BambooHR Software Review 2024

Why BambooHR Is Best for Performance Management

BambooHR offers advanced management tools to set and track employee goals, gather 360-degree feedback and send self-assessments. We particularly like that the platform provides a simple manager-feedback process with four questions that help managers offer clear, direct feedback to employees within the BambooHR platform. Using this tool, employers can add up to three custom questions to address role- or organization-specific performance areas. Managers can also select co-workers to answer two peer feedback questions and ask the employee to complete a self-assessment, thus allowing for valuable 360-degree feedback. 

BambooHR also provides four employee self-assessment question templates, along with a variety of suggestions for customizable self-assessment questions. We found these features helpful for encouraging regular check-ins and communication around performance management, which is essential for employee development. 

BambooHR offers a wide array of reporting options that support performance management, including both company-wide and team-specific reporting. Managers can view reporting centered on goal progress and performance assessment progress to easily track each team member’s performance and see any outstanding performance assessments.

We also like that the software lets you create an automated schedule to send these surveys on a recurring basis to facilitate ongoing employee performance discussions. BambooHR integrates seamlessly with several other performance management tools, giving employers even more options and resources. These robust features make BambooHR stand out as the top HR software for employee performance management.

BambooHR provides a simple manager assessment process with four basic questions to help managers give clear, relevant feedback. Credit: BambooHR

Usability

BambooHR offers a clean user interface that presents the most important information to users right away. It takes no more than a couple of clicks to get to the tools you need. The data BambooHR selects and displays for measurement revolves around the people in your company. The people-focused admin dashboard shows you who’s out for the day and displays any approved time off in the upper-left widget. It also gives you a list of “celebrations” for birthdays and work anniversaries to encourage you and other admins to help everyone at the company feel noticed and appreciated.

The top of BambooHR’s dashboard shows vacation and sick time at a glance, as well as team members who are out, ongoing chat messages and task updates. Credit: BambooHR

The large center widget for announcements gives you access to time-sensitive notifications regarding appointments, new applicants, employee requests, document signatures and more. We like the home dashboard reminders that encourage managers to provide feedback about their team members. Keeping communication-centric features like these at the top of the dashboard will help ensure that your team leaders and HR admins are making the time to understand how team members are succeeding and where they may need help growing within their roles or working with their peers.

The bottom of the dashboard includes customizable reporting graphics, key company links and training resources. Credit: BambooHR

The bottom of the home admin dashboard displays a wealth of custom data on your employees, including head count, employment status, department, division and location. We really like how your most-run reports auto-populate in this section, giving you and your HR admins intuitive modifying abilities to increase efficiency in your day-to-day tasks.

One standout feature is Employee Satisfaction with eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score), which lets you create employee surveys to get easy-to-understand insight into your employees’ satisfaction levels. You can use these results to increase productivity, reduce turnover and boost your company’s reputation.

The Employee Satisfaction with eNPS feature helps you measure employee morale. You can also see the top five things people like about working for your company, as well as their top five dislikes. Credit: BambooHR

Employees or managers can set goals within the platform and allow employees to get involved in their own professional development if desired. We especially like that managers can access a goal status dashboard to see, with clear progress charts, how all of their reports are progressing on their set goals. They can also use in-platform tools to provide performance assessments or solicit peer reviews and self-assessments.

BambooHR Features

Performance Management

BambooHR uses a three-pronged approach to provide a complete perspective of how the employee is doing. It consists of manager and self-assessments, peer feedback, and goals. This system does more than determine if someone is ready for a raise; it asks questions designed to improve performance, which we found helpful in improving the quality and depth of performance reviews. 

Formal review cycles can be set to run annually, semiannually or quarterly. Managers can also set up more frequent informal check-ins — for example, a manager can set up 30-, 60- and 90-day check-ins with a new hire to determine how they’re adjusting to the company. By tracking and measuring employees’ performance and goals with built-in analytics, managers and executives get actionable insights about individual employees and the company as a whole. 

