WordPress Plugins for HR & Employee Management

The importance of good Human Resources (HR) and employee management cannot be overstated. It’s vital to ensure that procedures like training and recruitment, benefit entitlements, and performance management are optimized. Depending on the size of your organization, the amount of time and resources that need to be invested into HR and employee management can be considerable.

Fortunately, there are a variety of online tools you can utilize to make the job much easier. These include plugins that integrate seamlessly with your WordPress website, enabling you to efficiently streamline the HR and employee management processes.

In this post, we’ll introduce five popular HR and employee management WordPress plugins. We’ll discuss the various pros and cons of each option, and then help you to find the right one for your needs. Let’s get started!

The best human resources WordPress plugins

WordPress HR plugins can help take the hassle out of effective employee management. What’s more they’re often easy to install and configure according to the needs of your business. Many of them serve as a much more efficient alternative to simply maintaining a library of spreadsheets.

At their core, the majority of HR plugins enable you to create and manage employee profiles and documentation, including attendance records, benefits, and performance metrics.

In addition to profiles, there are various other attributes WordPress plugins offer that can significantly improve your HR and employee management systems. These include finance (such as income reports and payments tracking) and project management (scheduling and task allocation, for example). Some plugins even include systems for customer management.

When you add a trusted, well-documented HR plugin to your WordPress site, you can streamline staff management dramatically. This can, in turn, free up more time for important business management tasks. What’s more, a good HR plugin can ensure your important data is managed from a single secure, and easy-to-navigate, location.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the best HR plugins available, and how they can transform your business.

WP ERP

WP ERP is an open-source platform with an outstanding set of features. It contains individual HR, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and accounting modules. An audit log is also included to help you monitor workflow.  

Price: The core plugin (including HR and CRM modules) is free, but you can integrate paid extensions to extend functionality.

Pros: User documentation, built-in email system, customer management capabilities.

Cons: The plugin lacks advanced invoice capabilities (such as the ability to add terms and conditions). There are also limitations placed on sending and receiving attachments.

WP-HR Manager

Enabling you to significantly improve the HR appraisal process, documenting procedures, and handling record keeping, WP-HR Manager is an excellent choice for companies of all sizes. In addition to featuring an intuitive back end interface, WP-HR Manager includes a front end view where employees can monitor their own performance. The plugin also makes it easy to manage employee holiday and leave entitlements.

Price: The core plugin is free, but you can use paid extensions to extend functionality (starting at $9.99 per month).

Pros: Employee Self Service options, built-in email system.

Cons: Some features offered for free within other plugins (such as attendance reports) are only included in WP-HR’s paid extensions.

WPHRM: Human Resource and Finance Management WordPress Plugin

WPHRM is the only option on our list not found on the WordPress Plugin Directory. It offers a robust management system—both for HR and finance departments—and includes top-notch customer support and plugin documentation.

Price: $171/year

Pros: Excellent employee performance and financial reporting capabilities, as well as department and employee segmentation features.

Cons: Lacks a hierarchy of user roles, so only Admin can perform various tasks.

Business Manager

Business Manager is a feature-heavy and enterprise-focused plugin that combines HR, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and project management all in one. You can use it for simple employee and client record keeping, or more advanced management and planning tasks.

Price: The core plugin is free, but you can purchase extensions (starting at $19).

Pros: The plugin comes with detailed scheduler, task management, employee record keeping, and document management systems.

Cons: Extensions are required for more advanced features, including payroll and assets management.

Staffer

One of the more basic plugins on our list, Staffer enables you to create and manage staff profiles, as well as display them on your website. This is ideal if your company has an off-site HR setup, or you simply need to create an online directory.

Price: Free.

Pros: Staffer is easy to configure and use. It also includes a range of shortcode display options.

Cons: The plugin lacks many of the features included in the other plugins mentioned.

Which WordPress HR plugin is right for you?

To help you choose the right solution for your needs, we’ve graded the HR plugins mentioned above according to specific criteria.

A-grade HR plugins

When it comes to functionality and ease of use, both WP ERP and Business Manager are a solid A. Both offer multiple modules for employee and customer management that can be extended as needed. However, even their base offerings go above and beyond.

For example, WP ERP includes a CRM platform (including a built-in email system). This lets admins streamline customer relations and improve business operations.

Business Manager doesn’t include a CRM platform, but does offer an advanced task management system and access to client documents and records. This is perfect for project management tasks, and it gives staff the ability to collaborate with greater ease.

B-grade HR plugins

WP-HR Manager and WPHRM are also impressive in terms of functionality. However, both offer less comprehensive features than WP ERP and Business Manager, so they’ve earned a B grade.

WP-HR Manager is particularly helpful for smaller companies, as its Employee Self Service (ESS) functionality enables employees to perform many HR tasks themselves (such as submitting leave requests and tracking benefits).

Alternatively, WPHRM is great for businesses of all sizes. It includes both HR and finance management tools, such as attendance and income reports.

C-grade HR plugins

Finally, Staffer is the only option on our list to earn a C While it is moderately useful for creating and displaying employee records and directories on your website, it lacks many features that other plugins implement.

In fact, each of the other plugins we’ve mentioned let you create staff profiles, so there’s nothing particularly special about Staffer’s abilities in this regard. However, it is free and simple to use.

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To learn more, take a look at our enterprise solutions for WordPress and additional educational resources.