Great product for mid-sized organizations
December 19, 2017
Great product for mid-sized organizations
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Ascentis HR
Ascentis HR/HR Office is used primarily by myself and another member of HR to maintain employment history, time off, and contact information. We use the .asp version, which provides a secure/compliant environment for personal information. We can also upload employee files (reviews and other documentation), as necessary. We've also implemented self service, allowing all employees to update their information and manage/request their paid time off.
- The self-service tool is very helpful in that it allows employees to update their information.
- The PTO request tool built into the self-service module allows users to check their PTO balance, real-time, as well as project the amount of time they'll accrue by the time they actually need to take it. The employee can see all of their requests in one place to also verify the accuracy of the log and alert HR and their supervisor if there is an adjustment.
- PTO request tool also allows for a 2-tiered hierarchy of approval -- the supervisor approves it first, but final approval is always submitted to the COO before it's definite.
- We looked at a less expensive system, but HR Office was superior in that it allows us to look at PTO accruals based on a given date. We initially submitted formulas that indicate accrual rates based on employees' hours worked per week, and changes in that accrual at various anniversaries. Those calculations kick in automatically when we generate PTO balances on the fly, also deducting any time that has been scheduled off during that same period.
- HR Office allows us to create some custom fields. We have to get staff to complete certain forms every year that required their driver's license and doctor/phone number, so we added those fields and merge the data into a new form so the employee doesn't have to scrounge for that information each time to complete the form.
- HR Office is feature-rich, but with tools that we haven't taken advantage of, primarily due to our size and how we contract payroll. The system allows for reporting, has payroll and recruiting modules you can add on, and benefits management.
- When we add a new employee, we have a form for creating their job history, but when we set up the user for the PTO accrual, we always get a popup, indicating the user isn't working 40 hours (part of our PTO requirement). We have to exit the employee module and go into the compensation module to indicate that the employee works 40 hours/week. It's not intuitive and would be nice if that could be added from the initial employee setup and populate the compensation section.
- I'd like to be able to customize the fields within the PTO request form. We have to remind people to include certain information in the open text field for general comments.
- It's slow to load the landing page when we first log in.
- I can't stand the way the reports requires you to modify the report and save it before you can view it to see if you have what you need. I'd love to see a way to view it and THEN save it. In order to clean out previously generated reports, I have to click through multiple criteria screens to see what went into the report.
- This product isn't earth-shattering, but provides a solid, reliable foundation for managing human resources. It helped us achieve a major business objective for our division to implement the self-service PTO approval workflow this year.
- Bamboo HR
Bamboo HR was less expensive and provided a "prettier" interface for employee self-service-- we actually signed the contract and migrated our data and gave notice to Ascentis to terminate our account. However, once our data was in the Bamboo system, we realized the calculation of PTO was a nightmare. If there were any errors or adjustments necessary for PTO or comp time, there was a history that made it very confusing to follow -- we have a lot of PTO reported that is then adjusted later by someone making up time, for example. There wasn't a way to provide a snapshot of a person's PTO balance like we can in HR Office. I think the problem was related to the fact that we allow an employee to schedule and use PTO prior to accruing it because our system is a "use it or lose it" plan and Bamboo couldn't accommodate that. I've heard lots of favorable things about Bamboo, particularly for smaller organizations, but that particular element was a deal-breaker for us.