6 Best HR Software Platforms In Australia For 2023

Are you searching for the best human resources management system for your organisation? You’re probably starting to feel analysis paralysis – because most HR software packages look reasonably good – and almost identical.

Don’t waste another hour scrolling through individual user reviews on G2 and TrustRadius. Let me give you the low-down from a business owner’s perspective.

Here are my top 6 HR software platforms for Australian businesses as of October 2023.

1. BambooHR.

Best overall HR software in Australia.

BambooHR is a top-notch HR software platform best suited for startups and small to medium-sized businesses.

With over 100 pre-built integrations, a streamlined interface, and diverse functionalities, it easily handles all your HR tasks, even if you don’t have a dedicated human resources management department.

Pros.

BambooHR is a near-perfect Human Resources Information System for Australian SMB HR teams because of these 9 reasons:

1. User-Friendly Interface.

BambooHR has a clean, intuitive interface with almost no learning curve.

This is important because if your HR software is clunky and dated, your employees will resist using it – and will continue to bombard your HR team with questions instead (or keep using spreadsheets).

2. Single Source Of HR Truth.

Information silos slow down the speed of decisions and give your competitors an edge. Growing businesses must centralise their data, and BambooHR puts relevant information at the fingertips of employees, HR teams and hiring managers.

A cool, graphic org chart is super handy, and the “who is out” display prevents awkward situations.

The search box at the top of the screen works like a knowledge graph of your entire business. You can pull up job postings, candidates, reports and employee details with just a few keystrokes.

Speaking of employee details, the convenience of a single, easily accessible and secure place for all your sensitive employee data will be a revelation to those still using multiple spreadsheets.

Meanwhile, the built-in e-signature functionality lets you do away with paper files. You can request signatures with one click and store them on the employee file.

3. Good (But Imperfect) ATS.

You get the ability to create talent pools and visual candidate pipelines.

Meaningful recruitment stages (e.g., reviewed, phone screened, interviewed) give you complete control and show the dropoff percentage from one stage to the next.

Candidate resumes are visible from within BambooHR. No need to download them and open them in MS Word each time.

Collaborative hiring is built into BambooHR, with the ability to add hiring managers and potential teammates to help you screen candidates.

You can create job ads straight from BambooHR and post them on your company careers page, listing all open positions. You can also post your job ad to Indeed with one click, but not to Seek. Sadly.

(More on that shortly).

4. Smooth Onboarding And Offboarding.

Sending offer letters is fast and smooth. All you have to do is open a pre-made template, customise it with a starting date, job title and salary details and press “send”.

BambooHR will show you when a candidate has been sitting on an offer and needs a nudge (e.g., has viewed the offer but hasn’t signed).

You can create and send a custom employee packet that contains a precise list of onboarding tasks the employee must complete prior to their first day, complete with due dates – eg. “review company handbook” and “sign superannuation docs”.

5. Good Performance Management Module.

This optional module is a must-have. Instead of creating a comprehensive 360-degree assessment tool, BambooHR created something that balances simplicity with effectiveness.

Progress towards goals is also measured and used as an opportunity to help employees grow.

The results are shown to relevant decision-makers via a visual employee performance matrix that plots engagement vs competence.

It lacks some advanced functionality that I’ll discuss shortly, but most Australian SMBs will not miss it.

6. Decent Mobile App.

Core HR functions are available on the mobile app.

They can use it to check annual leave balances, request time off, see who is out and obtain contact details of colleagues.

Meanwhile, managers can monitor employees’ progress towards performance goals.

7. You’re Not Locked Into A Contract.

BambooHR doesn’t lock you into a contract, which is quite unusual in the HR management software space. You’re free to leave at any time.

8. Automations Cut Down Red Tape

You can prevent admin bottlenecks by creating automated sequences within BambooHR.

For example, if a promotion request needs to be approved by an executive, as well as someone in finance, and someone in HR, email alerts will notify each relevant person and tell you when each has completed the task.

Same idea. You can have up to 5 levels in the approval chain.

9. Great Customer Service.

Apart from a detailed knowledgebase, you get access to BambooHR’s support team.

They resolve most queries within 24 hours and are known for being professional and eager to help.

Cons.

BambooHR has a few pain points, but they are minimal.

1. No Payroll For Australia.

BambooHR’s optional payroll module is not configured for Australian laws.

For a complete end-to-end human capital management solution, you’ll need to integrate BambooHR with an external payroll software system (we recommend Papaya, Deel or Xero Payroll).

The silver lining is that BambooHR does play very well nice with standalone payroll software providers, and many of them offer a rich suite of features that all-in-one software packages typically don’t.

For example, Deel and Papaya offer comprehensive support for remote work environments, and even handle visa sponsorships.

