BambooHR Reviews

Pros

I personally like that BambooHR has different portals for its users. They've built a database that allows employees to: 1. Maintain their own records (whether the company sends or user uploaded); track time off earned, sick days used, and hours worked; while allowing the user to sign documents easily electronically; and 2. Makes being an HR manager, easy. What I mean is, creating records (employees or temps) and ensuring they have all the blocks checked (background ran, drug test paperwork properly filled out, and any other documentation needing signed) within the timeframe needed to start working - is tracked, maintained, and recorded for you... so all in all, eliminates the monotony of HR and time wasted on paperwork while assisting managers/employees in ensuring proper compliance.

Cons

Well, I still had to scan any documents that weren't created or automated through the software and label them. For example, I work at a satellite location; the warehouse I staff for has a basketball court out back for employees to use on their break. I had to create a document that stated employees for my agency had to make sure they were clocked out, that they were responsible for any risk of injury and that the company and staffing agency would not be held liable for any resulting injury that may occur. The rest of the staffing agency didn't need this so I still had to print out 50 copies, have each employee sign one, upload it, file it in the employee file in the software, label it, then give the copy back to the employee. This really is not an issue unless if turnover is high, this could get annoying.

Pros

The look an feel of BambooHR (BHR) is amazing! Its almost like Facebook for recruiting. It is very intuitive for what it does and offers to the administrator and end user. The applicant tracking system is very easy to use and goes the extra mile with automation and thoughtfulness concerning on-boarding and then " flowing" into the core HRIS. The BHR system was chosen by a previous HR professional that clearly had a recruiting bias. Although important, more vetting should have been done to make a sound choice for long term success regarding the needs of a small to mid-size business.

Cons

Beyond what I described above there is limited functionality without also purchasing and integrating other systems through a "bolt-on" approach. By "Bolt-on" I mean that BHR will not automate between the core HR system of BHR and a timekeeping system, a payroll system, benefits administration system, leave administration system. The ability to have a robust system is possible but is not practical or cost effective with BambooHR. In order to get a full platform, covering the full life cycle of and employee, through BHR, a business would have to pay upwards of 30-40 dollars per employee per month. Simply put other options are available and far more robust with better long term results for less money- See my review of APS Payroll for an example.

Pros

Very intuitive, and well designed. Easy to track paychecks, company announcements, and personal goals.

Cons

When writing personal goals, or annual review information, the website would automatically log me out, without saving the work. This happened nearly every year after I have spent almost an hour writing, and then POOF! all of it would be lost. I eventually figured out to save as I went along, but I lost at least 6 hours of my time to this feature for the 2.5 or so years since the company adopted the program.

Pros

The software does have some nice features like Performance Management.

Cons

The worst payroll software in history! Sold me a bill of goods that everything was integrated, however, they use a remote link which is clunky and extremely frustrating to use unless everything is "just right". Do your research - there is better out there along with excellent customer support. I had to manually add employee PTO each pay period as their system was not integrated with their Payroll software.

Pros

I advocated for BambooHR for my company as its first HRIS, and I believed it would be a major benefit to our company, and it has been. It's a major bragging right of mine that I found BambooHR at a conference, convinced my boss to sign off on it, and executed the roll-out and got most staff on-board with it as a concept. So, I like most things about BambooHR. It's intuitive for users and administrators alike. The setup was as easy as setting up a new company-wide software could be, with hands-on customer service and a robust information center. The hiring tool is phenomenal, and I have gotten so many positive comments from managers about how much easier their hiring process was with the hiring tool. I like how y ou can submit software suggestions to customer service and they take your feedback into consideration, and new features get rolled out constantly. It's just a great place to keep everything in one place and make HR more efficient, and it's a super dynamic tool.

Cons

Honestly, there's not a lot I don't like about the software. When we first got it, I would say its lack of payroll integration, but it's since integrated TRAX payroll with the software, which our accounting team is now switching to.

Pros

Modern HR information system with great broad feature set for medium size businesses. Excellent for leave management, request, approval and tracking.

Cons

Is based out of the US and orientation is by default to US customers. Works for Australia customers but is a bit short on handling contractors, more permanent focused, and support hours do not cover Australia timezone which has caused some issues.

