Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation8.3125 Ratings8.61407 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.892 Ratings7.9712 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.493 Ratings8.71102 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.0131 Ratings7.6974 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.4128 Ratings8.91400 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.0140 Ratings8.31135 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.582 Ratings7.8716 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.7
221 Ratings
6% above category average
Paylocity
7.7
1219 Ratings
6% below category average
Approval workflow8.5215 Ratings7.81085 Ratings
Balance details8.3206 Ratings7.41166 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.2129 Ratings7.8932 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.5
248 Ratings
4% above category average
Paylocity
8.4
1447 Ratings
2% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.6167 Ratings8.61411 Ratings
Update personal information8.9244 Ratings8.71435 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.3216 Ratings8.11170 Ratings
Employee recognition7.9156 Ratings8.21063 Ratings
View job history8.8233 Ratings8.51261 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
Paylocity
7.5
465 Ratings
7% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets9.074 Ratings7.5465 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.1
209 Ratings
6% below category average
Paylocity
7.3
1341 Ratings
3% below category average
Report builder7.2202 Ratings7.31285 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.4200 Ratings7.51306 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.6144 Ratings7.2857 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.1
212 Ratings
2% above category average
Paylocity
8.2
1256 Ratings
3% above category average
New hire portal8.3202 Ratings8.31246 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8189 Ratings8.01012 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
142 Ratings
2% below category average
Paylocity
7.7
710 Ratings
4% below category average
Corporate goal setting7.0103 Ratings7.6567 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.9136 Ratings7.8655 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.069 Ratings7.6508 Ratings
Performance tracking7.5130 Ratings7.9664 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
160 Ratings
1% below category average
Paylocity
7.6
890 Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans7.3145 Ratings7.4812 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2122 Ratings7.3706 Ratings
Review status tracking8.597 Ratings7.8819 Ratings
Review reminders8.0101 Ratings7.8826 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.8139 Ratings7.7701 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.9
81 Ratings
13% above category average
Paylocity
7.6
477 Ratings
3% below category average
Create succession plans/pools8.646 Ratings7.4326 Ratings
Candidate ranking8.967 Ratings7.5385 Ratings
Candidate search8.868 Ratings8.0432 Ratings
Candidate development9.159 Ratings7.5353 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.0
180 Ratings
3% above category average
Paylocity
8.0
842 Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.8137 Ratings8.1723 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.7148 Ratings8.2751 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.291 Ratings8.0585 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.4144 Ratings8.1720 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.588 Ratings7.6621 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1164 Ratings8.2779 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.0171 Ratings7.9779 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®Paylocity
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BambooHR®Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(245 ratings)
8.4
(1471 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(17 ratings)
8.8
(166 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(173 ratings)
8.3
(281 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
8.9
(35 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
8.4
(34 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(137 ratings)
7.0
(148 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
7.9
(29 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
6.9
(92 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(4 ratings)
6.9
(25 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(3 ratings)
8.2
(24 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(2 ratings)
7.1
(28 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(5 ratings)
8.2
(34 ratings)
Professional Services
9.2
(2 ratings)
8.7
(18 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(4 ratings)
7.3
(34 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
8.4
(31 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
Performance management - the prompt questions are really helpful in distilling thoughts! Though it would still be great to have an optional box for additional feedback that might not be directly related to the prompt questions. The clean interface and user friendliness is a definite plus! But some specific features, eg. on TOIL application - it would be helpful to ensure it is intuitive to use, rather than confusing with the input process.
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Paylocity
I have already recommended Paylocity to another company and they are using it. The ability to streamline multiple platforms into one is the key feature as it saves time. Also, the speed of loading, the customer service help, and the ease of payroll processing are all reasons why we like utilizing Paylocity. It would be nice to have a referral bonus program as I was told there wasn't one when I referred the company and they signed up
Read full review
Pros
BambooHR
  • Recruiting- communications are easy for both the internal team and candidates
  • Onboarding- the onboarding tasks are great. I love being able to attach documents as well as delay sending out tasks
  • Communication- the employee community is a great tool to keep our communications clean and organized. I love that we now have insight as to who has viewed the comms
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Paylocity
  • Payroll is made pretty easy. I love that we have the ability to log into payroll, we just upload the information from commissions, things like that where there are exceptions to a regular payroll run. It may make it very easy to do that, just a quick upload. Additionally, when we're in the payroll grid, it gives us the ability to just make quick changes to people's pay or their tax schedule, tax withholdings, things like that without having to go through a lot of different screens. It's just very easy to access just for the click of a button. Love that.