2. Your Business May Outgrow It.

As your headcount reaches about 200 employees you’ll probably start wishing for more more functionality and customisation than BambooHR can offer.

The company says that businesses with up to 500 employees are within its sweet spot, but that’s quite optimistic.

While the lack of advanced customisation features serves to reduce complexity and improve ease of use at smaller team sizes, it becomes a sticking point as your business scales.

For example, the performance module only allows the manager to ask 3 questions, and some businesses may have competencies that require a more thorough approach.

If you decide to do proper 360-degree reviews, you’ll need to use a separate tool.

3. The ATS Is Limited.

First, BambooHR’s applicant tracking doesn’t integrate natively with Seek, which makes posting job ads more clunky than it needs to be.

You can create customised job ads within BambooHR and display them on your company’s Careers page, but you’ll need to log into Seek and manually post an ad. Same goes for LinkedIn ads.

Second, BambooHR’s ATS is good, but lacks the advanced functionality of dedicated recruiting software packages.

For example, the search function doesn’t search within candidate resumes, which is helpful when looking for an esoteric skill within your past job applicants.

To gain access to these features and a native Seek integration as your business grows, you may want to consider expanding your HR tech stack to include a dedicated Applicant Tracking System like Jobadder, Workable, or EmploymentHero.

4. Reporting Is Merely OK.

Reporting in BambooHR is visually impressive, and mostly useful for analysing employee satisfaction, measuring time off used and pinpointing holes in your retention strategy.

The ability to see trends over time is also very handy and reduces the need for late-night spreadsheet wizardry.

You can export these reports and send them to relevant stakeholders from within BambooHR, or you can ask the HR software to do it for you automatically, at regular intervals.

For example, BambooHR cannot help you identify high-performing employees, forecast labour demands or analyse internal career paths for specific jobs.

5. Time Delay In Receiving Support.

Because BambooHR’s support team is based in USA, Australians experience a time delay in receiving support.

This is OK for simple queries but becomes clunky when dealing with more complex issues.

Email tickets are not always the best medium for communicating problems, and waiting a day to receive the answer is not ideal.

To be fair, BambooHR support will jump on a video call with you if necessary, but you’ll need to request this in advance.

6. Mobile App Isn’t Fully Featured.

The mobile app has half the functionality of the browser.

While this is understandable, your employees in the field (warehouse staff, technicians) may resist adopting BambooHR altogether if they need to pull out their laptops to handle everyday tasks.

7. Pricing Isn’t Clear.

BambooHR doesn’t display pricing on its website. You must “request a free price quote” and wait for a rep to give you a call.

We think most small business owners would appreciate at least a rough guide. to pricing displayed on BambooHR’s website.

Overall.

BambooHR is the best HR software system for Australian businesses with less than 200 employees. It particularly excels at helping businesses in service, technology, medical and construction verticals.

FEATURE	SCORE
User Friendliness	5/5
ATS / Recruiting	4/5
Data Management	4/5
Onboarding / Offboarding	4/5
Mobile Features	4/5
Reporting	4/5
Support	4/5
Pricing	4/5
TOTAL	4.1/5

2. Deel.

Best EOR (Employer Of Record) HR software.

Deel is a global HR software and platform for businesses of all sizes. It’s the best HR software for companies that need to hire employees and contractors abroad, making the process smooth and hassle-free.

With just a single platform, your human resources team gains all the practical tools, key features, and comprehensive guidance required for top-notch global HR software.

(Related: Best Payroll Software In Australia).

Overview And Benefits.

If your organisation hires people all around the world, Deel can help you scale on a global level. You get features for automated compliance, payroll, and onboarding to help you hire candidates in over 150 other countries.

Deel is cloud-based, with features like customised contacts, global payroll, tax form collection, localised contract compliance, and more.

Deel’s strongest selling point is its global recruitment and onboarding capabilities.

It helps organisations set up employers of record (EOR) for foreign talent, allowing them to onboard employees instead of contractors.

It’s easy to navigate, with a user-friendly interface and rich functionalities that streamline the process of HR, payroll, and more.

Here are Deel’s best attributes:

Cons.

While Deel is an excellent option for a growing business with global aspirations, it may not meet all your needs regarding online HR software. The price is another major drawback, with monthly subscription tiers starting at around $150 monthly.

Furthermore, some users report the payroll software doesn’t process payments fast enough, causing them to pay a fee to take portions of their checks in advance.

Another problem is Deel’s customer service, which needs some improvement.

Below is a summary of Deel’s major drawbacks:

The Takeaway.

Deel is the best HR software for organisations that hire on a global scale, offering the ease and innovation of a localised business.

It’s ideal for businesses of all sizes and provides a simplified way to recruit, hire, and onboard an international workforce.