Pros

What I liked most about Bamboo was the simplicity in setup. I registered for the product an in minutes new how to data entry employees. After meeting on the phone with one of their reps, I was able to setup a time clock and be ensured that W2 data would be drafted for employees in a place they could login and access. All of this functionality without having to break the bank.

Cons

Some of the system seems almost too rudimentary. I am concerned that the user experience for employees won't be similiar to ADP's self serve nature, ( I loved their back office). But it's definitely a step up from Paylocity.

Pros

Our company did not have an HR platform so starting with Bamboo was a no-brainer. The sales team and implementation team are fantastic, their self guided materials and videos are 2nd to none!

Cons

I wish there was an integration between Bamboo and QuickBooks. Hopefully that will happen eventually and make our payroll lives even easier!

Pros

I like the reports for employee and applicant data. It provides valuable insights to management. The time-off tracking function is easy to use while the performance management add-on is straightforward. It is also a breeze to onboard new hires through the new hire packet feature. Updating employee information and status is also easy.

Cons

It took me long to figure out how to export employee data. It also does not have a payroll add-on that may be easily customized to our jurisdiction's income tax laws.

Pros

Bamboo is easy to use, they provide plenty of support to get everything situated. Also it is customizable to your business.

Cons

I truly have not found anything I disliked about the software, we have been using them since February 2020.

Pros

My favorite thing about BambooHR, in general, is that they are always trying new things and releasing new features. They just released a sync feature that syncs with TRAX Payroll software and cuts out the time needed to reconcile the 2 systems. The software is very user-friendly and you are able to find a help article about nearly anything you could ever want to know. One of my favorite features is the e-signing you can set up for HR documents. Our on-boarding goes a lot smoother not having to print out each form and fill out by hand. The Hiring module also works great. In that module, I love the ability to rate each individual candidate and keep internal notes about them. I really appreciate the ability to track conversations had with that candidate within the module so I don't have to hunt down the communication in my inbox each time.

Cons

I've only been able to find one single thing that I would change about the software and that is that I would make it possible for one person to be a manager for operations purposes and another person manager for compensation purposes. I've ran into the problem where the operations person doesn't need to see the compensation of their co-worker, but another person at a VP level should be able to request and approve compensation, essentially skipping over the Operations Manager for compensation purposes. I haven't yet found a way around it, so we just eliminated the Operations Manager from the profile and have the VP listed as manager, but this doesn't change my opinion that I would recommend this to anyone!

Pros

We experienced a disaster when we migrated from Zenefits to another HRIS. While we experiencing such challenges, we found BambooHR and made the immediate switch. It has been a huge, pleasant adjustment for our company! After dealing with the customer service from Zenefits and the overall issues with the other HRIS, we finally landed in a place that provides a great product and great customer service that suits our needs. The implementation was incredibly smooth. Our rep, was knowledgeable, helpful, friendly, available, efficient, loyal to the brand, etc... She went above and beyond on all of her commitments, worked hard to keep us on track, and was available throughout all of implementation. Once we were in the product, I was concerned about not having an assigned Account Manager. But the customer service desk is well trained and a wealth of knowledge, so we have not needed an assigned account manager. Reports are incredibly easy to access, company metrics are incredibly easy to understand, the features provided solve all of our business needs, and employees enjoy using the product. Time off works well, the app is super helpful, the esign feature makes any HR project easier to complete, the approvals have kept all the correct parties in the loop. Onboarding has been a major improvement - new hires get to see their teammates before their first day, which new hires have loved! No glitches every time. So reliable. Lastly, they don't have contracts. They are a month-to-month service.

Cons

We wish there was more flexibility for integration, but I understand why they are choosy with their partnerships. We have to manually upload data into our payroll which has caused some errors. Also, the approvals aren't flexible. It's either all or nothing meaning - if a single participant involved in a multilevel workflow is out of the office, the entire approval is bypassed. I would like the flexibility to approve on the behalf of the absent individual while allowing the other participants to still play their part. Outside of that, we are very happy with the product.

