Tag: Human Resources

The benefits of payroll software speak for themselves, but the price tag can be limiting, especially for small businesses.

Gusto offers some of the most affordable plans on the market and transparent pricing.

You even get a generous serving of HR features to complement your payroll processing.

Is Gusto the payroll service for you? How does it measure up to the competition?

This review covers everything you might need to know about Gusto before you open your wallet.

Gusto Pros and Cons

Pros

• Very easy to use for beginners
• Affordable pricing for startups and small businesses
• Great range of payroll and HR features
• Unlimited payroll runs
• No extra charge for filing taxes
• Transparent pricing

Cons

• Health insurance coverage is limited to 37 states
• No dedicated payroll specialist
• The time tracking feature isn’t available with the basic plan
• You have to pay for all employees, whether or not you pay them

How Gusto Compares to Top Online Payroll Services

Three top contenders for the best payroll services are ADP, Paychex, and OnPay. However, Gusto is still a terrific online payroll service, especially for small businesses or startups. It is arguably the most straightforward software for an absolute beginner. It also comes with a full suite of payroll and HR features, making it worth the cost. For these reasons and more, Gusto made it onto our list of the best payroll services after much research and reviewing.

Gusto Management & Employee Self-Service

Payroll software already makes processing salaries and wages easier. However, things can be even easier with employee self-service solutions. Again, this is an area where Gusto excels, and benefits employers who don’t have a lot of time or resources to deal with personnel paperwork.

With Gusto, you only need to enter a few employee details, including their email address. Then the software sends out an invite for the employee to complete the onboarding process. The employee will provide contact information, fill out W-4 and I-9 forms, supply their bank details, and can e-sign paperwork within Gusto. This leaves you more time to deal with other crucial business tasks.

Adding and removing employees from the system is easy and intuitive. Your employees will be able to view their W-2s and paystubs any time they wish. Even old employees can continue to view their old pay stubs if they need to.

To be fair, employee self-service is pretty much standard with top payroll software. Paychex, ADP, and OnPay all offer equally robust employee self-service functionality. But given Gusto’s overall ease of use, this software beats the competition. Even your less tech-savvy employees and contractors will be able to easily self-onboard using Gusto. It’s also great that Gusto offers this feature with its cheapest plan, the Core plan.

Gusto Multi-State Tax Filings

Gusto automatically files your tax forms and remittances for you. These include basic forms like 1099 and W-2. Gusto also takes care of more complicated forms like the 940, 941, and 8974. Additionally, the software files state-specific tax forms to ensure that you are always compliant. The software allows employees to sign the forms electronically. These forms are securely stored online, complete with 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

The best part about filing tax forms with Gusto is the transparent pricing. The entire cost is covered in your subscription, regardless of the document. Similar services like ADP Run charge an extra fee to process W-2s and 1099s, bringing up the cost of your subscription.

Also, Gusto offers multi-state tax filings in all 50 states. Multi-state tax filing is available with all Gusto plans, including the Core plan. Again, this functionality is included in your monthly fee. On the other hand, ADP charges an extra fee if you need to run payroll in more than one state. Gusto is definitely a top choice for employers with a workforce spread out across multiple states.

Gusto Specialized Payroll Solutions

Payroll complexity depends on the specific industry. For the most part, Gusto is a terrific payroll software for most industries. The service provider also includes a dedicated contractor plan if you work exclusively with contractors.

Gusto even has a nifty feature called the Gusto Wallet. Here, employees can access emergency funds, set savings goals, get access to a Gusto debit card, and easily split paychecks to different accounts.

Gusto no doubt has some great specialized payroll solutions. But you can tell that the company takes a one-size-fits-all approach. As a result, Gusto lacks some of the specialized features you get with other providers like Onpay. For example, Onpay’s versatility is astonishing. Whether you need to file parsonage exemptions for a church or process payroll for employees on an H2A visa, there is nothing it can’t handle.

Overall, Gusto works well for most traditional businesses. However, if you are looking for something more specialized like running a nonprofit, restaurant, or farm, OnPay may be a better choice.

Gusto Pay Cycle Frequency

Gusto gives you complete autonomy of how often you’d like to pay employees like most other payroll software. By default, Gusto sets its pay frequency to twice a month. But you can easily change this to the payment schedule you prefer.

You have the option of putting all your employees on the same schedule, including hourly and salaried employees. You can also put employees on different pay schedules or set pay schedules by department or compensation type.

The pay schedules available on Gusto include:

• Weekly
• Bi-weekly
• Monthly
• Semi-monthly
• Quarterly
• Annually

There are no complaints here. You’ll be able to set precisely the kind of payment schedule that suits your business and workforce. Managing different pay schedules is also very easy with Gusto. 

Gusto All-in-One Benefits

If you offer employee benefits, you’d want a payroll service that lets you handle employee benefits. Gusto offers robust benefits options. The list of supported benefits includes:

• Medical insurance
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• Health flexible spending account (FSA)
• Long-term disability insurance
• Short-term disability insurance
• Employer-paid life insurance
• Health savings account (HAS)
• Dependent care flexible spending account (DCFSA)
• Commuter benefits
• Worker’s compensation
• Group term life insurance
• Payroll deductions

The only downside is that health insurance coverage with Gusto is limited to 37 states. Paychex and ADP, on the other hand, offer health insurance coverage in all 50 states. Otherwise, Gusto provides some of the most comprehensive benefits available on any payroll software.

Gusto Payroll

If you want to take a hands-off approach to payroll, Gusto is the perfect partner. Aside from paying your employees and contractors, Gusto also calculates your taxes. The software also files your taxes with the correct agency. This happens every time you run payroll. And the best part is that there is no extra charge for filing taxes.

Gusto will even report new hires to the government for you. The software easily integrates with accounting and other software, including QuickBooks, Xero, Clover, Trainual, and TSheets. In addition, you can easily import employee and payroll data from other systems, meaning you don’t have to start from scratch when you sign up with Gusto.

Additionally, Gusto supports direct deposit. Employees often prefer this option, so be sure to offer it. The direct deposit comes with three processing timelines, including four-day payments, two-day payments, and next-day payments.

Gusto initially puts you on the two-day payment schedule, but you can request next-day payments after processing your first payroll. Thus, you can use direct deposit for paying employees and contractors alike.

Finally, Gusto lets you run payroll automatically. This feature works well if you have salaried employees with fixed hours because payroll will look the same every month.

This feature lets you choose when you’d like your employees to be paid, and then Gusto takes care of the rest. You also get a notification a day before payday, in case you’d like to make changes.

With Gusto’s entry level payroll plan, you can automate payroll in a single state. With upgraded plans, multi-state employers can automate their payroll for each state.

One potential downside with Gusto is the payment structure. You have to pay for each employee you add to your system. This includes the employees you aren’t paying right now, such as if someone is on unpaid leave/vacation or if you have unpaid interns or volunteers.

Another downside is that Gusto doesn’t offer international payroll. This limitation can be a problem if you have a dispersed or remote global workforce. Paychex and ADP offer global payroll at an extra cost and may be better options if you employ multiple international people.

Gusto Hiring and Onboarding

While Gusto markets itself as payroll software, it has surprisingly robust HR capabilities. Its hiring and onboarding features are certainly worth writing home about.

Some of the HR tasks you can accomplish with Gusto during the hiring process include:

• Sending tailored offer letters
• Adding employees to the system
• Signing documents and forms
• Onboarding checklists

Gusto’s major competitors offer equally robust hiring and onboarding features. So, Gusto isn’t exceptional in this regard. Still, these offerings are commendable, especially given that not all payroll software offers them.

Gusto HR Experts

Gusto grants you access to HR experts with its Premium plan. You’ll be able to get on the phone with a certified HR pro to answer any questions you might have. Alternatively, you can send an email to receive personal advice from an expert.

The Premium plan also comes with numerous guides and templates designed by HR professionals. Examples include:

• Labor law policy templates
• Job descriptions and offer letters
• Employee handbook builder
• Performance evaluations
• Anti-harassment training
• Employee handbook builder
• Termination requirements

These templates will save you plenty of time and resources drafting your employee documents. ADP and Paychex also offer this service with their higher-priced plans. It’s good to know that Gusto doesn’t fall behind its competition where it matters.

Gusto Time Tracking

Time tracking is crucial for accurately processing payroll. Like most other payroll software, Gusto comes equipped with time-tracking features. You or your employees can track employees’ and contractors’ hours right from the dashboard or using the Gusto app.

Gusto also breaks down workflow by employee, project, task, and period. This breakdown gives you a 360° view of team efficiency and project cost. You can also easily sync with Xero or Quickbooks Online to get the complete picture of hours and cost.

Additionally, Gusto lets you create custom paid time off (PTO) policies for your business. Everything is organized neatly by department, employee, and date. As a result, you can get all the information you need at a glance. Gusto also automatically calculates PTO liabilities, meaning less work for the accounting team.

Your employees will also be able to track their own time off, including making requests and any changes or adjustments. This will help reduce queries or disputes about PTO between HR and employees. Staff can submit sick days or vacation time for approval, and managers can approve or decline requests within Gusto. Everything automatically syncs with payroll and calendars, so everyone is on the same page.

Most other top payroll software also offers time tracking tools. But Gusto is among the most robust. The only major complaint is that you don’t get the time tracking feature with the Core plan. This seems like an odd choice since time tracking goes hand in hand with processing payroll. Additionally, most competitors offer this feature with their core plans.

Gusto Customer Support

Gusto excels in many places, but customer support isn’t one of them. Even so, this inadequacy is relative. On the surface, you get phone support in addition to email and chat. But you only get 24/7 phone support with the Concierge plan. You can only call in during business hours if you’re on the Core, Complete, and Contractor plans. Finally, phone support isn’t available on weekends and during holidays.

Paychex and ADP offer 24/7 phone support. This feature is convenient if you need to resolve an urgent issue. My experience with Gusto’s email and chat support has been overall positive. But, a significant number of customers complain about slow responses from the customer service team.  

On the plus side, Gusto is very easy to use. The platform’s simplicity means there are few incidents where you might need emergency support. Gusto also has a robust knowledge base that you use in case of any issue.

It would be nice if Gusto offered round-the-clock phone support. This flaw isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. But it is worth considering if tech support is a significant concern for you.

Gusto Pricing

I’ll wind up this Gusto review with a look at its pricing. It’s another one of the platform’s strongest features depending on your type of business. I’d highly recommend Gusto if you have a small team of fewer than 50 employees. The feature benefits far outweigh the cost, making Gusto a great steal.

The Simple plan from Gusto works really well for companies that need payroll and HR services in a single state. It’s very affordable and perfect for companies that just need payroll and benefits administration.

The Plus plan allows you to automate payroll in multiple states, additional customer support hours, and a more robust selection of HR features. Learn more about Gusto pricing.

Gusto has very transparent, predictable pricing. There are no nasty surprises when it’s time to process payroll or file taxes. Unfortunately, both Paychex and ADP have less transparent pricing plans. This can make it difficult to budget for your service.

Summary

Larger businesses may find ADP more appealing for its extensive growth plans. Alternatively, Paychex is an excellent substitute for companies looking for a more personalized payroll service.

Still, Gusto is one of the best payroll software out there. This view is especially true for a small business with less than 50 employees. You’ll get access to robust payroll and HR features even with the Core plan.

The fact that you don’t have to pay extra to file taxes or run payroll in multiple states further adds to Gusto’s appeal. All things considered, Gusto is one of the best payroll software for startups and small businesses.

Employee onboarding is far more than filling out payroll paperwork for HR and getting a company tour from your boss. For new hires and businesses alike, it can be an exciting time– but it can also be a lot to take in all at once.

The employee onboarding process can either be a very smooth process or a very bumpy one. Especially for newer organizations or companies with less hiring experience, a lack of structure for employees means fewer systems in place to help with the transition.

The average employer spends 24 days and $4,000 getting a new employee up to speed, so even a slight delay could mean pushing things back into the next month.

Of course, there is a way to avoid this: an employee onboarding checklist. This will help ensure that your business gets the most out of its new hires by having a system in place for employees to follow.

To make things easier in your onboarding process, here are five steps for an effective employee onboarding checklist:

1. The Pre-Onboarding Process

The pre-onboarding process is an important step in getting new employees acclimated to their position and company culture. This is when the employer should collect all the necessary paperwork and send out any onboarding materials.

Gathering this information in advance will save time on the employee’s first day and help to make a smooth transition into the job.

If this is an in-person role, the employer may also want to schedule a brief meeting or call with the new hire before their first day. This is an opportunity to introduce them to the team, answer any questions they may have, and go over the company’s expectations.

The new hire may even come into the office to gather materials or meet with the team on their first day, but this is not always necessary.

For remote roles, the pre-onboarding process should include sending out any relevant information about the company, such as the employee handbook, remote work policy, and links to any online resources.

It also includes making sure they have all of their home office equipment (e.g. laptop, webcam, etc.) and any software they need to do their job.

The employer should also introduce the new hire to their team via email or video call. This is a chance to go over expectations and company culture with the remote worker.

One of the easiest ways to streamline this process is with an employee welcome letter. This should be sent out before the first day and should include all the relevant information about the company, the team, and the position. It should also include information about expectations regarding timing and time management.

The welcome letter is a great way to set the tone for the onboarding process and help new hires prepare for their first day. Remember that this is different from a job offer letter.

Here are a few tips to make your employee onboarding easier during this part of the process:

• Inform your company of the new hire ahead of time. This gives you time to gather the necessary paperwork and makes sure that there is a spot for them on their first day.
• Schedule a brief meeting or call. This is an opportunity to introduce the new hire to the team, answer any questions they may have, and go over company expectations.
• Set your new employee up with a mentor. This is someone who can help answer questions and introduce the new hire to the company culture. It is best to choose someone in a similar role who has been with the company for a while and is familiar with the ins and outs of the business.
• Make sure you have all of the necessary paperwork. This includes the employee handbook, W-­2 form, I-­9 form, a direct deposit form, and employment contracts.
• If you are sending out any company information, be sure to include a company overview, job descriptions, and an org chart.
• Don’t forget the little things! A welcome letter, company swag, and business cards are all nice touches that will make your new employee feel appreciated.

2. New-Hire Orientation

The orientation process is the next step in onboarding and usually takes place on the first day. This process serves two purposes–to help your new hire feel comfortable in their new environment and to teach them how your internal workflows align with your company culture.

During the orientation phase, you can expect to give your new hire the following:

• A tour of the office or worksite
• An introduction to the team
• A review of company policies
• A discussion of job expectations

The orientation will be conducted virtually if you are working with a remote employee. This means that you will need to provide all relevant information upfront and be available to answer any questions they may have.

If you have multiple new hires starting at the same time, conducting a group orientation for things they can do together on their first day, like a tour of the office, is best.

You can also break them into smaller groups for more specific discussions, such as job expectations or company policy reviews.

After the orientation is complete, your new hire should feel comfortable in their new surroundings and have a good understanding of what is expected of them.