However, if you’re looking for a comprehensive HR solution for your business, Deel may not be your best choice.

3. ELMO.

Best enterprise-level HR software.

For over 20 years, ELMO Software has been a popular choice for thousands of medium and large-sized organisations throughout Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

Still, ELMO continues to lead the HR workforce management industry by continuously evolving and adapting its software.

Depending on your organisation’s unique workflow and processes, you can use ELMO’s software solutions alone or in a custom configuration.

Overview.

ELMO is locally hosted and offers versatile HR solutions, like recruitment and onboarding, employee management, payroll systems, performance management, and a learning management system (LMS).

The company also has an official ISO 27001:2013 certification, giving you peace of mind that your data is safe and secure.

1. Core HR Software.

ELMO’s core HR software offers a full range of functionalities and features, like self-service for HR management and employees, payroll integration, leave requests and entitlements, custom reporting, and employee data management.

It also includes solutions for employee recruitment, onboarding, and performance management so your team can handle those critical tasks from one centralised dashboard and human resource information system.

2. HR Performance Management And Learning.

The performance management system is another strong feature of ELMO, with tools to improve and measure employee productivity and engagement.

For example, you can create customised employee appraisals using development plans, goal setting, and competency models.

One of ELMO’s standout features is its advanced learning management system (LMS), which contains over 400 online courses to promote development initiatives, employee skills, and learning.

The LMS lets you customise courses and eLearning modules for a simplified yet comprehensive approach to employee training.

Payroll.

With a native cloud payroll and HR software solution, ELMO makes it simple to pay employees, schedule leave, and more, all with a user-friendly interface. ELMO’s payroll system includes the same self-service as its core HR software for tasks like balance and leave requests and updating employee records.

Another strength is its financial reporting capabilities. You can create detailed reports in minutes using current and historical payroll data to analyse and pinpoint critical insights.

Pros.

Despite the ease of implementation and the simplicity of ELMO’s locally hosted platform, the HR software itself is feature-rich and includes both manager and employee self-service.

Its focus on learning and development is also excellent, with a highly customisable LMS. Compared to the other HR software choices in this review, ELMO is the best suited for medium to large-sized organisations.

A summary of ELMO’s strengths includes:

Cons.

While ELMO facilitates a broad range of functionalities through its human resource management system, its payroll solutions are slightly less comprehensive.

Furthermore, it’s expensive and costs more than other popular HR software, including BambooHR and Employment Hero.

The EH interface also needs work, including weak visuals, slow loading times, and confusing module navigation.

The biggest drawbacks of ELMO include:

The Takeaway.

One of the best selling points of ELMO Software is its simplicity, as it’s locally hosted and very easy to implement. If you own a small business, ELMO is likely not the right HR software for you.

Those all-inclusive features and tools are worth the high price point, making ELMO one of the best choices for HR software. 

4. Workable.

Best for internal talent acquisition teams.

Workable is a comprehensive recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and training software for HR professionals. Workable is the way to go if you’re looking for an end-to-end solution to handle all your hiring needs.

It offers a plethora of in-depth features right at your fingertips, with AI-powered Recruiter technology, passive candidate selection, and job postings on over 200 different boards and websites.

Workable makes it fast and straightforward for your human resources team to find, evaluate, and hire new employees, including a highly advanced applicant tracking system that rivals Employment Hero’s system.

1. Find And Attract New Employees.

Workable uses built-in HR sourcing tools to promote your company and help you discover the best, most qualified candidates. The key feature of its applicant tracking system is AI Recruiter, which Workable has been developing since 2017 and offers some top-notch features.

For example, after every new job posting, AI Recruiter generates a list of the top 50 best-fit candidates, including a re-targeting list of applications who have applied previously but didn’t earn a position.

Plus, it features a Chrome extension that provides a complete profile of potential candidates from social media platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn.

2. Evaluate And Collaborate.

Finding the right talent is only half of the equation. You’ll still need to assess which candidates are the best fit for your organisation and coordinate your human resources team to make well-informed decisions.

You can also remove the bias from your HR systems with Workable’s anonymised screening, which hides the candidate’s name, phone, and address to ensure complete objectivity. 

3. Admin Automation And Onboarding.

Like many other HR solutions for hiring and employee onboarding, Workable leverages automation to the fullest so your organisation can streamline the entire process.

With a centralised hiring dashboard, you can implement a hiring plan and budget, customise an approval workflow, and utilise advanced data analytics.

Pros.

Workable is the best HR software for hiring candidates, but it doesn’t offer the same broad range of functionalities as Employment Hero and ELMO.

However, you can get the best of both worlds with its numerous partner integrations for companies like BambooHr, Indeed, Checkr, Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, etc. Plus, even employees with no recruitment experience can use Workable with no steep learning curve.

