Item: BambooHR
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have used BambooHR for two small businesses (legal services and construction). The first was an existing business that had no electronic HR processes or software and the second was a start-up. BambooHR is used for full employee life-cycle management, time tracking, performance management, applicant tracking, and benefits management.

Pros and Cons

BambooHR has a top-notch electronic onboarding process. It is fully customizable and works very well with applicants of all technological capabilities. Onboarding allows you to add every step the new employee and the business partners must complete through timed, dated, notifications, digital documents, e-signatures, and a back-end administrative ability to follow up.
BambooHR has good applicant tracking system. They currently integrate with indeed and ZipRecruiter. However, it is easy to create links for other platforms with the ability to distinguish where you are getting recruiting traction. In addition the ability to rate, and communicate about an applicant is confidential between the hiring managers and HR. Also, there is an easy way to create a candidate pool of eligible candidates for later passive recruiting, that is called Talent Pools.
BambooHR has a unique feature called Announcements. This function allows various announcements to go out via email, through the application, or a combination of both to directed target audiences or the entire company.
BambooHR also sends out announcements (customizable) on every new hire. This allows folks to see who is starting and learn a bit about them before they meet them.
BambooHR has a great function for tracking time by the task or job. This is great for tracking productivity gaps for administrative positions or job costing for positions that have billable hours.
BambooHR also has easy to organize digital documents. You can easily upload documents via drop and drag. Documents can be added to folders and then downloaded later if an employee terminates.
Goal in performance management are very good, they follow the SMART methodology but there is no way to attach them to a performance review. They do allow the employee to adjust using a slide bar and you can attach people to a goal. In addition it notifies the supervisor but you cannot shut off notifications.

BambooHR really needs to improve their time tracking. Hours need to be shown by weekly total or at least have the option. The employees should have to actually approve their time and then if they need a change go in and approve it again. This would create a better audit trail to print for DOL claims that an employer is messing with a timecard without having to keep separate documentation that a request was being made. In addition, if you pull a payroll report, the totals don't always calculate correctly. They either need to show the rounding or show the full digits.
The onboarding and offboarding processes need to hold to email until the user finishes customizing the tasks to be sent. When the tasks are all set up ahead and then backed out by person hired, they should not go out until they are finished being adjusted. Currently as soon as you import, it notifies the person assigned to the task.
Former employees should have access to the system for at least three years. There is no reason we should have to manually give them documents such as pay statements, or W-2s manually.
BambooHR needs to have better search options, you should be able to search by nickname, maiden name, social security, birthday, etc.
Recently bambooHR added the ability to organize employee documents by folder, but they took the ability to download documents en mass. They need to add that back. It is a very difficult to download folder by folder.
BambooHR shows all birthday in a rolling format on the home page. This is great, but they should only show 10-30 days before and after (customer choice). When you have limited employees a birthday can show up months ahead.
They have a signed documents report to track and remind those who have not yet signed digital documents. However, it would be better if you had an option to notify supervisors when they are dragging their heels. In addition, there needs to be a way to archive the document list when completed and create a new one by date even if you are using the same document. This is an absolute cluttered mess and very messy to track and follow up on. DocuSign does it much better.
There needs to be a way to pull a payroll report with salaries and standard hours for exempt employees with the hourly employees. Trax is not always a payroll option and you need a way to pull a report looking for variances.
Performance management is weak. You cannot customize it at all. It only fits the functionality they want you to use.
Benefits stink if you have more than one option per benefit. They really need to upgrade this function. Report data is garbage.
The time accruals show rounded totals and allow employees to go negative. Customer service thinks it is bad idea to stop an employee from going negative in their time off. This should be the customer's choice. They refuse to change this function.

Most Important Features

ATS
On/off-boarding
Time Tracking
Performance
Benefits
Reports
Time Off Management

Return on Investment

The product allowed HR to remain a department of one with 70 employees.
The product eliminated the need for a separate ATS.

Alternatives Considered

Paycom, Paylocity, Paycor, Heartland Payroll+, isolved, UKG Pro, Namely, RUN Powered by ADP®, ApplicantPro, CATS Applicant Tracking System and Vista by Viewpoint

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 to ingore the lack of functionality the pretty package will no longer have any value.

Key Insights

Do you think BambooHR delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with BambooHR's feature set?

Did BambooHR live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of BambooHR go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy BambooHR again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Snagit, iSpring Suite, Microsoft Teams

Likelihood to Recommend

BambooHR is a great starter HRIS for new companies or ones who have never used an HRIS. It is a good tool for the employee life-cycle, but weak in performance management and benefits. I send enhancement requests almost daily. I often ask customer service is their own HR department uses this because it sure doesn't seem as productive as it could be. BambooHR often will tell you when making inquiries to find out if they can enhance a feature that if you don't like it, find a new product. The CEO has often said he cares more about employees than customers, because if they are happy the customers will be happy. This is indicative of the lack of real change and the lame 30-30 monthly promos that attempt to suggest changes are being made when no productive changes really every happen.

Great Option for Entry into HRIS

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with BambooHR