15 best employee management software in 2023

¹ Leapsome

Leapsome is an award-winning people enablement platform that closes the loop between performance management, employee engagement, and learning. By combining all of these features, Leapsome promotes company alignment and creates a stellar experience for people ops leaders and the employees they manage.

The Leapsome platform is module-based — which means it can grow with you as your business needs change. Leapsome continuously delivers new features and takes user feedback and expert insights into account to improve its platform.

Notable features

There are many outstanding features in the Leapsome platform — and we are well-known for bringing them all together to effectively close the loop between performance, engagement, and learning.

Our users love our performance review features, which allow for unique customization and give organizations exciting insights — including connecting skills to a competency framework.

Our Goals module helps you ensure that company goals are the guiding light for team initiatives and individual employee goals. We also focus on offering historical data across many areas of our product, such as our features for 1:1s & team meetings, feedback & praise, continuous learning, and engagement surveys, to make it easy to understand prior context and make data-informed new decisions.

And Leapsome includes the following features with any module:

• HRIS integrations

• Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations

• Award-winning customer support

• SSO and encryption features

• ISO 27001 compliance

• Multilingual interface

Pros & cons

There are many positives to utilizing Leapsome. Firstly, Leapsome is great for managing remote, hybrid, and on-site teams, as it helps you onboard and nurture new hires from day one.

As an administrator, you will be able to see where your team is with powerful visualization tools and people analytics. Your team members will be able to easily integrate Leapsome into their daily routine when setting meetings, checking in on their goals, providing feedback to other team members, and developing their skills.

Leapsome offers an outstanding customer experience, proven by hundreds of 5-star reviews on G2, and works with organizational psychologists and other experts to develop the Leapsome platform’s inbuilt best practices.
‍

Another pro of using Leapsome is that the platform is available in 13 languages. As your team grows, your employee management software must support a variety of languages, and our tool does just that.

To utilize Leapsome to its full potential, your team should focus on understanding company goals. But if you’re not there yet, our goal tree and other goal-setting features will inspire your company to improve alignment — and reach more goals. 

Leapsome will also help you  manage 1:1s, get to the root of employee engagement, and build learning paths, but teams need to be committed to improving their culture and turning results into action to make the most of Leapsome’s actionable insights.
‍

Pricing

Leapsome’s pricing starts at US$8 per user per month. A free 14-day trial is also available if you’d like to test the platform yourself.

² Ally.io (owned by Microsoft)

Ally.io was acquired by Microsoft for Microsoft Viva Goals in 2021. It’s platform that strives to drive results in your business by focusing exclusively on building clear goals. Goal-setting is often a challenging experience for companies, so a platform devoted to setting and keeping up with goals can help your business succeed.
‍

Notable features

Ally’s most notable features revolve around OKRs and goal-setting. Ally has an OKR dashboard that makes it easy to visualize where goals are, give updates to the company, and discuss where goals are going. Creating projects is easy in Ally. You can integrate with tools like Jira and Asana.
‍

Pros & cons

Ally consulting services are an interesting pro. If you need help creating goals for your business, you can work with their team on the strategy behind company goals.

The biggest con for Ally is that it’s not an all-in-one solution. If your goal is to find an employee management tool, you will likely have to look elsewhere for other aspects like performance reviews, pulse surveys, and more.
‍

Pricing

pricing not readily available

‍

³ ChartHop

ChartHop focuses on creating a clear and visual place to house your people ops information. From DEI to compensation and performance, ChartHop’s variety of tools helps people ops professionals manage their employee experience through engaging visualizations.
‍

Notable features

ChartHop’s most notable features revolve around its innovative org chart, allowing users to easily update and export information about where people land in the organization. ChartHop is also known for is its rich employee profiles, which enable companies to get to know their employees on a human level.
‍

Pros & cons

ChartHop is well integrated with other HRIS systems. These integrations make it easy to port information to ChartHop and keep everything updated.

ChartHop does not have a robust or all-in-one solution to employee management,  as it lacks features like goal-setting. While ChartHop is great for people leaders, there may not be many reasons for the average employee to interact with ChartHop outside of completing a task for a manager.
‍

Pricing

ChartHop has a free Basic plan, but it can go up to US$16 (premium plan) per user per month (billed annually) depending on the features you’re looking to utilize. 

⁴ ClearCompany

ClearCompany is an option for those more interested in engaging talent before they join the company.
‍

Notable features

The platform focuses on everything from hiring talent to engaging employees. While many of the tools we share today focus on performance management and engagement, ClearCompany also helps you manage candidates.
‍

Pros & cons

You can manage a worker from potential hire to tenured employee within the ClearCompany software family.

However, some customers have shared that the learning curve to understand how to implement ClearCompany best can be a negative. If you use ClearCompany as an all-in-one solution, you will need to spend time to implement and utilize all the software’s aspects.
‍

Pricing

ClearCompany’s pricing isn’t readily available.