Pros

BambooHr has allowed our management team to be on the same page with employee Management. Our managers are able to access our Bamboo account from anywhere, allowing them to keep updated on their team. This product also allows employees to enter & update their own personal information reducing user error. This software reporting has several automated functions for manual reports that my company generates for the corporate office. We continue to automate more processes with the help of the Bamboo development team. The onboarding and offboarding processes are streamlined and offer electronic onboarding, task assignments, and e-signature documents. Bamboo HR is able to support every aspect of employee administration and HR management.

Cons

The biggest complaint I have with BambooHr is their customer service and support team. While the team was really hands-on with us for implementation, the support has since left us to figure out our problems with the software ourselves and basically just sends us links to tutorials. The tutorials are ok but we usually end up having even more specific questions after watching them. It would be nice to see them be more hands-on after implementation.

Pros

BambooHR's customer support is second to none. How they find such cheerful, helpful people, I don't know. They are happy to work with you to help you get the most out of the system. The system is user friendly and can be customized in a lot of ways. You can report on any information in the system, with easy to use standard reports, or you can create your own. They constantly add features and make improvements based on customer feedback. In some cases, they can make requested changes immediately. But they really seem to listen to what you want, and work to get there. Employees can see and request updates to their information, as well as complete & submit forms electronically. I'm able to create approval workflows to support many request processes, allowing us to become more automated and maintain files electronically, which we can then report on. I love the applicant tracking system. I think it's the strongest feature they have, allowing collaboration with hiring managers, as well as communication with candidates. It's helped me manage and improve our recruitment process with the click of a button. All candidate records are maintained in one place, and can be seamlessly on-boarded.

Cons

It is only as good as the data you enter, and does not currently integrate with the other systems we use. So, it requires constant data maintenance to keep employee information up to date, for effective reporting. There's no seamless automation for benefit enrollment. The time off system is easy to use, but does not currently show enough detail to be useful for our needs. I hope that BambooHR will focus on automating the integration of information from other systems, and provide a simpler update of benefit plan information at year end.

Pros

I did a lot of research on HRIS before choosing BambooHR. For those thinking about using BambooHR, really look at how your structure is set up and how you want it to work when the product goes live. For example, we have two divisions in two different locations. Both divisions are very unique and what one division needed the other did not. Getting this figured out before implementation will help alleviate the need for a lot of change once the system goes live. For our company, BambooHR was by far the best fit for us. The best thing about this product is the customization and the ease in which we were able to implement the system. From the time we decided to go with BambooHR to the time it was implemented and functional was a little over a month! My dedicated implementation specialist, Carol Brogdon was great to work with during the implementation of the system. I am not IT expert or tech person, and this was easy! The customization of the system allows (from the beginning) you to create a system in which each user can see as mush or as little of the information as needed. Since implementation, I have even been able to customize more information on the site that is specific to our needs with two different locations and divisions. The time off feature allows our employees to request time off from their smart phones or pc quickly and for our admin and foremen the calendar of "Who's Out" is extremely useful, especially for looking ahead and seeing who will be out on vacations or sick/holiday time. Anniversary dates and birthdays are visible and there is no longer a need to keep a spreadsheet with this information. The reports that can be generated on training, time off balances, licensing, etc has been a time saver. The ability to transform these reports into PDF, excel and even share custom reports as needed has been very beneficial to us. On-boarding, off-boarding, completing forms as needed has been extremely efficient utilizing the uploading of files and then setting up the signature templates (no more paper pushing or waiting for people to sign and return documents). Uploading files to share with all employees or just a few employees is also a great tool. We utilize the company announcements to send important information to some or all of our employees. The notes section has been invaluable for our managers to document information and if an employee moves to a new location, the new manager now has that information at their fingertips. Our employees can update their address, marital status, with-holdings, etc all from their dashboard. No longer do they have to wonder if the HR department has their most current information because they see what is on file for them with the company when they log in.
We have yet to utilize the Job Openings component yet. This was a big draw, as we had experienced a large growth last year. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending) our hiring has tapered off, so we have not had the opportunity to try this out. As far as BambooHR responsiveness to any issues I have encountered, they have been very quick to resolve. I like that they are constantly trying to improve the product and take ideas and suggestions on areas of concern. This type of progressive thinking and action will make them and keep them a front runner in the HRIS world.

