Namely vs. Sage HR

Namely is aesthetically very pleasing and navigates like other social media platforms which can be appealing to potentially a remote workforce who interacts more online than in person. Unfortunately, it did not serve our population well as we are primarily manufacturing where people are not as interested in utilizing the HRIS for interactions when they would rather connect in person.

Keeping an accurate time off calendar, with specific buckets, is extremely important. It has helped my company grow without having to manage things in Excel. Also, implementing an annual review process by using CakeHR has been very clean and transparent with my employees. This also allows me to see year over year. In years past, we used Word or a Jotform which made it challenging to pull up years past.

Incentivized

• Namely has helped with our COVID sick leave response. It has made a major difference both with the weekly payroll and the 941 tax filing
• Keeping track of our multiple PTO plans. Thank goodness for Namely, I have shredded my old PTO spreadsheets.
• Employees like the convenience of the cell phone app. As a payroll administrator, I like the Geo Tracking tool where I can see where some are when the clock is in or out.
• The flexibility inside of the payroll system both as you are finalizing an employee profile and when you are processing payroll is a major advantage.
• The reports I get out of Namely in Excel format work well for me.

Incentivized

• Employee self service - the apps and desktops GUIs are very intuitive.
• Leave management - this manages itself through the app and system, saves lots of admin.
• Customization - you can tailor the system more and more to suit your specific needs.
• Updates and Customer Service - the CakeHR team gave dedicated a lot of time to bring out weekly updates and systems improvements which shows they are dedicated to making this a great product - the fact that they were bought by Se recently is also testament to their ongoing mission.

Incentivized

• Limits to custom reporting
• No direct feed for Ohio Workers Comp (now a manual process on our end)
• No option to place an employee on Leave of Absence and exclude them from payroll while they are "inactive"
• No option to suppress certain deductions for certain pay types (i.e. allow 401K for commissions but block remaining deductions - also now a manual process to uncheck the suppress box for 401K for each commission check)

Incentivized

• Updating information in a central location that implements changes across whole system.
• Custom reporting and history
• Time off policies tracking and management

Incentivized

Administrators and employees love Namely. It is very easy to use and streamlined. Employees stay engaged with news feed updates and enjoy all the self service options. The time cards are very easy to access and clocking in and out for non-exempt employees is a breeze. Namely is part of our family.

It is very simple to use for myself, the HR team, and our employees. I find the payroll process very user-friendly. Reporting is simple to navigate and produce the required information requested. I know our employees enjoy the self-service feature and use it on a regular basis, which saves me time.

Incentivized

My staff "actually" likes it! I can tell because they are actively in the program almost daily!

Incentivized

Unfortunately, in more recent years we've had a lot of difficulty with Namely as they've undergone a lot of internal changes. It took 4 returned emails saying the person no longer worked at Namely to find someone to help me (I finally called payroll) and it took a while to get connected with a direct source of help. Namely now has set up their "pod" feature of communication which works well for the most part, but is different. I felt spoiled when we first started with Namely, but now it feels very much like working with most large companies' help centers. There is a system to go through and you do have the option to click "urgent". In general the help is efficient, but it still takes a few days and it's hard to speak with someone directly. It is all done via online communications and is difficult to actually speak to someone on the phone. This works well for most cases, but I do feel frustrated more often than I'd like to with this type of communication. (2019/2020)

Incentivized

Customer support is amazing. There are times I post a question and I don't get back to support. They will always follow-up with an email to make sure our questions are answered. I even had a call with Julianna who was wonderful and very personable. You definitely get a level us service that exceeds most companies. Keep up the good work CakeHR.

Incentivized

Implementation was a bit complicated and our company had to carry most of the weight. It often felt like our implementation manager was giving us extra work that she did not want to do herself. It also took much longer than expected - I believe almost 2 months. I believe our company carried a bit too much of the weight.

Incentivized

Namely has a robust suite of offerings, and fallows for a la carte selection of add-ons (rather than a single bundled option). This has allowed our company to save money by not purchasing options / functionalities that we dont need, but may drive up the cost for other companies who need more a la carte selections. In all, the size of the company, the size & capabilities of the internal HR team, and considerations like managed payroll and benefits should be key drivers in selection.

Incentivized

For core HR functionality, this is the only product we use. For ATS, we have experimented with BreezyHR. We've learned that CakeHR is adding an ATS module soon though.

• When we were over 100, it provided a huge benefit to us due to the accuracy of payroll, benefits integration and management, and org chart and performance tracking. Having all of that in one place was a huge improvement from the former disjointed user experience.
• When we dropped below 100 due to covid, our insurance rates went up 93% to offer comparable plans, and we had to move over to a PEO for benefits which meant we also had to move payroll. It was hugely disruptive, and now our employees have a bad experience when trying to manage their HR lives in multiple places. It is confusing and, again, disjointed.

Incentivized

• The system shows us all days off and overtime, so we can manage this and know everything is like agreed in the contract.
• A simple and affordable system with room to grow.