The 10 Best HRIS Systems for Mid-Sized Companies

Explore the top 10 HRIS systems for mid-sized companies with OutSail: From Ceridian's Core HR strengths to Rippling's innovative HR/IT integration, find the perfect fit for your needs

Brett Ungashick
OutSail HRIS Advisor
July 4, 2023
user comparing HRIS systems

When companies are shopping for a new HRIS system, they often begin by building a shortlist

Adding names to a shortlist is easy, but what becomes challenging is how to efficiently narrow the list down. Most HR teams are too strapped for time to sit on 10-15 introductory calls just to find the best HRIS systems.

We believe the key to finding the best HRIS systems is identifying the technology provider whose strengths align most with your biggest needs. So, below we've listed 10 different HRIS systems for mid-sized buyers, and what types of organizations see the most success on their platforms.

Get the Full Picture: Want more details on these HRIS options? Dive deeper into features, pricing, and user reviews in our comprehensive HRIS Marketplace.

Best Human Capital Management Systems (HCM) for Mid-Sized Companies:

Dayforce

Overview: Dayforce (formerly Ceridian) is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. Ceridian Dayforce is utilized by companies as small as 100 employees and as large as 100,000, but has developed a strong presence in the Mid-Enterprise. Dayforce is known for it's strengths around Payroll and Workforce Management. Ceridian was long been a top competitor to ADP in the payroll space, and in 2012, they acquired Dayforce, a leading Workforce Management platform. Since then, Dayforce has become their flagship offering and is a great solution for companies with complex payroll, time & attendance, scheduling and tax needs.

Average Customer Size: 400-5,000 employees

Typical Price Point: $22-31 PEPM

UKG Pro

Overview: UKG Pro (formerly UltiPro) is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. UKG Pro is utilized by companies as small as 100 employees and as large as 100,000, but has developed a strong presence in the Mid-Enterprise. UKG Pro is known for it's strengths around HR and Talent Management. While many of their peers developed payroll first and HR after, UKG has made HR their core competency from the get go, providing strengths around recruiting, engagement and employee development. UKG also has a loyal following from many of their customers due to their 'partners for life' philosophy.

Average Customer Size: 350-5,000 employees

Typical Price Point: $28-38 PEPM

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Paycor, employee records

Paycor

Overview: Paycor went public in 2021 symbolizing their transition from regional payroll solution, to a large national player. They have taken a best-in-class approach to growing their system, as they've acquired cutting edge ATS, Performance and Engagement solutions. Paycor is typically a cost-effective option and has landed well in industries like the nonprofit sector where their price point and scheduling capabilities are prioritized

Average Customer Size: 35-350 employees

Typical Price Point: $18-25 PEPM

BambooHr, human capital management hcm, manage employee data

BambooHR

Overview: Over the last decade, BambooHR has steadily grown into a market leader in the SMB and Mid-Market. They provide a modern HRIS solution that covers a wide spectrum of functionality - performance, recruiting, onboarding - at a competitive price point. While Bamboo owns a payroll company, called Trax, many customers will use their own payroll / ben admin tools and use Bamboo for more employee-facing activities. Bamboo is also open to integrating with a variety of 3rd party HR tools

Average Customer Size: 20-300 employees

Typical Price Point: $12-22 PEPM

Paycom

Overview: Paycom is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. The system is designed for mid-market companies and gets strong reviews for administrative ease of use and employee self-service. Paycom is unique in the mid-market due to the fact that they have not acquired or partnered with 3rd parties to build their system, making the technology more comprehensive and integrated than peers in their space. This can lead to downstream advantages with reporting and reduction in manual re-entry

Average Customer Size: 50-750 employees

Typical Price Point: $24-33 PEPM

Rippling

Overview: Rippling is one of the fastest growing companies in the HRIS industry today, due to their emphasis on employee experience, integrations and people management. Rippling's integrations go beyond HR point solutions and can also work with tools like Slack, Teams, Salesforce and more. This can save IT hours of headaches, especially at companies with white collar workforces that use many business apps.

Average Customer Size: 20-300 employees

Typical Price Point: $21-29 PEPM

ADP

Overview: ADP Workforce Now is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. Workforce Now is utilized by companies of all shapes and sizes, but their strongest audience is in the Mid-Market. ADP is known for their strengths around payroll and tax filing, and also provides expertise to support virtually any business scenario. ADP also has a unique outsourced service, called Comp Services, that allows companies to put their payroll processing and benefits management on auto-pilot.

Average Customer Size: 75-1,000 employees

Typical Price Point: $19-27 PEPM

UKG Ready

Overview: UKG Ready used to be known as Kronos Workforce Ready. UKG Ready is a scalable and unified HRIS platform that works especially well for companies that have large hourly workforces, due to Kronos' historical success in Workforce Management. UKG provides their own layer of proactive and knowledgeable support on top of the product's capabilities.

Average Customer Size: 150-1,500 employees

Typical Price Point: $22-29 PEPM

Paylocity

Overview: Paylocity is a full suite HRIS system that can serve as a one-stop-shop for companies, covering everything from payroll, benefits and HR to recruiting, onboarding, performance and learning. The system is designed for mid-market companies and gets above average reviews for ease of use. Paylocity is strong in integrations and can support companies with global workforces too.

Average Customer Size: 50-750 employees

Typical Price Point: $22-32 PEPM

Hibob

Overview: Hibob is a great solution for companies that want performance, engagement and culture to be at the center of their organization. While many vendors add those tools later in their lifecycle, those features were foundational to Bob from the get-go. The emphasis on employee engagement leads to high usage from employees and better reporting for companies. Additionally, Bob is a global company and their solution is a strong fit for multi-national companies.

