BambooHR Review

PROS: BambooHR includes the ability to set up processes that can be triggered when someone is hired or hits a particular milestone date. I'm not an HR professional, I manage employees so I am often assigned tasks automatically through BambooHR but I do not use it for reporting. However, its easy to see what I have to focus on and it is easy to mark the task done. I also use BambooHR as an employee for time off requests. It is easy to submit a request, and easy to see balances across different accrual buckets.

CONS: The UI can be difficult to find things in. This may be a result of my role and access, but I wish it were easier to see a calendar view of all my employees and when they are off over a given period of time.

PROS: I love everything that BambooHR has offer. As an HR director, it completely changed the way I work. Back then, I did all my HR functions manually. I did it the old way. It took up a lot of my time. Ever since I began using BambooHR a few years back, I was able to free up time to concentrate on people. My team loves user-friendly this software is.

CONS: I like everything about the system. The only thing I was hoping they might have is their very own time tracking module. Still, I can't wait for them to roll out such functionality. That way, I can rake in all the functionality into Bamboo.

PROS: Lots of things to love with this software. It comes with employee data out-of-the-box. Reporting is nice. Comes with flexible Time Off Policies. The Access Levels adds a nice a twist to the typical User and Group management. Benefits management is fantastic. Great onboarding and offboarding processes.

CONS: I find their Time Off Policies to be flexible. Thing is, it involves a bit of learning curve. There's not enough to learn during the implementation process. Certain fiels are way too linked to the U.S. When you've got offices in different parts of the globe, you don't need something like this. This isn't professional version. Thankfully, you can hide fields that you don't want easily.

PROS: What I like most about Bamboo is that it has now given me a centralized location for all my HR information/tasks. I wear several hats in my position and "HR Director" is only one of them. Bamboo has given me a format to streamline hiring, on-boarding, vacation tracking and benefits tracking.

CONS: The only thing I would say I do not like is that a few times I have had issues with knowing if my new hires have received e-mails. It can be kind of confusing but I think I have it figured out now.

PROS: I love the easy, intuitive, modern interface! We moved from a very clunky, outdated system and the ability to figure things out on my own because the tool is so well made makes a huge difference! Employees and managers also love the simple PTO tool and are able to manage approvals, changes, and future calculation easily from the web or the mobile app (very cool!). I also can't say enough good things about the customer support team. No more huge phone trees, being transferred to different departments, and never getting a call back when I have a question! I always speak to a real, live, helpful, friendly person when I have a question and get immediate support. Lastly, reports have been a lifesaver for me. I no longer have to deal with years of messy Excel spreadsheets to figure out headcount on a specific date! I love being able to impress my supervisor or the CFO by sending a professional PDF of a report with the click of a button!

CONS: There isn't anything I dislike about BambooHR, but there is definitely room for even better improvements. I would love to move our entire HR Intranet onto Bamboo so the ability to have a blog, policy pages (not just folders with documents), etc. would be excellent!

PROS: I like all of its modern functionality and enhancements made on their older HR. Our company is close to being paperless. Everything is done through reviews, onboarding, esignatures,and others. All that through BambooHR! It's an amazing platform!

CONS: We barely have any major complaints. One feedback we got from a hiring manager just recently was they they were hoping BambooHR could closely into resume. That way, they can make effective searches across all applicants.

PROS: Allows for easily seeing seeing benefits, HR tasks, reviews from colleagues and supervisors, reviews that have been scheduled, and details deemed relevant to events, policies, and notable events. It does a fantastic job in opening the workplace way beyond restricted emails or face-to-face meetings.

CONS: It's essential to always log out of the profile. Otherwise, other people will gain unauthorized access to your company's business. It'd be nice to have a log-out verification and for the PC not to retain any login credentials to prevent entry to personal information.

PROS: I really appreciate the intuitive nature of the interface, the ease of set up and use and the customer support given by the BambooHR team. They were able to add functionality I needed for tracking the training of our employees and really helped with a change in vacation accrual and PTO making the transition to a new policy very easy for me. I also LOVE the Applicant Tracking System! It has made our hiring process much more effective and efficient when recruiting for multiple departments at once.

CONS: I wish I could add modules to the Dashboard and a few more items to the drop down menus in the Applicant Tracking System.

PROS: Setting up my personal information was simple. I do like the approval-based functionality that restrict users (including myself) from saving personal information updates without admin approval. I have worked for companies in the past that did not require approval. Where accountability lacks, employees will always push the boundaries of what is exceptable. I also like that this provides a platform where important documents can be distributed, signed, and stored. The tracking of signed paper forms is always a bit unnerving.

CONS: While Bamboo is user-friendly, the look and feel of the interface could use improvement. I know this is a bit nitpicky, but the interface is pretty bland. Since the software is built to be accessed directly by employees to an extent, it would be nice if the interface was a bit more vibrant.

