BambooHR Reviews

BambooHR Turns a Small Business into a Big Business

Comments: I enjoyed it more than other recruiting software I've used. It makes work easier and helps me be a manager instead of a paper pusher.

Pros:

I personally like that BambooHR has different portals for its users. They've built a database that allows employees to: 1. Maintain their own records (whether the company sends or user uploaded); track time off earned, sick days used, and hours worked; while allowing the user to sign documents easily electronically; and 2. Makes being an HR manager, easy. What I mean is, creating records (employees or temps) and ensuring they have all the blocks checked (background ran, drug test paperwork properly filled out, and any other documentation needing signed) within the timeframe needed to start working - is tracked, maintained, and recorded for you... so all in all, eliminates the monotony of HR and time wasted on paperwork while assisting managers/employees in ensuring proper compliance.

Cons:

Well, I still had to scan any documents that weren't created or automated through the software and label them. For example, I work at a satellite location; the warehouse I staff for has a basketball court out back for employees to use on their break. I had to create a document that stated employees for my agency had to make sure they were clocked out, that they were responsible for any risk of injury and that the company and staffing agency would not be held liable for any resulting injury that may occur. The rest of the staffing agency didn't need this so I still had to print out 50 copies, have each employee sign one, upload it, file it in the employee file in the software, label it, then give the copy back to the employee. This really is not an issue unless if turnover is high, this could get annoying.

BambooHR is a comprehensive and easy-to-use HR software

Comments: In terms of HR functions, BambooHR handles everything. Our human resources department and management can benefit much from this system. BambooHR serves many uses for many divisions. Every day, the human resources team uses BambooHR because it is quick, simple, and easy to use.

Pros:

This HR management system is both feature-rich and user-friendly. The user interface is made user- and administrator-friendly. The site is user-friendly, and my staff appreciates how straightforward the features are.

Cons:

One of BambooHR's less enticing characteristics, in my opinion, is its pricing structure. We are a very young company, thus cost-effectiveness is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, it appears that BambooHR's rates are out of reach for startups like ours.

Pretty good HR software for employee data and hiring

Comments: Used as a solution to a non existent HR management. Migrated employee information from paper.

Pros:

Easy and simple to use. Great way of organizing employee data. Great hiring and onboarding features.

Cons:

Not a very flexible software. You have to do things the way it is set up and there can be times where the software makes you do tasks a particular way that isn't the best

Alternatives Considered: Breezy and Rippling

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: Best value. They had the best pricing and we just needed a simple solution.

Unethical pricing practices, poor customer service/poor treatment of loyal longstanding customers

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.

Best purchase EVER

Comments: Best HR platform I have used so far. The training and resources available are excellent and most anybody can utilize it with little to no training.

Pros:

It is very streamlined, and you can customize it to be very personal based on your needs.

Cons:

Adjusting time sheets can be difficult if they forgot to clock out.

Alternatives Considered: Gusto and Workday Payroll and Workforce Management

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: Cost and feature and the customer support and the salespeople weren't pushy.

Worth it, especially for small businesses

Comments: Overall very positive experience, from the friendly and prompt customer service, to the functionality of the website.

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.

Excellent HR Tool

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.

Optimising HR Processes - A Tool That Delivers

Comments: My overall experience with BambooHR has been excellent. It's a platform that truly gets what HR professionals need, wrapping up all the essential functions in a clean, easy-to-use package. The combination of a user-friendly interface, robust features, and strong support makes it a game-changer for any company looking to elevate their HR operations. Highly recommend giving it a try if you’re serious about streamlining your HR processes.

Pros:

BambooHR i user-friendly and intuitive for managers and administrators. This platform has nailed the balance between simplicity and functionality, making it a breeze for anyone to navigate—even those who might not be the most tech-savvy. The features are designed with the entire employee lifecycle in mind, covering everything from recruitment to day-to-day management, which is incredibly valuable. The recruitment function and app integration are top-notch, allowing for seamless operation. And let's talk about the support chat—it's fantastic. You get quick, reliable help whenever you need it. The automated reminders are another solid feature, keeping you on track without having to micromanage every detail.

Cons:

If I had to point out one area for improvement, it would be the recruitment function. It could really benefit from CV parsing capabilities, which would make searching for the right candidates a lot more efficient. It’s a small tweak, but one that could add significant value.

