Small enterprises deal with big-firm issues, often with limited budgets. We have shortlisted the best HR software small business owners can access
HR teams at small businesses face a tricky situation – they must often deal with the same issues facing their larger, well-budgeted counterparts, but using their own limited resources. This can prove challenging, especially with the constantly evolving HR landscape. With the right tools, however, these professionals can stay on top of their roles and focus on the most important element of their businesses – their employees.
In this guide, HRD ranks the best HR software small business owners can use to manage their workforce. We will discuss the key benefits and features each software offers, what other platforms they integrate with, and how they can make HR tasks simpler.
We will also put the spotlight on the leaders of two of the country’s top HR tech firms as they talk about what makes their platforms stand out.
If you’re handling HR duties for a small enterprise, this article can serve as a useful reference in your search for the right tool that fits your business’ people management needs.
10 best HR software for small businesses
Because each business faces a unique set of circumstances, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all platform that caters to every need. Because of this, we decided instead to arrange the list alphabetically. Here are our picks for the 10 best HR software small business owners can benefit from.
1. ADP
ADP has been providing human capital management (HCM) products to all types of businesses for decades. Its range of software solutions is designed to address the ever-evolving needs of today’s workforce.
The firm’s RUN Powered by ADP platform is specifically designed for small businesses. The table below lists the HCM software’s key benefits and features.
You can check out the complete overview of the different RUN packages, along with the other HCM solutions that the company offers in our ADP Review.
2. BambooHR
BambooHR is a cloud-based platform that enables HR professionals to streamline daily tasks with its wide array of functionalities. It works by collecting, organizing, and analyzing staff data throughout the entire employee life cycle, from hiring and onboarding to payroll and performance reviews. Among the information that HR teams can gather using the platform are:
- Applicant tracking
- Benefits administration
- Employee records
- Employee satisfaction and wellbeing surveys
- HR reporting and analytics
- Onboarding and offboarding
- Time tracking and payroll
- Workflow and approvals
BambooHR boasts more than 50 third-party integrations, making it easier for HR professionals to create tailored workflows, approvals, and even custom access levels. The platform also centralizes employee data in one place, so HR teams don’t have to worry about recordkeeping and filing.
According to its website, BambooHR has more than 20,000 clients in 50 industries, over 80% of which are small to medium-sized businesses. This includes Key Media (KM), the firm behind HRD.
You can read our complete BambooHR Review by clicking the link.
3. Gusto
Gusto offers HR teams an efficient and user-friendly platform for managing payroll. With just a few clicks, businesses can complete their payroll tasks, including automatic tax filing and identification of tax credits. One of the software’s most prominent features is unlimited payroll runs, with no additional charge for off-cycle payrolls.
Apart from payroll management, Gusto boasts a comprehensive range of features, including:
- Automatic tax calculations
- Direct deposit
- State tax registration in all 50 states
- International contractor payments in 120 countries
- Time tracking synced with payroll
Gusto is dedicated to helping small businesses manage their teams. Apart from the functions listed above, the firm offers health insurance, 401(k) plans, and expert HR guidance.
Our Gusto Payroll Review provides a comprehensive overview of the benefits of one of the best HR software for small businesses.
4. Harver
Harver is a cloud-based pre-employment assessment platform designed to help businesses land the right talent by collecting relevant data and ranking candidates according to specific roles. The table below details the range of solutions the firm offers, including the key features of each.
Harver’s HR software is designed for companies of all sizes, including small businesses. It enables firms to transform assessment results into meaningful insights to help with decision making. The platform also allows recruiters to streamline workflows by automating action triggers based on assessment results, candidate status, and levels of engagement.
Harver was recognized as one of the best HR recruitment software in HRD’s latest list of the Best HR Software and Technology Providers. In our interview with Oliver Staehelin, the company’s chief strategy and development officer, he explained the role the platform plays in helping companies acquire the right talent. You can check out the details of the interview in the succeeding section.