Average Customer Size: 50-500 employees

Typical Price Point: $18-24 PEPM

‍Important Features of a Human Resource Management System

Employee Self-Service Portal

An employee self-service portal is a tool that gives employees the ability to access their own employee data and employee files in a Human Capital Management system.

Employees can make changes to their profile, such as adding dependents or changing their addresses.

Employees can also use the HRIS software to view important employment information, such as previous pay stubs, time-off balances and pay rates.

Payroll Management & Tax Filing

The payroll module is responsible for calculating the correct pay for employees based on their hours worked, benefit selections and tax deductions

When the HRIS software processes payroll, it automatically deducts taxes from an employee's gross pay. The HRIS software will then take responsibility for payroll management by transferring funds to the appropriate tax authorities on behalf of your company.

Additionally, HRIS software can provide payroll management reports that can be easily accessed by both management and employees to track wages as well as other important information such as deductions and benefits offered during a given period of time. To help facilitate this process even further, most HRIS systems offer tools such as direct deposit, mobile wallets and pay stubs that allow you to manage all areas of your company's human resources with ease

Blog: The Best Payroll Systems to Integrate with NetSuite

Benefits Administration & Benefits Enrollment

Benefits enrollment and benefits administration is a core functions of a Human Resource Management System. HR professionals use it to gather employee input on their benefits options, assess the employees’ needs, and enroll them in appropriate plans.

Common employee benefits include health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, long-term disability insurance, and retirement plans. Employees will enter the Benefits Administration module during open enrollment and their new hire orientation to pick the right plans for their needs.

A good benefits administration tool will use employee data to provide decision support to help an employee pick the right benefits package; for example, it could suggest that a high-deductible health plan might be better than a low-deductible one if you have chronic health issues or are planning to start a family soon.

A good system will also integrate with insurance carriers and payroll systems so that employees are paid properly by taking into account any deductions related to their coverage (such as contributions towards COBRA payments).

Employee Data

Employee database - The HRIS software serves as the single system of truth for businesses and is where they store all employee information. To be truly effective, it should allow employees to access their own personnel files at any time. Additionally, it should also allow managers and executives access to information about their subordinates so they can manage them effectively while giving HR professionals the ability to see a full picture of their department's work history and demographics.

Org chart - Finally, an employee database should have an org chart feature so you can see which employees report to which managers. This makes it easy to manage your staff without having to go through several layers of bureaucracy just because there's no centralized system in place with this type of functionality built-in already (which there usually isn't).

Compliance Tracking

In addition to HRIS software system features such as automation and data-sharing, compliance tracking is also important. A strong HRIS will ensure that you are tracking all fields that are required by law. This means reviewing your compliance reports on a regular basis and making adjustments if necessary. Examples of compliance reports include ACA (Affordable Care Act) reports and EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) reports.

Recruiting and Applicant Tracking

The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) should manage the entire recruitment process, from creating new job openings to closing the hiring process. Recruitment tends to be the initial step in the talent management journey

A good applicant tracking system should also be able to store resumes and cover letters, and it should create a new profile for applicants.

Recruiters should be able to create their own hiring experience with custom stages, and they can use this system to organize interviews by helping candidates get scheduled and by organizing managers to interview the candidates.

The Applicant Tracking System can generate an offer letter that can be signed by both parties.

Performance Management and Evaluations

Performance management and evaluations are formal processes that allow managers and employees to review their previous work and discuss their performance. A performance management review process will typically ask an employee to discuss their own performance, while the manager also reviews the employee's work. The manager will offer suggestions for how the employee can improve based on this evaluation of past work.

Some companies use more frequent reviews, such as quarterly or even weekly, rather than having annual reviews only once per year. Employees often like having regular check-ins about their performance because it helps them understand how they're doing in relation to what's expected from them by the company.

Time and Attendance Management

A great HRIS system will help you manage your employees' time and attendance.

You can track their hours, approve time-off requests, manage accruals, track compliance with state and federal laws, and more.

Dashboards and Reporting Tools

Dashboards are a popular feature of modern HRIS systems, and they’re used for many different reasons. They provide real-time information that can be used to monitor and measure performance, as well as provide insights into how the company is performing.

Dashboards also make it easy to show how the company is doing against its goals. For example, if you have a goal of improving attendance rates, then your dashboard could show your current average attendance rate along with historical data so you can see whether or not that goal is being met.

Reports are another key feature within an HRIS system. Many companies rely on reports in order to file taxes or file compliance reports more quickly than they would otherwise be able to do manually (or with less accurate results).

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Meet the Author

Brett Ungashick
OutSail HRIS Advisor
Brett Ungashick, the friendly face behind OutSail, started his career at LinkedIn, selling HR software. This experience sparked an idea, leading him to create OutSail in 2018. Based in Denver, OutSail simplifies the HR software selection process, and Brett's hands-on approach has already helped over 1,000 companies, including SalesLoft, Hudl and DoorDash. He's a go-to guy for all things HR Tech, supporting companies in every industry and across 20+ countries. When he's not demystifying HR tech, you'll find Brett enjoying a round of golf or skiing down Colorado's slopes, always happy to chat about work or play.

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OutSail is the first-ever broker of HR Software. We offer market insights, evaluation tools & advisory services to help organizations research, evaluate and select the right HR software. And best of all - OutSail is free!
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OutSail is free due to our one-of-a-kind software broker model. When a company makes a purchase through OutSail, the winning vendor owes us a small fee for making the introduction.

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