Great application for Company Management

Comments: Overall, I really enjoy using it because it really enhances the relationship between HR and employees with any incessant need for direct communication and everything is tracked.

Pros:

I like the ease of the application and how quickly you can request for leaves or look at other people on leave as well. I wish that we could put in our own color profile as a personal setting, rather than stick to the one that the company has chosen. For example, HR has chosen the color orange, and I would like to change the color to Blue as a personal setting.

Cons:

I would like to see different views available for people on leave. For example, within teams, I would like to see that a person has blocked off a day for an annual leave and can't apply on that day because it's already taken by somebody else. It helps employees under teams recognize that another team member might be out that day and they may not get an approval. I would like to see flexibility on the way hours are plotted for a workday. For example, within our company we have to use percentages like 0.25 to describe a quarter day and because we have an 8-hour workday sometimes we need to take leave for only 1 hour or 1/2 hour and there is a difficulty in plotting that as a leave.

Bamboo makes life easier!

Comments: Bamboo is amazing. From the features to the customer service, the experience has been extremely positive for me and my company.

Pros:

Bamboo is constantly growing and making their products/services better! Their ATS, Time tracking, document management, onboarding/offboarding, reporting and so much more makes my job easier and more efficient!

Cons:

I wish Bamboo had a messaging feature built within it so that HR doesn't have to give out a direct phone number to applicants and employees.

Great HR Information System for medium size business

Comments: Moved all employment contract management online, leave management, onboarding, offboarding, personal details maintenance through self serve functionality, process workflows and performance management.

Pros:

Modern HR information system with great broad feature set for medium size businesses. Excellent for leave management, request, approval and tracking.

Cons:

Is based out of the US and orientation is by default to US customers. Works for Australia customers but is a bit short on handling contractors, more permanent focused, and support hours do not cover Australia timezone which has caused some issues.

Alternatives Considered: Employment Hero

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR: BambooHR offered us so much more in terms of features and functionality than we would ever invest to build internally. The user experience was modern and easy to use from signing up a new staff member, to onboarding them and maintaining their HR and Leave records. Removed significant risk from process errors, failed notification of employment changes and record keeping for signed contracts. Moved from paper to fully online!

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: Great user interface, custimisable, simple to use and configure, right featureset and complexity for our size of organisation.

Huge Promoter of BambooHR

Comments: I generally come into Companies as an HR Leader somewhere between 50 and 100 employees and Bamboo is a simple implementation and give not only me every tool I need to do my job, but also helps other teams as far as reporting and accountability is concerned. It's everything I could as for and more.

Pros:

I have implemented BambooHR as our primary HRIS system at 3 companies now. Bamboo is so intuitive training is a breeze. Whenever anything pops up I don't have an answer to Help desk is an IM away. Reporting cannot be beat. Hands down the easiest most intuitive HRIS our there for HR Professionals and Employees.

Cons:

I wish there were more options within the review portal. Like having the ability to do quarterly assessments AND a formal annual assessment that combines all the quarterlies. Even though we have a quarterly assessment process at our Company people also want to traditional annual and we have to do that all manually outside of the system currently.

Alternatives Considered: Paycom, ADP Workforce Now and Paychex Flex

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: Bamboo allows us a lot of flexibility to design it the way that works best for our company and our people that's didn't wrap us into anything additional we didn't want or need.

An HRIS that was built with HR in mind

Comments: This was hands down the easiest onboarding of a new software package that I have ever experienced. We are a Critical Access Hospital that decided to implement its first HRIS in February of 2020, right as the pandemic started. Of all the things we had to worry about, this implementation was not one of them. The team walked us through the process, meet with us whenever we needed, and assisted in personalizing the software. We went from 0 to complete within a month! And they have been supporting us every step of the way since then. I couldn't ask for a better HRIS partner.

Pros:

The software is very easy to personalize to your organizations individual needs. Response from the help desk is usually within minutes, and their out of the box thinking ensures you will get the output that you are looking for.

Cons:

BambooHR works great with other software programs that have HR in mind. If your backbone software is built for integration is industry specific and somewhat inflexible, it is more difficult to integrate the great features that BambooHR has to offer.

Alternatives Considered: MEDITECH Expanse, ADP Workforce Now and Netchex

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: BambooHR had the right recruiting tools, the offered pretty much everything we needed in their basic program, and to upgrade was very simple and inexpensive. Having been in HR for decades, this is the first time I have used an HR system that felt like it was made by those in HR for HR.

