Human resource teams support multiple operations, including recruitment, onboarding, payroll, talent management, and performance management. Investing in operational and administrative HR software is one way to fast-track these tasks, but it's tough to identify which HR software tools would add the most value to business operations.
We looked at the search patterns of and thousands of reviews from HR professionals to identify the most-viewed categories of HR-related software on Capterra.com. Per our analysis, the top three categories are:
Learning management software
Applicant tracking software
Payroll software
This article highlights six top-rated products from these three HR software categories—two products from each category listed alphabetically—based on verified user reviews. Read more about our methodology here.
Top-rated learning management software for HR professionals
1. Blackboard Learn
Blackboard Learn is a learning management system for higher education institutions, K-12 schools, and businesses. HR teams can use this tool to design and deliver employee training programs. They can create courses, modules, and learning paths that cover topics such as developing skills, resolving workplace conflict, and navigating burnout. The software provides a centralized dashboard for HR teams to oversee learning content creation, management, and delivery. It also includes a built-in calendar that records upcoming deadlines and an activity feed that prioritizes key communications, projects, and courses.
Product features of interestFlexible assessments: Create custom candidate assessments as per learning needs. This feature lets HR teams select from a variety of assessment types and design distinct tests that align with their organization's training style.
Data insights: Gain valuable insights into learners' progress, engagement, and performance. With data-driven insights, HR professionals can make informed decisions to optimize training programs and tailor learning experiences to individual needs.
Blackboard Assist: Access built-in tutorials, guides, and troubleshooting assistance. This feature acts as a single point of access for all the support services users need, making it easier for them to get help when required.
Customer support options: Help desk and knowledge base
Who should consider Blackboard Learn?
Blackboard Learn is worth considering for HR departments that want an LMS with self-help or troubleshooting assistance to maximize productivity. Its Blackboard Assist feature offers a centralized hub where employees can find answers to their questions and overcome usage challenges. Whether it's understanding a specific feature, navigating the platform, or resolving technical issues, Blackboard Assist is the single point of access for all support services, and it helps remove barriers that could otherwise hinder the learning process.
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2. LinkedIn Learning
As an LMS platform, LinkedIn Learning offers courses, tutorials, and learning resources spanning various subjects, including business, technology, and creative skills. The courses comprise assessments, quizzes, and hands-on exercises to reinforce learning. The tool provides real-time insights into learner achievements, including completion rates, quiz scores, and time spent on each module or lesson. HR teams can use these insights to optimize future learning strategies. Additionally, HR teams can create groups to promote collaborative learning. Group admins can add or delete members, recommend assignments, and generate progress reports for evaluation.
Product features of interest- Custom content and learning paths: Create custom courses and learning resources to align with business goals and requirements. By designing personalized learning pathsLearning Paths are a group of courses or videos related to a specific topic, usually taken sequentially., HR teams can help employees acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for their roles.
Custom career development: Support employees' career development by providing targeted learning opportunities. Employees can explore learning content that aligns with their career goals through personalized recommendations, skill assessments, and career path guidance.
Progress tracker: Track the time employees take to complete a course, the skills they gain, and the certificates they earn. This feature helps managers monitor progress, identify improvement areas, and ensure learning initiatives yield desired outcomes.
Customer support options: Email and help center
Who should consider LinkedIn Learning?
LinkedIn Learning is suitable for HR teams looking to create a collaborative learning environment. This HR platform allows users to form groups or teams, enabling collaboration among colleagues, peers, or those with common learning interests. Group admins can add custom courses, create assignments, access dashboards to check progress, and recommend specific courses or learning content to all employees or individual employees. These capabilities help evaluate the impact of collaborative learning efforts within employee groups.
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/ Pro tip
Identify the gaps in your training and learning processes and determine how an LMS can address them. For instance, if you have fragmented training management leading to inconsistency and reduced employee engagement, an integrated learning management system would improve the process by centralizing training content, automating enrollment, and providing analytics for better tracking.
Top-rated applicant tracking software for HR professionals
3. ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now is an HR suite with applicant tracking capabilities to standardize the hiring pipeline—from creating job posts to onboarding new hires. This solution enables HR teams to build a personalized career website to showcase available positions and simplify the application process for candidates. Additionally, HR teams can create job posts for social media from within the ATS. This feature pre-populates job details into the posts, including the job title, job description, company name, and location.
Product features of interestVideo messaging: Use video messages to communicate job requirements and company culture details. This feature enhances candidate engagement and addresses potential misunderstandings or miscommunications arising from diverse interpretations of text-based job descriptions.