5. Namely
Namely is a cloud-based HR platform designed for small and mid-size businesses with 25 to 1,000 employees. It functions as a one-stop digital tool to help HR teams manage many of their core functions, including:
- Benefits administration
- Payroll and tax services
- Performance reviews
- Regulatory compliance
- Talent management
- Time and attendance
According to the firm’s website, Namely was created to be “as intuitive as social media, but powerful enough to support the complexity of today’s workforce,” something that is reflected in its user-friendly interface. And while the platform doesn’t cover all core HR functions, it integrates with a comprehensive line-up of third-party partners to fill these gaps. The platform also has a strong permissions engine that allows HR teams to establish layered access to specific data, reports, and functionalities to prevent unauthorized access.
You can visit our Namely Review for the full details of the key features and benefits this platform provides.
6. Paycor
Designed for small and medium-sized businesses, Paycor combines payroll management, human resources information system (HRIS), and HCM in one platform. Basic plans typically provide automated payroll, onboarding, and tax-filing services, while more expensive plans give users access to a range of benefits, HR tools, and compliance support services.
Paycor offers five types of HR software systems. These are:
- HR and payroll software: Provides a range of functionalities that enables HR leaders to automate routine tasks, mitigate compliance risks, and improve efficiency
- Talent management: Enables businesses to streamline their hiring process to effectively fill job vacancies, develop top talent, and retain employees
- Workforce management: Designed to help businesses reduce labor spending, manage overtime, and maximize productivity
- Employee experience: Allows businesses to create a workplace where employees want to show up, make a difference, and succeed together through team building
- Benefits administration: Enables HR teams to simplify complex processes, including open enrollment
Find out the full details about what makes this platform among the best HR software for small businesses in our Paycor Review.
7. Paylocity
Paylocity is an all-in-one Human Resources Management System (HRMS) that combines HR and payroll management functions. The platform also offers a range of other features that enable HR teams to streamline their processes and manage their workforce more efficiently.
The table below lists the different solutions available from Paylocity, along with the key features.
Paylocity offers a flexible platform that allows HR professionals to access their data in other apps. Businesses can also use the Paylocity Marketplace to access hundreds of integrations. The platform has open, developer-friendly APIs and vetted service partners that can provide developer resources to get teams started.
You can access our complete Paylocity Review by clicking the link.
8. Rippling
Rippling enables HR teams to streamline the management of core HR, IT, and finance functions for small businesses. The platform does this by consolidating all workforce systems that are usually spread out throughout a business – including payroll, finance, benefits, and technology – into a centralized system.
Rippling offers four types of HR software solutions:
- HR Cloud: Allows HR teams to manage and automate all people operations from onboarding to offboarding
- IT Cloud: Consolidates all IT systems and HR data for a more efficient management from onboarding to offboarding
- Finance Cloud: Centralizes finance processes in one system, enabling HR professionals to automate tedious tasks
- Unified Workforce Management Platform: The firm’s core platform called Rippling Unity allows HR teams to manage all the company’s people management operations in one place
Rippling is a unified SaaS HRMS platform and considered among the best HR software small business owners can access. You can check out our comprehensive Rippling Review for the complete details of the platform’s core capabilities.
9. TriNet Zenefits
TriNet Zenefits serves as an HRIS platform that enables businesses to streamline several HR-related functions, including:
- Benefits management
- Compensation reporting
- Compliance management
- Hiring and onboarding
- Leave benefits and scheduling
- Payroll management
- Talent acquisition
The platform can also digitize data entries through its scanning software.
TriNet Zenefits has a client base of more than 30,000 small and midsize businesses. It helps companies in assessing their processes and maximizing business outcomes by optimizing workforce productivity.
The full details of the platform’s key features and benefits can be viewed in our comprehensive Zenefits Review.
10. UKG Pro
UKG Pro provides HR professionals with a simple yet unified cloud-based HCM solution, allowing them to manage their workforce. Its core HR features support every staff member throughout the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to offboarding.
