BambooHR is an American

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to ''Fo ...

that provides

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

. Founded in 2008 by Ben Peterson and Ryan Sanders, the company is based in

Lindon, Utah Lindon is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 10,070 at the 2010 census. In July 2019 it was estimated to be to 11,100 by the US Census Bureau. ...

. BambooHR's services include an

applicant tracking system An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring needs. An ATS can be implemented or accessed online at enterprise- or small-business levels, depending on the needs of the ...

and an

employee benefits Employee benefits and (especially in British English) benefits in kind (also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or perks) include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Inst ...

tracker. In 2019, Gadjo C Sevilla and Brian T. Horowitz wrote in ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

'' that BambooHR is "pricier than competing products" and "lacking in benefits administration (BA) features compared to rival solutions", but its "solid feature set and user-friendly interface push it to the top of our list".

History

BambooHR was founded in 2008 by Ben Peterson and Ryan Sanders. Based in

, the company has a dancing

panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white animal coat, coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is ...

mascot. BambooHR had 470 employees in November 2019. In 2019, BambooHR served 11,000 clients that were based in 100 countries. BambooHR customers in 2017 included

Shopify Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify is the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. The Shopify platform offers online ret ...

Foursquare Four square is a ball game. Four square may also refer to: Internet and entertainment * Foursquare City Guide, a local search and discovery app * ''4 Square'' (game show), a British game show * ''4 Square'' (TV series), a Canadian children's s ...

, and

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

. Most of BambooHR's employees are

salaried employee A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. ...

s and do not qualify for

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), ...

. BambooHR has an "anti-workaholic policy" in which employees are forbidden from laboring over a

40-hour week The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 1 ...

. Company co-founder Ryan Sanders' rationale was that

occupational burnout According to the World Health Organization (WHO), occupational burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress, with symptoms characterized by "feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s ...

has a detrimental effect on the health of his employees and negatively affects their families and his company. He started taking this view during his

organizational leadership Leadership studies is a multidisciplinary academic field of study that focuses on leadership in organizational contexts and in human life. Leadership studies has origins in the social sciences (e.g., sociology, anthropology, psychology), in humani ...

studies as a graduate student at

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the univ ...

. BambooHR started a "paid paid vacation" policy in 2015. Employees who have worked at BambooHR for at least six months are eligible for $2,000 in reimbursements for vacation expenses like

airline ticket An airline ticket is a document or electronic record, issued by an airline or a travel agency, that confirms that an individual is entitled to a seat on a flight on an aircraft. The airline ticket may be one of two types: a ''paper ticket'', whi ...

s, hotel rooms, and other tourist activities. Joe Fryer profiled BambooHR's vacation policy on the ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' show on September 16, 2016. According to a 2015 article in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', BambooHR terminated an employee for violating their workweek policy by working more than 40 hours. In October 2019, BambooHR appointed Brad Rencher, who had previously been a marketing executive at

Adobe Inc. Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...

, to replace Ben Peterson as the company's CEO. Peterson became a co-chairman on the board of directors with fellow co-founder Ryan Sanders.

Software

BambooHR provides companies a

human resources management Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

. The service has a

dashboard For business applications, see Dashboard (business). A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel (IP), or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle or small aircraft. Usually located directly ahead of the driver ...

homepage with different sections for employee information, vacation time record keeping, and reports. The sections are: "My Info", "Employees", "Job Openings", "Reports", and "Files". The dashboard also contains an employee's image, contact details, and vacation time remaining. It has areas that show scheduled lessons and business communications. Users can see their coworkers' birthdays and scheduled time off. BambooHR's software includes an

. The system has a catalogue of job opportunities and data about each opportunity including the hiring manager, how many people have applied, and how long it has been posted. BambooHR's integration allows job openings to be posted at the same time to the company's jobs page and to career sites like

Glassdoor Glassdoor is an American website where current and former employees anonymously review companies. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, it has additional offices in Chicago, Dublin, London, and São Paulo. Glassdoor also allows its users to ...

and Indeed. BambooHR allows companies to record

. It includes reports that help employees fill out

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

compliance forms. In 2017, Juan Martinez and Rob Marvin wrote in ''

'' that BambooHR's benefits administration functionalities are inferior to

Zenefits TriNet Zenefits (legal name: YourPeople, Inc., previously known as Zenefits) is a technology company based in San Francisco, that offers cloud-based software as a service to companies for managing their human resources, with a particular focus o ...

'. They concluded that although the software is "easy to get up and running", it is more expensive than a large number of its competitors and its website is "pretty but lacks functionality". It also has a performance review feature. It provides an

open API An open API (often referred to as a public API) is a publicly available application programming interface that provides developers with programmatic access to a proprietary software application or web service. APIs are sets of requirements that g ...

to allow combination with other HR software services. In 2017, it started BambooHR Marketplace to allow software developers to market HR apps they have integrated with BambooHR.

References

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External links

Official website
American companies established in 2008 Companies based in Utah County, Utah Human resource management software Online companies of the United States Privately held companies of the United States Software companies based in Utah 2008 establishments in Utah Software companies established in 2008 Business services companies established in 2008