Did you know that there are 30 million small businesses in the US?

And these employ close to 48% of the US workers.

The HR department does not just handle hiring and retaining employees…

It also takes care of several critical aspects such as compliance, compensation & benefits, and creating an inclusive company culture.

A common mistake small business owners make is trying to be the jack of all trades.

They take on all aspects of human resources management such as hiring, training, payroll, and benefits.

This limits them from focusing on the core of the business.

Most experts recommend bringing a full-time HR employee when a business reaches an employee count of 10.

Using the right strategy combined with top HR software for small businesses, you can realize amazing benefits- from hiring right to retaining employees.

Let’s discuss some of the best hr software for small businesses.

Leading hr software for small businesses

Rippling

Rippling is more than an hr software for recruitment.

It offers robust features such as payroll, benefits, time & attendance, learning & talent management, and PEO, thus making it one of the best-recruiting tools for small businesses.

The biggest strengths of Rippling include full-service HR and payroll features, international payroll & PEO, and integration with over 500 apps.

On the downside, this recruiting software for small businesses does not meet IRS and ESAC compliance for its PEO services.

Also, you need to purchase its workforce management solution before you can add other modules.

Gusto

If you are looking for an hr software for small businesses that offers payroll, employee benefits, time-tracking & PTO, hiring & onboarding, and an employee app for saving and smart spending, you should give Gusto a try.

While Gusto offers decent features for small businesses, it falls short in terms of coverage.

For example, it offers health insurance in only 39 states.

It does not offer international employee payroll services.

ADP Run

While ADP mostly caters to enterprises, with over 1000 employees, its ADP Run has been designed for small businesses.

This hr software for small businesses includes payroll, tax filings, onboarding, new hire reporting, and direct deposits (via Wisely debit card).

While ADP Run offers a wide range of HR and payroll solutions, it does not offer time tracking and health insurance as part of its basic plan(s).

You would have to procure a paid add-on to avail these features.

EQMatch HR Software for Small Businesses

Talent Acquisition and Retention are two of the biggest HR challenges for startups.

Job hopping has become the norm these days, especially with small businesses.

Small-and-medium businesses, therefore, need to focus on hiring people who are less likely to quit.

Most of the hr software for small businesses mentioned in this post focus on payroll, benefits, insurance, and time tracking.

If you are an SMB, you need to make sure you hiring highly emotionally intelligent candidates (who are less likely to quit).

Just as you would mandate a pre-employment drug test for hiring, using pre-employment testing software can help you attract the right candidates.

why emotional intelligence is important in the workplace

Using the right emotional intelligence testing solution can help you improve your recruitment process.

Learn more about EQMatch job assessment testing and its capabilities here.

Paycor

Paycor is a recruiting software for small businesses with features such as payroll, tax services, custom reports, compliance tools, PTO tracking, performance reviews, and document management.

Please note that not all these features are available in their basic plan.

Paycor’s downside is that you need to pay setup fees for its higher tiers, and features such as recruiting, time & scheduling, compensation, and benefits are available as paid add-ons.

Bamboo HR

While Bamboo HR might not be a core hr software for recruitment, it does offer HR features such as employee management, benefits tracking, workflow automation, applicant tracking, onboarding, and other employee management tools.

This small-business-friendly HR software lacks benefits options.

And like in the case of Paycor, you would have to pay for add-ons such as payroll, time tracking, and performance management.

Zoho People

Zoho People is an hr software for small businesses offering employee database and PTO tracking tools for free.

The platform syncs with Zoho Suite of HR tools such as recruiting, payroll, and expense management.

This HR software lacks employee benefits options and offers recruiting & learning as paid add-ons.

Moreover, its payroll services are not available to US businesses.

Freshteam

This HR software helps small businesses hire, screen, and onboard candidates with ease.

Its free forever plan covers up to 50 employees and offers 3 job postings, a career website, and Kanban boards for applicant tracking.

This solution, however, lacks advanced HR features offered by Rippling, Paycor, or ADP.

Paychex

This hr software for small businesses offers flexible payroll and HR plans, and advanced HR tools.

The solution also comes with a dedicated payroll specialist.

Sadly, Paychex has a steep learning curve.

And you would need to pay extra for payroll tax administration and year-end tax reports.

Conclusion: HR Software for Small Businesses

As you may already know, there are hundreds of hr software for small businesses.

Hence, it could be challenging to find the right solution for your business.

When shopping for HR software for your business, make sure you request a demo from the provider.

This will help you assess the solution well.

Hopefully, this post on some of the leading hr software for small businesses would help you get a better idea of the HR software applications space.