10 Employee Onboarding Software Tools
Employee onboarding is a far-reaching, complex process that just about every business needs to manage. This covers all aspects of how we transition a new hire from accepting an offer to becoming a fully productive member of the team.
As such, onboarding requires extensive collaboration between stakeholders in diverse departments, including HR, finance, IT, and the onboardee’s new team.
The key challenge here is that the tasks we assign to each of these colleagues need to be closely tracked and managed, especially in terms of handling dependencies and sequencing.
This ensures that tasks are completed accurately and efficiently.
To achieve this, we’ll need the right employee onboarding software.
In the second installment of our two-part series, we’re diving deep into everything you need to know about selecting a platform for managing onboarding.
Specifically, we’ll be covering:
- What is employee onboarding software?
- What does onboarding software do?
- Onboarding software vs HRIS platforms
- 10 employee onboarding software tools
Let’s start with the basics.
What is employee onboarding software?
Employee onboarding software is used to unify, centralize, and streamline the process of integrating new hires into our organization.
This covers everything from the moment that an employee accepts our offer until they become a fully-fledged, productive member of the team.
More specifically, onboarding software is used to plan and coordinate the constituent tasks that make up this process. For example, creating an HRIS record, setting up payroll, provisioning IT accounts, scheduling introductions, delivering training, and other tasks.
This requires a range of capabilities, including task management, workflow automations, file handling, communication tools, integrations with departmental systems, and appropriate access control.
Ultimately, the goal is to maximize efficiency within our onboarding workflows by reducing the need for human colleagues to carry out admin actions and the scope for errors, delays, or omissions.
What does onboarding software do?
With a broad idea of what employee onboarding software is, we can move on to thinking in more detail about what it achieves in terms of actual functionality.
It’s helpful to break this into the specific tasks that we’ll manage during employee onboarding and the functionality we’ll need to achieve this.
So…
Key onboarding tasks
As we’ve hinted at already, employee onboarding touches on a fairly wide variety of tasks. Therefore, rather than outlining every possible action we may need to take, what’s important is to understand the most representative tasks for different teams and colleagues.
So, we can consider the key responsibilities of each of the teams we mentioned earlier within employee onboarding.
Here’s a summary of some of the most common tasks across each type of colleague:
Team | Tasks |
|---|---|
| HR team |
|
| IT team |
|
| Finance team |
|
| New hire’s department |
|
| The hiree |
|
Again, this isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list. In fact, one of the key challenges of onboarding new employees is the fact that the specific actions required to do so will vary from one role to the next.
So, our chosen employee onboarding software will need to be capable of handling this variation, especially within automation rules and other workflow management solutions.
Functional requirements
Knowing the kinds of tasks that we’re most likely to encounter in the context of onboarding, we can begin to think about some of the key functional requirements for a software system.
First and foremost, onboarding software must meet our needs in terms of data management functionality. That is, it should offer appropriate experiences for users to add and manage new employees, tasks, and other data entities.
Individual platforms can also provide varying levels of flexibility here. So, some enable us to define our own data schema or even choose which database to use, while others are much more opinionated.
We’ll also need to consider how end users will interact with our data. There are a couple of key aspects to this.
Firstly, there’s access control. That is, specific types of users within our onboarding process will need to access in order to carry out their responsibilities. For instance, HR teams might need full CRUD access across all entities, while departmental teams only need more granular data.
Second, there are the UIs that colleagues can use to interact with data. In particular, onboarding often involves large numbers of form UIs, including for data collection, intakes, request management, surveys, and more.
Besides this, we’ll need role-specific portals and task lists to give colleagues a streamlined, efficient experience for accessing and managing tasks that are relevant to them.
Another key cluster of requirements relates to workflow automation.
This can take a few distinct forms. Most commonly, this means implementing deterministic automation rules to carry out specific tasks within our employee onboarding flows. For example, triggering an email automation to notify a colleague that a new task has been added.
Alternatively, onboarding is fast becoming one of the most prominent agentic AI use cases . This means leveraging LLM-powered systems that are able to reason and act autonomously in pursuit of a high-level goal.
In both cases, the two key capabilities to look out for in employee onboarding software are the ability to define business logic for triggering certain tasks, as well as suitable integrations, including with our IT, finance, and other platforms.
Onboarding software vs HRIS platforms
Before we start looking at our specific options within the onboarding software market, it’s important to note that there are a few distinct forms that this can take.
While dedicated COTS onboarding platforms do exist, they’re generally not the most widely used option.
Instead, a large number of organizations either utilize onboarding features within a wider HRIS or HRMS platform, or leverage more general workflow management platforms to build systems for managing onboarding across multiple department-specific platforms.
Equally, many teams utilize a combination of these two approaches. So, it’s important to understand their relationships, respective roles, and strong suits.
The primary role of a HR platform is to act as a system of record for employee data, as well as core HR tasks, such as managing benefits, time off, and key documents.
