Bob Expert Review, Pricing, Alternatives - 2022
Bob is a global human resources platform that can streamline pretty much everything an HR department needs to do. Their platform is popular with several tech companies. Among other things, because it includes forward-thinking modules like a culture hub and people analytics.
- They have tons of modules, which makes them a real one-stop shop. Beyond Core HR, they have modules for most things People Ops-related.
- Bob is a fast-growing company and their product looks the part, as it has one of the sleekest-looking platforms in the HRMS space right now.
- Their payroll hub allows you to connect all your payroll systems, which works great if you want to pay people in multiple locations without switching providers.
- Customer support is only offered via a chatbot and email.
- As to implementation, several users commented that they felt there could be more attention via personal walkthroughs provided at the beginning. Many had to resort to reading documentation and watching videos or just figuring things out by themselves.
- Pricing is only custom and available upon request, so you can’t just sign up, pay, and start using the tool.
What's Inside
Back in 2020, Bob, or HiBob, was one of the most interesting new entrants to the HRMS market. They had quickly gathered customers like Monday.com and eToro, and were making waves in the SMB sector as well. In our perspective, it had a lot to do with their philosophy of putting the employee first.
But how exactly do they put the employee first? Well, the solution is designed to engage people in a way that both understands and cultivates the culture of the workplace, which is of course, made up by the people there.
The idea is that if the tools are easy for employees to use on a frequent and engaged manner, then HR processes like onboarding, time-tracking, and payroll, are going to become fast and fluent.
They also have unlimited customizable flows, which is one of the stand-out features, based on how many HRMS systems we’ve seen and demoed over the years.
Now, in mid 2022, we’d say Bob is one of the household names, the usual suspects, if you will, when it comes to HR software. Their platform has continued to evolve, going beyond the core HR feature offering to include HCM modules like performance management, and now, even a payroll hub and people analytics, making them a fully-fledged HRMS.
This ease of use coupled with features like payroll reports, surveys for engagement, and benefits management, make Bob one of the most complete solutions in HR tech. If that sounds like too much, it’s worth pointing out that they have 4 versions available, depending on your needs.
One important thing here, however, is that the platform has a payroll hub as opposed to a payroll tool. This means that the platform itself doesn’t run payroll, but rather connects to the systems you’d have in place to run it. This is particularly useful for companies that have operations in several countries and hence need a system from which to handle it all, which integrates their HRMS data in real time. Their payroll partners include companies like ADP, PayFit, and Paylocity, but they can also connect to other systems via a no-code set-up wizard.
If you’d like a system that is also capable of running payroll, without the need of a third party, Bob would not be a good fit. However, they have a payroll hub, which would connect to your current system, or even become a central interface from which to manage several systems.
Tufin, Yotpo Ltd., Fiverr, Happy Socks, Taptica
- Unlimited customizable flows
- Over 13 modules
- Four packages to cover most needs
- 44 reviews with a 4.6/5 average
- Used by over 1,000 companies
- Culture hub: Bob's software suite for company culture lets you empower people through clubs, shoutouts, and anonymous reporting.
- One-click approval: Bob lets you automate HR approval cycles or process them with one click, both on web and mobile.
Bob also has capabilities for:
- Onboarding
- Time and Attendance
- Compensation
- Payroll
- Time Off
- Surveys
- Performance
- People Analytics
- Anonymous reporting tool
Bob integrates with tools like Lever, Comeet, Greenhouse, ADP, Slack, Okta, Jira, and Perkbox. They also have an open API and connect with Zapier.
Bob offers custom pricing. They have flexible plans for growing companies and will work with you to offer the best possible cost.
The folks at Bob have a 7-step plan that they follow for most implementations. It takes customers from setting up their basic account settings to defining HR processes and configuring company policies.
Customer support is offered via a chatbot and email.
HiBob was founded in 2015 by Ronni Zehavi and Israel David. Only the next year of their founding, they had opened a London office to cater to the EU markets. Their modern HR platform took on quickly with fast-growing companies like Fiverr and VaynerMedia. Because of that, they¡ve been achieving triple-digit growth year after year. As of 2022, they now have offices in Tel Aviv, Sydney, and Amsterdam as well. Of course, as a modern tech company, they also have people working remotely across the globe. They are backed by investors like Bessemer Venture Partners and General Atlantic. They have also been featured at media like Forbes, the Josh Bersin blog, Fast Company, and the Huffington Post.