  • We talked about performance reviews, talked about payroll with benefits administration, it allows us to utilize EDI feeds with our benefit vendors so it creates a seamless, but we just enter the information into Paylocity and then it seamlessly provides that information to our vendors. That's been really helpful. And adjusting benefits is also very easy within Paylocity. I love the recent edition of compensation analysis information, so I'm able to go into the compensation module and look for jobs that are similar to a job title at our company. I can enter the job description, I give them what state that the person or the job is in, and it pops out compensation data. It gives me different options, so titles that might be similar. So if there's not something that's an exact fit, I'm able to find something really, really close. It's been a huge upgrade because before that I was having to use a different vendor and paying $400 per job and now it's significantly less expensive to Paylocity and I'm still getting great quality data. It's been very helpful.
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Cons
BambooHR
  • The biggest issue is on performance assessments. We are not able to customize the reminder dates so the automated reminder dates shown to people and on the email reminders is often misaligned with our actual internal deadlines. This causes a lot of confusion each review cycle.
  • Also on performance management, there is no way to push feedback to a supervisor for their direct report. The only way is if the manager requests the feedback from you. This limits the opportunity for people to give real time feedback throughout the half.
  • I wish we had a way to track notes from employee 1:1s in BambooHR® so when we do our performance reviews we can track. That may be a module we didn't purchase but it would facilitate more continuous and comprehensive evaluation of people at review time.
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Paylocity
  • I'd like to see a forum in which users could discuss the platform, raise both questions and concerns. I feel that changes are done without enough input from users.
  • Improving hold time recently with customer service.
  • Accuracy of new 'graphic' payroll report - the new report is not complete when payroll is done, so it is unusable from my perspective. I rely on the preprocess payroll register. This is one of those 'improvements' that have not been positive in my experience.
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Likelihood to Renew
BambooHR
There's nothing wrong with this platform. I would recommend it to any business starting with more than 10 employees. I will continue to use the program for as long as I need to, hoping they continue being tremendous and finding other ways to incorporate more technology.
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Paylocity
There are several technical issues we have experienced this past year with the employee onboarding process that we are still waiting to have resolved. Overall our experience with Paylocity has been positive, and we love how user-friendly and easy to navigate the system is. It has made all of our HR processes much more streamlined and efficient.
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Usability
BambooHR
Just because there's a little complex with everything that's rolling out and so I have had to walk some people through functionality because there's just so much to click at this point. Another thing is the review process doesn't allow for ratings with a number scale, and I know we're kind of getting away from that as an industry, but with our previous system we have been rating people for their merit percent increase on their wages at the end of the year and it doesn't have the functionality to do that.
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Paylocity
I simply love Paylocity! We have run into some issues, but no company is going to be perfect. The flow of the modules is really nice, no double entry of data. The Time & Labor flows into Payroll nicely and Benefits flows into the employees Pay Setup which goes onto the employees paycheck with little to no issues.
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Reliability and Availability
BambooHR
Yes, there is a huge team in the back of the online platform or it looks like it because I have never been left without an answer when I have a question or waiting from a response on my chat .... There must be a huge team, this is so great and I always seem to have someone that is very knowledgeable too. So many times in the past I had to leave with customer service that would connect you with someone else because of the expertise, here everyone seems to be some kind of an expert in the HR function.
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Paylocity
Over the last 3 years, we've only had one major service issue that rendered Airbase unusable for us for about 24 hours. That said, they navigated the SVB bank crisis very well and made sure funds were available during that time.
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Performance
BambooHR
I love BambooHR. Reports are easy to run and download and it usually covers any types of requests I get from the management team. You get excel or .csv downloads/reports and it is fast and simple, not too crowded so it is easy to read through. We don't integrate the tool yet but again, soon we will. we just did not had the time to utilize it yet but that's the plan.
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Paylocity
We had some minor hiccups throughout the year but they have all been fixable. Paylocity integrates well with our 401k provider, Principal, and our benefits, OneDigital. It makes it simple to house everything and have it all connected. It doesn't slow anything down to have Principal integrated. It makes it more efficient
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Support Rating
BambooHR
I use the chat feature most often and the wait times can be long, but often I do get right in. When they promise to follow up, they always do. It seems the "support hero's" are very well training and knowledgeable. There are lots of resources in the form of print or video, too.
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Paylocity
It is very hard to get answers to your questions, you cannot speak to someone without days of requesting assistance or answers and then eventually can get a call back and then it is usually resolved fairly quickly. But NOT easy to get that help.
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In-Person Training
BambooHR
I didn't have in-person training besides teaching my managers how to use the program. However, I couldn't omit this question (maybe a system glitch).
