For BambooHR to automate your time-off management workflow, you will initially need to specify your company’s time-off policies: accrual levels, waiting periods, maximum accruals, carryovers, and so on. Once done, employees will already be able to check their time-off balances, request time-offs from their computers or smart devices, and view a calendar of employees scheduled to be on leave.
When an employee submits a time-off request, their manager is notified through email. Depending on the company’s service level requirements, the amount of time the employee has already accrued, and the number of people scheduled to be out on the requested date/s, the manager can either approve or deny the request via phone or online. The requester then receives an email notifying them of the decision.
Aside from task automation, BambooHR functions as your company’s central repository of essential employee data that includes job and salary history, current work status and responsibilities, location, dependents, emergency contacts, benefits, trainings, and other related information that your HR department keeps on file, including annotations that may protect the company from future litigations. Relevant online documents (applications, company forms, training manuals, performance reviews, handbooks and health forms) can be stored and shared.
BambooHR also has a directory feature that lets you view an employee’s name, job title, employment status, date of hire, and photo. Contact information can be quickly accessed and shared with other members of the organization. The system has basic organizational chart functionalities, but for organizations that need a more robust alternative, BambooHR has built-in integrations with OrgChart Now.
The employee directory makes it easy to search for certain employee records.
In order not to put your employee data in jeopardy and make certain that information is shared to only those with authorized user access, BambooHR uses role-based access protocols that let you build custom user groups with access assignments based on their job descriptions. Simply put, the type and amount of information users are allowed to access are entirely up to you.
Using any device, employees can log in to their accounts from anywhere to update their personal information, view their time-off balances, training particulars, benefits data and company documents. Managers, on the other hand, can access reports pertaining to their employees’ paid time-off, trainings, certifications and benefits, without the added strain to their already hectic schedule. This is because everything is automated, and report generation can be done in a few clicks.
BambooHR understands that every organization is unique, which is why fields, tabs and reports can be customized to reflect the way companies manage their workforce. You want to track your employees’ favorite color or candy bar? Probably not the kind of data businesses usually keep an eye out for, but yes, those can be tracked with BambooHR.
On the reporting side, there are two ways reports can be generated: through customized reporting or using standard reports available in the report library. Standard reports include Additions and Terminations, Age Profile, Benefit Eligibility, Birthdays, EEO-1, Employment Status History, Gender Profile, Job History, Last Pay Change, Salary History, Time-Off Balances and Schedule, among others. For customized reports, the data filter is your best friend.
Employee fields can be customized according to how your HR department functions.
If you have business offices in various locations around the world, you would naturally want your employees to use the language they are comfortable with. BambooHR currently supports six different languages (English, French Canadian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Dutch), which can be adjusted on a per-user basis.
Popular local currencies are likewise supported, and number, timezone and date formats are also provided as an option.
Most popular features of all HR & Employee Management apps
Requires iOS 13.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
25 reviewers had the following to say about BambooHR's features:
Neutral
Pros
Simple and easy to use UI Single Sign-on with G Suite Applicant Tracking Feature Excellent Employee Onboarding Feature
Cons
Lacks good performance management feature Below average reporting capabilities and it needs lots of customization to fit into specific reporting needs.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
It provides new employees with a great onboarding experience.
Pros
I like the reports for employee and applicant data.
Cons
It took me long to figure out how to export employee data.
Rating breakdown
Time used: Less than 6 months
Frequency of use: Occasionally
Likelihood to recommend
We evaluated 6+ HRIS systems and BambooHR was my top choice. Besides being really pretty and intuitive to use, all the features worked they way you'd expect them to work. We just finished rolling Zenefits which was a nightmare and their support team is seriously lacking. BambooHR experience so far has been stellar. We will be rolling it out early next year.
Pros
ATS Onboarding module Easy to implement Intuitive work flow Great customer support Visually appealing and makes sense Runs reports effortlessly and can export all to Excel Employee Self-Service
Cons
No performance management module (has vendors it partners with) Doesn't synch with our payroll system (PayChex)
Rating breakdown
Time used: Less than 6 months
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
We evaluated 6+ HRIS systems and BambooHR was my top choice. Besides being really pretty and intuitive to use, all the features worked they way you'd expect them to work. We just finished rolling Zenefits which was a nightmare and their support team is seriously lacking. BambooHR experience so far has been stellar. We will be rolling it out early next year.
Pros
ATS Onboarding module Easy to implement Intuitive work flow Great customer support Visually appealing and makes sense Runs reports effortlessly and can export all to Excel Employee Self-Service
Cons
No performance management module (has vendors it partners with) Doesn't synch with our payroll system (PayChex)
Rating breakdown
Time used: Free Trial
* we can track employee engagement, but also people managers' engagement easily and visualise results, respectively * alert / notification function lead to awareness about little things as birthdays or company anniversaries * I love the BambooHR's product team's humor
Pros
* clear structure of all relevant people data * ability to pull reports * employee self service * onboarding & offboarding
Cons
* here and there I am missing the opportunity to fine tune workflows as approvals etc * overall funnel reporting in ATS
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Overall, BambooHR saves time of HR Team & employees data organized.
Pros
. - Sufficient Reports section: almost everything is covered by biuld-in reports; and ability to create customizable reports on your own. - Mobile version covers basic needs to find contact of a person, request Time Off and see own personal data. - Fast Customer Support.