Great HR System!

Comments: Overall, I love BambooHR. I have implemented it in several companies I have worked for over the years. It is such a great system, I tried to bring it in whenever I had the chance!

Pros:

BambooHR has everything in one place. Easy to set up and implement and employees can start using it immediately with very little training. Very easy to customize it to suit your company's unique needs. Customer service is second to none!!

Cons:

Having an integrated payroll system would be the cherry on top but for a Canadian company, this option is not available. A huge market untapped!! The ability to choose a "close" date for the Performance Management Reviews would be very helpful as sometimes a longer or shorter window is required.

Alternatives Considered: Deluxe Payroll and HR

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR: ADP was too "big" for us and the customer service was horrendous! Collage HR was much better but in the end customer service won out again.

Switched From: ADP Workforce Now and Collage HR

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: BambooHR was by far easier to use.

Great HRIS

Comments: Very positive

Pros:

Easy to integrate and use, very user friendly, very useful reporting tools.

Cons:

To be able to make reports on a chosen date and not only on the current date. Be able to identify managers more easily.

Alternatives Considered: Bob

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR: PeopleHR is the worst HRIS on the market. Difficult to use, very unreliable and not user friendly at all. I implemented BambooHR in 3 different companies and I love this tool.

Switched From: Access PeopleHR

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: The main reason is the price. The functionalities are a bit more advanced than BambooHR, but the implementation is longer and the tool is less user friendly

We love BambooHR

Comments: My experience with BambooHR has been phenomenal from the first phone call inquiring about the software all the way through setting up the many features we've implemented. (Payroll, Benefits, Time Tracking, Performance Management, etc. I've enjoyed working with their team and appreciate all the help they have provided.

Pros:

The features that BambooHR offer are extremely streamlined and useful. The ease of use of the platform gives our employees an easy way to access and manage all of their information. The best part of BambooHR though would be the customer service and how well they work with you when integrating this software into your business.

Cons:

The only con with this software was the lack of integration with other accounting services. IE Quickbooks however, this was easily worked around and they do offer other solutions.

Alternatives Considered: Deel and NetSuite

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR: The ease of use this software provides. QB was too manual.

Switched From: QuickBooks Online Advanced

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: The options and streamlined design of this platform fit better with our company.

A good price for a good product. Responsive and always innovating.

Comments: Bamboo has been a great software to help us perform so may of our tasks, both frequent and infrequent. It is user friendly, accessible, packed with training, and easy to modify. There are some walls that we hit that come with hyper-specific needs we have, but since Bamboo is always reading feedback and updating accordingly, we have hope in its expansion and improvement.

Pros:

Time tacking, time off tracking, document storage, e-signatures, information management, training tracking, onboarding, offboarding, payroll.

Cons:

Limits on the integration of custom fields and tables into filters on ting like onboarding, training, announcements, and benefits.

Alternatives Considered: AllianceHCM

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR: Sharepoint was in the end not capable of doing a multitude of tasks we needed on the HR side. Bamboo also had payroll functions we needed to use.

Switched From: Microsoft SharePoint

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: AllianceHCM dropped us after saying they could not accommodate complex elements of our payroll system. Bamboo was willing to go through integration stage at no cost to us until they could prove they could run our payroll. This willingness to partner with us at risk of their own loss of time and money was what cemented us with Bamboo.

BambooHR perfect for small to medium sized businesses

Comments: Bamboo is constantly listening to what customers want and need and are expanding with incredible features all the time. I have worked on many HRIS and this is by far my favourite! I am a very happy Bamboo customer. Thank you for all your great work. You have an incredibly talented group of employees.

Pros:

It is easy to use for the back end and front end users. The Support Heroes are always so friendly and helpful and I have never not been able to get the assistance I need when I need it. They are constantly listening to what customers want and need an are expanding with incredible features all the time. I have worked on many HRIS and this is by far my favourite! I am a very happy Bamboo customer. Thank you for all your great work. You have an incredibly talented group of employees.

Cons:

the performance management system could be a bit more customizable and robust. We have had to create a couple extra tools for managers and staff to use outside of this platform. Wish there were a few more features when rating the employees, based on their skills. I do wish that the employee community was something we could purchase additionally and not bundled with other products we do not feel we need right now. Would love if the system integrated with Ceridian Payroll.. would make things easier.

Alternatives Considered: Workday HCM

Reasons for Choosing BambooHR: did not provide all the functions we needed and their service was not great.

