Most HR software is bought to solve one problem: leave is in a spreadsheet and nobody trusts the balances. That is a good reason to buy, and it is worth knowing what else you are choosing while you solve it.
BCEA leave is where international products fail
South African annual leave accrues at one day for every seventeen days worked, or one and a quarter days a month for a five day week. Sick leave runs on a three year cycle, giving thirty days over the cycle for a five day week employee. Family responsibility leave is a separate entitlement of three days a year, not a subset of sick or annual leave.
Systems designed for the United States model leave as a flat annual allowance with optional carry over. They can usually be configured to behave correctly, and that configuration is real work that someone must do properly. Of the products we assessed, Sage HR and HR Companion ship correct BCEA behaviour. BambooHR, PeopleHR and Personio require configuration.
Ask the vendor to demonstrate a sick leave cycle rolling over. If the salesperson cannot, the implementation consultant will be learning on your data.
POPIA and the employee file
An HR system holds identity numbers, medical aid membership, disciplinary records and next of kin. Under POPIA a good deal of that is special personal information, which carries stricter handling requirements than ordinary personal information.
Three things to establish before you sign:
- Where the data is hosted, and whether the operator agreement carries the commitments section 72 requires for cross border transfer.
- Whether access can be restricted per field or per record, not just per module. A line manager needing to approve leave should not be able to see a disciplinary record.
- How an employee gets a copy of their own file, and how a record is deleted completely when retention expires.
What we would choose
For most businesses: Sage HR
Around R55 per employee per month excluding VAT for core HR and leave, with performance, scheduling and recruitment as separate modules. BCEA leave is correct without configuration and managers approve from their phones without training. Price the full module set you expect to need, because the modular model is cheap at the start and less cheap once you switch four things on.
If HR experience is a stated priority: BambooHR
The best onboarding workflow available and reporting that a board will read. Billed in dollars with a minimum charge, and leave needs configuring. Worth it above about fifty employees where you are hiring at pace.
If you have industrial relations exposure: LabourNet
You are buying advisory services with software attached, and that is the right way to think about it. For a unionised workforce or a high risk operational environment, the cost of one badly handled dismissal exceeds a year of the retainer. The software itself is adequate rather than good.
If you are a designated employer: HR Companion
Employment equity reporting is in the data model rather than derived at reporting time, and the workplace skills plan and annual training report come out in SETA format. If you currently spend two weeks a year building an EEA2 return by hand, that is the whole argument.
The mistake to avoid
Buying an HR system and a payroll system that do not share an employee record. Two systems means two versions of every new starter, two versions of every termination, and a reconciliation nobody owns. Either buy them from one vendor, or confirm a working integration before you sign the second contract.