7 Best Startup HR Software Platforms You Need in 2023

Your employees are your most valuable asset, and technology can ensure they get the attention they need. Whether you’re a team of one, 10, or 100, you can find plenty of budget-friendly startup HR software to help simplify, streamline, and automate your workforce management.

Here are a handful of ways HR software can support your startup:

• Store and organize employee data
• Create workflows and track approvals
• Track employee training, development, and compliance
• Find and recruit potential candidates
• Monitor and report on employee engagement
• Administer employee benefits
• Pay employees and contractors
• Pre-board, onboard, and offboard employees

Most of these tools automate the minutiae, freeing up valuable time for you (or your HR team) to focus on employees and the business. You might be tempted to ditch the software and run with a free application, like Google Sheets. While this might be cheaper on paper, the time trade-off almost always costs more and introduces more opportunities for human error.

Fortunately for you, we’ve done the work of hunting down the most popular, cost-effective startup HR software on the market in 2023. Below, we’ll give you a brief overview of these tools and what they can offer your startup.

How to choose the top HR tools for your startup

Not every HR tool is going to be the right fit for your startup. Some might provide an overabundance of features, drowning your team in bells and whistles that muddy the water and waste time. Others could be everything you need now but fail to scale with your business as it grows.

Here are a few key criteria to keep in mind when finding the right HR tool for your startup:

• Price: It doesn’t matter how effective the tool is if you can’t afford it. Check the price from the get-go so that you don’t waste time researching an unaffordable tool.
• Usability: Your HR tools should be easy to use for administrators and employees. If your team needs a dozen meetings and tutorials to get onboarded, you might want to rethink your software choice.
• Scalability: Some tools cater to startups, while others might target enterprise businesses. Look for HR software you can trust to scale with your business, regardless of how quickly or slowly you expand.
• Integrations: You’ll want to connect your HR software with other third-party data management applications to transfer information and keep everything up to date.

Best startup HR software tools

1. Deputy

Deputy provides tools for scheduling, task management, time tracking, and employee communication. It helps you rotate shifts efficiently without overscheduling workers or hitting calendar conflicts, all while keeping you compliant with labor laws. Managing your team better and cut costs that help you stay on budget—two things that every startup needs. Deputy integrates with other popular HR tools and payroll processing software to streamline your to-do list.

2. Gusto

Gusto is a cloud-based HR software that primarily delivers payroll and benefits management for full-time, part-time, and contract employees. Gusto works great for any size team, and it scales easily with transparent pricing and features. Full-service payroll ensures everyone gets paid on time, and it also automatically files your taxes and delivers W-2s and 1099s.

Gusto has a modern-day user interface that’s easy to navigate for both admins and end users. If you need to expand your use case, you can simply upgrade to add management features for hiring and onboarding, time and attendance, talent management, and insights and reporting.

3. Remote

Remote helps your startup manage payroll, benefits, compliance, and HR on an international scale, which is essential if you’re building a globally distributed team. The platform helps you with hiring and compliance laws around the world, and it provides tools for automating onboarding for employees and contractors.

Remote provides local expertise to give you the know-how you need to avoid wasted time, extra costs, and hiring risks. It also enables you to pay your global workforce in their local currency.

4. Culture AMP

Culture Amp helps you monitor, report, and improve employee engagement and performance. It provides survey tools for giving and receiving feedback on whatever schedule you’d like, whether that’s weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. The data is compiled into easy-to-generate reports that can give you valuable insights into your workforce’s health and happiness. More importantly, you can use this data to inform how you hire, retain, and grow your workforce.

5. Rippling

Rippling is a combination of an HR and IT management platform. You can handle payroll and benefits for employees and contractors through the tool, and you can also control applications and devices. With just a few clicks, you can add a new member to your workforce and begin the automation process to get them set up on new devices (including Android and iOS devices) with popular applications like Slack and Office 365.

6. Greenhouse

Greenhouse provides plenty of startup solutions, but it mainly focuses on simplifying and improving recruiting and onboarding processes. It provides businesses with everything from referral tracking to an automated onboarding series. Greenhouse is built for businesses ranging from startups to enterprises, with flexible pricing that’ll meet your budget constraints wherever you are along your business journey.

7. Freshteam

Freshteam is an all-in-one HR management tool for hiring, onboarding, time-off, employee data, and automation. It gives startups tools for applicant tracking, customer relationship management (CRM), referral management, and team collaboration. Freshteam also provides integrations with third-party applications like Google Calendar, Freshworks tools, Facebook, and more.

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