We liked that access to performance management features are also accessible via a mobile app. However, performance management features are available only with the more expensive Pro subscription plan, not on the basic Core subscription plan.

BambooHR’s performance analysis tool helps you understand individual employees’ attitudes about your company and identify possible shortcomings, especially concerning key players on your team. Credit: BambooHR

Employee Satisfaction (eNPS)

Regular internal surveys with anonymous submissions are necessary to improve company culture, but digesting that information can be time-consuming. This feature assigns you an employee Net Promoter Score based on a series of quick questions your team has answered. 

The AI-powered software scans the responses for keyword analytics before identifying them as positive, neutral or negative feedback. We like that the eNPS tool allows you to see trends in your results by filtering by age, employment status, length of service and location for each department or division. Over time, these analytics make it easier to identify trends in employee satisfaction. You can use this insight to reduce employee turnover, increase productivity and improve your company’s reputation.

Open API

BambooHR uses a RESTful API that can help modify employee data and generate reports in multiple formats. The open API makes it easy for your developers to integrate other applications with your account to share data seamlessly across your systems. This makes it a good option for midsize businesses that have their own IT teams and want to customize the software. 

Onboarding

BambooHR’s structured process onboards new hires quickly and keeps them engaged. You can easily modify your onboarding checklist and set due dates that trigger automatic reminders for your employees to complete tasks within the platform. The customizable new-hire packet lets you handle all of the normal paperwork quickly with e-signature capability. 

We especially appreciate the self-guided “Get to Know You” email template to help new employees introduce themselves to the team. This is a useful tool for creating lasting personal connections, and we didn’t see it in other software platforms we reviewed. 

BambooHR also includes a robust applicant tracking system to help you find the right person for the job. It includes customizable email templates that auto-populate with a candidate’s information for streamlined communication during the hiring process.

BambooHR provides customizable onboarding templates to streamline new-hire paperwork and onboarding. Credit: BambooHR

Marketplace

There are more than 125 free and paid apps and integrations available in the BambooHR Marketplace, including those for hiring and onboarding, people and culture, compensation and benefits, and business operations and growth. Integrations are available for Google single sign-on, Indeed, SAML, Slack, Gifted, Xoxoday Empuls, Cronofy, Payroll Harmony, LearnUpon, WorkLinks, Tovuti LMS and many more. 

Note that BambooHR offers benefits administration, time tracking and payroll features only as add-ons to its core subscription plan. So, if you already use this kind of software from a third-party provider, you may be able to integrate it into the BambooHR platform via the marketplace. If you’re looking for HR software with payroll as a more centralized capability, we recommend checking out ADP Run.  

Organizations focused on performance management will also enjoy the many performance software integrations. BambooHR offers solid performance management tools on its own, but it can also integrate with popular solutions such as Lattice, 15Five, Culture Amp, and PerformYard.

HR Data and Reporting

BambooHR provides a secure, centralized location for HR data and uses personalized dashboards to make it easy for key team members to access the data they need for decision-making. We especially like that users can draw from 49 built-in reports or customize their own data sets by setting their own custom fields. Custom viewing permissions make it easy to keep sensitive data accessible only to those who need to see it. BambooHR’s robust analytics feature provides insight into employee turnover, benefits summaries and more.

BambooHR Costs

BambooHR offers two subscription packages, Core and Pro, to cover the HR needs of most small and midsize businesses. Unfortunately, the company does not publish or advertise the pricing for any of its products or services. 

Most of the companies we’ve reviewed in this category at least provide a starting cost (usually a monthly per-user fee on top of the monthly base fee) for their lower-level service packages and add-ons. 

The lack of clear pricing could make it difficult to compare plans and services with other providers’ offerings. If cost comparison is a priority for you, consider our Paychex Flex review or Gusto review for vendors that offer transparent pricing.