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Paylocity
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
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Online Training
BambooHR
Overall this training was great and our implementation specialist was wonderful and very helpful. We felt really prepared once our training was completed, But we could get additional help immediately even when we were live. The continuation Support heros after implementation are wonderful and you can always get a LIVE person each time you call into their office.
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Paylocity
Our rep was very thorough and made sure we fully understood the software before turning us loose alone. Paylocity was very good to do periodic check ins to ensure we understood the features and answered any questions we had. The training reps are very well trained and are very patient with clients.
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Implementation Rating
BambooHR
We implemented bambooHR in Fall, 2023 then implemented Payroll 1/1/24. A vital piece of information was not known or missed in that we are exempt from State Unemployment Tax and have a Reimbursement Set-up, so bambooHR did not send Payroll Reports to the State. Those reports need to be sent regardless if we are exempt or not.
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Paylocity
Implementation was a bit bumpy and Paylocity team not always available for next steps and/or questions. I feel like Paylocity could have done a better job in their fact finding as far as what we were currently doing, our payroll policies and needs, etc. so that we would have run into less issues as we moved forward.
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Alternatives Considered
BambooHR
Lattice is much more oriented towards performance management. It includes many more advanced performance management features from building actual assessments to also performance development planning. BambooHR® for us was a place to centralize our data and build from within as well as connect to external integrations. PerformYard is what we used prior to BambooHR® for onboarding workflows and performance reviews, but BambooHR® is far superior.
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Paylocity
ADP was very similar to the way Paylocity is, but I seem to favor Paylocity to be honest. Miter was VERY difficult to use and set up. I wouldn't ever consider using that software ever again. I didn't like a lot of aspect Miter had to offer either. Paylocity would always be my choice.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BambooHR
Since my organization has dropped with employees, I always find ways to reduce costs. I thought there would be a cheaper option, but I was glad that my package included a lot for the price, and downgrading would cost more. The rep could have let me downgraded and taken me to a higher package. I am thankful that didn't happen.
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Paylocity
Everyone wants a good deal of course. We thought we did ok and felt you still made your money also
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Scalability
BambooHR
There is so much you can do with this platform, it is incredible and so welcoming. We don't utilize it 100% yet just because we are growing and the HR team has not been able to concentrate on other areas offered to us but but we will soon. Which is also why we got the product, specifically because what BambooHR can do to help us meet our growing business needs.
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Paylocity
We have gone from a medium sized company to a larger company with no issues whatsoever with Paylocity being able to keep up or do what we need it to do for the size of our needs. In fact, it does more than we even use at this juncture
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Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
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Paylocity
Some are knowledgable others not as much and sometimes instead of helping you fix the issue will just give you some directions and expect you to try to figure it out yourself. Also, when your Account Manager needs to escliate the issue to another group, it can take a long time for them to get to your issue and there's no commuication.
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Return on Investment
BambooHR
  • Time Savings: Automating onboarding, payroll, and employee record management has cut HR admin time by up to 30%, allowing teams to focus on strategic initiatives instead of paperwork.
  • Improved Onboarding: Streamlined workflows have cut onboarding time by nearly 50%, ensuring new hires are productive faster, reducing turnover risk in the critical first months.
  • - Enhanced Informational Clarity: Centralized employee data means fewer errors and faster access to essential information, reducing compliance risks and increasing accuracy in reporting.
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Paylocity
  • Paylocity has helped us with recruitment by streamlining the process and making it efficient. It is saving me time.
  • Paylocity has also helped us with compensation so we can create a fair and robust compensation plan.
  • I also like using the data insights feature, which helps me keep track of over time, payroll and benefits costs, and retention numbers. This also saves me time as it is all in one place.
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ScreenShots

BambooHR® Screenshots

Screenshot of the Job Info tabScreenshot of Onboarding TasksScreenshot of a New Hire PacketScreenshot of an Employee Performance ReportScreenshot of Employee Satisfaction (eNPS®)Screenshot of Open Enrollment

Paylocity Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of real-time employee data and performance metrics used to uncover and analyze trends. This creates an impactful understanding of the business, increase retention, understand labor costs, and plan for changes.Screenshot of where to automate manual processes with Paylocity's self-serve automation engine, Workflows. Users can implement routines for time-consuming manual tasks.Screenshot of where to manage and comply with employment law. Paylocity's HR Compliance solution helps users to stay on track and view important employee compliance items, from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), healthcare, and compensation.Screenshot of how Paylocity Recruiting can automate hiring processes. amplify outreach, showcase a company's culture, and build stronger candidate connections to swiftly fill positions.Screenshot of recognition and rewards in Paylocity.