Sponsored job posting with ZipRecruiter: Integrate ZipRecruiter, an online job search engine and recruitment platform, to create unlimited sponsored job postings, identify quality candidates, and send application invitations to candidates.
Reporting and analytics: Generate comprehensive reports to analyze recruitment costs and the duration of position fulfillment. This data-driven approach helps improve decision-making and enhances overall recruitment efficiency.
Customer support options: Live chat, call, email, and help desk
Who should consider ADP Workforce Now?
Recruiters looking to eliminate confusion in communicating job roles or expectations can consider ADP Workforce Now. Its video messaging feature enables recruiters to share job requirements and company culture details via video messages. These messages bridge the gap between textual descriptions and real-world scenarios by demonstrating work processes, team collaborations, or on-site environments. They help clearly communicate a role's demands and dynamics.
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Ready to hire a recruiting agency for your business needs? Browse our list of companies in the following areas:
4. Indeed
As a job board first, Indeed differs from traditional purpose-built applicant tracking solutions. However, it offers core application tracking features, including job posting, resume parsing, talent acquisition, and interview scheduling. A key differentiator is its AI resume search, which analyzes job descriptions and candidate resumes to identify the best matches based on skills, experience, education, and other factors. Additionally, the platform enables direct transfer of candidate data and resumes from job boards, saving HR teams time and reducing manual data entry errors.
Product features of interestSponsored job posting: Increase the visibility of a job posting by promoting it to the top of search results and on the Indeed job board. Recruiters can target their job postings to specific audiences based on location, job type, and industry.
Interview management: Schedule one-on-one, panel, and multi-round interviews; preview resumes; record interviews; share screen; take notes; and share details with the next interviewer.
Applicant skills testing: Use pre-built assessments and screening questions to test applicants' skills and track their scores. Employers can view the scores of all candidates and filter the results to identify best-suited applications.
Customer support options: Help center, FAQs, and query forms
Who should consider Indeed?
HR teams looking for an ATS tool that automates resume parsing and candidate data entry can consider Indeed. Its advanced AI resume search feature leverages intelligent analytics to automate and standardize the process of identifying top-tier candidates with the most relevant qualifications, skills, and employee experience. Moreover, Indeed offers a recruiter extension that imports data directly from its suite of products, including Indeed Jobs and Indeed Resume, to further enhance data collection and recording.
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/ Pro tip
Leverage a demo, trial, or free version to understand how your shortlisted ATS software handles HR tasks such as posting job listings, scheduling interviews, and managing candidate communication. A trial run can also help you identify potential issues or limitations with the software, such as complicated interfaces or lack of features your HR team needs.
Top-rated payroll software for HR professionals
5. Gusto
As a payroll tool, Gusto automates processes such as calculating taxes and disbursing salaries. It tracks employee work hours and calculates overtime based on the logged hours. It also offers flexible payroll processing options with hourly, weekly, and monthly payouts for contractors. A distinguishing factor is its vault debit card that allows employees easier access to their money on payday. The software even stores and organizes tax management forms, such as employee I-9s, W-2s, and contractor 1099s.
Product features of interestAutoPilot payroll: Automatically sync your team's hours. The feature summarizes work hours from time tracking tools and integrates with attendance systems to ensure accurate payroll processing and eliminate manual data entry and calculations.
Automated tax filing: Automatically calculate business and employee taxes based on up-to-date local, state, and federal tax regulations. This functionality helps generate and file tax forms with appropriate government agencies so businesses don't have to navigate complex tax codes and deadlines.
Health benefits administration: Offer health insurance benefits, including health savings accounts (HSA), disability insurance, flexible spending accounts (FSA), life insurance, and dependent care.
Customer support options: Help center, FAQs, call, and email
Who should consider Gusto?
Gusto is worth considering for HR managers looking to simplify payroll processing for contract employees. Contract employees often have varying work arrangements and payment schedules, creating challenges in receiving timely compensation. The Gusto HR solution addresses these challenges by offering a range of flexible payroll processing options. HR teams can choose between hourly, weekly, or monthly payouts for contractors. Additionally, they can pay contractors via check, ACH transfer, wire transfer, credit card, and online payment systems such as PayPal or Venmo.
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6. Paylocity
Paylocity is an HR suite with payroll processing capabilities. It can process payroll for multiple countries with varying tax laws, regulations, and employment practices. All the global employee payroll data is available on a single platform and can be analyzed using the activity dashboard for pending submissions, transaction approvals, and payments. Additionally, the software enables payroll teams to create custom general ledgers, accruals, and reports to spot, verify, and correct inaccuracies (if any) with paychecks.