For a successful orientation, remember the following:

• Use onboarding software. Streamlining your process with technology will make it more manageable for you and your new hire. It will also help you keep all of your documents in one place and track progress. If you aren’t sure how to choose one for your organization, check out our list of best onboarding software to make things easier.
• Have a clear understanding of common questions and feelings ahead of time. Your employees may not always be forthcoming about what they’re thinking or feeling, so be prepared with answers to common questions. You can also provide a list of resources for employees who may need additional support, such as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Set the tone for your company culture. The orientation is a great opportunity to set the tone for your company culture and let your new hire know what to expect. If you have a remote workforce, include information about your company’s work-life balance policies.
• Set realistic expectations. Be clear about what you expect from your new hire and what they can expect from you. This will help prevent misunderstandings down the road.
• Create a schedule. This will help you keep track of what needs to be covered and when.
• Make it interactive. Ask questions, give examples, and encourage participation from your new hire.
• Be available. Be sure to answer any questions that come up during the process.

Orientation is just the beginning of the onboarding process, but it’s an important step to ensure a smooth transition for your new hire.

Following these tips can set your new employee up for success from their first day on the job.

3. Training for Your New Hire’s Specific Role

Once the initial orientation is complete, it’s time to train your new hire for their specific role. Depending on the position, this could involve a combination of online courses, in-person training, and shadowing another employee.

When creating a training plan, be sure to consider the following:

• The level of experience your new hire has
• The amount of time you have to train them
• The complexity of the role
• Your company’s budget

During this phase, you can expect to give your new hire a more detailed overview of your company and its mission, vision, and values. You will also provide them with the tools and resources they need to be successful in their role.

This is important to establish trust and build relationships with your new hire. Be sure to give them the support they need and answer any questions they have along the way.

You’ll also have the opportunity to show them what a typical work day should look like and explain how the different roles in your company come together to form a cohesive team.

This is also a good time to give them a chance to practice what they’ve learned by having them complete basic tasks related to their role. This could include shadowing another employee, working on a project, or giving a presentation.

By the end of this phase, your new hire should have a clear understanding of their role and how it fits into the larger organization.

Here are a few tips for a successful training process:

• Don’t try to cover everything at once. Break down the training into manageable chunks so your new hire can easily digest the information.
• Make sure your other employees are aware of the new hire’s training. If you need your new employee to shadow someone, they should not be blindsided by this request.
• Have them create a presentation about your product or service. One of the best ways for your new hire to understand the nuances of your business is to have them explain it to someone else. This could be in the form of a presentation, an article, or even just a conversation with another employee.

4. Building Positive Relationships and Setting Expectations

Over the next few days, you’ll have the opportunity to build positive relationships with your new hire and set expectations for their performance. This is an important step in onboarding, as it sets the tone for how you will work together.

In general, this process will involve:

• Formalizing the relationship with a written agreement
• Reviewing the company’s policies and procedures
• Setting performance goals (KPIs)
• Giving feedback
• Establishing trust
• Building rapport

This is also the time when you will develop a deeper understanding of your new hire’s working style and preferences. It’s important to be open and honest with each other during this time so you can work together effectively.

You can also expect to discuss potential issues with your employee ahead of time, as well as potential solutions to these issues. Doing so can prevent future frustration.

It is also important to keep in mind that this process is not just about you getting to know your new hire. It’s also an opportunity for them to get to know you and the company. Be sure to answer any questions they have and provide feedback along the way.

The goal is to establish a positive relationship that will last long after the onboarding process is complete.

Here are a few tips for building positive relationships:

• Get to know them on a personal level. Find out what they like to do in their free time, what their family is like, and what their hobbies are.
• Have a clear understanding of their working style. True leadership isn’t about treating someone how you’d want to be treated–it’s about treating them how they want to be treated.
• Make an effort to connect with them. Send them a message on LinkedIn, invite them to coffee, or just start a conversation in the break room.

The goal is to establish a positive relationship that will last long after the onboarding process is complete.

By getting to know your new hire and setting clear expectations, you can create a strong foundation for a productive and successful working relationship.

5. Integrating Into Their Workflows

The final step in the onboarding process is integrated into the company. This is where your new hire will start to feel like a part of the team and develop a sense of belonging.

It is also where you will begin to establish short-term goals and objectives for your new hire. This will help them understand how their work fits into the larger picture and what is expected of them in the coming days, weeks, and months.

This process will involve:

• Giving them the tools and information they need to actually do their job
• Following up with them as they begin to work more independently
• Slowly giving them more responsibility until they can work with autonomy

Of course, the first few days are about getting everything in order and having them witness firsthand what a day on the job looks like. But after a few days of this, it’s important to start giving them more responsibility.

The goal of your new hire checklist step is to get them comfortable and up to speed as quickly as possible. The more engaged and invested they feel, the more likely they will stick around for the long haul. And we all know how valuable employee retention is, right?

Here are a few tips for integrating your new hire into their role:

• Let them know that it’s okay to make mistakes. Nobody does the job perfectly at first, so make sure to be helpful and encouraging towards them, especially if their role requires a lot of learning.
• Encourage them to ask questions. Asking questions is the only way to learn, so make sure they feel comfortable doing so.
• Make sure they understand what’s expected of them. Set clear goals and objectives for their first few weeks on the job.

The goal is to make your new hire feel like a valuable team member as quickly as possible. By setting clear expectations and allowing them to learn and grow, you can help them feel engaged and invested in their work.

After following these steps, you should have a clear understanding of what’s expected of you and your new hire. Creating an onboarding checklist will help to ensure that nothing is forgotten and that the process runs smoothly.

Recooty is the most effortless recruiting software on the market today, making it ideal for small businesses.

Its intuitive design makes it perfect for everyone from absolute beginners to seasoned recruiting pros. But don’t let Recooty’s simplicity fool you. It is great at what it does and trusted by over 4,000 brands like Uber, Trello, and Paytable.

With applicant tracking, visual hiring pipelines, and customizable widgets—Recooty transforms your hiring process. Recooty has everything you need to post jobs, review applications, and schedule interviews all in one place.

I’ve done a deep dive into this transformational recruiting software. Read on for everything you need to know, and discover how Recooty can help your small business recruit and hire with ease.

Recooty Pros and Cons 

Pros 

• All plans under $50 per month 
• Simple, intuitive interface 
• Excellent integration with job boards
• Extensive interview scheduling capabilities

Cons 

• Not an all-in-one HR platform
• No mobile app 
• Lack of onboarding tools
• Free version only works for one user 

Visit Recooty

Compare The Best Recruiting Providers

We reviewed dozens of recruiting providers and narrowed them down to the best options.

See Top Picks

How Recooty Compares to Top Recruiting Software 

After reviewing dozens of recruiting software solutions, I narrowed it down to the top eight. I looked at each option to see who it’s best for, what features to consider, and how to find the best one. 

Compared to other top recruiting software on the market today, Recooty is the most simple and trusted tool for small businesses. Currently, Recooty ranks on my top list because of its ease of use and popular job board integrations. 

Recooty offers everything you need for applicant tracking and hiring processes in one intuitive interface, which is the main reason for its popularity. Recooty doesn’t overcomplicate tasks, as you can complete most actions like posting jobs or scheduling interviews with just one click of a button. 

However, Recooty isn’t an all-in-one HR solution, which is why it’s better for small businesses. My top two picks, BreezyHr and Workable, are excellent alternatives for medium-to-enterprise businesses and/or anyone wanting a more comprehensive hiring experience. 

Recooty’s Software Type

Before you invest in any recruiting software, you need to make sure you know who will be using it. The difference between many recruiting software solutions is that they offer different features for different needs. 

When it comes to recruiting software, there are two common solutions— software that caters towards in-house hiring and software for third-party agencies or recruitment firms. 

Recooty is better tailored for in-house hiring managers or small HR teams because of the tools it offers. Recooty is quite simple, so it only focuses on tools like applicant tracking, interview scheduling, and job posting. 

With this in mind, I don’t consider Recooty to be an all-in-one HR solution. You don’t receive comprehensive hiring tools, like invoicing, time tracking, or employee management—which are tools that recruitment firms or hiring agencies benefit from the most. 

Even though Recooty isn’t the best option for third-party hiring agencies, it’s still an excellent option for in-house hiring for small businesses. The software is uncomplicated, and its applicant tracking system is still moderately advanced. 

You receive visual hiring pipelines to review applications, schedule interviews, and import candidates into a talent pool, all at a much faster rate. Just because it’s a more simple software does not mean that it isn’t as effective as all-in-one HR solutions. 

However, if you are looking for a more extensive recruiting software that is better for agencies, we would recommend Bullhorn. Bullhorn offers a built-in CRM for all your outsourcing needs, so you can track and manage all your candidates as simply as possible. 

Recooty’s Hiring Volume 

Figuring out your business’ hiring volume is essential for finding a successful recruiting software that works well for your needs. Recooty offers a decent number of open job postings for each pricing plan that, again, suit small business needs the best. 

A small business that hires one or two employees per year will have vastly different hiring needs than an organization or enterprise that hires between 20-40 employees per month. And the difference between these business types is why hiring volume is so important. 

As mentioned above, Recooty is the best recruiting software for small businesses, so its pricing and features will reflect this. This approach works because smaller businesses can usually opt for free or incredibly affordable software, as they don’t need a large supply of tools. 

Recooty is perfect for small business needs, with its pricing plans both scalable and affordable. For any startup, the free tier offers three active job posts. This is just enough for a smaller scale, as most startups look for one or two staff at any given time.

Want to expand your small business? No problem. Recooty offers a scalable Pro plan for only $29 per month. You get access to 10 active job posts, which is more than enough for expansion. 

Most small businesses have fewer than 50 employees, so if you want to expand your business even further, Recooty gives you the option to scale up to the Ultra plan for just $49 per month. With this plan, you receive 25 active job posts, which helps you branch out with ease. 

However, not all small businesses are the same, and some of you might benefit from unlimited job postings. If this is the case, we would recommend BreezyHR as an alternative, as it offers unlimited postings, candidates, and candidate pools, starting at $143 per month.

Recooty’s Onboarding Tools 

Hiring and onboarding are two completely different processes when it comes to recruitment. The onboarding process refers to the action of training your new employee to make sure they fully understand their role. 

Currently, Recooty lacks onboarding tools and processes. It does offer built-in applicant tracking features that help you get up to the onboarding process, but not past it. 

Recooty lets you bulk email all of the shortlisted candidates at once for interview scheduling. You get to specify the interview type (remote or in-person), date, time, and location for seamless interview coordination. That’s a fairly good start.

Unfortunately, interview scheduling is about as helpful as Recooty gets when it comes to onboarding. Because of this drawback, most users will probably need to invest in external onboarding software to be successful in this process. 

However, some recruiting software offer all-in-one automated hiring and onboarding processes that will make your life easier. We would recommend Workable as an alternative for all your onboarding needs. 

To onboard employees specifically, it’s very helpful to have access to tools like e-signatures and built-in offer letters. These are just some of the tools that Recooty doesn’t offer, but Workable does. 

With Workable, you receive a wide range of offer letter templates and approval workflows, alongside the option for your new hire to sign contracts or letters with ease. E-signatures are probably the most important onboarding tool, especially for remote teams, as it takes all the hassle out of printing and sending letters back and forth. 

Workable also offers a hiring plan, so you can track and manage all onboarding duties and budgets for future candidates. 

No matter what software you choose, you will still need to pay more for advanced and comprehensive software like Workable, which starts at $99 per month. Additional HR tools will cost you in the long run, so it may be beneficial for small business users to choose a more affordable recruiting software (like Recooty) and a free onboarding tool. 

Recooty’s Employer Branding 

Although not a must-have, employer branding will help you attract potential candidates to your business and job ads. Recooty does this well by letting you create a customized career page to further attract top-tier talent with ease. 

A fully branded career page is an easy way for potential candidates to understand your company’s aims and mission statement, all while viewing your current job openings. 

The best part about Recooty’s employer branding template is that it’s free, easy-to-use, and you don’t need to be a coding expert to create a careers page. You can get your careers page set up within minutes, just by answering a few simple questions. 

Most potential candidates want to find information on current job openings, a description of your company, and reasons why employees work there. A branded careers page is the perfect way to showcase all of this information. 

Recooty will only ask you to include your company’s logo and a description of your company with its mission, values, and employee benefits. It’s that simple! All you need to do now is post any current job openings, and your careers page is complete. 

Not only does Recooty’s customizable careers page make your brand look professional and efficient, but it also: 

• Reduces the cost per hire 
• Saves you time with a built-in automated job listing feature 
• Improves candidate experience with organized job listings 
• Efficiently identifies the best candidates with its rating and keyword feature 
• Expands your reach with Google integration 

As I stated earlier, employer branding isn’t a must-have feature when looking for recruitment software. However, it is an efficient and helpful tool that Recooty does exceptionally well. It quickly and effortlessly walks you through the process to create a page that is beautifully tailored to your overall brand.

Recooty Offerings 

Recooty offers a few products related to recruiting tools that cater to small businesses. Here’s an in-depth look at two popular products from Recooty: 

Job Posting 

The most extensive product that Recooty offers are its job posting features. The job posting feature allows you to post job ads to Recooty’s wide range of job board partners for free.

With Recooty’s job posting feature, you get access to the most relevant job boards to get maximum reach for your job ads. The best part is that you also get free access to paid job boards, which saves a lot of money—especially for small businesses. 

You also get access to Google For Jobs, and you can upload job ads to your personalized website’s career page. Google For Jobs lets you automatically appear on Google search results when you publish a new job ad, with automatic indexing and optimized listing. 

When it comes to your website’s career page, Recooty lets you integrate its software into your external website for seamless job posting, so you don’t have to struggle with overcomplicated website editors. 

Not only can you post on a wide variety of job boards for free, but Recooty also offers extensive social sharing. You can easily share your job ads on all major social networks. You get access to social sharing links, social media ad campaigns, and social source data. 

Some other helpful features of Recooty’s job posting include: 

• Job board recommendations 
• One-click order 
• One-click job share 
• Social recruiting campaigns 

The job posting feature is available with all Recooty pricing plans. 

Employee Posters 

Once you’ve found the perfect candidate, the next step is to make them feel welcome. And there’s no better way to do this than to create an employee poster. 

Recooty’s employee poster feature is exactly what it sounds like. You get to create a personalized employee announcement poster for all your new hires, which you can then download and share on social media. 

You get access to seven premium color templates and the option to fill in four different subsections, including employee name, designation, message, and professional headshot. 

The poster ensures that your audience can get to know your new hire, and your employee can receive an unforgettable welcome—promoting a favorable balance of positive work culture and employee care. 

The employee poster is a unique feature that not many other recruiting software solutions offer, which makes Recooty stand out. 

Recooty focuses on building useful HR tools to manage all of your day-to-day hiring activities. Creating an employee poster will make sure that your business maintains a good work culture and is an excellent tool for small businesses with a small number of employees. 

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Summary 

Overall, Recooty is an excellent and affordable recruiting software for small businesses. 

Recooty is the simplest recruiting software on the market today. With one-click job postings, customizable career pages, and an outstanding applicant tracking system—Recooty streamlines your hiring process. 

That said, Recooty shines as a small business solution. Companies with hundreds of employees may want to look for more robust, scalable ATS tools designed with their larger needs in mind. 

While most applicant tracking software options require paid plans, SmartStart is free to use for up to 10 active job listings at a time. 

This free software is a game-changer for smaller businesses, nonprofits, and businesses looking to scale back their hiring budgets. 

And while SmartStart is free, it still offers plenty of helpful features that can save time and make the hiring process easier and more effective. 

Whether you’re looking to attract better quality candidates or want to improve the communication and collaboration within your HR department, SmartStart can help. 

