The best HRIS systems in the UK in 2024
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HRIS systems help you automate HR tasks and save time across all your operations.
HRIS systems can help you automate HR tasks and save time across all your operations — provided you pick the right one!
If you're a CEO or senior executive at a 30-people company, you'll benefit from a very different HRIS from an HR associate working for a big multinational.
Some platforms hone in on specific HR processes (hiring or payroll, for example), while others focus on solving the problems of larger companies. It’s less common to find HRIS systems that specialise in small businesses (this is where our Charlie platform comes in).
But, before we talk about Charlie, you'll want to know what the market has to offer for your specific needs. This guide is here to help you compare some of the best HRIS systems, so you can find the best fit for you.
This list is the result of three months of in-house research aimed at understanding our competitors better and addressing the needs of our customers.
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The 5 best HRIS systems in the UK
Best all-in-one HRIS for small companies and startups
Charlie helps small businesses bring order to their HR chaos. Our software can be set up in just a few clicks and takes care of all of your HR processes.
If you’re a senior leader, founder or CEO – as well as the only person looking after HR – Charlie will help you save hours of admin work each week, and elevate your HR processes from scrappy and chaotic to professional and compliant.
Charlie is also an excellent tool if you lead your small company’s operations, or juggle multiple responsibilities in an HR role. We’re great for people under 50 team members, but especially if you have no more than 30.
Manage your time off requests – approve or deny requests in one click and let the software do the math on your behalf
Automate your onboarding process — no need to oversee email threads or send multiple chasers
Easily roll out performance reviews to the whole team – support your team’s growth with a clear and transparent process that includes 360 reviews
Launch engagement surveys in just a few clicks – keep your finger on the pulse to optimise employee retention and engagement
Use our built-in Perks platform – reward your hard-working team members at no extra cost
Sync all of your HR stack together — remove copy-pasting between platforms and bring all of your HR stack together
James Gill, GoSquared – approx. 30 team members
"Using Charlie has saved me so much time and energy. No one wins when I am spending hours on admin tasks every week... Now, I have more time to focus on my most important work."
Pricing
From as little as £5 per month
- Pay monthly, cancel anytime
- Inclusive of all features
- No added fees
With our simple pricing tiers, you can easily forecast costs depending on your hiring plans. As small businesses are tight on budget, we wanted to design a pricing model that made HR software affordable for companies who just started out – find out more on our pricing page.
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Best for hiring and recruitment
PeopleHR offers various HRIS software packages depending on your company’s needs.
Their Enterprise package includes all of the essential for HR management, as well as an efficient Applicant Tracking System to streamline recruitment processes — this is ideal for large companies recruiting across multiple teams and wanting to keep their hiring under control.
We’ve heard from some of our own customers that PeopleHR can be too complicated and unfit for the needs of small businesses, something to keep in mind when picking your own HRIS.
Use the time tracking and rotating work patterns for your teams
Deal with expenses directly through the platform
Meet candidates face-to-face with a video interview app
Create and publish engaging and detailed job ads to attract the right candidates
Evaluate candidates against key skills using PeopleHR’s scoring system
Check your hiring pipeline on the go with the mobile-optimised app
“Access PeopleHR offers lots of features, as well as calendar integration, and quick and helpful customer support. I also love the reporting feature, and the ability to customise all of the various permissions with a great mobile app.”
Rob K.
Pricing
Different packages – note that not all packages include all the features:
- Essentials – £3 per employee per month – only the basic features
- Professional – £5 per employee per month – basic features + time tracking + expenses management and training
- Enterprise – £7 per employee per month – all of the above + recruitment and ATS software
- Elite – £9 per employee per month – all of the above + custom workflows with Ripple, custom automated alerts and tasks, flexible employee benefits
Best for payroll
ADP’s HRIS solution for companies with over 200 employees integrates payroll software with your HR processes. Your employee data is used to automate payroll and to make sure everyone is paid the right amount.
Choose between fully or partially managed payroll administration depending on your needs. ADP also offers a time & attendance system as well as a talent hub, which are adjacent to their main function (payroll management), but can be handy if you’re looking to have these functions together in one place.
