Customer Insights: Top 5 Software for HR Reporting Capabilities

Brian Westfall profile picture
By Brian Westfall

Published
7 min read

When it comes to HR reporting, users say these HR software products do it the best.

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What is a Sentiment Score?

The sentiment score is a rating based on how positive or negative users are when they review a product. On a scale from 1 to 10, rave reviews get a high score, unfavorable reviews get a low score, and lukewarm reviews get a score in between. Review scores are then averaged to determine the sentiment score for the product.

Gone is the gut-feel, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants HR department of old. In order to succeed in this day and age, HR departments need to become data-driven to make better talent management decisions.

You need exceptional HR reporting capabilities to make this happen. But when every HR software system offers reporting in some shape or form, it can be difficult to determine which products do it best.

To help you find the best, we poured through thousands of HR software reviews in our database and looked for mentions of reporting to calculate a sentiment score for each system's reporting capabilities.

So without further ado, here are the five HR software products that scored the highest sentiment score for their HR reporting capabilities.

Top 5 systems for HR reporting capabilities

Product (click to jump to that section)

Reporting sentiment score (out of 10)

Zenefits

6.39

People

6.37

BambooHR

6.36

Kronos Workforce Ready

6.32

UltiPro

6.10

Products are ordered from highest sentiment score to lowest. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

1. Zenefits

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of date of publication

Zenefits is an all-in-one core HR suite built with small businesses in mind. Within the Business Intelligence application, users can generate reports for everything from headcount to turnover rate, and even visualize equal opportunity stats for things like diversity.

You can view company data at a department, team, or location level, and apply filters based on employee status, employee type, job title, hire date, and more. You can also create your own custom reports leveraging more than 140 different data fields.

Here's what Zenefits users say about the system's HR reporting capabilities:

  • Easy to access and read

  • Robust

  • Helpful and time-saving

zenefits-reporting

A reporting overview screen in Zenefits (Source)

How do users feel about Zenefits' reporting?

Sentiment toward Zenefits' HR reporting capabilities is largely positive. Eighty-one percent of Zenefits reviews that mention reporting mention it positively, while only three percent mention it negatively. By comparison, the HR software category as a whole only averages 67% of reviews mentioning reporting positively.

zenefits-hr-reporting-sentiment

How does Zenefits compare to the category average for reporting?

While the entire HR software category averages a reporting sentiment score of 6.08, Zenefits averages a 6.39.

zenefits-vs-hr-category


Read user reviews of Zenefits

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2. People

People is another HR suite with applications for HR essentials (such as applicant and personnel tracking), and more strategic needs like performance management and employee recognition.

Dubbed "Explosive Reports," People's reporting capabilities give you a wide array of pre-loaded assets to work with, which you can tweak and collate as needed into compelling, infographic-like reports (instead of your standard bar and pie charts). Custom reporting supported by a flexible query tool is also included.

Here's what People users say about the system's HR reporting capabilities:

  • Very agile and flexible

  • Great visuals

  • Lots of customization

people-reporting

Creating a custom report in People (Source)

How do users feel about People's reporting?

A majority of People users say the system excels at HR reporting. Seventy percent of People reviews that mention reporting mention it positively, while only 10% mention it negatively. By comparison, the HR software category as a whole only averages 67% of reviews mentioning reporting positively.

people-hr-reporting-sentiment

How does People compare to the category average for reporting?

While the entire HR software category averages a reporting sentiment score of 6.08, People averages a 6.37.

people-vs-hr-category


Read user reviews of People

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3. BambooHR

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of date of publication

Intended for small and midsize businesses, BambooHR can manage the entire employee lifecycle with applications for recruiting, onboarding, payroll, time tracking, performance management, employee engagement measurement, and offboarding.

BambooHR's reporting and analytics capabilities make speed a top priority, allowing users to quickly generate easy-to-read reports about headcount, PTO usage, turnover, etc. The reports you use most often are automatically saved in a dashboard for easy access. Custom reporting is available, as is the ability to report on custom data fields.

Here's what BambooHR users say about the system's HR reporting capabilities:

  • Continuously improving

  • Easy to use

  • Custom reports in seconds

bamboohr-reporting

A list of standard reports in BambooHR (Source)

How do users feel about BambooHR's reporting?

When it comes to HR reporting, many BambooHR users agree the system is great. Sixty-eight percent of BambooHR reviews that mention reporting mention it positively, while only six percent mention it negatively. By comparison, the HR software category as a whole only averages 67% of reviews mentioning reporting positively.

bamboohr-hr-reporting-sentiment

How does BambooHR compare to the category average for reporting?

