5 Best Employee Management Software Solutions in 2023

What is employee management?

Employee management centers on helping employees improve their overall work performance and job satisfaction. The goal of employee management is to provide a framework that motivates and supports employees to achieve individual and business goals.

An employee management process may include activities like clearly communicating changes, fostering a culture of support, rewarding employees, and building trust with employees. 

What is employee management software?

Employee management software is a tool that helps managers and HR teams manage employee information, automate communication, measure engagement, and track performance. 

It combines tools, processes, and company strategies to better manage and streamline tasks, like tracking employee information, monitoring performance, recruiting, hiring, and communicating performance and company updates with employees. 

Employee management software adds value to the organization by centralizing operations into a single source of truth, and automating manual tasks or workflows so that teams can focus on managing people, not processes. Employee management tools can significantly improve employee engagement and create a richer employee experience, which helps retain top talent, cut down on expenses, and improve profitability.

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Benefits of using employee management software

In addition to achieving company goals, employee management software offers additional benefits, including: 

Better staff efficiency

An automated employee management system enables HR teams to focus on other key functions, like hiring and building talent for the organization, while keeping operations running at peak levels. A low-code automation solution empowers HR teams to feel confident automating and standardizing processes without needing a new skill set. 

Increased employee engagement 

Employee management software helps keep managers and employees connected. The channel of communication between managers and employees is made more open with a streamlined system, and the process of recognizing employees for their work is made easier and more personable, which adds value to the company culture.

Employee management software can also motivate employees by tracking goals that they set and keeping up with their professional development. And instead of relying on annual reviews to receive performance feedback, managers are able to provide constructive feedback more frequently which also helps with employee engagement and retention. 

More time for HR to focus on people 

With automated workflows, HR can spend more time focused on employees and less time working on time-consuming manual tasks, like updating and managing paperwork or sending out emails. 

Error-free workflows

Manually updated or paper-based workflows can lead to costly errors that later consume precious resources. With a system that easily integrates with existing apps, payroll discrepancies are easily identified, request management is streamlined, employee development is automated and tracked, and employee KPIs and goals are easily and accurately monitored. 

Secured access controls

An employee management system keeps confidential data secure with various process permission levels (like guest, read-only, or restricted views), allowing users to access only what they need based on their roles or permission level. This is especially useful during the onboarding or offboarding process.

Must-have features for employee management systems

As you search for an employee management software that works best for your business, here are some features that should always be present.

Workflow automation 

Workflow automations are time-saving actions that help streamline routing processes and improve the efficiency of processes. With this capability, teams can eliminate manual, time-consuming admin work and improve governance and compliance by avoiding risks caused by human errors. 

Data reporting and analytics

Data reporting and analytics help the business identify issues, define or refine current processes, and design effective data-driven strategies. It’s also a great way to gain insight into key metrics about employees and company culture.

Information security

Look for an IT-approved software that reinforces procedures and policies, and is designed to secure and manage sensitive data and informational assets. This helps minimize risk, mitigates the impact of potential breaches, and ensures the continuity of business operations.

Seamless integration with existing tools

This maximizes productivity and creates a seamless and more accurate end-to-end user experience for HR. Integrating with the tools simplifies collaboration and limits disruption to current processes and tasks.

Self-service portals 

Self-service portals let employees access or update their personal information and other HR-related services — like company policies or employee benefits — easily and without help from the HR team. 

This saves time and money by removing the burden of having to connect with HR for simple requests or changes and keeps everyone aligned and informed on company updates. This works for both HR and managers because employees are no longer burdened with tracking down an individual person when they need help. 

End-to-end process visibility

HR is constantly evolving, especially in today’s post-pandemic business environment, so real-time visibility into company needs and HR processes, as well as streamlined engagement with leaders and managers, is key. 

Database for centralized employee information

With a centralized database for employee information, HR can securely manage key data and quickly find employee and process information with more transparency. This cuts out the need to switch between various systems to find employee information. 

Document management

Businesses have tons of documents they must keep safe – from recruiting documents to performance reviews and more. A good document management component can even have certain documents available for employees to access, complete, and turn in without the assistance of HR. With a document management feature, documents can stay organized and remain accessible, which also helps with compliance and audits. 

Streamlined communication

Good communication between employees, managers, and HR teams is vital to building a strong workforce, increasing productivity, improving management, and operating efficiently. Software that streamlines communication with automated emails and notifications, in addition to gathering survey responses and anonymous ratings, improves the culture.

Top 5 employee management software solutions

With all the employee management tools available on the market today, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the options. When searching for a solution that works for you, start by outlining the challenges you’re facing, the solutions you need, and any other must-have features or capabilities for you and your employees. 

To help with your search, here are five of the top employee management software solutions that are user-friendly, optimize HR functions, improve productivity, and better support employees. 

1. Pipefy

Pipefy is a low-code automation software that streamlines HR functions and automates tasks to create better employee and HR experiences. Pipefy can be easily integrated with your existing tech stack to maximize benefits in a centralized way, and its low-code visual interface makes it easy to build and automate employee management processes, like onboarding, appraisals, temperature checks, and more. 

With Pipefy, turn requests into actions and easily automate workflows so the HR team can focus on strategic initiatives instead of being bogged down with administrative tasks.

Key features include:

• Visual, low-code user interface which requires no coding knowledge
• Portals to centralize and streamline document management
• Workflow automations and process connections to seamlessly engage with candidates, employees, and other teams
• Shared Inbox to speed up and improve request management
• Customizable forms to standardized request management and tracking 
• Integration with payroll systems, like HCM and ERPs, and employee databases to seamlessly connect HR to other key processes, like hiring, onboarding, and offboarding 
• Dashboards and reporting to easily gather, measure, and optimize processes

2. Zoho

Zoho is a staff management system for managing, connecting, and automating business processes. Its unified HR management component has a recruitment pipeline and a digital employee experience that’s scalable as your company grows. They also offer different process templates that can be customized based on your company’s needs. 

Key features include: 

• In-platform employee database
• Centralized document management
• Performance appraisals
• Analytics to identify performance gaps

3. Gusto

Gusto handles HR processes and the payroll process. 

Key features include:

• Employee onboarding interface
• Task management
• Employee database
• Time tracking
• Full-service payroll 
• Employee benefits 
• Time-off management

4. Connecteam

Connecteam is a customizable workforce management app that streamlines employee management, boosts engagement, and centralizes HR functions. 

Key features include:

• Employee directory
• Scheduler and time tracker
• Survey and suggestion boxes
• Knowledge library for streamlined communication
• Real-time data reporting
• Courses and quizzes for ongoing employee development

5. BambooHR

BambooHR is an employee experience system. It offers onboarding tools, integrated payroll, applicant tracking, performance management, and reporting to simplify HR data management for more effective and efficient HR teams. The software integrates with other software for seamless functionality, and an intuitive design makes this easy to use for employers and employees. 

Key features include: 

• Document management
• Performance management
• Process automation
• Reporting and analytics

Pick the best employee management software

Having an employee management system that can adapt and scale with HR and employee management processes is key to an effective business and strong company culture. Schedule a demo or get started for free now to learn how Pipefy’s customizable request and HR management solution provides all these solutions in one place.