SmartStart isn’t ideal for large businesses with high-volume hiring needs, but it’s an efficient and affordable option for many smaller businesses that are hiring more slowly. 

Read on to find out everything you need to know about SmartStart, and find out if it’s right for you.

SmartStart Pros and Cons

Pros 

• Free for up to 10 active job posts
• Create your own career website
• Easy job posting and sharing
• Intuitive, clean dashboard
• Mobile app available on Android and iOS
• Flexible, secure, modern platform
• Easy upgrade to a paid plan available

Cons

• Limited to 10 active job posts
• No phone support
• No ability to hire through the platform

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How SmartStart Compares to Top Applicant Tracking Software Tools

While SmartStart didn’t make our top list of applicant tracking software options, it’s a great option. SmartStart is free to use yet still offers comprehensive functionality and time-saving features. Almost any other applicant tracking program requires a paid subscription, even on a monthly basis, giving SmartStart a distinct advantage that appeals to smaller businesses and those with tight budgets. 

BambooHR is another excellent choice, thanks to its HR collaboration tools and easy job posting process. Jazz HR is also highly customizable and includes the ability to send offers and e-sign documents, compliance and reporting features, and interview and assessment options for an all-in-one solution. 

SmartStart Hiring Volume and Frequency

With SmartStart, you can post up to 10 jobs at a time. When compared to other applicant tracking software options, this hiring volume is very small, but it’s also key to what makes SmartStart unique. As long as you stay within this job posting volume, SmartStart is free to use. 

The 10-job limit means that SmartStart isn’t the right solution for every business, and it won’t support the hiring needs of larger businesses and corporations. For these businesses, upgrading to SmartRecruiter is a better option and will let you post more than 10 jobs simultaneously. If a business experiences a high-volume hiring period, upgrading to SmartRecruiter can give it that needed capacity. 

For businesses with lower-volume hiring needs, the 10-job limit should be just fine, especially if those businesses manage their job posts well. A business that moves through the applicant screening, interview, and hiring process promptly can then delete their job posts and free up that space for future posts. 

SmartStart is also ideal for businesses or departments that are looking to reduce their recruiting spend or their overall budgets. Making adjustments to work within that 10-job limit could be well-justified by the money that a business would save in working with SmartStart.

SmartStart Software Type

SmartStart is designed for teams and for collaboration. Features like interview scorecards and an easy-to-use platform mean your hiring team can communicate and collaborate easily. The system keeps all of your candidate information in one place for easier management. 

SmartStart also offers a Hiring App, so your team can stay connected and keep moving forward in the hiring process no matter where your team members happen to be. 

SmartStart Human Resources Features

When it comes to human resources features, SmartStart falls somewhat short, but it’s also important to remember this software is for applicant tracking and isn’t intended to be a comprehensive HR platform. 

SmartStart does offer some tools like scheduling management and transparent applicant progress tracking. Its employee referral portal and an application screening form can help to speed up the screening and interview process, reducing the burden on your HR team. 

As far as the actual hiring and employee onboarding process goes, SmartStart doesn’t offer tools to help with those stages. If you want software that doubles as applicant tracking and overall HR software, a program like Bamboo HR would be a better choice. 

SmartStart Budget

If you’re working on a tight budget or just looking for ways to save money, SmartStart is a wise choice. SmartStart is free to use, as long as you have 10 or fewer simultaneous job postings. 

With other software ranging from $30 to multiple hundreds of dollars per month, SmartStart is an appealing software choice, particularly for businesses operating on a budget. There is no need to worry about contracts and commitments, so it’s easy to try the software out to see if it’s the right fit for your business. 

Because SmartStart is free, it’s an ideal choice for many businesses and situations. Smaller businesses, or those working on a budget, will appreciate the obligation-free, no-cost option. It’s also ideal for startups or for businesses that are going through temporary hiring phases and don’t want to commit to the financial requirements of a long-term paid software solution. 

SmartStart is an appealing choice for non-profits, too, as well as for businesses that are growing and that are facing significant expansion expenses. 

SmartStart’s Free Recruiting Software

SmartStart offers a recruiting and applicant tracking solution that’s not only comprehensive, but that’s also free to use. Providing the functionality and time-saving perks that you’ll see in many other software platforms, SmartStart wins out against all competitors when it comes to affordability. 

With SmartStart, you can post up to 10 jobs at any time while using the software for free. This capacity is more than enough for most smaller and medium-sized businesses, as long as they aren’t doing an active hiring push. Once you’ve filled a job and closed the listing, you can post another one, so by carefully managing your job postings, you can save significant money over a paid subscription service. 

(If your business ever does need to post more than 10 jobs at a time, you can pay to upgrade to SmartRecruit, a robust paid service offered by the same company as SmartStart. We’ll talk more about SmartRecruit later in this post.) 

While SmartStart may be free to use, it’s far from a bare-bones program with limited features. Its functionality addresses everything from the drafting of your job posts to the actual moment of hiring new employees. 

SmartStart lets you create job descriptions and post them on any website, distribute them to aggregators, and automatically post them to Facebook. 

You can also create a branded website, sharing videos and testimonials to highlight the advantages of a career with your business. Other perks like one-click apply can help to encourage more applicants and better-qualified candidates. 

SmartStart also addresses the candidate experience. Not only does this software help to increase the reach of your job postings by allowing you to post on many platforms, but it also helps you to make a professional first impression on candidates, which may motivate them to accept job offers. 

With this software, candidates receive automated updates, so they have information on their application progress and the overall hiring process. This alone can set your business apart from other businesses, which might confirm an application receipt but then never again follow up with applicants. A personalized auto-reply feature also helps with follow-up emails and inquiries, and you can set that auto-reply to include pertinent information to help applicants feel heard. 

Once applications start to come in, SmartStart makes the review and tracking process easy and organized. Scheduling management tools and personalized auto-reply features make it easy to schedule interviews. Customizable interview scorecards and candidate-sharing features allow for easier and more effective interviews. Other unique features like an employee referral portal and a database designed for candidate management help to take the stress out of the hiring process. 

This software is also designed to facilitate communication while saving your HR department time. The centralized email gateway lets you keep candidate emails in one location, keeping you organized and making it easy to retrieve information. Transparent progress tracking ensures that your entire HR team is updated on all progress, allowing your team to work together. 

The fact that all of your team members can easily stay updated has important benefits when team members are out of the office for vacations, time off, or emergencies. With all of the information in one centralized location, any team member can step in to schedule an interview, move a candidate forward in the hiring process, or answer candidate questions that might come in. 

SmartStart also offers comprehensive support resources. In-product guides and the Help Center offer detailed support on common topics, including posting jobs on career sites and posting and managing jobs. SmartStart also offers email support. While the lack of phone support can mean it takes longer to get answers and help, the availability of support is a benefit, especially given that the software is completely free to use. 

Applicant tracking software is only helpful if it’s functional and secure, and SmartStart excels in those criteria, too. The platform is both flexible and secure, thanks to state-of-the-art hosting and security to protect your data. SmartStart also complies with data privacy regulations, offering you peace of mind. 

With SmartStart, you’ll enjoy a fully mobile-optimized experience and detailed analytics. This cloud-based platform is designed for security and reliable performance, ensuring you’ll be able to access your data wherever and whenever you want. 

SmartRecruit

SmartStart is the free version of SmartRecruiters. While SmartStart is ideal for businesses hiring 10 or fewer roles at a time, businesses with larger hiring volumes will be best served by SmartRecruiters’ paid options, especially the SmartRecruit core plan. 

The SmartRecruit core product offers the same functionality that you’ll get from SmartStart, but with some vital enhancements. This applicant tracking system works to help you attract, select, and hire new staff. 

It’s enhanced with sourcing analytics and reporting dashboards to help you better find those ideal applicants. It’s also pre-integrated with more than 350 recruitment solutions and connects with more than 200 job boards, ideal for any business looking to source candidates globally. 

SmartRecruit also boasts a 99.99% uptime for impressive reliability. It can be configured for multiple brands and hiring procedures, making it an ideal choice for large businesses and corporations that may consist of many brands, departments, or individual hiring entities. 

While SmartRecruit offers the additional reach and functionality needed for high-volume hiring, you can further enhance it by choosing from a variety of add-ons, including: 

• SmartCRM
• SmartJobs
• SmartPal
• Smart Assistant
• SmartMessage
• SmartConnect
• SmartGlobal
• SmartDistribute

These add-ons let you tailor the software’s performance to your needs. For example, adding on SmartDistribute gives you the ability to view all details from your job post on up to 1,000 boards in a single view. With SmartMessage, you can text your candidates and keep those messages centralized in a single inbox, perfect for teams where multiple people are involved in the hiring process. 

Offering these add-ons is a benefit that can help to keep costs down. While SmartRecruit pricing isn’t advertised, choosing just a few essential add-ons lets you get the specific performance that you need without having to pay for a larger package of features that you won’t use. 

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SmartStart isn’t the right choice for everyone, especially for businesses with high-volume hiring needs. However, it’s a highly affordable option for businesses that need to have 10 or fewer active job postings at a time. This software not only simplifies the process of tracking applicants, but also helps to bring in more, better-quality applicants and to increase the reach of your job ads. Other benefits like the ability to create your own career website page and one-click applications can help to connect you with the candidates you really need. This software offers plenty of functionality, and even though it’s a free option, it’s highly effective and helpful for HR teams. 

Recruiterbox is recruitment software primarily aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. 

It offers a helpful bulk candidate upload tool and a highly customizable hiring process that distinguishes itself from competitors.

Other top features include automated report deliveries, Slack integration, and an open API (application programming interface) for increased access.

The customer service team, consisting of product experts that provide industry-leading support, is known for its efficiency and professionalism.

Recruiterbox is also entirely web-based, unlike some of its competitors, meaning there’s nothing to download, install, or maintain on your end. 

Recruiterbox Pros and Cons

Pros

• Highly customizable candidate hiring process
• Unlimited job postings
• Excellent customer support team
• Web-based software with no downloads or installs

Cons

• The software suffers from occasional slowdowns
• Reports need to be more detailed and clear
• You can’t sort candidates by location or even alphabetically

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How Recruiterbox Compares to the Best Recruiting Software

Recruiterbox is complete recruitment software with many compelling features. From powerful candidate screening tools to the ability to track applicants, offers, and a customizable recruitment process, there’s something here for most small and medium-sized businesses. 

That said, Recruiterbox didn’t make our top picks of the best recruitment software because of sporadic slowdowns and reports that could be better—though we think both will improve over time.

Currently, our top choices for the best recruitment software are Breezy HR, with unlimited job listings, and Workable, which is great for hiring at scale.

Recruiterbox Hiring Volume

Some recruitment software restricts the number of open job positions you can have at any one time, so we’re pleased to say that Recruiterbox offers an unlimited number of them. You may be wondering how it manages to offer this. The answer is simple: Recruiterbox bases its pricing on the number of employees at your company, not on features provided.

Essentially, the number of employees corresponds to the number of openings you’re likely to post on an annual basis, allowing the software to offer you unlimited job postings whenever you need them.

How important this is for you will vary. If you hire only one to two employees per year, it might be better to opt for cheap or even free recruitment software instead of paying for something you don’t need. For instance, Recruiterbox’s pricing starts at a minimum of $3499 annually, so it can be a costly option, certainly if you don’t need unlimited job postings. 

But if you do a high volume of hiring every month or every couple of months, you will see the benefit of unlimited active postings plus unlimited hiring managers without having to pay extra.

The decision comes down to the size of your business and needs, so think carefully and go from there.

Recruiterbox doesn’t fully list its prices, and you’ll have to contact them for a custom quote. A free demo of the software is available.

Recruiterbox Onboarding Tools

Recruiterbox is no slouch when it comes to onboarding tools and offers a variety of them.

With convenient job offer templates and e-signatures, you’ll be able to onboard candidates quickly and without unnecessary hassle. There’s a repository available for all offer management-related documentation, too, and the information is kept securely on the Recruiterbox platform for added peace of mind.

The job offer letter tools are a particular highlight, allowing you to create offer letter templates and autofill templates with candidate information as required. The tools save a great deal of time and are especially useful for businesses that frequently hire.

On top of that, approval workflows are available for offer letters that allow you to choose when items are sent out at each stage. For example, if a candidate passes a particular stage of the onboarding process, an email, written beforehand and scheduled in advance, can be sent to them automatically.

Recruiterbox provides a dedicated resources library and offers complete guides on the best things to say to candidates at every stage of the hiring and onboarding process. Its software offers onboarding functionality and the knowledge for those that need it, and we were impressed with how in-depth the information is overall.

Recruiterbox Employer Branding

Posting open positions on job boards is a good start for businesses, but ideally, you’ll want to attract applicants through your site and via other tools as well. Recruitment software often features editable career pages and targeted campaigns that reach candidates beyond the usual generic job postings.

Recruiterbox has you covered and allows you to create and manage your branded career pages on your site from within the software. These tools will enable you to streamline the entire hiring process and add a bit of personality to things. They’re a great place to showcase company culture, for instance, and help you to sell you open positions with style.

We particularly like the mobile-friendly jobs widget. It’s more important than ever to have mobile-friendly content, and candidates now expect a career site that’s easy to navigate from any device. Recruiterbox’s jobs widget solves this problem and makes your job postings searchable via the widget alone, all from the candidate’s mobile device.

Even better is that the mobile jobs widget blends into your company website. You can customize the widget with the Recruiterbox openings API, making it look how you need it to while keeping true to the image and values of your business.

Customizable job application forms allow you to fill positions faster because you can limit the amount of information you take and streamline it down to the essentials. After all, there’s limited time in a day, and with multiple applications to go through, it can distract from other pressing tasks.

For example, if you only want to know a few specific things from applying candidates, you can customize the forms accordingly. You can choose from single-line answers, paragraph answers, drop-down menus, and more. With the competition for top talent being more significant than ever, Recruiterbox’s customizable job forms are a valuable addition.

You can also create application questions that weed out unsuitable candidates. For instance, if the role requires a specific skill, such as C++, you can create a required question asking if the candidate has that skill and how many years of experience using it. If they answer no or only have six months of experience, it makes it a lot easier for you to skip past their application without spending time reviewing the resume.

It’s worth noting that employer branding tools like these are available in most recruitment software on the market, and Recruiterbox isn’t offering much in the way of exclusive features. That said, the tools available are practical, forward-thinking, and work well.

Recruiterbox Recruiting Reports

Recruiterbox provides its users with recruiting reports so you can see what’s working and what isn’t. You can generate these helpful reports by picking a date range, and the software will take it from there. Each generated report is emailed directly to you after its creation, and you’ll be able to share them with your team and hiring managers as necessary, so everyone can work together on improving your hiring game.

Let’s say you’ve posted a new job opening, but after some time, you’re not getting the response you needed or the candidates you wanted. You’re probably posting to career pages, job boards, and other sites. But it would be ideal to know which of these is the best source for attracting top talent. Recruiterbox’s reports set out to provide that information, allowing you to improve your hiring strategies.

You’ll be able to filter down job positions and see how quickly you fill them at each stage of the hiring process. Hiring replacements to fill positions while you wait for great talent is costly, so these reports aim to help you fix that, allowing you to speed things up where they might have been too slow.

Recruiterbox’s source report capability allows you to see which sources your applicants came from and how many of them have been screened, interviewed, and finally, offered a position with the company. The software can even create an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) questionnaire for your candidates to fill out as they apply for job openings to help eliminate discrimination.