Within this, many modern HR management platforms also offer dedicated onboarding modules. However, the extent of what we can do with these can vary somewhat.
So, some tools will only offer basic intake forms, while others provide fuller workflow automation capabilities and integrations, or even HR-specific agent building tools.
Generally, these prioritize centralization and ease-of-use over flexibility and customization.
Because of this, workflow automation tools are often leveraged to configure broader solutions for end-to-end onboarding processes.
For the most part, this means configuring systems to handle interactions across our HRIS and other platforms that are required for employee onboarding, including ITSM platforms, finance systems, contract management, communications apps, user management, and other internal tooling.
Importantly, in the context of employee onboarding software, this also gives us much greater control over aspects such as how we sequence tasks and handle dependencies, as well as eliminating manual admin tasks in a wider range of platforms.
10 employee onboarding software tools
Now that we have a grasp of what employee onboarding software is, what it does, and some of the different categories of solutions that are available, we can begin to check out some of the specific platforms that we might opt for.
As we’ve noted, there are a few distinct types of solutions available. Within each of these, there’s also scope for variation, especially in terms of target users and the extent of customization and flexibility that is on offer.
With that in mind, we’ve chosen a wide variety of platforms to reflect the diversity of the tools that are available on the market.
Our picks are:
Let’s check each one out in turn.
1. Budibase
Budibase is the open-source, low-code platform that turns data into action.
With extensive external data support, autogenerated forms and CRUD UIs, powerful AI-driven automation, custom RBAC, optional self-hosting, and more, it’s the ideal solution for handling all kinds of internal workflows.
Features
Budibase enables you to build workflow tools on top of any data, with connectors for a range of RDBMSs, NoSQL tools, APIs, and spreadsheets, alongside our built-in low-code database. Budibase acts as a proxy, querying external data without ever storing it.
With our data layer in place, we can autogenerate professional, highly customizable forms and CRUD UIs. Our app builder offers a huge library of components, as well as optional JavaScript and CSS, conditionality rules, mobile-friendly designs, built-in themes, and more.
We also offer a highly intuitive automation builder, complete with a range of configurable triggers, actions, and LLM operations. With custom REST requests, Budibase is the perfect solution for building onboarding workflow automations across all of your employee systems.
Use cases
Budibase is a natural fit for creating employee onboarding software systems. We’ve recently launched Budibase Workspaces, where multiple applications, data sources, and automation rules can interact within a project, making it the ideal choice for complex, modular workflow systems.
Security-first teams choose Budibase to power workflows, taking advantage of custom RBAC, optional self-hosting, free SSO, and much more. Our platform gives you complete control over who can access sensitive data during the onboarding process.
Budibase is fully optimized for busy IT teams that need to output secure, professional solutions at pace.
Take a look at our features overview to learn more.
Pricing
With Budibase, you can build as many apps as you want for up to five users in the cloud, or twenty if you self-host. Unlike most other low-code platforms, our free plan even offers SSO.
Paid plans start from $5 per user per month and $50 for app creators, introducing reusable code snippets, custom branding, Budibase AI, PDF generation, creator access control, synchronous automations, and more.
Custom enterprise licenses are also available, including air-gapped deployments, enforceable SSO, environment variables, script injection, and a range of other advanced capabilities.
Check out our pricing page to learn more.
2. Waybook
Waybook is a cloud-based platform that acts as a single source of truth for managing training, onboarding, and documentation materials.
(Waybook Website)
Within this, employee onboarding is one of its key use cases. In particular, it offers advanced functionality for delivering training for new hires, including automatically created training schedules based on the colleague’s role and seniority.
We can import our existing HR documents or create new ones from scratch or using templates. For onboarding, Waybook also offers custom tests and quizzes within resources, as well as completion tracking for HR colleagues, and extensive integration with business tools.
As such, Waybook is a strong option for handling the training side of onboarding. However, we might want to look elsewhere for more widespread requirements, such as handling IT or finance workflows.
3. BambooHR
BambooHR is one of the most prominent SaaS-based HR platforms, offering a unified experience for handling all kinds of employee data.
(BambooHR Website)
As part of this, it offers streamlined, feature-rich employee onboarding. Bamboo offers custom onboarding checklists, complete with task automation and notifications, making it a great choice for managing processes across multiple teams.
It’s also a particularly strong offering in terms of document-focused onboarding workflows. This includes e-signatures and templates for welcome packs.
The wider Bamboo platform is a highly advanced HR solution, with extensive reporting capabilities and even AI chatbots. However, as with Waybook, alternative options might be a better fit if we need employee onboarding software with more advanced features for other teams.
4. Enboarder
Enboarder is a slightly different proposition within the employee onboarding software market, offering a platform for utilizing agentic AI to deliver structured onboarding and employee lifecycle processes.
(Enboarder Website)
The goal is to utilize AI to streamline and automate employee onboarding, as well as offboarding and crossboarding. This largely centers around a visual workflow builder, offering extensive flexibility to create cross-functional flows without requiring custom code.
