The success of any nonprofit organization is dependent on the quality of leadership; not only the leaders closest to the work, but also leaders at all levels of management. A success starts with good hiring, and continues with training and utilizing the best HR softwares for non profit organizations.
Having top-notch management is one of the most effective ways that nonprofit organizations can help people; however; since all nonprofits are short on funds for hiring, it is critical that they focus on finding excellent managers who can be trained inexpensively through the use of free hr software for small nonprofits .
PartnerHR
If you are looking for HR software that is tailor-made for nonprofits, you’ve found what you are looking for. Silent Partner Software developed and designed PartnerHR based on over two decades of experience working with charities, faith-based organizations, education institutions and associations to understand their challenges when managing employees and volunteers.
PartnerHR is a Software as a Service (SaaS) which enables nonprofits to manage their people-centric data and documents in a secure, easy-to-use application.
The software enables nonprofit executives and HR staff to access reports through PartnerHR. They have visibility to the skills and abilities their team has currently, and to assign training to-dos to get new and existing staff up to speed. PartnerHR has a reputation for being easy for users and administrators.
Does your charity work with children, the elderly, or other individuals with different needs? PartnerHR can track background checks, store documents, and send reminders when checks need to be renewed.
The PartnerHR self-service portal enables employees and volunteers to securely request time off, see upcoming events that are on the calendar, and see what training requirements they need to complete for onboarding and skills refreshing. Employees, volunteers, and recruiters can store resumes, training certificates, and other pertinent records.
Pricing: Contact PartnerHR for subscription pricing
Support: Online, phone
Languages: English
Suitable for nonprofits of any size and social services organizations.
BambooHR
BambooHR is used by companies, institutions and organizations for functions like:
Applicant tracking and online applications
New hire onboarding
Time tracking
Performance tracking
Employee satisfaction surveys
HR reporting and analytics
Employee records
Although the BambooHR online platform was not developed for nonprofits specifically, they do offer a couple of case studies on their website for charities.
They offer two pricing tiers for companies or organizations to choose from, mostly depending on whether or not an organization needs features like hiring/onboarding functionality, integration with other applications, or custom tabs and fields.
To manage volunteers separately, you’d need to opt for the higher-end Advantage edition. They offer add-on modules for reminder alerts and employee performance reports.
Pricing: Contact BambooHR for subscription pricing
Support: Online, phone (with Advantage edition)
Languages: English, French Canadian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch.
Suitable for small, medium, and large businesses, and some nonprofits.
BreezyHR
BreezyHR is an online HR software solution which is available for nonprofits, and they have a couple of church organizations on their website. This service is promoted primarily as a recruiting and applicant tracking system. You can even use their “Bootstrap” service for free to search for candidates across over 50 job boards.
If you want to interview or assess candidates online, manage candidate scorecards, or integrate with other core HR applications, the BreezyHR Business Edition is required. That is their most popular service which offers functions like background screening and automated reference checking.
BreezyHR would be a service you would have in addition to a service like PartnerHR for the pre-hire and offer phases as opposed to managing onboarding and existing employees.
Pricing: The Business Edition of the BreezyHR service starts at $479 per month, or you can prepay for a year and get two months for free.
Support: Online, phone (with Advantage edition)
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, Finnish, Italian, Polish
Suitable for small, medium, and large businesses, and some nonprofits.
APS Review — The Best for Payroll
The acronym “APS” actually stands for “Automatic Payroll Systems.” As this name clearly implies, payroll is their specialty.
But with that said, APS is not a standalone payroll software; it’s an all-in-one solution for HR and payroll alike.
In addition to payroll, APS has HR features for benefits administration, performance management, employee scheduling, recruiting, onboarding, compliance, employee self-service, and more.
They also have industry-specific solutions for healthcare, restaurants, wholesalers, nonprofits, manufacturing, hospitality, financial services, and other unique categories.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the top benefits of using APS for payroll:
- Streamline tax compliance with accuracy, timeliness, and wage garnishment
- Automate your tax system to reduce your burden and risk
- Reduce time spent processing payroll with paycheck reconciliation
- Automate federal, state, and local tax filings
- Improve your efficiencies and reduce costs with paperless payroll processing
The self-service tools provided by APS are outstanding; on the employee end and administrative sides alike.
More than 2,000 businesses across different industries rely on APS. For those of you looking for an all-in-one solution for HR and payroll, APS should be at the top of your list.
BerniePortal Review — The Best Human Resources Information Software (HRIS)
BerniePortal isn’t as well-known as some of the other HR solutions available on the market today. But that shouldn’t be a reason for you to pass up on considering it. In terms of human resources information software (HRIS), BerniePortal really has everything you could possibly need.
For those of you who want to use technology to improve the total lifecycle management of your employees, BerniePortal should be at the top of your list.
BerniePortal was founded back in 2008, so they have over a decade of experience in the HR software space. The software has been deployed in 5,000+ HR departments in all 50 states, and it has 210,000+ active users.