While these reporting features are great, we still think the reports themselves could be better. Specifically, compared to some competitors on the market, the reports are visually basic and could be more precise when displaying information. That said, Recruiterbox gets updated frequently, and more advanced reporting options may be coming in the future.

Recruiterbox Interview Scheduling

Recruiterbox offers interview scheduling features that allow your team to coordinate their schedules. After hearing back from interested candidates and screening them, scheduling interviews is the next step, and it’s a step that employers want to make as easy as possible after all the work they’ve done up to that point. This pivotal stage is where recruitment software comes in once more. 

Recruiterbox allows you to schedule interviews with relative ease and automatically sends out interview emails to those who need one. Your team members can sync their calendars to the software to avoid typical time conflicts and schedule clashes.

Candidates receive interview requests directly to their email address, and once they’ve accepted them, the event is updated and posted on the entire team’s calendar. The software successfully eliminates the need to go back and forth between multiple team members, and we find it to be a practical and smart solution.

It’s also worth mentioning that Recruiterbox features a centralized collection of comments and evaluations from each team member that interviewed the candidate. Your team can rate candidates and add comments, streamlining the feedback. Instead of long email chains of notes and feedback, each team member posts their notes directly on the candidate’s profile so all those involved in hiring and decision-making can see them.

From streamlining the scheduling process to the automated calendar syncing, Recruiterbox offers a robust set of interview scheduling tools that shape up well against the competition.

Recruiterbox Candidate Sourcing

Whatever your company’s preferred way of sourcing candidates, Recruiterbox offers various tools and valuable additions to help make the process smoother. There’s everything from automatic job postings, external recruiting options, and the option of forwarding emails to the software to remove the need for manual resume uploads.

The social media sharing feature, for example, is one of those simple tools that saves so much time. It allows you to post job openings straight to your social media accounts directly from the software. You can forget logging into each social media platform one by one and pasting in the link. Instead, you’ll be able to send out your job postings in minutes across multiple platforms at once.

But the time-saving tools don’t stop there. One of our favorite features is the ability to forward candidate information to the platform, which then imports it automatically, including resumes uploaded in the process. Employers would typically have to manually open each email, download the resume, and then upload to recruitment software—Recruiterbox makes that a thing of the past. We can hear the relief already.

When it comes to job postings, Recruiterbox will automatically publish your new opening to the following places:

• Indeed
• SimplyHired
• Glassdoor
• ApplyIQ
• Recruit.net
• ZipRecruiter

When applicants apply via these well-known job boards, their contact information will go directly to your online Recruiterbox account.

Businesses are starting to realize the power of external recruitment, which isn’t an area Recruiterbox has neglected.

With the software, you can add external users to the applicant tracking system using a simple link and email address that identifies the recruiter as an official referrer. When the external recruiter adds a candidate through the link, a candidate profile gets created automatically. You can use the platform to track referrals to see which sources provide the top talent and improve your hiring strategy from there.

All in all, there’s no doubt Recruiterbox’s candidate sourcing tools are the real deal, and we believe most businesses will find a lot to like here.

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Summary

Recruiterbox is a capable recruitment software that we do recommend. While it didn’t make our top picks list, we still think there’s a lot on offer here, and over time, the software will only improve further. If you need web-based recruitment software with robust candidate sourcing tools, excellent customer support, and valuable interviewing scheduling features, be sure to book a free demo today.

Paychex offers an all-in-one, highly customizable online payroll service and HR solution. 

It includes payroll, HR, business insurance, attendance tracking, payment processing, and employee benefits. 

Users can find tax credits and ensure regulatory compliance with help from Paychex experts and guides. 

Paychex has solutions for solopreneurs all the way to large corporations in multiple industries. 

Paychex Pros and Cons

Pros

• Fits All Business Sizes
• Tax Credits Feature
• Benefits Packages
• Payment Processing Solutions
• Business Insurance Options

Cons

• Tedious Sign-Up Process
• Complex Platform Structure
• No Free Trial

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How Paychex Compares to Top Online Payroll Services

Paychex is the best online payroll service for complex payroll cycles. It is a highly flexible platform suited for businesses of all sizes and various industries. It offers services for everything from employee payroll to business insurance and is a great platform for implementing employee benefits and tax credits. 

Paychex isn’t the only payroll service that could fit your needs, however. If you want a smoother tax season, QuickBooks Payroll is an excellent option. Consider purchasing Gusto if you’re looking for a more straightforward platform. Check out our helpful guide for the complete list of our top online payroll services.

Paychex Management & Employee Self-Service

A Paychex small business survey concluded that 73% of employees expected self-service options for tasks like requesting time off, entering bank information, and managing retirement accounts. Self-service options make tasks more efficient and cut out the middleman when entering data. 

Paychex provides self-service options when employees log into People View. Here, they can complete tasks like updating tax withholding and entering personal information. Employees can submit pay adjustments, request time off, view time-off balances and work schedules, and approve timecards. 

Self-service options are also available using Paychex’s mobile app. Workers can clock in, schedule meal breaks, and transfer hours from the app. They can schedule and request shift times and leave notes for managers as well.

Paychex Multi-State Tax Filings

Because remote work has become more mainstream, it can be beneficial to have a payroll service that considers multi-state tax filings. This is because employees may be working in a different location than a company’s headquarters. It’s always important to ensure your employees are filing state taxes correctly, and Paychex can help with this. 

Paychex helps users with payroll tax payment, payroll tax calculations, ensuring taxes are filed with the right agency, and eliminating inaccurate or late payment penalties. You should reach out to Paychex directly to address your specific needs for more information on multi-state employee taxes. 

Paychex also helps companies find tax credits, and users only pay after credits are found. For example, some states offer tax credits as high as $3,000 per employee to spur economic growth. Paychex helps companies find these location-based credits and reduce their income liability. 

In addition to state tax credits, Paychex also helps with credits for domestic production deduction, grant screening, training incentives, cost segregation, and research and development (R&D). 

Users can search for work opportunity tax credits (WOTC) by hiring from groups like unemployed veterans and food stamp recipients. To qualify for this credit, wages and hours must be tracked, and applicant pre-screening forms must be filled out. 

Its experts also track regulation and legislation updates, manage seven-year audit trail documentation, create an annual tax return report, and log employee wages, hours, and location changes. 

Paychex Specialized Payroll Solutions

Some payroll services focus on a niche group of businesses, while others have options for all types. Paychex is a comprehensive and flexible platform that can be customized for startups to large enterprises. When applying for Paychex, you have the option to complete a quiz to assess needs and must contact a Paychex expert for quotes. 

Paychex partners with MyCorporation to let self-employed users create filings for federal tax IDs, corporate formations, business licenses, and state IDs. Users can make 401(k) contributions as an employee and employer. It also helps them with W-2 and W-4 filing and direct deposits. 

Small businesses with one to nine employees get three pay entry options, multiple payment options, flexible payroll processing, 24/7 customer service, plus recruiting, benefits, and HR services. Paychex also provides users with articles and tutorials on the mobile app and payroll tax filing and payments. 

Businesses with 10 to 49 employees receive specific Paychex midsize business solutions. These include more efficient payroll processing, compliance services, customized payroll solutions, extra HR support, analytics and reporting insights, and additional benefit packages. 

If your company has over 1,000 employees, Paychex also has solutions for you. These include large business solution integrations, more flexible HR technology, scalable HR support, access to compliance experts, and single employee records. 

Paychex Pay Cycle Frequency

Some online payroll services restrict how often users can run payroll. Fortunately, Paychex offers a highly customizable service where users can design their payroll structure precisely as needed. It suits businesses of any size and industry, so it understands that pay cycle frequency and other options must be highly customizable. 

Users can design complex payroll cycles and variable schedules with this platform. In addition, users can customize earnings, deductions, payment options, self-service options, and more. 

Paychex All-in-One Benefits

As far as employee benefits are concerned, Paychex has got you covered. It has an entire service dedicated to employee benefits. Options include individual health insurance, 401(k) plans, group health insurance, dental and vision insurance, premium-only plans (POP), flexible spending accounts (FSA), and health savings accounts (HSA). 

It lets users offer comprehensive financial wellness programs to employees. These plans have been proven to reduce employee stress, improve productivity, and increase loyalty. These financial wellness programs help employees budget for insurance, taxes, savings, investing, debt and credit management, and household expenses. 

Paychex is an experienced retirement plan provider and has the U.S.’s top 401(k) recordkeeper expertise. Users have access to benefits administration, employee benefit self-service, full-service management, and flexible plan options. Its mobile app lets employees stay updated on things like health, retirement, and Section 125 plans. 

Paychex users also gain access to its professional employer organization (PEO) services. These are designed to help companies afford more expensive all-in-one benefits. Users will get professional service, detailed invoicing, and access to safety representatives for help with OSHA regulatory compliance. 

Paychex PEO services can help with things like workers’ compensation insurance, health benefit accounts, state unemployment insurance (SUI) management, employee assistance programs (EAP), health benefit accounts, group health insurance, employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), employee benefits management, employee performance administration, and more.

Paychex Payroll Services

Paychex’s premier focus is on its payroll services. It has several flexible plans suited for businesses of any size. It has won awards for best user experience and vendor satisfaction, and it has 24/7 customer support. 

When you sign up with Paychex, its team helps you set up your year-to-date payroll data. Customer support options include a knowledge base of how-to guides and articles, in-app assistance options, live chat access, and regular support from experienced professionals. 

It provides users with a simple platform and mobile app with three pay entry options. It also improves accuracy by alerting users when something goes wrong. For example, users will receive an error notification when an employee’s online pay stub doesn’t match their record. Employees can access W-2s, check stubs, and other payroll information. 

Paychex’s payment options include pay-on-demand, paper checks, pay cards, and direct deposit. 

Paychex Payroll Services and other Paychex solutions are part of Paychex Flex, and they can be paired together depending on each business’s needs. Paychex Go is another option meant for smaller businesses.  

Paychex Time Clocks

Paychex Time Clocks is a cloud-based system that’s fully integrated with Paychex Flex. It can be used to track time and attendance and imports the data into the other HR solutions. It also helps with remote workforce scheduling and management, compliance and safety support, and extended leave and time-off tracking. 

To make sure employees are paid accurately, you can automate time and attendance tracking. This platform makes administrative tasks easier to perform and streamlines scheduling requests. It also keeps operations running smoothly by helping users navigate fluctuating employee dynamics. 

Users can clock in through its InVision Iris Time Clock, web punch, mobile app, or tablet kiosk app with an option to set up facial recognition. Users can see when employees are working, taking a break, or taking time off. Users can manage teams, approve timesheets, and review requests from the manager dashboard. 

Paychex HR Services

Paychex HR Services is designed to simplify employee, administrator, and HR team tasks. It helps users comply, administer, and plan every aspect of HR management. It offers users dedicated HR professionals averaging eight years of experience for advice. These experts help guide users through the process and understand important regulatory requirements. 

The Paychex experts create a service action plan for your specific needs and show users how to document it and take action. They help with HR duties like performance management, leave of absence policies, and remote work arrangements. The experts also stay up to date on all regulations and inform users of new changes. 

The platform helps onboard new hires, discover critical details about candidates, find qualified candidates, conduct interview best practices, and create accurate job descriptions. Users can access reminders, quizzes, videos, and courses from the learning management system to enhance employee retention strategies. 

It comes with an HR calendar that keeps users updated on employee work anniversaries and birthdays. To show employees the monetary value of their benefits, users can create a comprehensive compensation summary report. Users can also chat with experts to ensure they comply with federal, state, and local regulations.

Paychex Employee Benefits Services

Paychex Employee Benefits Services allows users to provide employees with retirement services, health insurance, health savings accounts, tax savings plans, dental and vision, and financial wellness programs. 

Users can work with a professional employer organization (PEO) to help them afford expensive benefits. Users can also speak with a Paychex professional to assess their needs and create an action plan. 

Paychex Employee Benefits Services provides efficient recordkeeping and benefits management. Employees can check Section 125 plans, health plans, retirement plans, and other benefits directly from their desktop or mobile device. 

Paychex Business Insurance Solutions

Paychex Business Insurance Solutions helps provide comprehensive coverage for employees, properties, and businesses. This solution helps with compliance, billing, deductions, and selecting the best provider. Paychex partners with top carriers, has over 20 years of experience, and has been rated a top 25 insurance agency for the past five years. 

Users can bundle business protection with a business owner’s policy (BOP) to cover business risks. Cyber liability insurance helps protect against the growing number of hackers and cybercriminals. Entire fleets or single vehicles can be covered from work-related accidents with commercial auto insurance. 

For protection against wrongful termination, workplace violence, discrimination, and harassment claims, employers can use Paychex to purchase an employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policy. Contractor, employee, manager, and owner mistakes can be protected with professional liability insurance. 

To extend the limits of other policies, employers can purchase a commercial umbrella plan. Damaged equipment, inventory, and buildings can be protected with commercial property insurance. Paychex users can also find general liability insurance policies and workers’ compensation insurance. 

Paychex Payment Processing Solutions

Paychex has the latest technology for payment processing needs. In addition to payment processing, this platform enhances customer engagement with automated emails, upgrades decision-making with inventory and sales data, and offers more efficient employee management. 

Users can completely customize their payment process with online payment services, debit and credit card processing, point of sale (POS) solutions, eCheck processing, automatic clearing house (ACH) payment, transparent pricing, PCI compliance notifications, interchange optimization, and real-time, same-day, or next-day funding abilities. 

Paychex’s credit card processing includes payment from credit cards like MasterCard, Visa, and Discover, along with gift cards and EMV chip cards. It also gives users the ability to add credit card surcharges. International purchasers can be accommodated using dynamic currency conversion and receive receipts showing exchange rate details and other statistics. 

Users can take payments with PC, iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Users can accommodate additional customers, get paid faster, and save processing costs through electronic processing. Paychex integrates with QuickBooks, and it has PCI DSS compliance reminders to protect users from liability and fraud issues. 

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Compare The Online Payroll Providers

We reviewed dozens of online payroll providers and narrowed them down to the best options.

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Summary

If you’re looking for an online service that can do much more than manage payroll, Paychex is for you. You can use its platform for employee benefits, tax credits, HR management, business insurance, and much more. This flexible platform fits businesses of any type and size, and it is the best option for complex payroll cycles. 

Applicant tracking software (ATS) saves your HR team lots of time sorting candidates and moving them through the hiring and onboarding process.

Greenhouse is specifically designed to make applicant tracking more manageable and efficient with its suite of recruiting and onboarding tools.

Plus, its onboarding features provide a one-of-a-kind experience for new hires that other ATS options don’t offer. 

I’ve dug deep into Greenhouse to see what sets it apart from competitors and how it stands up against some of our top picks. 

Read on for an in-depth review. 

Greenhouse Pros and Cons 

Pros 

• Interview scorecards reduce bias
• Customizable recruiting workflow
• Simple, straightforward job setup
• Customizable offer templates save time
• Lots of integrations
• Extensive knowledge base

Cons 

• Can be buggy with specific tasks
• Separate pricing for recruiting and onboarding
• Lacking in collaboration features
• User interface options can be overwhelming 
• No customized training for new users

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How Greenhouse Compares to Top Applicant Tracking Software

Greenhouse has both recruiting and onboarding solutions for businesses to move through the hiring process smoothly. Its job-posting and candidate-sourcing tools help automate your pipeline, and reports ensure hiring and onboarding efficiency.

