Employment Hero review

Employment Hero is a fast growing Australian business, providing a SaaS based HR software product for small and midsize businesses. They have offerings in multiple worldwide regions, including Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the UK and Singapore. This company was founded in 2014, and has over 5,300 customers worldwide, and over 270K active users. It invests $7.5 million annually, and claims that its users can save 80% of HR admin time using this platform.

Plans and pricing

There is a free trial available, which is a nice option, but the length of the trial is not detailed. Employment Hero offers a number of plans in different categories, along with bundles, and also additional add-ons. While this approach can be a little more complicated to initially configure, the benefit is that a business can acquire the features it needs, while not being forced to pay for extras that it does not.

The HR offerings take a three tier approach. The starter tier, dubbed HR Standard, costs $7 per employee per month. It includes paperless onboarding, leave management and an HR Library. Very small businesses with few employees should be aware that there is a minimum cost of $99 per month.

The next tier up is HR Premium, and has a price of $10 per user each month. This “Recommended” middle of the road plan includes the features of the lower plan, and adds features such as expenses, performance reviews, custom reporting, and an asset register, but also imposes the same minimum monthly charge.

The top plan of the tiers is HR Platinum, and commands a premium cost of $14 per user per month. This plan includes all of the features of the lower two tiered plans, and notably adds in unlimited phone support. The additional features include goal setting, custom fields, custom branding and API access. Very small businesses should also be aware that the minimal monthly charge goes up to $199/month for this plan.

There is also some flexibility with the optional extras offered that can be added to any of the preceding tiers. These include an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for $5/employee/month, an HR Advisory Line for $5/employee/month, and finally premium e-learning content via Learning Plus for $12/employee/month. 

It should also be noted that there are two separate tiers of payroll software, starting at $4/user/month. Furthermore, there are options to bundle the HR and payroll modules into the exact plan your business needs. 

Features

Employment Hero offers an automated HR software solution that is completely cloud based. It is designed to cover all aspects of the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to separations, and everything in between such as onboarding, engagement and productivity. It is completely paperless, including timesheets, contracts and policies. It also emphasizes employee engagement, with a databank of “Pulse checks, reward and recognition and learning and development” tools that can be applied to a department, or even an entire organization!

Recruitment is a challenge for any HR department, and in turn also HR software. We like Employment Hero’s feature that it can post a new job listing to 15 job boards simultaneously, without leaving the software. After the application accepts the position, it can shepherd the applicant through the onboarding process with features that streamline the process such as virtual contracts, having the employees completing their own files electronically, and online policy acknowledgment.

Support

The support for Employment Hero is missing some important support options, such as an email address, chat, or a fax number. Direct phone support is available, but requires the top tier plan. The only option on the lower plans to get in touch directly is a support portal, and the hours of operation or turnaround time are not listed.

For those that are willing, or even prefer more of a user driven approach to support, the options are aplenty. There is a well done Help Centre, with access to Knowledge Articles, such as “Employee Onboarding,” located in the section entitled “Employment Hero HR Web Platform” which also contains piles of other articles to guide folks. There is also a comprehensive FAQ, and even on demand training at the Hero Academy, such as the 18 minute video for new users “Welcome to Time and Attendance,” and even includes a nice introductory paragraph to detail what the video intends to cover. 

On an occasion where there might be an outage, there is also a Platform Status piece for live updates. The latest release notes can also be accessed through the Help Desk to be aware of the latest updates.

Final verdict

Employment Hero offers a compelling solution for automation within an HR department, with an emphasis on streamlining the process for time savings. The pros include upfront pricing, and  features such as an extensive support center with predone articles and video content, employment engagement functions, a choice of tiers and flexibility with bundles and add-ons, and that the platform is designed to work completely paperless. Some cons should be noted, such as the limited direct support options and telephone support is reserved for the top tier offering, the annoying minimal monthly costs sure to vex the smallest of businesses, and the emphasis on only certain markets worldwide. Overall, Employment Hero gets the essentials right, and many businesses would do well to take a close look at it via the free trial.

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