Importantly, Enboarder also enables us to integrate with platforms across our tech stack, including HRIS, ITSM, communications, and others. This makes it a good fit for teams that want to centrally automate all aspects of their employee onboarding.
However, as a more advanced platform, Enboarder might not be suitable for all teams, with some users noting that certain tasks can present a slightly higher learning curve.
5. Zapier
Zapier is perhaps the best-known workflow automation platform on the market today. So, although it isn’t a specialized employee onboarding software tool, it nonetheless powers onboarding workflows for countless teams.
(Zapier Website)
Zapier’s market position is largely down to how easily we can create powerful solutions, with an intuitive workflow builder, market-leading integration options, extensive automation templates, agentic AI capabilities, and more.
It also offers custom data tables and app interfaces, making it a good fit for a broader range of workflow management tasks compared to many other automation and integration platforms.
However, an obvious downside is that Zapier isn’t an off-the-shelf employee onboarding solution. So, we’ll need to build and configure workflows for ourselves, outside of what’s available in their template library.
6. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is an enterprise workflow platform that streamlines all kinds of processes across IT, HR, finance, and other teams.
(ServiceNow Website)
It’s a far-reaching, modular platform, with onboarding largely residing within ServiceNow’s suite of Employee Journey Management tools. This includes extensive capabilities, including personalized employee journeys, surveys, and other employee experience tools.
ServiceNow acts as a unified platform for handling all kinds of enterprise workflows, including ITSM, Finance, and other solutions, as well as low-code and code-based tools for creating apps, automations, and AI agents.
Because of this, it’s a great choice for large organizations with more advanced workflow needs. However, smaller teams, or those looking for a more discrete employee onboarding system, might find that other tools better suit their needs.
7. Zoho People
People is Zoho’s HR management system, offering an intuitive, agile solution for handling HR workflows, including a dedicated module for employee onboarding.
(Zoho Website)
This is a highly effective solution for carrying out paperwork, tracking task completion, managing learning objectives, and other key aspects of the onboarding process.
On top of this, there’s a high degree of customization on offer within onboarding workflows, as well as integration with other tools both externally and within wider Zoho Suite, including for payroll and expense management.
Zoho People has the potential to be a good fit for a range of teams, especially those that need a customizable solution that can be rolled out relatively easily. However, for some more advanced IT tasks, we might be better served with other platforms.
8. n8n
n8n is another prominent workflow automation platform. Like Zapier, it offers an effective solution for integrating with existing tools and configuring logic for triggering automations across platforms, albeit aimed at a slightly more technical user base.
(n8n Website)
In the context of employee onboarding software, n8n’s greatest strength is the ease with which we can connect to a wide array of common enterprise tools, including HRMS, ITSM, finance, and other platforms.
n8n’s experience for building workflows revolves around a powerful visual editor, complete with debugging and deployment tools, as well as the option to use custom code. It also offers impressive tools for creating agentic systems.
As an open-source product, it’s a great fit for technical users with more advanced employee onboarding needs who don’t want to build this with custom code. But, for an off-the-shelf solution, other tools will often be a better option.
9. Rippling
Rippling is an employee management platform that unifies workflows across HR, IT, and finance teams, providing good coverage for the core verticals for employee onboarding.
(Rippling Website)
As a working solution for each of these teams in its own right, Rippling has the potential to be a very powerful onboarding software solution. For instance, offering IT teams dedicated tools for device, identity, and access management.
It’s also a strong choice for teams that need a high level of customization. With custom access control, automations, and apps, Rippler has the potential to be adapted to onboarding workflows with highly specific requirements.
Although it offers hundreds of integrations, Rippling may be most effective when adopted wholesale for our IT and HR needs, rather than building onboarding solutions around the edges of existing ITSM or HRMS platforms.
10. Jira Service Management
Lastly, we have Jira Service Management. Part of the Atlassian ecosystem, this offers advanced capabilities for managing a range of internal service processes, particularly for technical teams.
(Jira Service Management Website)
By offering dedicated functionality for internal IT, HR, and other employee services, JSM is well-positioned for cross-functional onboarding workflows. It’s a particularly strong offering for advanced use cases, with a range of automation, reporting, and other workflow tools.
Naturally, Jira Service Management also benefits heavily from close integration with the wider Atlassian ecosystem, including Confluence, Trello, and Loom.
As such, this could be a strong option for a range of teams, although if you’re looking for a more straightforward HR management platform for handling onboarding, some of the other tools we’ve seen might be more suitable.
Managing employee onboarding with Budibase
Budibase is the open-source, low-code platform that empowers IT teams to turn data into action.
Connect to any data, autogenerate UIs, and build powerful, AI-driven automations with our intuitive, flexible platform. Budibase is the ideal solution for all kinds of workflows across IT, HR, and other internal service verticals.
Budibase is particularly well suited to employee onboarding use cases, offering fully customizable RBAC, free SSO, extensive integrations, professional end-user interfaces, and much more.
Check out our features overview to learn more.