Compared to others, this software is highly customizable for your hiring team, has plenty of integrations with your favorite tools, and is easy to get the hang of within a few minutes. One of its best features—interview scorecards—allows interviewers to gain objective feedback on a candidate’s interview.

Still, Greenhouse doesn’t appear on the list of our top picks of the best applicant tracking software. BambooHR and JazzHR are our picks for most businesses because of their varied features and ease of use. Greenhouse displays these characteristics, too. But a few flaws, like an option-heavy interface and a need for more collaborative features, prevent it from being worthy of our list of favorites. 

While it may not have made the list for its ATS, Greenhouse did make the cut when we researched and reviewed the top recruiting software on the market–something to keep in mind.

Greenhouse Hiring Volume and Frequency Capabilities

Greenhouse isn’t necessarily the best ATS option for businesses that only hire a handful of employees each month or year. The software can get pricey for small businesses, especially if they want both the recruiting and onboarding tools, as they’re technically separate products with different prices. 

Medium and large businesses with significant hiring needs will undoubtedly benefit from Greenhouse. For example, Stack reports that 37% of Greenhouse’s customers are mid-sized with 51-250 employees. 

Greenhouse doesn’t limit the number of people you hire or limit much of anything, really. The company creates a custom solution for each client, including recruiting features and a pricing structure that works with their needs. If there are particular features you need, like unlimited job postings, but you want to save money by limiting the number of people you can hire each month, Greenhouse can work with you on a custom plan.

Additionally, Greenhouse is scalable. You can start as a small or medium business and change your plan to suit your growth as you become a larger company. You can also promote scalability within the software by adding more roles, customizing your workflow, and automating applications and approvals.

Greenhouse Software Type

Greenhouse is designed for in-house hiring, meaning it’s made with your hiring team or HR department in mind rather than the needs of a staffing agency. In this respect, it has all the tools your team needs to review applications, qualify candidates, set up interviews, and move candidates through your onboarding process.

One of the ways in which Greenhouse caters to in-house teams is through its structured hiring process, which creates a defined set of attributes and requirements for an ideal candidate. Your team can set this up how they’d like, but the ultimate goal is to ensure a unified hiring process with all hiring agents on the same page. Automation, interview scorecards, and reporting optimize the process and save your team time.

Although Greenhouse is mostly for in-house hiring, you can still use the help of an agency if you’d like. Greenhouse allows agency access through an Agency Portal, for which admins can control permissions. Send an invite to the agency, and recruiters can set up an agency account to navigate the portal. The portal allows recruiters to send your company job prospects to your Greenhouse dashboard without disrupting your workflow or accessing settings.

If you’re looking for more control as a staffing agency, try JazzHR, which offers unlimited users and jobs with modest pricing compared to Greenhouse.

Greenhouse Human Resources Features

In addition to Greenhouse recruiting solutions, the company also offers its onboarding solutions, making it an excellent fit for your HR department. Important note: You’ll need to pay for each product separately, which can drive up prices. 

But the software’s onboarding tools are a must for HR departments looking for ways to transition new team members into their roles quickly and efficiently. Not only does Greenhouse smooth the process for the HR team, but it also enhances the process for your new employees.

On the backend, your HR team can assign roles for onboarding tasks, set reminders, sync Greenhouse Recruiting information, and craft emails that detail onboarding steps for new employees. You can also set up an automation for each completed step to notify team members when new recruits are ready to move on or open up skills assessments or training videos for new team members.

If you’d like even more of a complete HR solution, BambooHR might be the best option. BambooHR includes applicant tracking and onboarding but adds the perks of compensation and offboarding features, giving it everything your team needs to take care of your employees.

Greenhouse Pricing

I mentioned previously that Greenhouse charges separately for onboarding and recruiting tools, so you’ll pay more for both than for one. Still, the products relatively line up with similar product pricing and may even be more affordable. A 2017 Siftery report shows that similar products, like Jobvite and iCIMS, have higher average annual pricing than Greenhouse for more than 500 employees.

Unfortunately, smaller teams tend to experience higher pricing with Greenhouse than with similar products. The same report notes Greenhouse users as paying more annually, on average, than those with competing companies if they have 500 or fewer employees. 

Greenhouse features three plans—Essential, Advanced, and Expert—but you’ll need to talk to an Account Executive to determine which one might be better for your needs. Greenhouse can also create custom solutions for your team with a mix of features that work best for your firm.

Pricing isn’t available on the Greenhouse website and instead fluctuates depending on your company size and necessary features. However, the Siftery report shows that most companies should expect to pay at least $5,000 a year to access the Greenhouse software, which could be more than a small business’s budget allows.

Greenhouse Recruiting and Talent Sourcing

One of two primary product offerings from Greenhouse, Recruiting includes all the tools your team needs to optimize its hiring process and find the best talent for the job. With Recruiting, your team can develop a step-by-step pipeline that posts jobs, tracks applications, screens candidates, and finishes the process, thereby automating some tasks to save time.

Greenhouse Recruiting gives you access to more than 1,000 top job boards to sync your job listings where top talent is likely to find them. You’ll even get industry-based insights into what job boards are best suited for your jobs. 

Then, Greenhouse really comes alive. Created automated surveys to help you screen candidates, receive notifications during each workflow step to stay on top of the process, and communicate with your hiring team from within your dashboard. Your employees can also create a referral system to help you find the best candidates.

In-house teams will get the most benefits from Greenhouse Recruiting, although you can invite a recruiting agency to work within its own section of your account. To better handle recruiting needs if you’re an agency, you might opt for an agency-focused software like Bullhorn, which has the capabilities to handle mass numbers of applicants.

Greenhouse Onboarding

The other primary Greenhouse product is Onboarding, which handles everything that comes after recruiting. With Onboarding, your team will know exactly where each candidate is in the onboarding process, and new hires will have a seamless, engaging experience as they navigate each step.

Your team can send policies and other pertinent company information to new hires, introduce them to their teams, and create emails to notify them of their next onboarding steps. Along the way, Greenhouse can set alerts and reminders to your team as new hires complete steps or fill out necessary documents. Greenhouse also gives your new hires a chance to provide feedback about the onboarding process so that you can continue to improve it. 

If your budget is a primary concern, Greenhouse Onboarding might exceed it, especially if you’re a smaller company. Alternatively, try an onboarding software like WebHR, which includes recruiting and onboarding modules for just $2 per employee per month—excellent pricing if you have 25 or fewer team members involved.

Greenhouse Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Features

A primary focus of Greenhouse Recruiting software is making the hiring process an inclusive and fair one, leading you to a diverse mix of candidates free from bias. Candidates can also feel welcome and equal, thanks to features that put them in control of their preferences. Greenhouse is one of the best ATS software options for teams prioritizing diversity.

For instance, candidates can define their pronouns, record their name pronunciation, and view your company’s mission statement and culture on your career page. You can also set up custom demographic questions in an application for candidates to fill out optionally.

An interview scorecard then assists the hiring team with making fair assessments based on a candidate’s actual skills to remove any personal bias. The scorecard lists key attributes necessary for a position, and an interviewer can score the applicant based on their abilities. If desired, you can include a required note section for team members to provide detailed feedback to explain their scoring.

Additionally, Greenhouse provides reports based on demographic information from candidates that you can use to tweak your hiring strategy and ensure inclusion across all departments. 

Greenhouse Mobile App

While many applicant tracking software options are on the market, many of them do not have a mobile app to take your hiring on the go. But Greenhouse does, allowing you to continue recruiting from anywhere.

With the Greenhouse Recruiting app, you can handle all basic recruiting tasks from your smartphone or tablet. Check out and approve applications, view candidate profiles and attachments, and browse your company’s open job positions and potential candidates. The app also displays pipeline information, like where applications are in the approval process and how many upcoming interviews your team has.

There’s also a Greenhouse Events app, which is a must for hiring teams hosting in-person events. Use the app to collect candidate data quickly for follow-up, and organize prospects for convenient searchability when you’re ready to move forward. 

Greenhouse Reporting

Seeing how your hiring team and process perform day in and day out is necessary to ensure efficiency, just like any other company department. The better the team gets at finding suitable candidates, the less time they’ll spend posting jobs, sourcing prospects, and onboarding new team members. That’s where Greenhouse Reporting comes into play.

Greenhouse can generate dozens of reports to help you learn more about candidates, your pipeline’s efficiency, and your job opening statuses. You can create reports from templates or build custom reports from scratch to give you the precise details you need.

Greenhouse’s reports are easy to decipher but may not provide the more granular analytics you need if you’re looking for more in-depth information. Custom reporting can help, but it still fails to get into the details some HR teams might prefer. For this, try JazzHR’s Advanced Reporting module, with detailed reports on candidates, jobs, compliance, and more. You can add the module to a Plus Plan.

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Greenhouse excels in saving your team time setting up job postings, moving candidates down your hiring pipeline, and reducing bias during the process. Still, it has a few points that prevent it from being one of our top choices, including its prices for SMBs and lack of collaboration features for teams. I recommend requesting a Greenhouse demo to see it in action and ensure that it has features and reporting capabilities that work for your team.

JazzHR’s primary focus is helping small to medium-sized businesses attract and hire candidates.

It’s our top recruiting software pick for applicant tracking needs, but it has helpful onboarding features as well. 

With JazzHR, employers can promote their brand using company websites, branded messaging, and social media channels. 

JazzHR users can also automate communication with candidates and generate insightful performance reports. 

This software doesn’t come with a free plan, but it includes a 21-day free trial and affordable pricing options.

JazzHR Pros and Cons

Pros

• Employer Branding
• Unlimited Open Jobs (with select plans)
• Applicant Tracking Features
• Affordable Pricing Options
• Onboarding Tools
• Insightful Reporting

Cons

• Lack of Agency Features
• No Free Plan
• Absence of Phone Support (with most plans)

How JazzHR Compares to Top Recruiting Software

With features that include automated tasks, collaborative hiring, and employer branding, JazzHR is the best recruiting software for applicant tracking. It is best for small to mid-sized businesses looking to hire in one location, and it has additional tools that help with onboarding. 

JazzHR made our list of the Best Recruiting Software for its applicant tracking capabilities, but there are other products worth mentioning. Breezy HR is the best tool for unlimited job postings, and it includes a free plan for users posting only one job at a time. Workable starts at a higher price, but it is the best tool for recruiting at scale. 

JazzHR In-House vs. Agency Solutions

You should always differentiate whether a recruiting software is meant for in-house use or agencies. JazzHR has options for both. While its standard plans are suited to small to mid-sized businesses, it has high-volume plans that include tools for recruitment agencies. The high-volume plans cost more, but it may be worth it if you’re with an agency set on using JazzHR. 

That said, it’s important to mention that JazzHR was not originally created to help agencies. It has affordable plans that are meant for a small to mid-sized business budget. Even its high-volume plans lack common agency features like invoicing, CRM, and time tracking. If you’re hiring in-house, JazzHR is a great option. If you’re with an agency, a tool like Bullhorn may be a better fit. 

In-house users can post openings on pay-per-click, pay-per-post, and free job boards. To save time, they can set up automatic rejection emails to unqualified candidates. JazzHR can be directly synced with a user’s inbox for help with organization. It also supports referral programs to organize candidate leads from current employees. 

In-house recruiting teams can be created for each job opening. This allows team members to collaborate with fellow employees and vote “yes” or “no” on specific candidates. Users can also share candidate feedback, notes, and other important details. In-house users can customize workflows for each job post, giving employees an actionable process for recruiting candidates.

JazzHR Hiring Volume

Whatever your hiring volume needs are, JazzHR has got you covered. If you only need to hire three or fewer candidates at a time, go with JazzHR’s Hero plan. It is extremely affordable, but it places a limit of three open jobs at a time. If you want to add more simultaneous openings, you can either upgrade your plan or add more posts for a small monthly fee.

JazzHR’s Plus and Pro plans cost more, but they have no limit on the number of simultaneous job posts. If you have a lot of open positions to fill, these are great options. You don’t want to get stuck with a plan that has a limit too low. This will cost you a ton in wasted upgrading costs. It’s worth mentioning that all JazzHR plans allow unlimited users as well. 

JazzHR does place job posting limits on all its high-volume plans, however. The Hero High-Volume plan has a limit of three posts at a time. The Plus and Pro High-Volume plans have limits of 30 simultaneous job posts, with options to purchase bundles of 50 or 200 additional posts. 

If you only need to post one job at a time, consider using a tool called Breezy HR. This software is free to use if you only need to fill one role simultaneously.

JazzHR Onboarding Tools

Many recruiting software tools aren’t limited to only finding qualified candidates. Tools like JazzHR help with onboarding and integrate with human resource management systems. This tool automates the onboarding process and digitizes offer management forms, and it’s a great tool overall for onboarding new hires. 

Through JazzHR, offer letters can be pre-populated with details like job title, start date, and salary, templates can be set up, and eSignatures can be collected from employees and candidates. Both employers and employees can also use the JazzHR mobile app for document storage and signing. Users can also track and revise previous documents without needing to recreate them.

The software also integrates with human resource and payroll management systems to help with candidates after they’ve been hired. Some of these partners include Gusto, BambooHR, Ace Payroll, ADP, Namely, and MassPay. 

Once candidates have been hired, JazzHR also allows users to run insightful reports. For example, a candidate sourcing report will show where successful candidates are coming from. A pipeline report will show where time was wasted on hiring previous candidates. These allow users to fine-tune their approaches for the next batch of candidates.

JazzHR Employer Branding

If you want a recruiting tool that helps attract candidates using your own brand and website, JazzHR can certainly help. It offers benefits like branded messaging, social media channels, and customizable career pages. While employer branding isn’t mandatory, it can help make your company look more appealing and professional to potential candidates.

JazzHR allows users to bypass hiring a web developer by offering more than 12 templates for customized website branding. These templates work for desktop and mobile use.  Users can link their JazzHR account to their company website, and they can post jobs on their own website and multiple third-party boards at once. 

The tool allows users to quickly post jobs to all the major social media platforms too, giving them a greater opportunity to show off their company’s culture and expand their network. This also gives users the ability to receive referrals from social media followers. Open roles can be tracked and shared by employees on social media. 

Another way JazzHR enhances employer branding is through personalized messages. Branded message templates ensure candidates see your company logo and receive personalized responses. Its message automation feature sends branded auto-response messages to cover things like interview requests and disqualification emails. 

JazzHR Hero

JazzHR offers one product with three main pricing plans, starting with JazzHR Hero. Hero is meant for small teams looking to post one to three jobs at a time, and it allows unlimited users. If users want to post more, they can add more for $9 per job per month. The plan costs $39 per month billed annually for most users or $99 per month if the user is a staffing company.

Hero lets users post jobs on free job boards with one click, customize job applications, and post jobs on mobile-friendly sites. Users can screen candidates from their mobile devices automatically, post jobs on pay-per-post and pay-per-click job boards, and receive emails when candidates apply to jobs. 

Hero users are given a searchable resume database, allowing them to take advantage of the user interface to quickly find candidate profiles. If users already have a database of candidates, they can upload them when switching to JazzHR so there aren’t any duplicate applicants. It also integrates with human resource management tools, allowing candidates to be transferred to them automatically.