Here’s a summary of Workable’s best features:

Cons.

While Workable does offer a sophisticated system for finding, attracting, evaluating, and onboarding employees, it’s not a complete solution.

Yes, it has partner integrations with Indeed, LinkedIn, etc., but they cost extra. Speaking of money, be prepared to spend a lot of it on this feature-rich SaaS.

The basic plan is $192, the next tier is $445, and the top tier is a whopping $891 per month. Also, some of its premium HR tools cost extra, like texting, assessments, and video interviews.

Here are the major drawbacks:

The Takeaway.

Workable is one of the best HR software choices for all-inclusive recruitment and onboarding.

It doesn’t offer the same HR functionalities as software like BambooHR or Employment Hero because it emphasises processes like finding, assessing, hiring, and training new employees.

However, despite its limitations regarding basic HR systems and functions, Workable is an advanced solution for onboarding and talent management.

For companies that need in-depth software for optimising their recruitment process, it’s ideal. But remember, you’ll pay extra to integrate additional HR software to handle any other fundamental human resource tasks and duties.

5. Monday.com.

Monday.com is less of an all-inclusive HR software and more of a comprehensive project management app in the same realm as Asana and Slack.

The platform boasts over 152,000 customers in 200-plus countries and offers real-time collaboration, timeline viewing, and tools for tracking key HR metrics like time and attendance.

Overview And Benefits.

Monday.com offers valuable practice management features to help your organisation become more streamlined and efficient.

For example, you get multiple project views based on your preferences and can easily manage employees with built-in time-tracking tools. In fact, it’s one of the only project management software options on the market that offers time tracking (although it costs extra).

Another benefit of using Monday.com is its customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, which many other HR software systems don’t offer. It’s a critical advantage for any small business that wants to streamline project efficiency and improve customer service.

Here’s a summary of Monday.com’s best features:

Cons.

Monday.com delivers sophisticated functionalities for project management and employee scheduling, but many premium features are only available on the two highest-priced plans, like calendar views, Gantt charts, time tracking, and integrations, making it less accessible to smaller businesses on a tight budget.

Furthermore, project management software can benefit from having an extensive range of task dependencies, but Monday.com’s are limited and cost extra.

Also, its pricing plans have unnecessary complexities, and customer support can be relatively slow.

Here’s a summary of the biggest drawbacks:

The Takeaway.

Monday.com is the best HR software for project management and can increase your efficiency and productivity with its customisable workflows and sophisticated features. However, be sure to review each plan and available add-ons before signing up.

Since some of its plans are overly detailed and complex, thoroughly checking each feature beforehand can prevent you from overpaying for tools you may not use.

6. Workday.

Workday is a perfect choice if your company has over 2,000 employees and works in multiple states or countries.

It’s your one-stop-shop for everything HR-related, like payroll, recruiting, onboarding, employee scheduling, performance management, and so much more.

Overview And Benefits.

Workday eliminates that complexity by providing an end-to-end solution for all your financial and HR needs.

Benefits include an intuitive dashboard and employee portal, advanced reporting and analytics, performance management, recruitment, and employee scheduling and time tracking.

For example, its interface facilitates visual and organisational restructuring, allowing you to pinpoint optimisation opportunities and make changes using drag-and-drop functionalities.

Its reporting and analytics also make it simple to attain key insights regarding HR and employee performance, including datasets about diversity and contingency employees. It even has a pay equity dashboard, which isn’t available in the other HR software we reviewed.

The best features of Workday include:

Cons.

The primary drawbacks of Workday depend on your perspective. For example, a small business won’t need the all-encompassing tools Workday provides.

However, large-scale enterprises will appreciate the broad spectrum of capabilities that make HR and financial tasks much easier and faster.

In addition, some users found the help centre to be lacking, and it needs better report integration to prevent silos and the need for multiple spreadsheets.

Workday’s drawbacks include:

The Takeaway.

Workday offers some undeniably cutting-edge and practical HR tools and functionalities for businesses. However, it’s not going to be the right choice for everyone.

Startups and small to medium-sized businesses won’t need the broad range of features that Workday offers. Instead, competitors like BambooHR or Employment Hero are better solutions.

But, if your large-scale organisation needs a high-end solution to streamline its financial management, workflow, and HR tasks, you can’t go wrong with Workday.

HR Software Systems And Performance Management: The Key To Efficiency And Growth.

Finding the best HR software depends largely on defining the specific needs and pain points of your organisation.

For example, BambooHR is perfect for small and medium businesses, whereas Workday is best for large-scale enterprises.

For more help with your workforce management and career development, Arielle Executive has all the answers. Contact us now to schedule a consultation with our team of industry experts.

Steven