Cons

Like any product, the more you use it, the easier it seems. There were kinks to work out when we first went live. Permissions, setting up employee fields and email alerts all needed some tweeking, but again, the system and BambooHR support was great getting through the learning curve.
I did opt to go with Maxwell health for the online health care enrollment piece and I have been live with BambooHR since January 2016 and I am still not live with Maxwell Health and do not know when I will be, so if you are thinking of that option, I would really look into other options as it does not seem to be as responsive or as dynamic as BambooHR despite what the sales pitch shows.

Pros

Ease of use
Intuitive design and flow
Amazing customer service
Development team constantly on the move and open minded to any suggestion you have

Cons

Doesn't have a viable payroll solution yet to be a true all in one HR solution yet

Pros

The platform offers us a good management of the documentation of our employees. It is easy to make detailed follow-ups about the activity of each employee, and their work time. The same thing happens with the follow-up of the candidates, and their abilities, because this is very complete. Another advantage of bamboohr is that the work can be organized so that specific employees can manage the rest. Bamboohr has proven to be a very reliable service, with which we can support all the work reports of our staff, and much more. The platform has also been of great help to achieve a more methodical workflow, and for the whole team to be aware of the skills and talents of each member of the team. Thanks to this we can create work strategies based on these skills.

Cons

Bamboohr offers a quite poor smartphone application. This is much better when used directly from the web page. The Platform does not offer enough communication tools. It does not handle motors of revision of curricular summaries, and neither it allows to administer criminal records (in the case of the candidates).

Pros

APS is extremely effective. Sleek design gives companies competive advantgage.
PTO tracker via mobile app is a game changer
Paperless on-boarding is real!

Cons

none

Pros

When I rolled BambooHR out to my team, I had several people confess their initial reaction was, "oh no not another program to learn!" but once they got in there they were pleasantly surprised by how intuitive and easy it is to learn. They've done their research and crafted a solution that's simple and elegant, actually kind of fun to use, and does what all HR professionals hope their solutions will do - it saves me time! My favorite functions are the Applicant Tracking System and On & Offboarding checklists. I never want to hire without them!
BambooHR has excellent tutorials with screenshots and videos, and they provide webinars on best practices and getting the most out of thier platform. I can often find answers to my questions in their Help pages, but if not, I can email or call their support team and often get help right away. Their user support is unmatched. They could write the book on customer service for tech support professionals.

Cons

One of BambooHR's greatest strengths is its simplicity, but that also has its drawbacks. It's not as customizable as some other options on the market. There are some things I wish it could do that it doesn't. They are always making improvements though, and what they do have works great. I'd rather use a somewhat limited platform that works great than deal with a fully customizable one that doesn't work great, or that's difficult to learn and a pain to use.

Pros

Where do I even begin? All other HR systems out there should take note: BambooHR is how you do HR. My company was in need of software that dramatically cut down our paper usage, particularly for the onboarding process. The paperwork folder that I'd hand each new hire on their first day, was far too much and too overwhelming. With BambooHR, we are now able to have that onboarding process be completely electronic and have each new employee complete their new hire packet before their start date, at their leisure. That way, their first day (really, just about their entire first week) could be spent participating in valuable hands-on training sessions. No one wants to be bogged down with a massive folder of documents on their very first day at work, and the likelihood of employees retaining any of that information while a ton of other thoughts and nerves are flying through their heads on that first day, is VERY low. With BambooHR, new and veteran employees can revisit that information anytime they'd like.

The PTO feature is top-notch: employees can view a time-off calendar within the software and request off without having to physically check-in with HR or their direct reports, first. All that's needed from me or directs, is approval or denial of such requests.

Job benefits, bonuses, raises, and a whole slew of other job-related information can be tracked in BambooHR, making it the most comprehensive, easy-to-use HR software that my company has ever used.!

Cons

There are, in all honestly, absolutely no cons to this software. It'll fit into any company's budget, and I promise, your employees will enjoy it just as much as your HR team does.