JazzHR comes with a Chrome extension that lets users import passive candidates from job boards. It integrates with LinkedIn Recruiter so users can view profiles and send and receive messages. To keep track of communication, users can sync up all their emails with JazzHR. It also lets account owners assign specific privileges to users, keeping candidate data protected. 

Its email templates feature allows users to create automated candidate email responses. Hero users can create their own job workflow stages and add pre-recorded video screens. Users can also store and organize candidate documents. 

One major drawback of JazzHR Hero, however, is that it only offers users email support. However, it is an affordable plan with plenty of features for those who have small-scale hiring needs.

JazzHR Plus

JazzHR Plus is the most popular plan, and it offers account owners unlimited users and unlimited simultaneous job posts. This plan costs $229 per month billed annually. This plan has everything included in JazzHR Hero plus the following features. 

To save time, Plus lets users manage an entire employee referral program through its software. Users can add candidate disqualification questions. They can also set up emails that automatically send to candidates depending on where they are in the hiring process. 

The plan comes with bulk action tools to efficiently perform actions with a group of candidates. It also comes with job approval tools and a contacts manager. 

Plus directly integrates with Sterling Talent Solutions, Aurico, and Verified First to help users conduct background checks and screening on candidates. It comes with a calendar tool that lets users track, manage, and schedule interviews. Users can sync interviews and other calendar events to their Outlook and Gmail calendars as well. 

Its helpful guides give users a roadmap for conducting interviews, and its candidate evaluation templates help users analyze their candidates. JazzHR Plus integrates coding and skill testing software, and it can work with Zoom for $29 per month extra. Its Calendly integration lets users show their availability to candidates and allows them to schedule interviews.

On the job dashboard, users can create custom fields and customize candidate profiles. Plus users can run funnel reports, pipeline reports, job reports, optimization reports, and candidate reports.

Users receive onboarding support, and data importing can be carried out after requesting a quote. Customer support upgrades to email plus chat options with this plan, and users can add phone support for $49 per month. Depending on your budget, it could make more sense to upgrade to JazzHR Pro, where phone support is already included. 

JazzHR Pro

JazzHR Pro is the most comprehensive plan offered. It includes unlimited users and unlimited open jobs, and it’s priced at $339 per month billed annually. It comes with everything that’s included with Hero and Plus, with the following features added.

Zoom integration for video interviews is automatically included with Pro. eSignature tool integrations are included along with offer letter generators. This plan provides offer insights to let users see what is working and what isn’t. For preventing bottlenecks and errors, tokens can be used to create offer templates. 

To speed up the hiring process, users can create templates for any common documents used. For added security, users can decide who can access salary data, offer letters, and other sensitive information. It also lets users create compliance reports and more customizable reports. 

With JazzHR Pro, importing data is free with a 12-month or more plan commitment. It also comes with onboarding assistance, and its customer support includes email, chat, and phone assistance. 

JazzHR plans come with a 21-day free trial, and they include optional add-ons as well. For humanizing candidate interactions, users can add candidate texting starting at $29 per month. For an additional $99, users can hire a dedicated account manager to show them new features, run customized training, and conduct quarterly account reviews. 

Users can add brand-specific career page customizations starting at $39 per month. If users want to increase their bulk email limit, they can do so starting at $29 per month. eSignature and offer add-ons are available for $59 per month. 

For easier password management, single sign-on capacity can be added for $29 per month. Users can also add advanced reporting for $59 per month and candidate exporting for $29 per month. 

JazzHR High-Volume Plans

It’s important to note that the standard JazzHR plans are intended to serve small and midsize businesses with less than 500 employees hiring candidates in one location. However, JazzHR has High-Volume plans intended for companies with more than 500 employees, franchises, staffing agencies, multi-location companies, and HR service providers. 

The High-Volume version of Hero costs $99 per month billed annually instead of $39. The High-Volume versions of JazzHR Plus and Pro cost the same as the regular versions. 

The High-Volume plans give users more enterprise-level capabilities, but it limits open job postings on all three versions. The open job limits are the same for both versions of the Hero plan. With High-Volume Plus and Pro, users are limited to 30 job postings at once. However, they can add 50 posts for an additional $39 or 200 posts for $89.

Summary

If you are with a small to midsize company needing recruitment software with the best possible applicant tracking features, JazzHR is for you. The software has three main plans and high-volume options if needed. JazzHR has affordable pricing options, company branding tools, and helpful post-hire features that can help you attract candidates and get them onboard efficiently. 

Finding the perfect candidate can be intimidating. Your job opening could have hundreds of potential candidates, and you need a way to narrow them down to a list of the best. Job posting sites solve this problem by accessing, attracting, and managing candidates during the recruitment process. There are countless job posting sites for employers, so we created a list of the top six available.

The Top 6 Best Job Posting Sites for Employers

1. LinkedIn – Best for Social Networking
2. Indeed – Best for Dynamic Recruiting
3. Snagajob – Best for Hourly Jobs
4. AngelList – Best for Startups
5. FlexJobs – Best for Remote and Flexible Jobs
6. Dice – Best for Tech Jobs

While some job posting sites target the entire candidate pool, others are dedicated to a specific niche market. Each of the following six sites are worth looking into, especially if one specializes in solving your specific hiring needs. 

#1 – LinkedIn — Best for Social Networking

Visit LinkedIn

• Access to 750M+ users
• LinkedIn Messenger for networking
• Targeted ads for job posts
• Automated disqualification emails

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LinkedIn is the best place to post a job for social networking purposes. There are 756 million people using LinkedIn. To put that in perspective, that’s more than double the entire U.S. population. Members come from over 200 countries and territories across the globe. It is also home to more than 55 million registered companies. 

Odds are you’re probably familiar with LinkedIn already. It’s different from a typical job posting site because it acts more like a social media platform. While posting jobs is a key feature, the site is way more than just that. 

It is the best place for social networking because candidates and recruiters create profiles and can interact through LinkedIn Messenger. People can use it to see mutual connections, follow their favorite companies, and stay updated on news headlines. Companies can post jobs, and candidates can search for openings to apply for. 

Posting a job on LinkedIn is done through the LinkedIn Jobs page. It is simple and lets recruiters add screening questions and automatic disqualification emails. When posting a job, recruiters can have candidates apply directly through LinkedIn or redirect them to an external careers page. 

Recruiters can enter in job description details, benefits, and skills required. For roles that need to be filled immediately, LinkedIn has an Urgent Hiring Need feature to inform applicants of time sensitivity. Recruiters can also categorize qualifications as “must-have” or “preferred”.

Posting a job is free, but choosing the free version simply means your posting shows up in the search results. For greater candidate exposure and interaction, it’s a good idea to upgrade your post to Promoted. Promoting your post will increase the number of targeted advertising candidates receive and will increase its search results ranking. 

Other benefits of promoting a job posting include a favorable placement in candidates’ job recommendations list, the ability to receive smart alerts for qualified candidates, and mobile alerts to candidates who may be a fit. 

For the best results, LinkedIn recommends you spend at least $25 per day. However, only a minimum of $6 per day is required. This can get expensive depending on your budget, but it can pay off in the long term by giving recruiters a larger pool of candidates to choose from. 

Try hiring through LinkedIn today.

#2 – Indeed — Best for Dynamic Recruiting

Visit Indeed

• 250M+ unique users per month
• Quadruple results w/ Job Sponsoring
• Indeed Resume for dynamic searches
• Pay AFTER results

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Indeed is a job posting website specifically focused on quickly filling job openings with qualified candidates. Unlike LinkedIn, Indeed users typically visit the platform only when they are searching for a new job. The platform has more than 250 million unique visitors each month. It also has multiple dynamic ways to help employers find the right candidates. 

The basic feature of Indeed from an employer’s perspective is posting jobs. Posting a job is free, but jobs can be Sponsored for more effective results. According to Indeed, Sponsored jobs are 4.5 times more likely to end in a qualified hire. Users can customize their budget for Sponsored jobs and only have to pay when results are achieved. 

In addition to posting jobs, Indeed has a product called Indeed Resume. When candidates sign up for Indeed, they have the option to create a resume directly on the website. Recruiters who sign up for Indeed Resume can search resumes with filters for job title, location, experience, availability, and more. Qualified candidates can then be quickly contacted for interviews. 

Indeed Resume users get access to roughly 16 million resumes, and half the candidates they reach out to typically respond. According to Indeed, 20% of candidates have a resume but do not apply for jobs. Indeed Resume lets recruiters reach this pool of candidates. 

Interested users can purchase the Indeed Resume Standard plan for $100 per month or $960 per year. They also have the option to purchase the Professional plan for larger messaging capacity, bulk messaging abilities, and hiring insights access. This plan costs $250 per month or $2,400 per year. 

Find great candidates today by posting your job openings to Indeed.

#3 – Snagajob — Best for Hourly Jobs

Visit Snagajob

• 6M+ hourly job seekers monthly
• One-click applications
• Cover open shifts quickly
• Snagajob Hire simplifies paperwork

Post your job today

If you need to fill an hourly job opening, Snagajob is your best option. This site helps two-thirds of the U.S.’s hourly job workers find the right opening every year. Because it matches the right candidates with each role, recruiters using Snagajob only need half the applicants it would’ve needed without the platform. It is also used for filling in last-minute shifts quickly. 

The site has over six million monthly visitors. Some of the industries Snagajob targets are customer support, office support, healthcare, warehouse, restaurant, hospitality, and retail. Users start by posting a job with details like compensation, description, and screening questions. Once the right candidates are found, users can schedule interviews directly. 

If a company has less than 100 employees, Snagajob costs $89 per month per job post. This gives users access to pre-screening questions, one-click applications, interview scheduling, and simplified posting. Companies with more than 100 employees need to request pricing information. 

Snagajob also has a Flex product that managers can use to fill shifts. If an employee cancels at the last minute, a manager can post a shift opening through Snagajob. He or she can reach out to an individual or send out a mass notification. This can be used to reach current employees, previous workers, or Snagajob’s trusted crew. 

Snagajob Hire reduces the time it takes to fill out onboarding paperwork. It uses assessments to attract the right employees and reduce turnover by 40%. It also keeps track of alerts, audit trails, and regular updates to ensure full compliance. 

Fill out your staff by using Snagajob. 

#4 – AngelList — Best for Startups

Visit AngelList

• Company profiles for attracting talent
• Curated workers in select cities
• Trusted by recognized startups
• Post unlimited jobs for free

Try for free

AngelList is a job posting site specifically designed for startup companies. The website has over eight million users and more than 100,000 companies. It is trusted by top brands like Postmates, DoorDash, Peloton, Honey, and NerdWallet. It helps companies find their initial team all the way through their post-IPO employees. 

The company profile feature gives recruiters the opportunity to share their stories with potential candidates and get them excited about applying. Recruiters can include info like funding background, company culture, and the people involved. Users can also highlight benefits, perks,  and company mission to sell their brand. 

AngelList is broken down into three pricing plans. Its Starter version is free and lets users process inbound applicants, post unlimited jobs, add a company profile, and has applicant tracking integration. However, this version limits the number of candidates users can view, and recruiters only have access to 2.3 million candidates. 

AngelList Pro is the mid-tier plan. It costs $250 per user per month and has a seven-day free trial. It has everything included in AngelList Starter plus workflow tools, advanced search options, enhanced candidate profiles, and unlimited candidate access. It also has curated add-ons in select cities which include a dedicated technical sourcer and curated candidates. 

Finally, AngelList Team is for hiring candidates quickly and has flexible pricing. It does not include a free trial. This plan adds a dedicated account manager and discounted sourcing seats. It also has add-ons in select cities that include one curated hire and a fixed fee for additional curated hires. 

Scale up by hiring through AngelList.

#5 – FlexJobs — Best for Remote and Flexible Jobs

Visit FlexJobs

• Virtual job fair creation
• Dedicated account support
• Nonprofits get 50% rebate
• Save 25% with annual membership

Post your job today

If you need a job posting site for remote, flexible, freelance, or part-time work openings, FlexJobs is the best overall. In addition to job posting, it lets users create targeted Q&As, message blasts, targeted emails, webinars, and virtual job fairs. The platform has been used by powerhouses like Amazon and Dell to find remote and part-time talent. 

FlexJobs gives companies the opportunity to promote their brand and target specific candidates. The platform offers consulting services to help with things like SEO recruitment strategies, employee onboarding, candidate assessments, team training, flex work and remote audits, managing remote teams, and more. It also connects users with thought leaders and trend data.

FlexJobs has three pricing options for employers. There is no free plan, and employers must fill out an application to ensure they are the right fit. The first plan costs $299 per month billed monthly. Users can save 20% with the second plan costing $729 per quarter billed every three months. For 25% savings, users can sign up for $2,699 per year billed annually. 

All plans include unlimited job posts, customized employer profiles, dedicated account support, data and activity reporting, expert articles, unlimited resume searches, and the ability to submit job feeds. Verifiable B Corps and 501c3 nonprofit organizations can receive a 50% rebate on their FlexJobs subscriptions. 

Get started with hiring through FlexJobs today.

#6 – Dice — Best for Tech Jobs

Visit Dice

• Access to 9.7M tech profiles
• Brand display advertising
• Optional recruiting and sourcing services
• Buy in bulk to save 37%

Post your job today

Dice focuses only on hiring talent in the tech industry. This job posting site features 9.7 million tech profiles, 2.7 million visible resumes, and 1.3 million monthly users. It’s been used by companies like Chase, Charles Schwab, and United Health Group. It also features recruiting and sourcing services to help create a strategy for attracting top talent. 

Attracting tech talent is competitive, and Dice helps companies promote their brand to receive more applications. It offers users a free guide on brand promotion and lets recruiters use display advertising to catch the eye of qualified candidates. Users can also use employer branding campaigns, leads campaigns, and social boosts through the platform. 

After posting a job, users can track applicant data by previewing resumes, prioritizing applicants, and sharing candidate info with employees. Users can create automatic matching candidates lists, add updates, and manage job postings during the recruitment process. Recruiters can also add screening questions and reach out for job interviews.

While Dice offers tech companies a targeted approach to top candidates, it is on the expensive side. Users can post one job for $395, two jobs for $325 each, three jobs for $305 each, or buy in bulk. The bulk pricing option lets users save 37% by posting 5 to 10 jobs for $250 each. 

Bring on better tech talent by getting started with Dice today.

How to Find The Best Job Posting Site For You

Many large companies can attract talent using a top generic job posting site. However, smaller and more niche organizations may want to look into a more specialized platform. Whatever your situation, make sure to consider the following criteria before deciding where to post an opening.  

Candidate Pool

The size and type of available candidates is a critical factor with job posting sites. You must make sure you have an audience to view your job opening, or you won’t receive any qualified applications. A solid candidate pool for generic sites is in the 100 million-plus range. For more specialized sites, a candidate pool of more than a couple million is sufficient. 

If you aren’t posting on a generic site, make sure the site specializes in finding the type of employees your company is looking for. There are job posting sites for industries of all types and sizes. Sites also specialize by type of work and company growth stage. A specialized site can also help you narrow down your candidate pool to eliminate unqualified applicants. 

Post and Brand Advertising

While many sites let you post openings for free, oftentimes this is not enough to attract the top talent. Choose a site that lets you upgrade and advertise your job post to qualified candidates. This ensures that when the right candidate searches for a similar job, your opening appears at the top. This is less important for smaller and more specialized job posting sites. 