PROS: The self service functionality! The intuitive interface is very easy to learn from the administrative side. It is also very easy to deploy to computer savvy users and those that are learning. The BambooHR development team listens and sometimes it seems the tweaks and improvements that they make are perfectly timed with our needs. Custom fields are quickly created and the ease of submitting support requests from within the app with 2 clicks speaks volumes about their customer service. Responsiveness from support is consistently reliable and prompt. We purchased the implementation package and that was well worth it and our implementation went really good. Keep in mind that the more effort you put into validating your data during the implementation phase the happier you will be.

CONS: There are some little things that we would like to have that would suit us better as an organization but we understand that on a shared platform this can be a challenge. We use the Time Off functionality extensively and although it fits us almost perfectly, the permissions for the Who's Out calendar is not flexible enough for our liking. The Benefits functionality is pretty basic and we would like to have the ability to run change reports for each pay period. Instead we have to supplement this with a manual process outside of BambooHR.

PROS: BambooHR is super easy to use - forget consultants and long implementation plans, we were up and running in hours. Configuration is really easy and the support is great. We went from spreadsheets to a fully online HR system with self service and an online employee directory. Everyone uses BambooHR hourly.

CONS: The iOS app could be bigger - it does directory and manage your own details well but I'd like it to do more, I'd like full functionality in the app.

PROS: I like the usability of Bamboo, and the simple design that makes ESS so simple for our employees. I also LOVE the simplicity of the app. there's an app for everything these days, and so often they are not useful. Our employees are always using their phones, and the ability for them to check their vacation balances at home or on-the-go is amazing.

CONS: Customizability of the reports is good, but for specific acocunting purposes, I wish there was a bt more complexity in some of the headcount reports. Also, two-tiered approval or multi-tier email notifications (direct manager and senior manager notifications of anniversary dates for example) would be a hugely useful advantage.

PROS: Ever since we started rolling out this software a couple years back, we evidently fell in love with it. Whether it's from collaboration to tracking applicants, sending out offer letters, we no longer need to do things on paper. Our very own middle managers get to look into their crews any time, celebrate events with employees, and organize performance reviews with Bamboo.

CONS: I was in need of a system containing benefits integration. When I kicked things off with Bamboo, the only option was Maxwell. That ended up becoming a complete mess. It took several months of trying just to get the system up. Then I was told that they don't have any integration with our insurnace carrier. So I'd still end up doing paper apps. I ended up scratching the whole thing!

PROS: We're capable of referencing all HR related docs and peek into announcements from managers and busness owners. We can easily see both paid and unpaid time balances. In addition, I like how it can be a huge help for my company to minmize pollution by utilizing less paper.

CONS: I was hoping there's more than could be done to customizing employee profiles. We've been left out in the cold to making specific fields. It's messy approach gong through this method.

PROS: The software is simple. It lets a company display differen kinds of data. We're making use of it for my present role to booking time off or checking our news feed or organizational chart.

CONS: There's not much that I hate with this software. One small issue is that certain information may end up appearing on the screen. I wish they could remain hidden in case I'm opening the site from a public location especially when someone is peeking over my shoulder.

PROS: I simply love their UX. I like how their flow of data and customization are simple enough. Reports are already being setup. You're give the option to customize any tracked fields of your own.

CONS: Some of the data can be difficult to export. You'd need to make report customizations just so you can get there. But from the ATS side, it's easy and comes with advantages. But incorporating additional features can enhance this features significantly.

PROS: It's easy to use, very intuitive, has a ton of functionality and allows you a fair degree of customization.

CONS: There are some minor customizations that might be nice to have, and a few of the processes are less than optimized (mostly has to do with allowing user to add options to some combo lists). But the BambooHR team has been quite responsive so far, and I have seen some new features since I've been using it, so I am sure they will soon take care of these things.

PROS: It has to be how intuitive and integrated the system is! If I'm willing to learn, BambooHR will teach me. My goal in choosing BambooHR was strictly for use as a data base. In addition, it has turned out to be a reminder of special events, a staffing partner, and an e-file cabinet. There is a learning video for everything. And, if I can't find the right one in BambooHR, I find it on youtube. So, essentially I get instant service! As (if not more) important is how BambooHR treats me as their customer. They are ultra responsive. They know what they are talking about and, if they can't answer the question, they find a resource. They know their product! Oh, and the reports, I love the ability to pull together reports. It could not be easier.

CONS: I wouldn't say I "dislike" anything; however, it would be nice to have a performance management piece.

PROS: For going from spreadsheets to your first HRIS, Bamboo might be ok for you.

CONS: Very simple functionality, HR professionals and HRIS Analysts have worlds of issues. It's just a data base, and highly customizable and therefore they don't let you make any configuration changes yourself. Since it is geared toward very small orgs they assume that no one with any technical knowledge is touching the system. For a company big enough to have an HR department and a systems analyst this leads to big problems. I could overlook it if the service was great...but I have NEVER had support actually solve my issue on the first contact. You've got to jump through hoops to get them to actually do something to your system. Already implemented? $100-200/hour if you want them to do something that takes more than a few minutes. Look elsewhere!