One System for HR, Payroll, and Onboarding Under 1,000

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Employment Hero: The All-in-One HR Platform Helping Mid-Market Teams Reclaim Their Time

The Challenge

For HR leaders at growing companies, the daily reality often looks less like strategic people work and more like administrative triage. When your organization sits somewhere between 100 and 500 employees, you're likely juggling a patchwork of systems—one for payroll, another for onboarding, a spreadsheet tracking certifications, and maybe a third-party tool for performance reviews. Each system requires its own logins, its own data entry, and its own reconciliation headaches. The result is HR teams spending more time managing tools than managing people.

This fragmentation creates real costs beyond frustration. Compliance gaps emerge when certification renewals slip through the cracks. Payroll errors multiply when data lives in disconnected systems. And the administrative burden often forces HR teams to delay or abandon higher-value initiatives like workforce planning or employee development. For mid-market companies without enterprise budgets but with increasingly complex workforce needs, finding a solution that consolidates these functions without sacrificing capability has become a pressing operational priority.

How Employment Hero Approaches It

Employment Hero was founded in Sydney in 2014 with a straightforward premise: employment shouldn't require a dozen different systems to manage effectively. The platform has since evolved into what the company calls an "Employment Operating System"—a single cloud-based platform that handles HR administration, payroll processing, recruitment, time and attendance, and employee engagement features. Today, over 350,000 businesses use the platform globally, and the company recently surpassed A$300 million in annual recurring revenue.

The core architecture bundles traditionally separate functions into one environment. Employee records, digital contracts, compliance documentation, automated pay runs, shift rostering, and leave management all operate from the same system. For organizations tired of re-entering the same employee data across multiple platforms, this consolidation addresses a genuine pain point. The platform currently supports native payroll in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Singapore, and Malaysia, with an employer-of-record service called Global Teams extending coverage to 180+ countries for international hiring.

What distinguishes Employment Hero's approach is its emphasis on automation and self-service. The platform includes an AI assistant called Hero AI, launched in late 2023, which can answer routine employee questions and automate administrative tasks. Paperless onboarding workflows handle contracts, e-signatures, and policy acknowledgments without manual intervention. Employees access their own payslips, timesheets, and leave requests through a mobile app, reducing the volume of basic HR inquiries. The company claims customers see an average 42% reduction in HR administrative time—a figure that, while vendor-sourced, aligns with the efficiency gains reported in published case studies.

The integration ecosystem includes over 30 native connectors to common business tools. Accounting platforms like Xero, QuickBooks, and NetSuite sync directly with payroll data. Workspace tools including Slack and Google Workspace support single sign-on. For organizations requiring custom connections, a RESTful API is available, though access requires the platform's higher-tier plans.

Who It's Built For

Employment Hero serves small and mid-market companies most effectively, typically those with 50 to 1,000 employees. The sweet spot appears to be organizations that have outgrown basic tools or spreadsheet-based processes but don't require the complexity or cost of enterprise HCM suites. Published case studies span industries including transport, aged care, tourism, healthcare, and professional services, suggesting broad applicability rather than vertical specialization.

The platform resonates particularly with companies experiencing growth or consolidation. Organizations formed through mergers—like Experience Gold Coast, which unified five separate entities—often find value in centralizing previously disparate systems. Companies scaling quickly, such as telehealth startup Eucalyptus with its 800+ global employees, benefit from automated workflows that don't require proportional headcount increases in HR. If your organization is running multiple legacy tools for core HR functions, or if your HR team spends more time on data entry than employee engagement, Employment Hero's consolidated approach merits consideration.

What Customers Are Saying

Customer feedback consistently highlights the platform's consolidation benefits. Kent Relocation Group, an Australian company with 350 staff, had previously relied on separate tools including ADP for payroll and Enboarder for onboarding. After implementing Employment Hero, their Chief People Officer reported that managers now have a single view of employee data across payroll, leave, performance, and compliance documentation. Holdsworth Community, a nonprofit aged care provider, replaced spreadsheet-based compliance tracking and reports avoiding $400,000 in additional annual costs while saving time equivalent to four full-time employees.

Third-party reviews reinforce these themes. On Capterra, where the platform holds a 4.4-star rating from 236 reviews, one user noted that "the platform is user-friendly and makes managing HR tasks much more efficient, from payroll to employee management. The self-service features empower employees." G2 reviews, averaging 4.3 to 4.4 stars across 780+ reviews, frequently mention the rostering and shift planning capabilities. That said, some reviewers note that pricing has increased over time and that support responsiveness varies by plan tier—lower-tier customers rely primarily on ticketing rather than phone support.

Getting Started

Employment Hero uses a per-employee, per-month pricing model across tiered plans. The Lite tier starts at A$20 per employee monthly and includes applicant tracking, rostering, onboarding, and payroll. The Plus tier at A$40 adds performance reviews, expenses, learning management, and custom reporting. The Unlimited tier at A$60 includes phone support, HR advisory services, and expanded recruiting features. Each tier carries a minimum monthly spend, typically ranging from A$200 to A$600 depending on the plan. Implementation support is available through Employment Hero's services team, and customers report typical rollouts of one to two months for core HR and payroll functionality.

Key Takeaway

Employment Hero makes a compelling case for organizations seeking to consolidate fragmented HR operations without moving to enterprise-scale complexity. The platform's breadth—spanning recruitment through payroll through employee engagement—combined with its focus on automation and self-service, addresses the administrative burden that constrains many mid-market HR teams. For companies in Australia, New Zealand, or the UK operating between 100 and 500 employees, it represents a practical path toward reclaiming time for work that actually moves the business forward.

Learn more at employmenthero.com