Some of the features that UKG Pro users can access include:
- HR management: Gives HR teams access to database using People Center, intuitive UI, and mobile-friendly interface
- Compliance: Offers data management and filing support for compliance operations
- Talent management: Includes recruitment, onboarding, eLearning, and training functionalities
- Payroll: Provides payroll management with insights and reporting, and financial wellbeing solutions
- Workforce management: Includes time and attendance management, employee scheduling, and performance analytics
- HR delivery: Offers automated workflows, document management system, and employee self-service
UKG Pro is designed for businesses of all sizes. It is also just one of the many HR platforms that UKG offers. You can find the firm’s complete range of offerings in our UKG Pro Review. HRD also talked to the company’s vice-president of human insights Jarik Conrad who revealed the latest developments in their product offerings. More on that interview below.
Best HR software for small business – Harver
The HR industry is in the midst of a digital revolution. But according to Oliver Staehelin, chief strategy and development officer at Harver, not all companies are adapting at the same rate. This causes some to miss out on top talent.
“The talent acquisition and development industry itself is still highly analog, and these obstacles ultimately make it difficult for employers to balance between making quick hires or the right hires to maintain and grow operations,” he said when asked about the industry’s biggest challenges.
Staehelin then stressed the importance of using the right tools to address this issue.
“The key is to approach talent acquisition armed with proven scientific methods, analytics-driven intelligence, and automation to ensure organizations are hiring candidates who not only fit immediate role requirements but also hold the potential to grow with the company in the long term,” he said.
This is what Harver, a recent five-star awardee of this year’s Best HR Software and Technology providers in the recruitment software category, aims to do.
“We help organizations make the right talent decisions by providing a combination of data-driven insights and input-output science,” he explained. “We work with employers to understand which skills are going to be most important for any given role they’re looking to fill, then we focus on identifying those soft skills within candidates that are best suited for specific positions through our assessments.”
Staehelin calls this approach “skills taxonomy,” which enables businesses to determine what traits and behaviors their workforce exhibits and identify the ones they want or need more of.
“Employers who understand the benefits of a skills taxonomy will not only see happier, more productive employees, but are more likely to retain employees in the long term,” he said. “The beauty of Harver is that we simply judge a candidate on their potential for success within a role.”
Best HR software for small business – UKG
Jarik Conrad, vice-president of human insights at UKG, believes that HR technology plays an important role in helping employees find a sense of purpose and belonging at work. This, in turn, allows businesses to operate more efficiently.
“UKG has a rich history of responsibly using AI across our human capital management (HCM) and workforce management solutions in service of people, including AI-powered analytics, sentiment analysis, real-time recommendations, proactive reminders, long-range forecasting, and payroll anomaly detection,” he explained.
UKG is another five-star awardee of HRD’s Best HR Software and Technology Providers, winning in four categories – employee recognition, HRIS solutions, payroll solutions, and recruitment software.
Conrad shared that the company has started using generative AI (GenAI) to grow and evolve the firm’s product offerings.
“GenAI is a tremendously powerful tool that can change how people go about doing virtually anything, including analyzing information and insights at work,” he said. “We spent three months expanding our work in GenAI to understand how we can leverage it most effectively in service of people.”
Conrad added that UKG has brought in Google Cloud’s GenAI capabilities as an early partner.
“We have embedded the enterprise-grade GenAI and large language models (LLMs) into the widely adopted UKG HCM suites to create more powerful business insights that transform decision making and help leaders more effectively manage teams,” he said. “UKG is now one of the first HCM suite providers in the Google Cloud Marketplace.”
HRD has also recently unveiled the list of winners of the Best HR Software Companies in Canada. You can check out the complete line-up of awardees by clicking the link.
How can you find the best HR software for your small business needs?
Our HR Software Reviews section can help you compare the different platforms available for your small business and find the best fit. Here, you can find a detailed analysis of the different features and capabilities each platform brings, along with an objective evaluation of its benefits and drawbacks. By regularly visiting this page, you can keep abreast of the latest developments in HR tech, allowing you to make an informed decision on the type of solutions your business should get.
If you want to know more about the Best HR Software Companies in Canada, read all the winners in HRD's special report.
Do you agree with our list of the best HR software for small businesses? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.