Cons
- File Storage is not that big (only 4 GB) - API for integration with other systems is basic.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Has almost everything I require in from a fully-featured HR software, no complaints.
Pros
. - Supports SAML for Third-Party Authentication services so you can leverage third-party services such as Azure AD - Easy to use and configure, both for administrators and normal users.
Cons
- The reporting functionality of the software could do with some improvement to provide more granular insights - The mobile application version is not as fully featured as the web companion.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 6-12 months
Frequency of use: Weekly
Likelihood to recommend
Compliance, streamlined and faster HR processes and effective records management, more effective communication with employees, .
Pros
Very user friendly and meets 95% of our HR requirements in relation to recruitment, onboarding, offboarding, records management, compliance and reporting, performance management.
Cons
My only wish is that it was currently compatible/integrated with Xero with a more developed timesheet feature to enable online submission of timesheets as simply as booking leave is currently.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Pros
It allows tracking applicants, timekeeping, an employee onboarding and performance management as well.
Cons
It's hard to be used for beginners and you really need to study how the tool works so you can get the right process.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 1-2 years
Frequency of use: Weekly
Likelihood to recommend
HR tracking with on-boarding and off-boarding tools.
Pros
Customizable reports, integration with accounting, and notifications for the important things.
Cons
Improvements to the mobile app would be nice as it lacks the many features that would benefit the employee.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Pros
From the employee data, timesheets, performance management and employee self service aspect.
Cons
I haven't found anything that I don't like. The product and vendor have satisfied all my needs thus far
Rating breakdown
Time used: Less than 6 months
Likelihood to recommend
Recommendations to others considering BambooHR
In looking at several vendors, services provided and cost were our main objective and BambooHR definitely was at the top of the category
Pros
Employee self-service features help reduce HR workload.
Cons
Bamboo Payroll and Bamboo HR are very different and have no integration or importing features of one app data to the other.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 6-12 months
Frequency of use: Monthly
Likelihood to recommend
Accurate employee records, easy pto balance & usage management, reporting, easy to use ATS, easy and automatic performance management, accurate benefit enrollment, etc.
The integration with our applicant tracking system is a huge bonus.
Pros
BambooHR automates many HR processes - it can handle performance management, help you maintain a record of employee data, allow employees to onboard themselves, track time-off or even measure your employee's satisfaction.
Cons
This wouldn't work well for a large organization of over 1000 people. At that point, you will need to look into another solution.
Rating breakdown
Time used: Free Trial
Frequency of use: Occasionally
Likelihood to recommend
Before we chose BambooHR, I had made a deep research and tested more than 10 different HR soft. BambooHR offers the best solutions, quality and support is overall great.
Pros
Employee self-service feature is cool.
Cons
Also, it would be good to make ATS an optional feature, not included in basic price.
Rating breakdown
Time used: Less than 6 months
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Biggest feature is that it eliminates all tedious paperwork
Saving time, increased efficiencies with employees' forms and great handling of the employees & managers performance reviews.
Pros
You can use it for all different HR aspect, to track new recruits & applicants, to maintain employees' records and managing performance reviews.
Cons
They could improve their announcements function: you will receive an email as a notification, however, after some time it will disappear from the homepage so it won't be easy to find it again.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 1-2 years
Frequency of use: Monthly
Likelihood to recommend
100% recommendation, I cant believe how I could have worked in HR all those years without BambooHR honestly:)
Pros
Very handy reporting tools. Employee self service portal and managers having access to their teams data.
Cons
The Training feature seems to have very limited functionality and not very useful for our organizaiton.
Rating breakdown
Time used: Less than 6 months
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
An amazing HR management system that helps businesses keep a track of all the details.
Pros
- Leave and Reimbursement Management - Salary and tax management and integration - Employee Details and Information Management - Document Management - Birthday and anniversary reminders
Cons
- Mobile app sometimes crashes when applying for leave
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
For a very small business, under 50 employees and not looking to hire more than a couple of times a year, this is probably a perfect solution.
Pros
I love the onboarding and self-service portal. it is very impressive as a new hire to be able to see the birthdays, anniversaries, and days off of the team.
Cons
The applicant tracking portion is pretty bad in terms of searching and screening resumes.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 6-12 months
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Pros
This product has exclusive modules like employee self-onboarding, employee database,etc
Cons
This is so good to be true as it has been awarded the best HR software by various institutions.
Rating breakdown
Time used: Free Trial
Frequency of use: Monthly
Likelihood to recommend
It has become much easier for employees to find self-serve answers to their questions, and have a single source to go to for their important documents, etc.
Pros
BambooHR has a simple, intuitive UI that makes it easy to get an overview of relevant HR data: vacation days, legal documents, reporting lines, etc.
Cons
As well, there is limited customizability in how relationships between employees can be highlighted, or different teams can be viewed together.
Rating breakdown
Time used: 2+ years
Frequency of use: Weekly
Likelihood to recommend
Onboarding was time consuming, but worthwhile once system was adopted.
It is very good option for small companies, it helps a lot with the management of the employees and request a vacation
Pros
You can practically do all the paperwork that has to do with human resources in this software, reporting and benefits management is good
Cons
Some data is a bit difficult to export because you have to customize the report first.
Rating breakdown
Time used: Less than 6 months
Frequency of use: Daily
Likelihood to recommend