Product features of interestCustomized payroll reports: Use custom reporting templates to analyze employee data, including payroll details, contact information, tax filing, forms, and employee benefits. These reports help HR teams track financial records accurately and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Wage garnishment management: Automate calculating, withholding, and distributing funds from an employee's paycheck to the appropriate authorities or creditors. The wage garnishmentWage garnishment is a legal process in which an employer withholds a portion of an individual's earnings to repay a debt or financial obligation. It typically occurs when an individual owes money to a creditor, government agency, or another entity, and a court order or legal process mandates that a portion of their wages be withheld to repay the debt.feature ensures the correct amount is deducted from each paycheck and allocated to the designated recipient.
On-demand payments: Provide employees the option to access a portion of their earned wages before the scheduled payday. This functionality acts as a supportive financial tool that helps employees manage unexpected expenses.
Customer support options: Call, email, and knowledge base
Who should consider Paylocity?
HR teams looking to simplify payroll processing for global employees can benefit from Paylocity. This HR tool tracks payroll data for all employees, including global staff, on a centralized platform with aggregated reporting capabilities. The aggregated payroll data (e.g., account details, tax submissions) is updated in real time as employees add or modify it, helping payroll teams reduce manual processes and ensure compliance.
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/ Pro tip
The payroll process involves collecting and storing sensitive employee information, such as social security numbers, addresses, and banking information. Therefore, ensure your shortlisted payroll tool offers robust security features, such as multi-factor authentication and data encryption, to safeguard sensitive employee data. Also, ensure the tool complies with all applicable data privacy laws.
How much do HR software tools cost?
HR software costs vary based on the software type, core HR management features, user count, business size and type, integrations, and storage. Most HR tools offer a free trial (no-cost trial plans ranging from 14 to 30 days) or a forever free version with limited features. Besides these, typical pricing plans include:
Entry-level plans: These offer basic HR features and are suitable for small teams or businesses.
Mid-tier plans: These cover all basic and some advanced features and are ideal for teams that have outgrown basic HR solutions but don't require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.
High-end plans: These include unlimited access to advanced features and are ideal for large enterprises with cross-functional teams.
Note: The table below provides per user, per month pricing details for each category.
Entry-level plan | Mid-tier plan | High-end plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
Learning management software | Price: $1.63 to $6.5 Features: Course assigning, progress tracking | Price: $10 to $44.2 Features: Unlimited lesson plans, gamification elements, data storage | Price: $50 to $83 Features: Unlimited access to entry and mid-level features |
Applicant tracking software | Price: $15 to $23 Features: Sponsored job posting, interview scheduling | Price: $30 to $61 Features: Candidate tracking, CRM integration, bulk data import, priority support | Price: $45 to $99 Features: Unlimited LMS job posting, workflow and HR automation, custom domains, multi-location support |
Payroll software | Price: $2.99 to $3.5 Features: Time tracking, payment, tax compliance | Price: $5 to $17 Features: Custom payment schedules, currency conversion, garnishment payment, general ledger | Price: $20 to $299 Features: Unlimited access to entry and mid-level features |
Hidden costs associated with HR software tools
Besides the HR software license price, additional costs may include:
Implementation and training costs: Setup, customization, and staff training expenses.
Data migration and integration costs: Moving data and connecting with other systems might require extra funds.
Support and maintenance Fees: Ongoing charges for updates and technical assistance.
Frequently asked questions when selecting HR software tools
Before finalizing any HR management software, consider asking vendors these questions to ensure you pick the best HR software for your business needs.
Does the software have an employee self-service portal?
This feature of an HR platform allows employees to self-update their information, reducing administrative workloads for HR professionals. Using the self-service portal, employees can access and download their pay stubs and tax forms, and browse available training courses, workshops, and learning content. Additionally, prospective candidates can track the status of their job applications, eliminating the need for frequent inquiries and improving the candidate experience. New employees can also use the portal to check and complete onboarding tasks such as submitting paperwork.
Can the software be customized?
Customization is important whether you’re purchasing payroll software, applicant tracking software, learning management software, or any other HR tool. This will help tailor the software to meet your business’s specific HR needs. For example, an applicant tracking tool should include the ability to customize workflows and stages to match your unique hiring process.
What collaboration tools does the software support?
Collaboration is the cornerstone of effective teamwork, whether you’re developing a learning program, creating an applicant tracking workflow, or running payroll. Some collaboration features to consider in the HR software solution you choose include chat, audio and video calls, whiteboards, and annotations. These features will make it easier for your HR team to work together, especially if you have a virtual or hybrid workforce.