Core

• Pricing: Custom quote required
• Standout features: Employee records; benefits tracking; custom and standard reporting; document storage; email alerts; time-off calendar and management; mobile app functionality; workflows and approvals; applicant tracking system with job board integration; onboarding support, including new-hire packet and e-signatures; and access to the BambooHR Marketplace and BambooHR’s open API

Pro

• Pricing: Custom quote required
• Standout features: The same features as the Core plan, in addition to robust performance management tools with custom and review-question templates, employee experience and rewards tools, employee community features, satisfaction gauge with eNPS and onboarding 

Add-ons

Add-ons are available for payroll, benefits administration and time tracking, including full-service tax filing, employee self-service features, time sheets, automatic overtime calculations, mobile and desktop time clocks, benefits enrollment help and carrier connections. However, these features are not included in either subscription package; you must pay extra for them, and some add-ons may be available only with the Pro plan.

BambooHR Setup

You can expect to receive a great deal of assistance when implementing your new BambooHR account. Most customers opt for BambooHR’s implementation service, in which a dedicated implementation specialist guides you through each step of the setup process and customizes your account to suit your company’s needs.

Your implementation specialist can help you define all of the correct permission levels across your enterprise, configure any important workflows and approval processes, customize employee onboarding information, and implement anything else you need to get your HR department up and running smoothly. 

Implementation typically takes around four to six weeks. Organizations with 25 or fewer employees use a QuickStart process that includes a series of self-guided videos. Organizing your HR account the right way from the beginning will save you significant time and frustration down the road. 

BambooHR Customer Service

Customer service is available for all subscribers by email and by phone on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. This service window is about average for HR software vendors, but if you’re looking for a product with 24/7 support, check out our review of Paychex Flex.

The BambooHR website also has a vast library of self-help articles, interactive guides and webinars to answer the most common questions related to the software and settings. We like that the self-help content is very thorough and that users can choose from a variety of delivery formats. Many help articles provide the option of watching a video tutorial or following a step-by-step article tutorial with screenshots to learn new processes. We love that there are multiple tutorial options available to suit different learning styles and preferences.

BambooHR Drawbacks

One downside of BambooHR is the lack of transparent pricing. You’ll have to devote some time and effort to discovering if BambooHR is a viable option for your business; you must call and discuss your needs just to get a ballpark quote. Without published price estimates, it’s difficult to compare service providers, and adding new features could significantly increase your monthly cost. On the plus side, companies without set prices may allow you to negotiate a better deal if you speak to a sales agent at the end of the month or quarter.

Another limitation is that there’s no direct option to manage your employee benefits, such as health insurance or retirement plans, through BambooHR. However, the platform can track your benefits. BambooHR has a large app marketplace with full integrations for benefits administration through Maxwell Health, PlanSource, BeneTrac and Effortless Admin. It has similar integrations for financial services, including 401(k) and retirement benefits, through Human Interest and LoanBenefits. 

However, as some customers have pointed out, these extra features can add up quickly. If you would prefer additional benefits administration tools or plans, check out our TriNet HR software review.

Methodology

We conducted comprehensive research and analyzed dozens of HR systems to identify the top HR software on the market. We reviewed product videos, participated in tours and took advantage of free trials to get a feel for different HR platforms. When looking for the best HR software for performance management specifically, we prioritized features such as peer feedback, goal setting and performance review templates.

Overall Value

We recommend BambooHR for …

• Businesses that are looking for a people-focused, general HR platform with a strong emphasis on employee performance.
• Small and midsize businesses that want to improve their company culture through a deep understanding of employees.
• Any business that wants to assemble a highly customizable HR platform.

We don’t recommend BambooHR for …

• Small and midsize businesses that are looking for a straightforward HR service to handle onboarding, employee benefits, payroll taxes and compliance through one subscription plan.
• Business owners who like to see transparent pricing rather than contact a sales rep for a quote.