⁵ Elevo

Elevo is an employee management software company based in Paris. Companies that use Elevo can utilize helpful tools for interviews and evaluations, surveys, 360° feedback, and more. While much of Elevo’s content is in French, the platform is multilingual.
‍

Notable features

Elevo has several features that HR professionals will find relevant and valuable. You can create an employee database, track goals and OKRs, handle reviews, create individual development plans, etc. Elevo also has many helpful integrations with popular HR tools.
‍

Pros & cons

One positive of utilizing Elevo is the module structure. Most of their software suite is built into the main product with a few extra additional modules. You’ll be able to do a lot out of the box when working with this platform.

One con of utilizing Elevo is that there can be a language gap. A lot of the content on the Elevo website is in French first (like some of the customer stories), which can make it challenging to understand what’s going on and how to make a great purchasing decision. While there is multilingual support in the application, there are several steps HR buyers need to take to get into the app.
‍

Pricing

Elevo’s pricing isn’t readily available.

⁶ Factorial

Factorial is a Barcelona-based employee management tool with time management, talent management, and finance/legal capabilities. It offers an interesting set of features for employee management — like an ATS, onboarding help, and time tracking. This suite of products can help your team get organized.
‍

Notable features

One of the unique features of Factorial is the time off tracker. Another notable feature is Factorial’s organizational chart, which gives you an automated view of where all of your employees sit within the organization.
‍

Pros & cons

Factorial is supported in six languages, making it a good choice for companies that might want to expand their reach. Factorial also has a simple pricing model with a few packages, making it easy to make a purchasing decision based on what you need.

Overall, Factorial is an interesting option for companies looking for HR technology. Still, customers have shared that they dislike that the mobile app is missing some features and that they are limited when viewing some historical data.
‍

Pricing

You can sign up for Factorial’s core HR and time hub or core HR and talent hub for US$4 per employee per month. You can also gain access to the core HR with the time and talent hub for US$6 per employee per month. There is also an ATS component available as an add-on.
‍

⁷ Glint

Glint is a people success platform that strives to help companies with engagement and development, as well as diversity and inclusion.
‍

Notable features

Pulse surveys are Glint’s most prominent features, with real-time insights for people leaders. The platform allows leaders to send out brief surveys, analyze the data quickly, and make snap leadership decisions that are data-backed.
‍

Pros & cons

An interesting feature is that Glint users can chat and learn from each other via an external page. Additionally, several language options make it easy to use Glint no matter where your employees are.

Some customers have shared that it can be challenging to send reminders and follow-ups through the Glint platform and that the program can often require too many steps to drill into specific information.
‍

Pricing

Glint’s pricing isn’t readily available.

⁸ The Happiness Index

The Happiness Index is designed to help companies take in employee feedback, so you can learn from your team and implement essential changes at work to improve your workplace culture.
‍

Notable features

The Happiness Index’s most notable feature is a bank of pre-built surveys covering topics like well-being, workplace culture, and employee lifecycle. These templates are sure to make administering surveys easier for your team.
‍

Pros & cons

The best part of using The Happiness Index is that you can rest easy knowing that you can easily and quickly send and receive feedback from employees. Data is essential for people leaders, and this company will help you collect it regularly.

The Happiness Index's biggest con is that its sole focus is on employee engagement surveys. If you are looking for other aspects of employee management like reviews, career progression frameworks, learning, or goal-setting, you won’t find them with this software.
‍

Pricing

The Happiness Index’s pricing isn’t readily available.

⁹ Hive

Hive helps organizations understand their people data with expert insights.
‍

Notable features

Hive’s most unique feature is its people science partnership service. Once you become a Hive customer, you can hire people scientists (as an add-on) to help you dive deeper into the data you pull from Hive, design your engagement strategy, run management workshops, and more.
‍

Pros & cons

Hive is an interesting solution for companies looking for engagement surveys.

One con of using Hive is that it only supports English. If you need a multilingual solution, Hive won’t be able to help you grow your business internationally.
‍

Pricing

Hive’s pricing isn’t readily available.

¹⁰ Kallidus

With a breadth of experience serving customers of different sizes and backgrounds, Kallidus has built a platform that helps with learning, performance, and recruiting.
‍

Notable features

Customers have commented that their favorite feature is the intuitive design of the products, which improves employee adoption.
‍

Pros & cons

A positive for Kallidus’ customers is the software's modular design. Based on reviews, many customers tend to use the part of the software that resonates most with their company’s needs.

One potential con of using Kallidus is that some of the company’s offerings derive from strategic acquisitions. It can be challenging to fully integrate software like this, so parts of the platform may feel disconnected.
‍

Pricing

Kallidus’ pricing isn’t readily available.