Many of the specialized sites give companies the option to promote their brand. This is an important option for startups and small businesses because they may not be well-known yet. Choosing a job posting site with brand advertising abilities lets users tell their company story and get potential candidates excited about applying. 

Applicant Screening

Applicant screening questions are a great way to disqualify candidates and save time. Choose a job posting site that gives you the option to automate deal-breaker questions. This will eliminate the need to sift through hundreds of resumes manually. An added bonus is a platform that sends automatic disqualification emails, saving you additional effort. 

Networking Abilities

Not all job posting sites have networking abilities, but it is something to consider for job posting purposes. A site like LinkedIn gives users the ability to not only view resumes, but also see mutual connections, send messages, and see what applicants are posting. If you simply need to fill a role as quickly as possible, this feature isn’t necessary.

Summary

The right job posting site can make finding the best candidates simple. Before choosing one, make sure it has a sufficient and suitable candidate pool for your needs. It’s also important to pick one that lets you promote your brand and job posting. Screening questions are a great feature for saving time, and you may want a site that has networking capabilities. 

LinkedIn is the best for social networking purposes, and Indeed gives has the most dynamic recruiting features. If your company is a startup, check out AngelList. Hourly candidates are most easily found on Snagajob, and tech companies should consider posting on Dice. FlexJobs has the best talent pool for part-time, freelance, and remote workers. 

Online payroll services like OnPay make sure you aren’t left high and dry when it comes to managing payroll for both employees and contractors.

Unlike other services, OnPay is flexible enough to meet most if not all of your medium-sized business needs beyond just payroll.  

It doesn’t matter if you’re a startup, a restaurant, operate in healthcare or the non-profit sector, OnPay is designed to mold to your needs. 

We dive into its pros and cons as well as its most prominent features below. 

OnPay Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easily automate tax payments and filings
• Pay by debit card, check, or direct deposit
• Offers customer support from certified payroll professionals
• Comes with built-in HR tools
• Makes it easy to onboard new employees
• Helps you manage health and 401(k) plans
• Offers worker’s comp in all 50 states
• Affordable $34 monthly fee plus $4 per additional person

Cons

• Customer support quality can vary
• Limited benefits enrollment features
• PTO features not as intuitive or expansive as other software

How OnPay Compares to Top Online Payroll Services

OnPay comes with many helpful features that go beyond payroll, namely HR tools and benefits features. However, there are other tools out there that do much of the same things. This begs the question: How does it stack up against other options? OnPay is great if you’re working with a remote workforce. Especially because of the contractor features that come with it.

However, there are a few small business payroll services that come close to it in quality and customer satisfaction. Gusto, for instance, is a solid online payroll option if you’re looking for additional time tracking tools and employee-facing options that help them manage their payments. 

On the other hand, there’s QuickBooks Payroll. It’s great for managing smaller teams and efficiently taking care of taxes if you’re looking to avoid outsourcing tax management at an additional cost. It comes with the essentials and leaves out the more robust tools. 

In short, there are tons of payroll options out there that can more closely align with your business needs once you know what to look for. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that OnPay is a solid payroll service provider worth considering. Below we outline how it stacks up based on some key payroll features. 

OnPay Management & Employee Self-Service

One of the best perks for any payroll manager is being able to empower your employees with self-service tools. OnPay offers an employee self-service app where employees can easily access pay stubs, update their personal banking information, view PTO, review withholdings, and download tax forms. 

It’s features like these that are great time savers for your HR team (or solo manager) as employees manage their own information without creating additional work for you. Not only that, but OnPay also eases the onboarding process with built-in self-onboarding tools where employees can enter the rest of their personal information as they start their new positions. Once onboarded, employees have lifetime access to their accounts and work history. 

These are powerful features for medium-sized businesses that can help them save money in the long run. While tools like Gusto offer a similar array of employee self-service options, it does come at a slightly higher cost. When considering OnPay’s array of tools, it’s important to keep in mind its affordable price point. 

OnPay Multi-State Tax Filings 

Things can quickly become tricky with multi-state tax filings. You have to constantly stay up to date on changing state tax laws. You also have to ensure you’re filing payroll taxes correctly, and maybe even for several states if you work with remote teams. 

The good thing is OnPay doesn’t charge you extra fees if you do in fact need to file taxes in multiple states. OnPay automatically withholds state and federal payroll taxes, makes your tax payments, and files quarterly and yearly tax forms. As far as automation goes, this is an excellent feature worth having whether you go with a tool like OnPay or opt for an alternative. 

Automating the tax process can help save you a ton of payroll headaches down the road. Thankfully, OnPay is equipped to do this without charging you extra for the service. 

OnPay Specialized Payroll Solutions

If there’s one thing that’s true for payroll, it’s that one-size-fits-all doesn’t quite work when you’re managing it. Sometimes you need specialized solutions depending on the industry you operate in. 

OnPay offers specialized payroll solutions for more than 10 different industries, including restaurants and bars, healthcare, startups, dentists, gyms, accountants, non-profit organizations, and even agriculture. This is a feature that helps set OnPay apart from other competitors as a highly malleable payroll solution that molds to the needs of your business.

For instance, if you work in the agriculture industry, OnPay has built-in features that help you pay W-2 workers and H-2A laborers by either direct deposit, debit card, or check. It also automatically files tax form 943 for you. Additionally, it also offers agriculture-specific workers’ compensation. 

In short, OnPay ensures you’re equipped with industry-specific tools regardless of which one you operate in. Instead of being a general payroll system for any and all businesses, OnPay hones in on more specific industries. This specificity in its features is good news for you if you decide to use it. 

OnPay Pay Cycle Frequency

The ability for your payroll software to handle different pay cycle frequencies is crucial to successfully manage a more complex payroll system that grows as your business grows. 

OnPay offers the ability to manage different payroll and pay rate frequencies. Though compared to other payroll software like Gusto, OnPay only offers four different payroll frequencies:

• Weekly
• Bi-Weekly
• Semi-Monthly
• Monthly  

This can work great for you if you don’t work with erratic or special pay schedules, or if you don’t frequently work with contractors. As a contrasting example, Gusto offers six different payroll schedules to choose from and automate. When weighing your payroll service options, consider the flexibility and number of payroll cycles you’ll need before making any final decisions. 

On Pay All-in-One Benefits 

What’s a payroll manager without the ability to handle employee benefits? 

OnPay eases the process of taking care of your employees’ health through medical, dental, and vision insurance, retirement plans, life and liability coverage, and even commute benefits. This is a great perk if you’re looking for a more complete payroll management solution that takes care of more than the basics. 

Especially when infused with automation, the ability to be more hands-off with increasingly complex tasks like tracking employee benefits can be priceless. With a robust payroll tool like OnPay, you can be well on your way to simultaneously saving both time and money, and a ton of paperwork along the way to boot. 

It helps that OnPay also offers call support with licensed agents that help you narrow down the best choices for the needs of your business. In short, OnPay offers you the health benefit tools to get it all done. But it doesn’t let you fly solo and figure it out on your own either. 

It offers plenty of ongoing support you can access as you need. The combination of professional customer support along with well-thought-out health benefit features definitely earns it points as far as useful features are concerned. 

OnPay Payroll

OnPay has three major product offerings and one of them is its extensive array of payroll features. Though we’ve gone through some of its most prominent payroll features above, there are a few more worth noting. 

Time Tracking Integrations

Integrations are a big part of onboarding any payroll solution to your existing workflow successfully. OnPay integrates with some of the most prominent accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero. All in all, OnPay integrates with about 10 different payroll adjacent applications that can help you get the job done. 

Unlimited Monthly Pay Runs

One great thing about OnPay is that it lets you run unlimited monthly pay runs. This is true regardless of the number of employees you’ve onboarded. It’s also a nice feature to have considering its affordability. 

Garnishments

Need to take care of employee garnishment needs? OnPay helps you take care of that process too. OnPay processes garnishments from employee post-tax wages and keeps a record for you in the process. This makes for an easier time working with garnishment requirements, which are bound to pop up from time to time. 

Custom Reporting

Custom reporting is a great way to keep closer track of how your bottom line is playing out. OnPay lets you create payroll summaries, earnings summaries, or even PPP loan forgiveness reports. It’s flexible enough that it allows you to remove irrelevant data points and set filters. Built-in custom views make it easier for management to access crucial information. 

OnPay’s payroll features prove to be straightforward yet varied and robust enough for small to medium businesses to thrive on it even as they see growth. If there’s one payroll area it does fall short in though, it would be its integration capabilities. As of now, OnPay only integrates payroll with a select few applications. 

While this might change in the future, it’s important to keep it in mind when you’re thinking about how well OnPay will integrate with your existing tech stack and workflow. Usually, the more malleable an online solution is, the easier it is to integrate it into existing processes. 

OnPay HR

How do OnPay’s HR features pan out? HR management can turn into a lot of busywork pretty quickly. But OnPay’s features are designed to help you organize the filing, the paperwork, and the administrative tasks in one place with less of a paper mess. 

OnPay equips you with employee offer letters and self-onboarding, PTO tracking and approvals, org charts, document storage, and even HR auditing tools. For example, any time your employees want to use their PTO, they can track their requests for time off and approvals through the OnPay self-service app. 

In this way, OnPay approaches self-service as an additional HR tool that your HR team can use to streamline their processes. To add, OnPay also offers plenty of templates along with e-sign features. So yes, it’s pretty serious about helping you both reduce and organize your HR paper trail. 

Features like employee organizational charts and employee rosters aren’t features you frequently see bundled with payroll service solutions. However, if your business strongly relies on hierarchical structures and the ability to communicate amongst employees, it can be helpful to have such tools. 

OnPay Benefits

Benefits aren’t a feature OnPay takes lightly. It offers a full-service solution for all your employee benefit needs. The best part is that your employee benefits sync within your payroll setup for easier processing. OnPay is licensed in all 50 states and works with most of the biggest insurers.

A big perk? Once you’re onboarded, you don’t have to worry about the hassle of setting everything up yourself. Once you’re connected with one of its team members that specialize in benefits, they’ll get you all set up with an automated system that runs in the background for you. 

If you’re already on a plan you love, OnPay can onboard it for you without any additional changes. As far as customer support goes, it’s ultra helpful that OnPay goes out of its way to help you get set up as you onboard all its benefits features. 

Other more straightforward payroll managers don’t come with such support features. These perks are definitely the influential factors you should consider if you’re looking for a comprehensive payroll solution that covers all your bases. 

Summary

OnPay offers solid payroll solutions for medium-sized businesses that won’t want to spend a ton on payroll management. While there are other close competitors that offer many of the same benefits, OnPay seems to compete on price too—once onboarded, it only costs you $34 a month and an additional $4 for every employee you add. If you’re in need of automated tax management, employee self-service features, and HR tools that streamline the employee management process then try OnPay free for one month. 

Want to just get started? Click here to sign up for Gusto and start doing payroll today.

Running payroll can be a challenge. Between federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, and other payroll deductions, there are lots of things to keep track of.

You need to make sure that payroll is set up and processed accurately to remain compliant with the law. Beyond compliance, accurately processing payroll keeps your employees happy.

Fortunately, there are tools out there that take the guesswork out of the payroll process.

Top Online Payroll Services to Do Payroll

If you want to do payroll, you’ll need a payroll service. Here’s the best options

• Gusto — The best for dispersed workforces
• Paychex — The best for experienced payroll teams
• OnPay — The best for simplifying all things payroll
• QuickBooks Payroll — The best for solopreneurs and small teams
• ADP — The best for never outgrowing your payroll provider

You can read our full reviews of each online payroll service here.

5 Steps to Do Payroll

This guide will teach you how to set up and run payroll with ease, no matter your experience level.

1. Choose your payroll method
2. Add your employees
3. Choose a payroll schedule
4. Calculate gross pay, deductions, and other withholdings
5. Run payroll and file reports

The Easy Parts of Doing Payroll

Believe it or not, the easiest part of doing payroll is getting started. Lots of people struggle with this because they think it’s intimidating and don’t know where to begin.

But if you’re using one of the best online payroll services, the process is very straightforward.

Gusto is a great option to consider here. You just need to answer a few simple questions about your business and employees to get started.

Since everything is online, you can set up self-service onboarding for your employees. This really takes a lot of the workload off of your shoulders.

Calculating payroll taxes and filing them with the appropriate government agencies is another task that intimidates business owners. But if you’re using an online payroll service like Gusto, all of this is handled automatically—you won’t have to worry about a thing.

The Difficult Parts of Doing Payroll

Running payroll definitely has its fair share of challenges. The biggest concern is payroll compliance.

If you make mistakes when running payroll, it could lead to some hefty fines, penalties, and potential lawsuits. Underpaying employees, overpaying employees, miscategorizing employees, and miscalculating deductions are just a handful of common payroll mistakes that employers make every day.

Using payroll software helps reduce some of these mistakes, but not all of them. It’s still on you to make sure employees are categorized correctly, whether it be exempt or non-exempt.

Another often overlooked part of running payroll is ensuring sufficient funds to cover all payroll expenses. This is a challenge for startups and small businesses.

You must have enough cash in the bank to pay your employees for each payroll cycle. So if you don’t have lots of working capital or business is slow, you may need to take out a payroll loan to make sure everyone gets paid. This can be costly and spiral out of control if you’re not careful.

Step 1 – Choose Your Payroll Method

First, you need to determine the system you want to use for payroll processing. Generally speaking, there are three main options to choose from—manual, software, and outsourced.

Each of these methods has pros and cons. Using payroll software will be the best option for most businesses. But we’ll take a closer look at each of these systems below so you can determine what works best for your situation.

Manual Payroll Systems

As the name implies, manual payroll processing is done by hand. It’s complicated, time-consuming, and error-prone. Some of you might already be doing payroll this way and recognized the challenges, which is what brought you to this guide in the first place.

Without getting too detail-oriented, here’s the basic concept behind manual payroll systems.

Your staff will fill out time cards or punch the clock for their shifts. Then you need to manually calculate their wages, taxes, and write checks.

For small businesses with just a handful of employees, this might seem like a fast and easy way to get started running payroll. But it’s really not scalable and shouldn’t be used as a long-term solution.

Aside from your time, manual payroll systems are the cheapest option. But it could cost you more in the long run if you’re making errors or have compliance issues. We can’t recommend this option with much confidence.

Payroll Software

Payroll software is a modern and effective way for most businesses to process payroll. These online systems leverage automation, employee self-service, and provide simplicity for everyone.

Online payroll systems allow you to go paperless and offer self-service solutions to your employees. It’s easy for them to update their information in real-time without having to bother you or your HR staff.

Arguably the best part of payroll software is the improved accuracy. It eliminates steps in the payroll process that are prone to errors when done manually.

For example, let’s look at a solution like Gusto. Gusto integrates with accounting systems and time tracking software to ensure all hours worked are paid accurately.

Not only will this save you a ton of time, but it also prevents mistakes that commonly occur when running payroll by hand.

The cool part about using an online payroll tool like Gusto is that it’s an all-in-one platform for HR, employee onboarding, time tracking, employee benefits, and more. So you can get everything you need under one roof instead of using multiple platforms for different features.

Scalability is another huge benefit here. As your business grows, it’s easy to keep adding new employees to your payroll system without any extra work on your end.

Payroll software is more expensive than manual payroll processing, but it’s still very affordable. The fees are easily justifiable when you consider the potential cost of a compliance fine or lawsuit. Gusto starts at just $40 per month plus $6 per employee.

