HR Stack Essentials: Top HR Tools for Streamlining Processes

With HR professionals juggling several core responsibilities at the workplace, and with remote work requiring them to be even more on their toes, it only makes sense to equip an HR team with HR tools that helps them free up time to take care of the most important task of them all – your people!

We asked our community of HR leaders and experts about their choice of HR tools and why they choose to rely on them. The responses we received not only gave us a thorough lineup that others could very well use but also showed us just how essential the right HR tool could be for a team’s success.

Although Bamboo HR seems to be a crowd favorite, there are quite a few others on the list to offer you choices.

Read on!

Malati Thomas
Vice President – Global HR Operations, AML RightSource

Workday

Workday allows us to centralize and manage many HR processes efficiently and effectively across all of our geographic regions (17+ countries and 4500+ employees and counting!). As our company continues to grow, Workday also supports us by being scalable, user-friendly, and allows for integration with other business systems, making it much easier for us to use data to help drive decision making.

Since implementing Workday within our company about 2 years ago, we’ve been able to streamline onboarding, performance management, and offboarding processes, all while ensuring we remain compliant with various employment regulations. While there is still much more we can achieve with Workday (supported by an active Workday Roadmap and backlog to help get us there), implementing this system has already helped us move away from administrative tasks and instead shift our focus towards more strategic HR initiatives that drive greater business outcomes.

Bullhorn ATS

My team and I are huge fans of Bullhorn, our Applicant Tracking System tailored specifically for the Staffing and Recruiting industry. This powerful tool truly gets our unique workflows, making it an invaluable asset in our recruitment journey.

Bullhorn transforms the hiring process into a seamless experience. It effortlessly posts job openings, tracks applications, and manages communication with candidates. Plus, it streamlines onboarding, ensuring that every step is organized and efficient.

Not only does Bullhorn centralize our hiring workflows, but it also helps reduce administrative headaches and fosters collaboration across our teams. With this system in place, we can focus on what really matters—finding the perfect candidates for our clients!

If you are looking for an ATS, research and look for a tool specifically for your industry. Here are some additional tips to keep in mind:

  • Ensure that it offers simple workflows to minimize training time for your team.
  • Look for flexibility to adapt to your own hiring process.
  • Integration capabilities are crucial—ensure it can merge with other systems you use, such as HRIS or payroll systems.
  • Seek features like resume parsing, interview scheduling, and follow-up management.
  • Consider analytics and reporting functionalities; these will help you evaluate metrics, refine strategies, and ensure a user-friendly process to attract top talent.

By looking for these features, you will find a tool that supports your efficiency and aligns with your long-term recruitment goals.

BambooHR

One indispensable HR tool I recommend is BambooHR. It’s the Swiss Army knife of HR platforms, offering everything from applicant tracking to employee engagement surveys.

What makes it a game-changer is its ease of use and data centralization.

For example, BambooHR tracks progress, streamlines paperwork, and makes sure new hires are prepared for success during the onboarding process. HR departments can use the time saved to work on important projects like enhancing the employee experience.

For instance, I helped a mid-sized software company cut down onboarding time by 40% so that HR personnel could concentrate on efforts to foster a culture.

Additionally, it facilitates improved decision-making. HR can monitor diversity measures or retention trends with analytics tools.

For instance, a retail customer of mine enhanced their staffing strategy by 30% by using BambooHR to find seasonal employment gaps. They also redesigned management training to improve retention after noticing a pattern in exit interviews.

BambooHR is difficult to surpass if efficiency and actionable insights are your goals.

Steve Faulkner
Founder & Chief Recruiter, Spencer James Group

Inhouse ATS

At Spencer James Group, we use a variety of tech tools across our organization, both to manage our internal teams and processes and to support our work helping our clients to find and hire the right people.

While we use a variety of technology, there is one tool I can point to as indispensable: our ATS. We use a proprietary system but it shares many features with similar programs that are widely available, including multi-channel job posting tools, resume parsing and screening, a centralized and searchable candidate database, interview scheduling, communication and engagement tools, analytics/reporting functions, and so on.

Bringing all of these things together in one platform is the main thing that makes our ATS so indispensable. All of our interactions with candidates are in the same place, from our initial sourcing and outreach efforts through skill assessments, reference checks, interviews, and other communications.

This has dramatically streamlined our search process, both thanks to simply having all of these things in the same place and because it enables us to automate some aspects of the process and workflow to further improve our efficiency. It also makes it much easier to maintain a robust talent pipeline and candidate database that we can draw on for new roles we’re filling.

Even for companies that aren’t in the recruiting sector, if you hire with any kind of frequency, I’d strongly recommend integrating an ATS into your HR department, because it can absolutely transform your hiring process for the better.

Dionne Jayne Ricafort
Marketing Manager, CSO Yemen

Bamboo HR

BambooHR is a tool that keeps our HR work simple and organized by managing data, onboarding, and time off in one place, saving time and simplifying tasks.
BambooHR keeps onboarding simple by organizing tasks like collecting documents and scheduling orientation. This not only helps HR stay efficient but also creates a better experience for employees, making them feel welcome and supported from day one.
Tools like these allow us to focus on fostering a positive team culture while still staying on top of administrative tasks.

Jennifer Mihajlov
EVP North America, Qualee

Qualee Employee Experience Platform

One indispensable tool in our HR tech stack at Qualee is our own employee experience platform.

Qualee integrates onboarding, training, and engagement into a seamless solution, providing HR teams with powerful automation and data-driven insights.

The engagement features, such as personalized onboarding journeys, real-time feedback surveys, and push notifications, help keep employees connected and motivated from day one.

This consistent interaction boosts employee satisfaction and fosters a sense of belonging, reducing early-stage turnover and increasing retention rates. By minimizing attrition and improving engagement, Qualee directly contributes to increased productivity and profitability, making it a vital component of our HR strategy.

Belema Ronabere
Business Formation Expert and Marketing Specialist, Persuasion Nation

BambooHR

In our bundle of HR tools, it is clear that BambooHR stands out as the most important piece of the architecture. It allows access to employee information, employment procedures and evaluation systems from a single platform. Importantly, nothing gets neglected as it adopts customisable workflows and reminders, facilitating the effectiveness of HR processes.

BambooHR’s reporting tools also provide valuable insights into metrics such as employee turnover and engagement rate and thus help in making decisions that would fit within the goals of the organization. As such, it is not just an HR application but a tool that enhances productivity by making sure more time gets dedicated to things that add value strategically rather than only in operations.

With a rapidly growing company, BambooHR has been instrumental in ensuring compliance performance, employee satisfaction and an HR foundation that can be customized in the future. It’s how we make sure our team is appreciated whilst concentrating on growing the business.

The HR Spotlight team thanks these industry leaders for offering their expertise and experience and sharing their insights.

Do you wish to contribute to the next HR Spotlight article? Or is there an insight or idea you’d like to share with readers across the globe?

Write to us at connect@HRSpotlight.com, and our team will help you share your insights.

Recent Posts