Why BerniePortal? Let’s take a closer look at what this HRIS software has to offer:
- Attract and retain top-level talent with benefits administration
- Compliance, custom enrollment, and payroll reporting
- Improve productivity and engagement with seamless employee onboarding
- Collaborative hiring decisions with built-in applicant tracking features
- PTO tracking, time-off management, and custom policies
- Tools for time and attendance tracking with detailed reporting
- Mobile access with employee self-service tools
- Performance management and compliance features
You can even use BerniePortal for things like IRS filings. While the software doesn’t have built-in payroll features, it can seamlessly integrate with your existing payroll system.
BerniePortal offers a free version, which helps with recruiting and applicant tracking. Paid plans start at $9 per employee per month if you sign up for a year, or $11 per employee if you pay month-to-month.
Workday Review — The Best for Human Capital Management (HCM)
Workday is a popular HR software with a unique twist. Every component of the tool is focused on finance. It helps you manage your HR processes while always keeping your bottom line in mind—all from a single platform.
The software is used by industry leaders in a wide range of categories. Some of the well-known companies that rely on Workday include Visa, Toyota, Salesforce, CE, Target, Charles Schwab, and Adobe.
Overall, Workday is pretty versatile. The software has solutions for human capital management, talent management, enterprise planning, payroll and workforce management, spend management, and more.
Workday is robust, but also really easy to use. You’ll benefit from features like:
- Automation to eliminate manual work and improve productivity
- Advanced analytics to guide decision making
- Improve communication and engagement
- Machine learning to identify employees’ skills
- Time tracking tools
- Compensation, payroll, and benefits administration
- Employee directories and self-service tools
The software can also adapt as your HCM needs evolve over time.
Another reason why Workday ranks so high on our list is because of its industry-specific HR solutions across a wide range of categories. Some of these include healthcare, government, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, professional services, energy, and more.
Kissflow Review — The Best for Employee Onboarding and Applicant Tracking
Kissflow is one of my favorite tools for managing HR processes. It’s a top choice for businesses that want to improve the talent management aspect of human resources.
The software comes with features for applicant tracking, employee onboarding, attendance management, absence management, leave management, and employee offboarding.
With Kissflow, you’ll benefit from features and functionality like:
- Get open jobs in front of top-level talent at the perfect time
- Improve employee engagement
- Employee self-service tools
- 360-degree feedback and evaluations
- Customizable HR solutions
Kissflow pricing starts at $16 per user per month for the Basic plan. There is a minimum of ten users required. You’ll be able to start automating your HR workflows without writing a line of code.
The downside of Kissflow is that it’s not a true all-in-one HR solution. It focuses on certain areas but lacks functionality for things like payroll. With that said, Kissflow does have a wide range of integrations, so you can sync it with your existing tools.
Zenefits — Best for Hands-On HR Administrators
- DEEP REPORTING CUSTOMIZATION
- GREAT FOR SUPPORTING HR PROS
- IMPROVE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
- HELPS YOU FOSTER A BETTER WORKFPLACE CULTURE
Zenefits gives administrators a lot more flexibility to run HR the way they want. The tradeoff, though, is that Zenefits is going to take longer to launch than some other small business HR software.
It’s still an easy-to-use platform for employees, but there’s more of a learning curve for admins.
For companies with experienced HR professionals on staff, the extra legwork to get Zenefits off the ground will be well worth it. Your HR teams will be able to take a more active role in employee development and provide much more detailed information to leadership than they ever could with something like Gusto.
You’re free to customize the platform to fit your business. Collect whatever data you want, build your performance review process from scratch—you don’t have to squeeze your company into a general use template.
Just look at the HR areas where Zenefits can assist or improve your capabilities:
- Employee database
- Payroll
- Benefits administration
- Onboarding
- Time off management
- Time and attendance
- Performance management
- Well-being management
- People Hub (social network)
There’s very little missing from the platform, and you can extend its capabilities through integration with recruiting, verification, accounting, and other software.
One user I talked with used Zenefits for several years while working for a payroll company. “You can use it as an all-in-one,” they said, “or you can take pieces.”
They obviously didn’t need payroll, but it served them well for everything else.
Now, Zenefits doesn’t let you pick the exact services you want—you’ll be choosing between base packages and several add-ons—but the folks I talked with had no trouble making it fit their needs.
An HR manager we spoke with used Zenefits at three very different companies, all with good results.
“It just makes my role so much easier,” she said. Currently, she oversees a bit under 50 employees. As a self-described “HR department of one,” she really appreciated how well Zenefits simplified administration.
Employees are responsible for entering their information during onboarding. She has to review it once, and then it “feeds into all these other locations seamlessly, simultaneously.”
Instead of having to manually enter employee information into multiple platforms, Zenefits provides a consistent system of record. “It just omits errors and saves a lot of time,” she said.
There are a lot of similarities to Gusto and BambooHR, but the major difference is that Zenefits is much better able to capture and report on information.
“You can create custom fields in an employee’s profile,” one VP of Operations told us. “And as long as there’s a field, Zenefits will report on it.”
In other words, you get to decide the important metrics you want to track.
For someone brand new to HR, the increased capabilities might be needless or overwhelming. But in the hands of a capable administrator, Zenefits can have a much greater impact on employee development and workplace culture than the lighter options.