Outsourced Payroll

Outsourcing your payroll process to a third-party professional is another option to consider. This will be the most expensive route, which is why most businesses tend to keep payroll in-house.

On the plus side, outsourced payroll companies are extremely reliable. They’ll handle everything from collecting employee information to tax filings, pay stubs, direct deposit, and beyond. If your staff has a problem or question, they can usually contact the payroll company directly for a resolution.

With that said, outsourced payroll companies don’t technically work for your business. So you don’t have as much control over their services and availability.

For example, if you or your staff has a question on the weekend or after hours, it will likely take a while to get a response. These problems won’t happen with online payroll software—as those platforms are available 24/7 through self-service portals.

Only a small percentage of businesses can truly benefit from an outsourced payroll system. They work well for mid-sized companies that want a dedicated payroll team but don’t have the resources to deploy an in-house department.

Step 2 – Add Your Employees

Regardless of the payroll method you’ve selected in the first step, the next thing you need to do is add your staff to the payroll system.

To do this correctly and remain compliant, you need to get the proper forms filled out for each person being added to your payroll. Employees need to fill out a W-4 and an I-9. If you’re using independent contractors or freelancers, then you need to collect 1099 forms.

This is another reason why it’s so advantageous to use an online payroll system. Rather than distributing these forms and collecting them by hand, you can take care of everything digitally.

Your staff can fill out and manage these forms online and drastically reduce the work required on your end. As you continue to grow and hire new employees, the process remains fast and paperless.

They’ll fill out all the required forms online, add their direct deposit information, and automatically get added to your payroll system.

Step 3 – Choose a Payroll Schedule

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are not restricted from changing paydays. Federal law doesn’t impose any requirements on how frequently you must run payroll either.

With that said, many states have payday laws that must be followed.

For example, California requires most employers to pay employees at least twice within a calendar month. In Utah, employees on an annual salary can be paid once per month.

Check out the state payday requirements from the US Department of Labor for more information about your local mandates. You should also consult with a labor attorney to ensure your payroll schedule is compliant with state and local laws.

Laws and regulations aside, it’s in your best interest to pick a schedule that’s favorable to your employees and stick with it. Even if the law says you’re allowed to delay payroll by days or weeks, your staff won’t be happy about this, and it can create big problems for your business.

Generally speaking, these are the four options that you can choose from:

• Weekly payroll — 52 pay cycles per year
• Bi-weekly payroll — 26 pay cycles per year
• Semi-monthly payroll — 24 pay cycles per year
• Monthly payroll — 12 pay cycles per year

Most businesses tend to go with weekly or bi-weekly schedules.

While you definitely want to stick to the schedule, it’s worth noting that Gusto supports unlimited pay runs. This includes bonuses and off-cycle pay runs. So if something comes up and you want to pay someone between normally scheduled pay periods, you can do so with Gusto—no problem.

Step 4 – Calculate Gross Pay, Deductions, and Other Withholdings

Now comes the hard part of running payroll. Wage calculations, payroll taxes, withholdings, and all of the other numbers that will make your head spin.

Gross pay is fairly simple to calculate. For hourly workers, just multiply their hourly rate by the number of hours they worked during that pay period. Don’t forget about overtime for non-exempt employees.

For staff on a salary, take their annual salary and divide it by the number of pay cycles you’re running in a year. The gross pay of a salaried employee getting paid $78,000 per year on a bi-weekly schedule comes to $3,000 per cycle.

Payroll Taxes

Without getting too specific here, payroll taxes are generally paid by employers and employees alike. There are lots of variables that go into the exact amount of taxes paid. But for the most part, payroll taxes include:

• Federal payroll taxes
• State payroll taxes
• Local taxes
• Social Security taxes
• Medicare
• Workers’ compensation

Things like FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax) and FICA (Federal Insurance Contribution Act) are just a couple of examples of payroll taxes that must be withheld from employee paychecks.

Trying to calculate these numbers manually is extremely difficult. That’s why we recommend using a payroll service that automatically calculates payroll taxes for you.

Not only does Gusto automatically calculate these taxes for you, but they also file them during each pay cycle.

Other Withholdings

Depending on your business and the employee in question, there are other types of withholdings that need to be factored in here as well.

401(k) contributions, health insurance, and other employee benefits would fall into this category.

Wage garnishments need to be considered too. This occurs when a court orders an employer to withhold a specific amount of an employee’s paycheck for things like consumer debt, student loans, child support, back taxes, alimony, and more.

Step 5 – Run Payroll and File Reports

Now it’s time to actually pay your employees. Take the gross pay calculated in the previous step and subtract all of the taxes and other withholdings. This number is the net pay.

Depending on the payroll system you’re using, the pay can be issued in a variety of ways:

• Live checks
• Direct deposits
• Payroll money cards

Most employees prefer direct deposit, and it makes things easy for you as well. Even if you’re running direct deposit, make sure there’s a pay stub that includes all of the details for the pay period.

Even a digital pay stub will include all of the hours worked, pay rate, deductions, taxes, net pay, and more.

If you’re using an online payroll system like Gusto, it’s easy for your staff to access these records at any time. They can always go back and check to see an old pay stub or see withholdings year to date.

Payroll Filings

In addition to paying employees, employers are also tasked with filing and reporting information to different agencies. Lots of this has to do with the taxes calculated in step #4.

Common federal and state payroll filings include:

• Federal tax deposits — FICA and employee tax withholdings to the IRS.
• State tax filings — State income tax and unemployment taxes (varies by state).
• FUTA tax deposits — Quarterly taxes paid to the IRS for federal unemployment tax.
• Form 941 filings — Employer quarterly federal tax return.
• Form 940 filings — Annual report for FUTA taxes.

Again, if you’re using a comprehensive payroll solution like Gusto, the filing process will be handled automatically.

Interviewing is a crucial step in the employee selection process. When done effectively, it helps you gauge how well an applicant’s skills, experience, and knowledge meets the job’s requirements and how they would fit in with your company’s corporate culture.

Thanks to technology, you can take it a step further and conduct video interviews to interact with the applicant face-to-face.

The idea of holding a video interview may seem like a nerve-wracking prospect, but it can be beneficial. Interviews finish faster, and you won’t have to rely on a piece of paper to assess a candidate—they’ll be right in front of you!

In this guide, I’ll tell you how to do an in-person video interview correctly, thereby increasing your chances of hiring the right person for the job.

What is a Video Interview?

Put simply, video interviews are face-to-face interviews conducted online.

These interviews give recruiters and employers a meaningful way to interact with candidates who may be remote or currently working without the hassle of being physically present. It is especially useful to interview passive candidates who cannot or will not take a vacation day from work to come in for an interview.

Online interviews let you assess applicants’ qualifications, soft skills, and more during the hiring process.

While a video interview isn’t a perfect replacement for traditional interviews, they certainly have a few hard-to-miss benefits, leading to better hiring decisions. For instance, unlike a phone interview, you can read a candidate’s body language and facial cues, giving you a better idea about their personality and soft skills.

You can even record the virtual interview and replay it later when comparing candidates. Sometimes, a second glance makes all the difference between a good and bad hire.

The Basics of a Video Interview

Video interviewing is a fairly straightforward practice. While you have free rein on how you approach your candidates, there are a few basics to keep in mind.

Outline the Process

Having interviewed several candidates in my career, I can vouch that being prepared can go a long way—even when you’re the one conducting it.

Put a formal plan together with your entire hiring team. Brainstorm ways to source and hire top-level talent and simultaneously streamline the recruiting process. Here’s a list of questions to consider:

• Do you want the candidate to complete specific steps ahead of time? This can include submitting additional work samples or taking a pre-employment test.
• Do you plan on sharing documents on your screen with the candidate? Will you have to prepare a slide presentation for it?
• What would you do if the internet connection—either yours or the candidates—starts having problems?
• How can you make a candidate feel more comfortable and relaxed?

Every member of the hiring team should be actively involved in this step. With many workforces going remote, one doesn’t really have the luxury of popping over to someone’s desk for clarification. So it’s better to be clear with questions and suggestions.

Make sure your procedural outline contains all information and details to prevent any miscommunication.

Equipment Set-Up

Conducting a video interview won’t be possible without specific equipment and tools. Therefore it’s best to understand and have experience using them beforehand.

You’ll need video interview software (we discuss this in more detail in a bit) followed by some basic equipment, such as a webcam, speaker, and microphone. Latest computers and laptops already have these three built-in, so it’s likely you already have this sorted.

Next, you’ll require a reliable and high-speed internet connection. If you’re using Wi-Fi, you can try moving your devices closer to the router and disconnect other devices and users while conducting the interview.

Consider holding a few test interviews with your team members to ensure everyone knows how to set up audio and video functions, mute themselves, chat, and share their screen during the interview.

Below is a quick checklist to ensure all your equipment is functioning properly before the interview:

1. Do a sound, microphone, and camera check. You can also record to see how you look and sound and make adjustments as required.
2. Check whether the camera is at eye level.
3. Check your internet connection.
4. Close all unnecessary tabs and applications.
5. Sign in to the video interview platform.
6. Charge all your devices.
7. Ensure nothing containing private or sensitive information or anything inappropriate in your background that viewers can see in the video.

Candidate Communication

You can’t have a video interview without the candidates. Precisely why you should keep them in the loop concerning the interview.

First and foremost, send out invites to all of your top candidates ASAP to coordinate schedules.

Ideally, it’s best to send out invites as soon as you decide to interview a candidate. Make sure to include a link to the meeting and password in your mail, as well as any detailed instructions to help them download and operate the video conferencing software you use.

Next, send a reminder email to all participants a day before the interview.

Waiting around for a candidate who doesn’t show up for an interview is a huge waste of time. And let’s not forget how time-consuming rescheduling interviews can be.

The last step is to inform the clients about your decision after conducting the interview and shortlisting candidates.

Interview Preparation

Just like any other interview, don’t try to wing it. You must have the interview questions you plan on asking ahead of time. Keep the list in front of you to keep the interview on track and ensure all your questions get answered.

Consider starting with some icebreaker questions to put the candidate at ease. Remember, video interviews make people nervous—more so for the candidates. From there, you can move on to asking more in-depth questions focused on the job.

Ask the candidate about their skills and prior work history, expectations, and situational questions. Behavioral-based interview questions can help you delve deeper into the candidate’s critical skills.

Another important aspect of your interview prep is having a compelling company culture pitch.

One of the main challenges with video interviews is that your candidates have no idea about your company culture. Preparing a compelling story about your culture and values will help compensate for that. Think about any visual materials you can share with candidates during or after the interview, such as showing employee testimonials or social media posts capturing meaningful moments and answer any questions the candidates may have.

5 Tools to Improve Video Interviews

This section will review the best video interviewing platforms that are easy to use, affordable, and reliable.

Zoom

Zoom has become the go-to video chatting service in the past year.

It’s a single solution for video and audio conferencing, messaging, and webinar requirements. The platform is easy to use, which minimizes technical difficulties on the candidate’s end. Plus, considering the popularity, it’s highly likely for all the candidates to have Zoom accounts already.

Skype

Before Zoom, there was Skype.

For years, Skype has been simplifying internet calls. The platform offers HD video and audio calling, along with messaging, screen sharing, call recording, and live subtitles. Already a valuable tool for remote teams, you can use Skype to conduct video interviews painlessly.

Additional features include background blurring and a live code testing environment for software development or engineer interviews.

Google Meet

Businesses already using G Suite prefer Google Meet for its simplicity.

All the candidate needs to join the video interview is a link, which can be easily shared through Google Calendar or Gmail invites. This eliminates the extra hassle of downloading new software and getting access codes.

What’s more, the service has Android and iOS applications, giving participants the flexibility to join interviews from their mobiles.

Jobvite

Recruiters, hiring teams, and candidates love Jobvite because it comes packed with features to make the interview experience as seamless as possible. The fact that it’s easy to use, collaborate with, and facilitates faster decision-making is the icing on the cake.

Typically, you have to integrate your video interview software with a third-party ATS. Jobvite tries to eliminate this requirement.

This software tool is a combination of an ATS and a video interview platform. As a result, you can conduct your interviews faster without worrying about ATS incompatibility.

CISCO Webex Meetings

CISCO Webex Meetings make video interviews effortless.

It allows you to conduct interviews via any device and gives you access to several excellent features like in-meeting private messaging, screen sharing, and recording functionality with automatic transcription. The HD-quality video will make you feel like the candidate is in the same room with you!

Customizing meeting layouts to optimize use is another benefit.

5 Tricks for Holding Effective Video Interviews

Video interviewing offers several benefits that can be incredibly helpful where hiring is concerned—but you have to do it right. Read on as we discuss five tricks to help you get the most out of a video interview.

Dress Appropriately

The way you dress gives the candidate a sense of your company culture and makes the interview feel more in line with an on-site interview. You should always be dressed professionally when you’re about to conduct an interview, regardless of your location.

Showing up in your sweats, unless it’s the typical office attire for your organization, will make the candidate feel that the conversation isn’t really that important to you. So if you have a formal dress code, wear that shirt and tie. You can always change after the interview.

Prepare the Interview Environment

The candidate will assess your company from what they see on their screens. To create a first good impression of your business, make sure you should prep the room—or at least the part they can see.

• Inform your colleagues (or your family if you’re conducting the meeting from home) when the meeting is going on and where. Ask them to avoid talking on the phone or to each other in the room you’re in.
• Avoid holding meetings in rooms that have an echo. You can place plants or soft furnishings to absorb sound, which, in turn, will stop the echo from happening.
• Place your computer or your webcam an arm‘s length away from where you’re seated. If you have a lower desk, use books or a box to place the device at eye level.
• Don’t forget the lighting! Sit with a lamp in front of you but place it so that it isn’t visible in the camera. Ensure the light doesn’t create strange shadows. Avoid sitting against the sunlight.

Practice Good Body Language

Just because you have a screen between you and the candidate doesn’t mean manners and etiquette are off the table. A staggering 55% of communication is non-verbal, with your words amounting to only 7%. The remaining 38% has conveyed it through the tone of your voice.

Therefore, the way you present yourself is critical in a video interview. Be sure you make eye contact, sit up straight, nod at appropriate times, and smile—a lot.

Raise Consistent Questions

You should ask all your candidates a consistent set of questions, irrespective of the interview format. While there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, the questions should be appropriate considering the job and in line with your candidate’s answers.

This way, even if interruptions happen, you’ll be better prepared to evaluate and compare candidates based on their responses. Using an interview scorecard to remain unbiased in your evaluations could also help.

Have a Backup Plan

Problems can occur no matter how many times you test your video interview software.

If your Internet becomes unstable, interrupting your video and audio, use your backup plan. I highly recommend having an alternative method for conducting the interview. Call or email the candidate to ask them if they would be okay with switching platforms or be willing to talk on the phone.

What to Do Next

Once the interview is over, review your notes and re-watch the recorded interview. Meet with your team to shortlist candidates for the next round of interviews, which is typically an on-site interview unless you’re hiring remotely.

Always follow up with every candidate you interview—even if you choose not to move forward with one.

Here are more Quicksprout guides to help you conduct video interviews more effectively:

• How to FIx Phone Echoing
• Best Virtual Conference Platforms
• Best Video Conferencing Platforms
• Zoom vs. GoTo Meeting