21 HR tools designed for growing companies

Finding HR software that meets your company’s individual needs is tricky – options are abundant and each software has its merits. To aid your search, we assembled a few promising tools for some of the most important HR techniques, like recruiting, performance management, employee training and employee engagement.

Streamline your recruiting

Recruiting is a multi-layered function that calls for a variety of HR software. Here are some tools to support your recruiting process:

With candidate screening

• HireSelect® by Criteria Corp: A testing platform that provides online pre-employment aptitude, personality and skills tests. These tests are designed by Harvard psychologists and help you assess candidates more objectively with quantifiable data.
• Plum.io: A tool that uses screening surveys and behavioral science to match candidates with hiring teams and roles. Plum.io helps you shortlist candidates and interview applicants using structured behavioral questions.

Related: Recruiting tools and techniques for modern HR teams

With video interviewing

• HireVue: A video interviewing platform that supports standardized interviews and uses machine learning to predict future performance. This tool also enhances your employer branding efforts with features like branded videos and landing pages.
• Spark Hire: A video interviewing platform for conducting one-way or live interviews. Each video is recorded so you can review it at a later time with your team. You can also create branded videos and schedule interviews efficiently.

With sourcing and applicant tracking

• People Search: A Chrome extension for candidate sourcing. People Search looks through millions of online sources within seconds and builds complete candidate profiles, often including email addresses, resumes and social network profiles.
• Workable: A complete recruiting software with applicant tracking and social recruiting functionalities. Workable helps hiring teams collaborate, build talent pipelines and communicate with candidates through email templates and scheduling features. Workable also integrates with dozens of other tools through a Developer Partner Program.

Related: 17 effective candidate sourcing tools

With more objective hiring

• GapJumpers: A platform where you can conduct blind interviews with qualified candidates for tech and design roles. Not knowing what candidates’ look like or what their gender is can help your hiring teams focus on job-related criteria.
• Interviewing.io: A technical interviewing platform where candidates can practice interviewing with companies anonymously. Blind interviews help candidates perform better and showcase their skills.
• Codility: A tech recruiting platform that supports coding challenges and online technical interviews. Use Codility to create tests, evaluate candidates’ code and connect with the best programmers.

Other options for effective recruiting: eSkill, Interview Mocha, Montage.

Support performance management

Performance appraisal software can be a stand-alone solution or part of an integrated HR Information System (HRIS). Stand-alone products can have broader functionality, but make sure they integrate with other HR tools you use. Here are a few cloud-based, dedicated platforms:

• 15Five: A platform that fosters communication focusing both on performance and employee engagement. Managers can ask employees questions, run short polls, comment on answers and set objectives. Their “weekly check-in” function helps managers monitor employee morale too.
• Small Improvements: A performance management platform that facilitates continuous feedback and goal-setting on top of a customizable performance review process. This tool’s “Praise a Coworker” function helps create a culture of trust.
• Trakstar: A tool that provides flexibility in setting up your performance evaluation process. You can design custom forms for reviews and different workflows for each team or department. Real-time reporting and feedback features help keep everyone in the loop.

Other options for performance management: Impraise, Spidergap, WideAngle.

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Monitor training and learning

Corporate training involves training employees, customers and partners. You can create courses, monitor progress and organize training activities with a Learning Management System (LMS):

• iSpring Suite and iSpring Learn: iSpring Suite is a PowerPoint-integrated tool to help you build eLearning courses. iSpring Suite has a free version with limited capabilities, while their paid, cloud-based version offers a large content library. iSpring Learn helps you organize and monitor your training programs.
• Matrix LMS: A cloud-based platform that facilitates communication between learners and includes authoring tools for creating courses. Matrix LMS also has gamification options to encourage learning and helps you track progress and apply scores.
• TalentLMS: A cloud-based system for building trainings reusing old content or finding new content on the Web. You can also create your own eLearning portal with customizable logos and themes. TalentLMS has gamification options and lets you create lesson paths to facilitate learning.

Other options for Learning Management: Bridge, Docebo, Litmos.

Measure employee engagement

Asking for employee feedback builds trust and can result in many positive changes in your company. Recognizing and rewarding feedback is good for morale. Here are a few tools to survey and reward your employees:

• Bonusly: A tool for employee recognition. Bonusly uses “micro bonuses” – small pieces of recognition that come from peers and managers for a job well done. Employees can use their micro bonuses to get rewards from a custom catalog.
• Culture Amp: An app that provides a library of customizable surveys created by a team of organizational psychologists. You can send surveys and benchmark results across organizations similar to yours.
• TINYPulse: An app that helps you survey employees and identify trends through a metrics dashboard. Employees can submit any suggestions they have anonymously, upvote their colleagues’ suggestions and praise their peers.

Other options for measuring employee engagement: Briq, Motivosity, Officevibe, VibeCatch.

Keep all functions in one place

Fully-fledged HRISs support your HR needs by providing a range of tools. At a minimum, they offer a centralized employee database, payroll and benefits administration, timekeeping, onboarding and compliance reporting. Most HRISs integrate with other tools, so you can also take advantage of the flexibility and added features of a stand-alone product. Here are a few HRISs to consider:

• BambooHR: HR software that focuses on onboarding, tracking time off and maintaining records and a complete employee database. Other features include applicant tracking, performance management, HR reporting and Bamboo Payroll™.
• Namely: A complete system that provides employee database, payroll and benefit functions. Namely’s talent management features include custom performance reviews and effective orientation processes.
• UltiPro: A comprehensive HRIS that links performance management to related functions, like compensation and succession management. Other UltiPro functions include timekeeping, workforce analytics and business intelligence.

Other effective HRISs: ADP Workforce Now, Kin HR, Staff Squared, Workday.