Sage HR

Sage HR started life as CakeHR and the acquisition did it good. It is the most approachable HR system in this list, and the modular pricing means a fifty person business can start with leave management for a sensible monthly figure and add performance or recruitment later without renegotiating anything.

Leave is the module most businesses buy first and it is the one that matters locally. BCEA rules are properly modelled: annual leave accruing at the statutory rate, sick leave on the three year cycle, family responsibility leave as its own entitlement, and public holidays that fall on a Sunday handled the way the Act requires. Systems built for the United States get this wrong and require a spreadsheet alongside them.

The modules

Core HR holds the employee record and org chart. Leave management handles requests, approvals and balances. Performance runs reviews, goals and one to ones. Shift scheduling covers rostering for hourly teams. Recruitment handles vacancies through to offer. Expenses and timesheets are separate again. Each is priced per employee per month.

The upside is control over cost. The downside is that the all in price for a business that wants everything is no longer cheap, and it is worth pricing the full stack before you commit to the entry module.

POPIA

Data is hosted outside South Africa, which is permitted under POPIA where the receiving jurisdiction has adequate protection or the operator agreement carries the right commitments. Sage's operator agreement does. Your information officer should still read it rather than assume, because HR data includes special personal information.

Who should buy it

Businesses between twenty and three hundred employees who want to get leave off email and out of spreadsheets, and who value being able to add capability gradually. It pairs naturally with Sage payroll but does not require it.