We’ve researched, analyzed, and assembled a list of the best HR tools
During the past few decades, technology has influenced every facet of our work and personal lives. For example, the internet, social media, smart home appliances, and modern medical care have improved our lives. In the same way, technologies like human capital management, talent management, and automated payroll have made HR people’s life better by automating away tedious, manual processes.
Today, there’s a tool for every HR process — recruiting, performance management, communication, development, compensation, and so on. Google one, and the sheer number of tools available will overwhelm you. This paradox of choice makes it challenging for HR leaders to select the right solution. And, ending up with the wrong one will impact the entire company’s productivity.
On top of that, we are in the middle of a pandemic. As a result, employees have been working remotely or in a hybrid work environment using chat, video conferencing, and cloud-based technologies. This new reality has made companies look for hybrid-ready, flexible, and resilient HR tools.
To help you make a better decision, we’ve researched, analyzed, and selected the best HR tools. You may be already using some of these tools, and some may not suit your needs. We recommend you watch demos of each solution to assess better if the solution fulfills your requirements.
iCIMS
Talent attraction, recruitment, and onboarding are essential components of talent management. Talent acquisition (TA) solutions provide companies with tools to plan, source, assess, hire, and onboard quality employees.
Named as a leader in the TA segment by IDC, iCIMS has helped more than 4,000 global companies recruit more than four million quality employees. Its offerings cover most of the attract-to-engage processes such as recruitment marketing via digital channels, applicant tracking system (ATS), candidate relationship management (CRM), and onboarding.
Features
- Branded career websites and candidate filtering based on roles, projects, and skills
- Candidate relationship management to reduce time-to-fill
- AI-based applicant tracking system to find, manage, and hire candidates
- Automated, branded offer templates for candidates
- Portals, online forms, and progress reports for new hires to get up and running quicker
Slack
The pandemic has transformed the way organizations worked. Today, they seek agility, resilience, and employee retention. Timely exchange of information is imperative to all these three priorities. That’s where real-time communications tools like Slack come into play.
Now a Salesforce company, Slack helps more than 100,000 companies provide seamless communication among employees. It offers 1:1 employee chats, video conferencing, group conversations, and file sharing. Slack also provides a robust third-party apps ecosystem.
Features
- A virtual workspace with central spaces for people, conversations, and files
- 1:1 and group chats that create a virtual office and bring your employees together
- Collaboration with other teams across your company and even from other companies
- Integration with third-party services, such as Google Drive, Office 365, and over 2,200 more
- Automation of routine actions and communication
- Access and visibility control of data with your own encryption keys
- Video conferencing with screen sharing, native and via third-party platforms
Qualtrics
360-degree feedback is a popular performance evaluation method for companies to get a broader picture of employees’ strengths and areas where they can improve. Instead of a traditional manager-driven feedback approach, 360-degree surveys collect data from many sources and help reduce manager bias.
Qualtrics, which Forrester named a leader in Employee Experience platforms, is a leading 360-degree survey tool. It helps you develop high-performing employees and productive teams with 360-degree feedback that drives employee engagement at all levels.
Features
- Multi-rater reviews automation with easy and swift feedback
- Actionable conversations based on analysis from 360° survey data
- Personalized employee reports
- Built-in rater anonymity protection
- APIs to integrate with leading HCMs, such as Workday, Peoplesoft, and SAP SuccessFactors
Qualtrics website | LinkedIn page
Mesh
Performance management is one of the pillars of modern human resources and critical to business success. When effective, it helps develop your employees, boost their performance, and avoid potential problems to keep the business on track.
Mesh is a modern, hybrid-ready performance management tool that helps you keep employees engaged, improve their performance, and execute your company’s growth plans. With Mesh, you can set OKRs, view task progress in real-time, and help your managers course-correct employees with check-ins and 1:1s.
Features
- Company and team objectives prioritization with visibility across levels
- Real-time progress visualization across levels, teams, and employees
- Asynchronous check-ins and reviews to replace constant follow-ups
- Ability to praise socially and give constructive feedback in private with 1:1s
- Appraisal form templates based on goals achieved and feedback received in the year
Bonusly
As companies shift from traditional performance management to continuous feedback and check-ins, recognition frequency has gone up. When managers match that recognition with rewards, it leads to better performance, higher retention, and revenue growth.
Bonusly delivers recognition and rewards at the speed of real-time conversations. It turbocharges companies’ employee reward programs with monthly bonus allowances, a real-time public feed for bonuses, and advanced analytics to monitor trends.
Features
- Brand coupons, cash, and donation rewards
- Gift cards from the world’s most popular brands
- Custom rewards for a branded experience
- Integration with popular HCM and communication tools
- Detailed trends analytics and reporting
Bonusly website | LinkedIn page
Workday
There are many solutions available to help HR people perform their day-to-day work: HR information system (HRIS), HR service management system (HRMS), talent management (TM), and workforce management (WFM). A modern, cloud-based human capital management (HCM) system brings all these capabilities together.
Workday is one of the most popular HCM systems out there. It ranked highest in Gartner’s latest HCM Magic Quadrant report. More than 3,200 companies use Workday for admin HR, talent management, payroll, analytics, and reporting. It also has a robust partner ecosystem for customization, implementation, and maintenance.
Features
- Attract-to-pay automation that eliminates routine tasks and improves employee productivity
- Intelligent compensation and benefits to help you plan and reward employees
- Payroll for hourly, salaried, and part-time employees
- Machine learning-based skills recommendation engine for employees
- Curated recommendations and personalized career guidance delivery to employees
Workday website | LinkedIn page
Our evaluation criteria
We’ve used many factors, such as market reputation, customer satisfaction, retention, and range of offered products and services, to assess the tools listed above. Apart from these, we’ve looked at the following aspects:
- Easy customization and implementation
- Integration with third-party solutions
- Great user experience across many channels
- Advanced analytics with ready-to-use reports
- Scalable to fit needs of growing companies