Enjoy the peace of mind of always knowing what to do to comply with HMRC regulations
Get an online employee and manager self-service portal
Have access to certified payroll professionals for your questions
On top of payroll, ADP offers comprehensive reporting for multinational companies from team costs to headcount.
You can also outsource your finance tasks, at an extra price.
Amith R. – between 51-1000 employees
“ADP Payroll Services offers multiple options such as employee attendance and payroll. I don’t have to download multiple software for each task as it provides so many options. It makes our job really easy as we remove a lot of manual processes and save tons of time.”
Pricing
Not provided on the website. You will need to contact their sales representative to get a quote.
Best for attendance timesheets
Zoho is one of the best HRIS systems for companies whose employees work shifts, part-time or irregular hours. You can create and update your timesheets online to easily keep track of attendance and hours worked.
Use the time tracker to log your team’s working hours.
Set up your personalised approval process for line managers to sign off working hours and overtime.
Let the system do the maths for you. Zoho’s automated billing and invoicing ensure payments are always correct and on time.
The phone app allows your team to check timesheets while they’re on the go.
Stay up to date with reports about employee attendance and time spent on projects.
Megha S. – between 51 and 1,000 employees
“Perfect platform to track work, projects and leaves. Its user-friendly design ensures that users can navigate the platform effortlessly, reducing the learning curve associated with new software. With Zoho People, getting started is a breeze.”
Pricing
Multiple packages available. Most timesheet functionalities are included in the Professional Plan for £1.5 per user per month, billed annually.
If you’d like to benefit from more, you can pick from four other packages on the Zoho website.
Best for large enterprises
Large companies with multiple international offices and a substantial budget choose Oracle for its advanced HRIS platform that allows them to monitor and report on not only HR but also Supply Chain Management, Customer Relations and Enterprise Performance Management.
Combines employee data, workload management and development tools all in one system.
Offers comprehensive data about business performance that allow you to make sense of a large and distributed team
The cloud software provides a high-security level while combining information within and outside of the organisation
With its AI systems, Oracle makes human error almost impossible, as well as providing further insight into the business
Arun R. – more than 1,000 employees
“We like the way Oracle contains all of our employe data. We are currently implementing the Oracle Recruiting Cloud and having our candidate/pending worker data in the same system as our HR system is going to greatly reduce the time it takes for us to enter a new hire. This is important because we have a forceforce of approximately 22,000+ and we hire 100+ new employees each week.”
Pricing
On quote — it depends on the package you choose.
Written by:
Jenny Tattum
Jenny is a Senior Product Manager at CharlieHR. She has years of experience with product planning and development, and user research too – she put together this guide by collecting data and information on competitors so we could improve our product and tailor it to small business owners.
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HRIS systems FAQs
HRIS stands for Human Resource Information System. It’s also called HR software or HRMS.
HRIS is a type of software companies use to manage and automate all sorts of HR processes, from time off to performance reviews, employee data storage and onboarding.
HRMS stands for Human Resource Management System. The two acronyms basically identify the same type of software, combining multiple features that help you keep all aspects of HR under control. There is no actual difference between the two.
Not all HRIS are the same. Some HRIS, as we showed in this guide, provide more complex features such as payroll or a complete suite of tools for your business.
However, and when it comes to being a small business where you’re the only one dealing with HR, you need a tool that’s easy to use and with a fast setup.
Sometimes, it’s better to go for a tool that focuses on the needs of your business rather than a very complex one that will cost a lot of money and won’t be very useful.
The cost of HRIS software can vary massively depending on what features are included and how big your company is. Some products will have the price clearly visible on their website (like Charlie), while others will only give you a quote after you get in touch with them.
It’s really important, as a CEO or senior leader navigating HR software for the first time, that you put together a list of software you want to try out and how much they’ll cost, so you can understand what you can afford.
When evaluating different HRIS software packages, it’s useful to think about whether they are a good fit for your company size and your business's needs. If you’re a small company, you will not need the same advanced, costly features as larger companies.
Use our table at the top of this article to find the best HRIS for your company.
We hope this blog post was useful to choose the right HR solution for your business and that you’ll take away as much as you can from it.
And if you’re a small business or startup that wants to manage your team and craft your culture, you may want to start a free trial of CharlieHR today.
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