Switched From: Collage HR

Reasons for Switching to BambooHR: Heard great reviews, wanted service that I could call and speak to someone during my office hours.

The convenient one-stop-shop for HR needs

Comments: It's easy to hire new workers and let old ones go. It's a great way for our employees to bond and get to know one another better. We don't have a dedicated account manager, but the live chat feature is fast and easy to use if we need help.

Pros:

After using BambooHR for more than five years, I can declare without a doubt that it has contributed significantly to the success of my company. Thanks to the report feature, I now know more about staff turnover and other factors.

Cons:

Reports on items waiting for an electronic signature should be downloadable. A manual updating function for leave types such compensatory time off should be made available to administrators.

BambooHR - Friend to People Operations!

Comments: We've used BambooHR since 2017, moving from tracking information via spreadsheets and paper forms to fully electronic. The implementation process takes preparation to ensure you have quality information imported into the system and is worth the time and effort. The implementation specialist works with you to ensure you're on track and implementation goes smoothly. If you take the time to introduce BambooHR to employees and provide them with training, they easily adapt as this is a very user-friendly system. Over the years we've added additional custom table to track information and the Bambooligans have been very responsive. I highly recommend BambooHR!

Pros:

• User-friendly • Customizable (ie. you can have Bamboo set up tables that you can use to track your Medical Examiner’s certifications/driver’s licenses & set reminders for expiration) • Hiring system ports directly into employee creation • Applicant tracking system (automatically posts to Indeed, Glassdoor & ZipRecruiter) • Onboarding / offboarding • Standardized & customizable reports • Org chart • Company directory (the app is nice but offers less functionality than the website) • E-signature for your forms to port directly into employee files upon completion & route as directed (ie. direct deposit can route to payroll or reimbursements to A/P) • Asset tracking (you can set security levels to allow IT – or appropriate individuals to access / make changes / run reports for assets) • Electronic approval process for compensation, approvals, and other customizable events • Preview as user allows you / admin to see things as the individual sees them – really helps with problem-solving • You establish access levels • Track training (but very simplistic process) • Works with single sign-on

Cons:

• Lack of ability to set up onboarding tasks for internal promotions • Training tracking is simplistic, they do offer integrations with LMS • Doesn’t connect with our payroll system (although you could have someone build a custom integration)

A lot of Bang for Our Bucks

Comments: Overall, our experience with BambooHR has been extremely positive. Our employees have raved over how much more efficient and streamlined our HR processes are. Customer Support, if needed, is super responsive and satisfactory resolutions/answers are provided quickly.

Pros:

There are so many positive things I can say about this software that I am not sure I even know where to begin. Implementation was a breeze, the look and feel of Bamboo is clean and intuitive, and there are so many options for an organization to really make it their own through branding and customization. Additionally, I am a huge fan of the amount of administrative control I have within the system. For me, this was a huge selling point.

Cons:

Nothing is perfect. Not even Bamboo. Although they have made great strides in enhancing some of their features, they're still not as robust as some other systems in some areas. However, as an administrator and an end-user, I do appreciate how they listen to feedback from their customers and it shows in their efforts to continuously improve their product. The only "con" that would make me reevaluate our relationship with Bamboo would be a drastic price increase without any new features to justify it.

Alternatives Considered: Namely and Paylocity

Switched From: isolved

BambooHR literally has everything our company requires.

Comments: Overall, it was a fantastic experience; hiring and tracking new employees was a breeze. We use Learning Management System (LMS) and integrating the two is straightforward. The app is useful for tracking time and work hours, especially since most of us work abroad. And security is top notch. We store people's information here, and we like how BambooHR performs security checks and locks on its own when you are not in front of your computer.

Pros:

We previously used Time Doctor to track our time and for payroll. However, as the company expanded. We want a system that allows us to track all employees from their assessment/ job application to their onboarding. We can even send new hire packets to get them prepared for the job. This includes what they needed to do on their first day, what documents they needed to submit, and who they should contact. It's also easy to track time off request and UPTOs. BambooHR can also be integrated with LMS tools such as TalentLMS. As a user, the app is very useful; seeing your timesheet hours and pay period, as well as the payroll reminder, is a great feature.

