Bob, formerly known as HiBob, is a fully featured employee management system that functions as a single source of truth for all your HR-related employee data. While it can work well for small businesses and large companies, Bob’s target audience is mid-tier businesses with employees in more than one country.
Bob’s emphasis on customization makes it one of the best HR software solutions for growth-focused companies seeking to understand their workforce and stand out in a competitive market. Plus, its intuitive interface ensures Bob works well for businesses that need to get their HR system up and running without investing too much time and money into the initial setup and launch.
Keep reading to learn more about Bob’s pricing, plans, features and more so you can decide if Bob is the right HR solution for you.
Bob pricing and plans
Bob offers custom pricing only. Although Bob doesn’t include a free trial, it does offer a free demo. You’ll need to submit your information online to request a free custom demo and schedule a meeting with a sales rep to get a quote.
Core HR
The Core HR module is Bob’s base platform, which means you can’t use Bob without it. Unlike Bob’s other modules, Core HR can be used as a standalone solution, but Bob excels when you use Core HR alongside the other HR modules we review below. Get in touch with a Bob representative to get a quote for Bob’s Core HR platform.
Core HR includes all of the following HR features:
- A social-media-style company homepage.
- An org chart and people directory.
- Customizable automated workflows with built-in reminders and notifications.
- Employee self-service with custom permissions.
- Digital e-signing.
- Cloud-based storage with user-based permissions for all HR documents.
- In-depth HR analytics broken down into KPI dashboards, which showcase employee data in real time.
Additional modules
While Core HR can stand on its own, Bob HRIS works best as a fully integrated system where multiple modules work together to bring you a comprehensive look at your workforce. As with Core HR, additional Bob modules cost a custom fee that you can discuss with your sales representative over a custom demo.
Add-on modules include performance management, compensation management, time and attendance, workforce planning and more.
Bob’s key features
Company homepage
Bob’s company homepage was built specifically for a post-pandemic world where hybrid, on-site and remote teams work together on a daily basis. The homepage looks and operates like a social media site, which means it has next to no learning curve and encourages employee engagement through likes, emoji reacts and comment threads.
Managers and employees alike can make posts, comment and react on Bob’s social media-inspired company homepage. Image: Bob/Kylie McQuarrie.Ideally, the company homepage will keep your entire team on the same page and encourage employee interactions, no matter where in the world your people are working. Since the page is thoroughly customizable, you can configure it to do whatever you need it to, which includes posting company news, celebrating birthdays, gathering info on remote and hybrid teams and sharing praise for employees.
Employee surveys
Along with its community-fostering company homepage, Bob gives you employee surveys that give you useful insights into overall worker satisfaction. Surveys are fully customizable and, like Bob’s homepage and overall interface, intuitive and user-friendly. Employees should have no trouble filling out the surveys, and managers and higher-ups will appreciate the easy-to-generate reports that make survey results easy to interpret.
HR reporting and analytics
Bob’s fully customizable HR reports offer unique, actionable insights into every element of the worker experience. Bob has a complete library of HR reporting templates, but it’s just as easy to generate unique reports with just a few clicks.
Most notably, Bob’s HR software generates employee-specific reports that showcase each worker’s career development, tenure and team. Based on the information provided, Bob’s algorithm assesses employees’ flight risk, giving you the information you need to intervene early and reduce attrition.
Payroll integrations
In contrast to some of its top competitors, such as Rippling and BambooHR, Bob doesn’t offer a combined payroll and HR software solution. You can’t use it to run payroll or find benefits to offer your employees.
However, Bob does sync seamlessly with dozens of payroll providers, including global providers like Deel. Bob also syncs with benefits administration software tools like Sequoia Tech, ensuring all your employees’ data is up to date within Bob’s system. Syncing your payroll and benefits solutions with Bob ensures all your employee information is up to date and accurate within Bob’s system and helps reduce the risk of problematic payroll errors.
Payroll Hub
Once you sync Bob with your preferred payroll solution, you can easily track all your payroll data on Bob’s Payroll Hub, a comprehensive payroll reporting dashboard. From the Hub, you can see all of your active pay cycles. It’s easy to link multiple pay cycles and payroll software tools to the same Bob account, ensuring you can scale up to new providers as you grow (including expanding into new countries).
Bob’s pros and cons
| Bob pros | Bob cons |
|---|---|
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If Bob isn’t ideal for you, check out these alternatives
| Feature | Rippling | BambooHR | Workday HCM | Bob |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $8/employee/mo. | Custom | Custom | Custom |
| Time and attendance | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in payroll | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (third-party integration only) |
| Applicant tracking systems | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Employee performance reviews | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learn more | Visit Rippling | Visit BambooHR | Visit Workday | Visit Bob |
| Plan and pricing data up to date as of 3/19/2024. | ||||
Rippling: Best all-in-one payroll, HR and IT system
Our star rating: 4.3 out of 5
Like Bob, Rippling’s platform acts as a single source of truth for all things employee-related. Unlike Bob, Rippling offers built-in domestic and global payroll solutions along with its HR and IT modules. You can pay employees, offer benefits, send company announcements and conduct employee surveys — all within the same system.
To learn more, read our Rippling review.
BambooHR: Best employee insights
Our star rating: 4.4 out of 5
BambooHR and Bob are two extremely comparable HRIS platforms offering a similar range of employee-focused services. In contrast to Bob, though, BambooHR offers add-ons like payroll and benefits. It also includes a built-in applicant tracking system and dedicated customer support agents.
To learn more, read our BambooHR review.
Workday HCM: Best for enterprises
Our star rating: 4.5 out of 5
If Bob doesn’t have enough features to support your large team, it might be time to scale up to enterprise-level software like Workday HCM. Workday’s completely comprehensive HR tools include in-depth people analytics, comprehensive employee surveys, performance management, ATS, LMS and much, much more.
To learn more, read our Workday HCM review.
Our methodology
To review HR and payroll software, we reach out directly to companies to view demos and directly ask questions about their software’s services. We sign up for free trials to test software ourselves whenever possible. We also look at review sites with verified user reviews to ensure our final piece reflects multiple viewpoints, not just our own experience.
We also use an in-house algorithm to calculate star ratings for each brand we review. You can learn more by reading our in-depth explanation of our payroll software review methodology, but here’s a general overview of what we consider when calculating ratings:
- Pricing, which we weight to 25% of the final score.
- Features, which we weight to 35% of the final score.
- Ease of use, which we weight to 15% of the final score.
- Customer support, which we weight to 15% of the final score.
- Our expert’s experience, which we weight to 10% of the final score.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bob software?
Bob is an HR software tool for companies that want to manage employees within one centralized system.
What is HiBob used for?
HiBob, now Bob, is an HRIS platform that helps small, midsize and large companies in all industries manage their personnel. Businesses can use it to send company-wide announcements to employees, conduct employee surveys, gain payroll insights and more.
Does HiBob do payroll?
No, Bob (formerly HiBob) doesn’t include built-in payroll. However, it syncs with dozens of payroll processing software systems, including international payroll programs like Deel. Bob’s Payroll Hub also serves as a centralized reporting system that syncs with your payroll system to ensure your employees’ information is always up to date.
