HRMS made easy

The goal of an online HRMS (human resource management system) is to streamline HR processes such as recruitment, payroll, performance evaluations, and benefits administration and to provide a central repository of employee-related information. With such a system in place, employees and managers can easily access the HR information they need, and HR staff can be freed from burdensome paperwork.

Hosted HRMS solutions promise even more benefits, including faster implementation and lower TCO (total cost of ownership), because a hosted solution frees you from investing in hardware and from maintaining the solution in-house — key considerations in this era of lean IT budgets. 

We tested hosted offerings from both Employease and Peopleclick, each of which addresses a different set of HR processes.

Peopleclick focuses on workforce management, delivering strong recruitment and contract vendor management functionality through separate, highly specialized modules. Peopleclick should be considered by companies that make extensive use of contract labor or those that are willing to take an in-depth look at in-house skills in order to minimize outside recruitment costs.

Employease, on the other hand, is the better choice for companies seeking an all-around HRMS. Taking a holistic view of the HR department, Employease provides enterprises with a well-rounded, comprehensive collection of features, including benefits administration, insurance and COBRA management, payroll management, recruitment, performance evaluations, compensation analysis, and AA (affirmative action)-program monitoring, as well as a new leave management module.

Employease: One-stop HR shop

HR solutions have typically focused on HR department needs. To be truly effective, however, an HRMS must address the needs of employees, managers, and third-party benefits providers as well. Overall, Employease does this fairly well, connecting up all the links in real time.

Employees, managers, and HR staffers log in to eHR from the Employease homepage, which makes access a breeze. The initial corporate and employee setup is centralized from the eHR Employer Access homepage, and we found this to be a fairly straightforward input operation — up to a point. When it comes to some of the more esoteric tasks, such as managing employee benefits, pulling reports, interfacing with benefits providers, and invoicing, users may need training from Employease, which is typically included in the implementation fee. The eHR service is connected in real time to major third-party providers, including insurance carriers such as United Health Care and Aetna, as well as payroll services such as ADP and PayChex.