While the entire HR software category averages a reporting sentiment score of 6.08, BambooHR averages a 6.36.

bamboohr-vs-hr-category


Read user reviews of BambooHR

Download Now


4. Kronos Workforce Ready

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of date of publication

A marriage of workforce management and human capital management (HCM) capabilities, Kronos Workforce Ready is a comprehensive HR suite built with large enterprises in mind. The Workforce Ready People Analytics application is the platform's hub for data-driven decision making and reporting.

Along with the ability to generate standard reports based on historical data, Kronos Workforce Ready includes AI-powered predictive analytics to visualize impactful trends. Users also get access to a dedicated analytics and reporting team at Kronos to help gather, connect, and report on important data.

Here's what Kronos Workforce Ready users say about the system's HR reporting capabilities:

  • Fantastic

  • A ton of flexibility and options

  • Very user-friendly

kronos-reporting

A reporting dashboard in Krono Workforce Ready (Source)

How do users feel about Kronos Workforce Ready's reporting?

HR reporting is a strength for Kronos Workforce Ready, according to users. Seventy-six percent of Workforce Ready reviews that mention reporting mention it positively, while only five percent mention it negatively. By comparison, the HR software category as a whole only averages 67% of reviews mentioning reporting positively.

kronos-hr-reporting-sentiment

How does Kronos Workforce Ready compare to the category average for reporting?

While the entire HR software category averages a reporting sentiment score of 6.08, Kronos Workforce Ready averages a 6.32.

kronos-vs-hr-category


Read user reviews of Kronos Workforce Ready

Download Now


5. UltiPro

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of date of publication

Ultimate Software's UltiPro is another enterprise-focused HCM suite with a slew of features to support both core and strategic HR needs.

Within UltiPro's business intelligence tools, you'll find robust reporting capabilities that allow users to discover important HR insights in real-time. You can send automatic email notifications to stakeholders when updates have been made to the extensive library of premade reports, or those that you've created yourself. Predictive analytics are built-in, as are prescriptive analytics to recommend next best actions based on your data.

Here's what UltiPro users say about the system's HR reporting capabilities:

  • Powerful and robust

  • Versatile

  • Easy to automate

ultipro-reporting

A benefits summary report in UltiPro (Source)

How do users feel about UltiPro's reporting?

UltiPro users applaud its HR reporting capabilities. Sixty-eight percent of UltiPro reviews that mention reporting mention it positively, while only seven percent mention it negatively. By comparison, the HR software category as a whole averages 67% of reviews mentioning reporting positively.

ultipro-hr-reporting-sentiment

How does UltiPro compare to the category average for reporting?

While the entire HR software category averages a reporting sentiment score of 6.08, UltiPro averages a 6.10.

ultipro-vs-hr-category


Read user reviews of Ultipro

Download Now


What about dashboards?

Reports are great if you want to go in-depth or if you have to present something to leadership, but what about when you just want to see some important stats at a glance? For that, you need a good dashboard.

Don't worry, we got you covered here too. We used a similar methodology to determine the “6 Best HR Dashboards for Data-Driven HR Departments." Go check it out.


Methodology


To be considered for this report, products had to meet our HR software market definition, meet our review count minimum, and have a high percentage of positive mentions for reporting compared to other evaluated products.

  • HR software market definition: In order to be considered an HR software system, products must have employee profile, employee database, and reporting features.

  • Review count minimum: Products had to have 20 or more unique reviews mentioning “reporting" or related terms.

  • Percent of mentions that are positive: Products listed in this report had the highest percentage of positive mentions of reporting among eligible products.

To calculate sentiment score, we looked at specific mentions of reporting in each review (i.e., “snippets") and analyzed the language used to describe the product's reporting capabilities. We then scored the language on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most positive, five being neutral, and one being the most negative. The score for each snippet was the sum of all descriptive terms in the snippet. Snippet scores were then averaged to determine the sentiment score for the product.

When comparing a product's sentiment score to the average score for the entire category, the product's score was removed from the category for accuracy.

Note: The content in this piece provides opinions and points of view expressed by users. It does not represent the views of Capterra.


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About the Author

Brian Westfall profile picture

Brian Westfall is an associate principal analyst at Capterra, covering human resources, with a focus on recruiting, talent management, and employee engagement. Over the past decade, Brian’s research on the intersection of talent and technology has been featured in Bloomberg, Fortune, SHRM, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal. He also led a session - “Become Data-Driven Or Drown: Why Winners and Losers of The Next Recession Will Be Decided By Tech” - at the SHRM Talent Conference & Expo in 2023.

When he isn’t helping small and midsize businesses get the most out of their HR technology, Brian can be found playing with his two corgis or traveling the world.

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