¹¹ Namely

Many companies struggle to create an employee experience as they grow; Namely core customers are mid-sized businesses that are working to keep up with changes in the HR landscape.
‍

Notable features

Namely’s most striking feature is its focus on mid-sized businesses. The platform’s goal is to tackle company growing pains with strategic services that make HR professionals’ lives easier.
‍

Pros & cons

Namely offers a wide range of features and tools, making this platform easy to pick up whether you need help with onboarding, org charts, performance/goals, or benefits administration.

Most customer complaints about Namely stem from their payroll services and the lack of flexibility it provides for their customers. Another con for Namely is that it only supports the English language, making it challenging to use outside of countries that don’t speak English.
‍

Pricing

Namely’s pricing isn’t readily available.

¹² Officevibe

Intending to create a low-cost and easy way to gather employee feedback, Officevibe has made a product that can help you learn from your staff members.
‍

Notable features

One of Officevibe’s most notable features is its focus on support and resources for team managers and leaders.
‍

Pros & cons

If your company is still small, Officevibe has a forever-free plan for teams with up to 10 members. While this plan’s features are limited, it’s an interesting choice for companies that need some extra help but they cannot afford an employee management tool yet.

Since Officevibe automates some aspects of their pulse surveys, many customers have shared that the questions could be repetitive, surface-level, or even irrelevant to the company.
‍

Pricing

Officevibe has a forever-free plan for small teams. Paid plans are US$3.50-5 per employee per month.

¹³ PerformYard

Performance management can be a challenge across an organization. PerformYard seeks to streamline this process and make it easy for employees to set goals, gather feedback, and make adjustments throughout the year.
‍

Notable features

PerformYard’s reports are robust and help you compare employee performance and identify trends across the company and departments.
‍

Pros & cons

Many customers have pointed out that their favorite parts of PerformYard are its ease of use and customer support. Most customers focus their praise on PerformYard’s 360° review software.

PerformYard users have pointed out cons in the lack of some reminders. Goal updates need to happen across the company for the product to be relevant, and users have shared that reminders for this aren’t frequent enough or enticing for users to click on. Review reminders seem to happen consistently, though.
‍

Pricing

PerformYard provides simple pricing at US$5-10 per employee per month billed annually.

¹⁴ Small Improvements

Sometimes, all your organization needs are minor improvements to make it run smoothly. Small Improvements helps companies understand what changes need to be made to create a better workplace culture and employee experience.
‍

Notable features

Small Improvements is praised for being easy to adapt to an organization’s need. While there are many pre-determined settings, you can update and combine aspects of the software as you wish to make it bespoke for your team.
‍

Pros & cons

Small Improvements have received positive feedback from customers because you can customize questions and forms. You can also integrate this system with tools like Slack for better adoption.

Small Improvements users have commented that the user interface can sometimes be confusing, making it difficult to find the correct data. Small Improvements has an English-only user interface, which you must consider when deciding on the right employee management software. The company states that content and forms can be adjusted to different languages, but this isn’t out of the box.
‍

Pricing

Small Improvements’ starting price is US$5-7 per employee per month (billed annually). You can also choose a US$2 (per employee, per month) engagement and retention add-on.

¹⁵ Trakstar

Trakstar created an employee performance management software to help organizations create a place they love to work at, with tools across the employee lifecycle.
‍

Notable features

One notable Trakstar feature is its ability to integrate external and internal feedback into 360° reviews. Trakstar’s external feedback tool can help you quickly gather feedback from customers, vendors, and contractors.
‍

Pros & cons

Trakstar can help you handle hiring, learning, and performance at work. With various tools, Trakstar can become a helpful element of your HR tech stack.

One of the most prominent cons discussed by Trakstar customers is how hard it can be to make bulk edits to update the performance review process. Reallocating direct reports after a manager leaves, changing the job title after reviews are sent out, and updating data in multiple places have all been pointed out as issues by customers. Another con of using Trakstar is that it only supports English.
‍

Pricing

Trakstar's pricing isn't readily available.
‍

Choosing the best employee management tool

Choosing an employee management software can feel like a massive undertaking for a people leader. You want to pick a platform that you know your team will use and enjoy. Going on a dozen product demos and choosing between a handful of similar products can feel draining for your team — but picking software doesn’t have to be complicated.

To select the best software, consider:

• Your company’s long-term business goals

• The budget you have for implementing software

• What you need to do with the software you pick

• Which tools feels the best for you to use long-term

Utilizing Leapsome as your employee management software is a great way to scale with your employee management software.

Leapsome has a beautiful and intuitive software suite, fantastic customer reviews, a world-class support team, a helpful Success Center with self-service options, and much more. Request a demo to see why Leapsome is your best choice for an employee management tool.

Employee management tool comparison chart

If you’re struggling to decide between two or more options, here’s a more concise overview of each software tool and its features.

*The information above is based on our research from July to September 2022. All user feedback referenced in the text has been sourced from independent software review platforms such as G2 and Capterra in December 2022.