Cons:

The training section of BambooHR is a little complicated, and adding new training and categories is done alphabetically. As a result, having your own training roadmap and guidelines causes everything to become jumbled. When we asked their support team for help in resolving the issue, they were able to help us by manually assigning a number to each category. Another thing is, marking each training category as complete must be done one at a time. It takes a lot of effort, but it works.

I Love BambooHR

Comments: Overall, I love BambooHR and would recommend it to any small to medium-sized company that is looking for a simple solution to connecting and managing their workforce.

Pros:

The best thing about BambooHR is how user-friendly it is for all of our employees. The interface is so efficient which limits the amount of time we spend training new employees on the software. I also love the level of support we receive from BambooHR when we need it. Their customer service is top-tier!

Cons:

Although we have seen Bamboo grow and adapt in many ways over the years, there are still features that we'd love to see come to life. I appreciate the ability to suggest new product developments, but I sometimes feel limited when it comes to exit interviews and report customization.

Alternatives Considered: PowerSchool and Paycor

Switched From: Paycom

Streamlined HR Management

Comments: As an HR professional, my experience with BambooHR has been positive. The platform has significantly streamlined our processes.

Pros:

As an HR professional tasked with managing various aspects of employee documentation and time tracking, I've found BambooHR to be an invaluable tool for streamlining our processes. The platform offers a comprehensive solution for managing employee documents and timekeeping, making our workflow significantly more efficient. With BambooHR, all employee documents are seamlessly sent out and stored within the platform. This not only eliminates the hassle of manual document distribution but also ensures that our records are centralized and easily accessible when needed. Additionally, the ability for employees to clock in or enter their hours directly on the Bamboo platform has been a game-changer for our organization. Gone are the days of manual timesheets and potential errors in time tracking. With BambooHR, employees can conveniently log their hours from anywhere, whether they're in the office or working remotely. This not only promotes accountability but also provides us with real-time insights into our workforce's productivity and attendance. BambooHR has transformed the way we manage our HR processes, providing us with a centralized platform for document management and time tracking.

Cons:

Currently, BambooHR limits employees to being assigned to only one project at a time. It poses limitations for those with more dynamic project structures or employees who contribute to multiple initiatives simultaneously. It would be highly beneficial if BambooHR could incorporate the ability to assign employees to multiple projects concurrently. This feature would provide organizations with greater flexibility in allocating resources and tracking employee contributions across different projects.

Easy to use system that allows central tracking and reporting of most employee information.

Comments: BambooHR has been really helpful in storing and reporting on employee information, giving employees access to view their benefit and personal information, and I can't rave enough about the Applicant Tracking feature. As a one person HR department, BambooHR has allowed me to become a strong, communicative and organized recruiter in the midst of the million other things I do. As I learn more about email alerts and forms, I'm finding more and more ways for BambooHR to support and automate processes that otherwise take up a lot of time and paper. I love that you constantly seek, and act on, customer feedback to make continuous improvements that are relevant to improving our day to day operations. I love that you are responsive to questions and patiently provide guidance and instruction on how to use features. I don't feel like I've purchased this software, and fell into a black hole. The Bamboo team is accessible and supportive, welcoming questions and feedback. I look forward to learning more about how I can use BabmooHR's current features, as well as waiting to see what new features and updates you'll roll out next. Happy Bamboo-ing indeed!

Pros:

BambooHR's customer support is second to none. How they find such cheerful, helpful people, I don't know. They are happy to work with you to help you get the most out of the system. The system is user friendly and can be customized in a lot of ways. You can report on any information in the system, with easy to use standard reports, or you can create your own. They constantly add features and make improvements based on customer feedback. In some cases, they can make requested changes immediately. But they really seem to listen to what you want, and work to get there. Employees can see and request updates to their information, as well as complete & submit forms electronically. I'm able to create approval workflows to support many request processes, allowing us to become more automated and maintain files electronically, which we can then report on. I love the applicant tracking system. I think it's the strongest feature they have, allowing collaboration with hiring managers, as well as communication with candidates. It's helped me manage and improve our recruitment process with the click of a button. All candidate records are maintained in one place, and can be seamlessly on-boarded.

Cons:

It is only as good as the data you enter, and does not currently integrate with the other systems we use. So, it requires constant data maintenance to keep employee information up to date, for effective reporting. There's no seamless automation for benefit enrollment. The time off system is easy to use, but does not currently show enough detail to be useful for our needs. I hope that BambooHR will focus on automating the integration of information from other systems, and provide a simpler update of benefit plan information at year end.