Rather than fit performance reviews into a template or survey, you can create the questions and types of questions you want.
“Maybe it’s multiple choice, an essay question, or yes/no,” said one HR manager. There’s a lot more flexibility, though you can select from pre-built review templates for peer and supervisor reviews if you want.
You can set goals or let employees set their own. Everything is visible to managers, who can schedule review cycles and track progress toward individual, team, and company goals.
All the performance data is tracked and any criteria you’ve decided to include can be reported on. Employees can fill out reviews straight from their account, with everything going into a single, consistent record.
Managers also get tools to support one-on-one meetings with their direct reports. These are all things you can do in other platforms, but it often requires software integration.
Zenefits works well because employees aren’t intimidated by it. Filling out a performance review is easy, and they can do it from wherever they want on the mobile app. The director of operations appreciated the “autonomy” her employees had, which was extremely important in their ability and desire to buy into the platform.
Like the other user-friendly platforms, Zenefits excels at getting employees to handle routine tasks on their own. You can also give them access to People Hub, a 21st century company intranet that functions like a social feed. They’ll see new tasks there, which administrators can share with specific teams or departments.
There’s simply a broader range of ways HR can use Zenefits to help their company thrive. I’ve only glossed over what’s available. If the limits of the lighter tools are causing you concern, I’d recommend taking a closer look at Zenefits.
Potential Drawbacks of Running HR with Zenefits
Whereas I think just about anyone can start administering HR with Gusto, Zenefits works better in the hands of an HR professional.
“It’s really good for people who kind of know what they’re doing,” said one HR manager who has used Zenefits for over seven years. It took some time for her to find her way around, and even now, “I’m still learning so much.”
Because there’s more you can do, it’s going to take more time to learn. This won’t necessarily be a drawback for people who have experienced HR folks on staff, but for novice administrators, I’d think a lot about whether the increased control is going to be worth the potential backend difficulties they’ll experience.
No one was thrilled about the time it took to implement Zenefits.
“It’s like when you get your kitchen remodeled,” one user said, of their experience, “Whatever the contractor tells you, double that.”
This same user really loved the platform, but the implementation and integrations were “not as smooth as suggested.”
Another user said, “It’s so simplified once it’s all integrated, but you have to invest some time.”
This is true of any software, but with options like Gusto and BambooHR, where easy deployment really does seem to live hype, you have to be sure that you want to go the extra mile.
Investing in Zenefits is worth it for companies that need detailed reporting and performance management. But if that’s not a big deal, the other options might be just as good with a lot less stress.
What complicates these issues even further is that Zenefits customer support is not a highlight for most of the users we spoke to. One experienced no real issues, but the others reported extremely sluggish response times. Two to three weeks was typical for standard issues, but even urgent problems might take 24-48 hours.
One HR manager told us they wound up getting late fees based on a Zenefits error and a lack of timely assistance. In this case, Zenefits “ate the late fees for us” because it was their mistake. “So I do think that is representative of good customer service,” shea said, “It’s just the turnaround time that is slow.”
Another user really wanted some help with regards to pandemic tax credits, and she simply couldn’t get in touch with Zenefits until she wrote a frustrated review online. It shouldn’t take that to get a response.
For companies that don’t have a lot of in-house HR experience, Zenefits lack of support is something you should think about. There are ways to plan ahead and work around it, but you might be better off with BambooHR if you want to keep things simple, or Namely if you need a deeper feature set.
Zenefits Pricing
Zenefits offers three different plans. The price is all-inclusive, billed per employee each month. You can save a little by signing up for a year instead of paying monthly. The annual rates for each plan are:
- Essentials — $8/month per person
- Growth — $14/month per person
- Zen — $21/month per person
Payroll service can be added to any plan for $6 per month per employee. Other add-ons include HR advisory services and benefits administration via your own preferred broker. If you elect to use one of Zenefits broker partners, benefits administration is free with annual plans.
The Essentials plan is a rock-solid HRIS. You’ll have access to all the onboarding and PTO features that don’t come with Gusto’s entry level plan. Zenefits also includes native time and attendance tracking in this entry-level package, which is a premium feature on nearly every other platform.
Growth includes the performance management features that users reviewed so highly, as well as more tools for payroll reporting and compensation management.
The Zen plan adds more arrows to the quiver of administrators and company leadership looking to encourage a connected workplace culture. There’s a company social network (People Hub), where people can share announcements, big wins, and important jobs to be done. You’ll also get tools for conducting employee surveys and promoting well-being.
I highly recommend taking a deeper look at Zenefits premium plans if you are encountering problems with workplace cohesion. Any of these tools will assist a remote workforce every bit as well as people in the same physical office.
“We have to pay for it and it’s not cheap,” said one user who loved the platform. “But when we looked at the price of what we’re paying [another company] to do our payroll, tax, and accounting stuff, it just was kind of a no-brainer, even with the cost.”
Conclusion
HR software is a convenient way to streamline your business. This may be new for your business if not), while some of its features might not be needed. A good HR software automatically takes care of all your requirements and makes your work a lot easier.