Pros

Bamboo really strives to make their product easy to use. Their help section is filled with many different how to articles with picture and most often a video tutorial. I really like to 30/30 product updates they do, every 30 day they send out a video showing the new updates to the software for the last 30 days and what they are going to be working on for the next 30! This is constantly showing me all the different way to use Bamboo! They also will help create sections and tables so you can customize the program a lot. We also use it for performance management. We have heard that some people don't like that the limit the total number of questions in the review section we LOVE IT! We use the review period to "check in" with our employees and use the few basic questions to start a conversation about how happy they are with work and it has done amazing things for our company!

Cons

At the beginning it was a little difficult to get all of our custom tables set up and functioning the way we wanted but I think that was just some misunderstanding on my part, just not being a programmer! Bamboo has amazing customer service so they were happy to help make any changes we needed and made sure we were happy with everything at the end!

For the software being as amazing as it is and the fact that Bamboo is always improving I don't know if I would even necessarily call it a con but the price is a little high. For our needs the benefits Bamboo offer are defiantly worth the cost!

Pros

I like that I can check all the documentation which is connected to each of employee. So you do not need to have thousands of folders saved on your computer. Everything is already stored correctly. And it takes just a few minutes to find the right document. What is more, you can customize the view according to your and company needs. But the best thing that I like that BambooHR has a great time-off management option. Employees submit a request, supervisor approves it and I got all this information well structured. BambooHR is a simple and easy-to-understand program. The design is really cool. But the best thing is that all the information about your employees is gathered in one place. Thanks to BambooHR HR managers spend less time for the organization of their work.

Cons

One of the problems is that when a supervisor or another person who needs to approve the time-off request is absent, there is no opportunity to approve it. I wish there was some kind of approval backup when another person approves time-off requests on supervisor’s behalf. Moreover, BambooHR has a very weak number of the integrated program. Because of that, we need to do a lot of work manually. Last but not least is the customer support. They are not capable to solve complicated issues.

Pros

Cloud-based HR software is less hassle to maintain for the internal IT team, and easy to manage for the HRM staff. It is full-featured, at least more than what we needed to manage the entire lifecycle of an employee (hiring, performance, records, training, timekeeping, movements, resignation, retirement, etc).

The tracking is easy and intuitive (e.g., how many leaves left/used, timekeeping record). The home/dashboard is attractive and easy to navigate. The digital HR 201 files are well kept in one secure place.

BambooHR is flexible and extensible to keep all the needed information for each employee.

Cons

Updates to the software come in too pricey.

The ability to add/remove custom fields and reports have to go through their customer support/channel. Therefore, make sure that you have everything already mapped out during your project planning and implementation for your company (to minimize change requests and additional cost).

Pros

I liked the preboarding feature a lot - makes it very easy to onboard new employees even before they started, it's fully automated so all you have to do is just mark a person as hired and set up a workflow once and the rest is taken care of. nice feature of having people answer questions about themselves as it helps the team to learn more about their future colleagues.
the performance module is very simple but in the same time gives enough information and insight. it's based on deloittes approach to redesign performance reviews. I liked the reporting on the performance too, as it shows in one glance who's engaged and high performer vs those who has some issues which HR or a manager should take care of. The goal setting/tracking feature is also nice and simple, allows managers to comment on the progress which encourages frequent feedback and giving kudos.

Cons

Bamboo's support team is in the US and also as they grew bigger, they switched to ticket system vs just messaging them which made the process of gettig support slower. it's understandable but for us as a customer it was quite visible. also the customisation is not so easy and many requests were turned down as it wasn't on their roadmap.

Pros

In our company's setup, we have multiple departments using BambooHR as our primary way to help synchronise onboarding and offboarding requirements. We have an internal workflow in which whenever there's an onboarding/offboarding; it will send a message to the IT Depot (that would be me) to prepare equipment for the new hire, another one to the Accounting Depot to set up payroll, and so on.

My favourite section of BambooHR is the assets tab, which gives you insights on what equipment each employee holds, when it was assigned, serial number, return date, and so on.

We love how simple, intuitive, and customizable are the employee's profiles. We have employees in multiple countries, so the fields and requirements for each is custom according to our needs. Depending on your needs, you're able to search and pull data easily.

Cons

Email notifications can get quite spammy, especially during hiring seasons. I'm an admin user in BambooHR, and from time to time my inbox would get filled with BambooHR notification from new hires, probation period reminds, etc. All that is great, however, there's no direct way to disable email notification from a user's end.