5 Open Source HR Tools You Should Try

Your small- to mid-sized business has finally grown to the point where different departments are starting to require their own specialized software solutions. And because your employee base itself is growing fast, one department that you can’t overlook is Human Resources. With an organized and efficient HR department, your business is that much closer to running smoothly.

But don’t think you’re going to have to shell out a large portion of your company software budget for the necessary tools to keep HR humming along. In fact, there are a number of open-source applications you can work with that’ll more than meet the needs of your business. Some are even free!

Let’s take a look at 5 of such tools.

A Word of Warning

Because a number of these solutions are web-based, you will find that some of them must be installed on servers running the Linux operating system. That does give you a good amount of flexibility, in that you can install them on off-the-shelf hardware. You could also install these solutions on cloud-based platforms (such as Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure, and more).

Suffice it to say, however, you won’t be able to install all of these applications on a standard Windows-based desktop. You wouldn’t want to do that anyway, because these are very powerful, web-based applications.

With that said, let’s take a look at some software.

Sentrifugo

Sentrifugo is one of the few solutions on this list that can be installed on Linux, macOS, or Windows. The installation isn’t terribly challenging, but it’s more advanced than installing a simple client-based tool. This is one of the few pieces of software on the list that won’t have you feeling like you need to contact your developers to get it up and running.

Once you do have Sentrifugo installed and ready to go, you’ll enjoy a robust feature list that includes:

● Performance appraisals
● Employee self-service
● Analytics
● Background checks
● Leave management
● Service requests
● Talent acquisition
● Interview scheduling
● Manager performance and productivity optimization
● Time management
● Expenses
● Disciplinary
● Employee exit/separation
● And much more

If you find there is a feature your company needs, and you can’t find it in Sentrifugo, chances are you can customize another feature within the tool to perfectly fit your needs. Not only is Sentrifugo that flexible, but it also offers one of the more user-friendly interfaces on the market.

Odoo Community Edition

The Community Edition of Odoo offers a number of the HRM-centric features you’ll need for your small- to mid-size company. For those that need more, there’s always the non-community edition, but you’ll have to pay for a license to use that version.

Odoo Community Edition includes:

● Employee directory
● Expenses
● Leaves
● Recruitments
● Invoicing and payments
● Task
● CRM
● Sales
● Customer portal
● Inventory/purchase management
● MRP
● Website builder
● Presentations
● Themes
● Form builder
● Full eCommerce solution
● Point of sale
● PoS for restaurants
● Marketing events
● Email marketing
● Live chat
● E-learning
● Google Sheets integration
● And much more.

To get a list of the complete feature comparison (between community and non-community editions), visit the official feature matrix.

Like Sentrifugo, the Odoo community edition can be installed on Linux and Windows (but not macOS). Download your copy of Odoo community edition to try it out.

OrangeHRM

OrangeHRM does offer a community edition version of their award-winning software, but chances are, if you’re looking at something on this level, you’ll want to shell out for a license for the full version.

Why? OrangeHRM is often considered one of the best HR software solutions on the market. Not only does it include every possible bell and whistle you’ll need to get your work done, it offers a sleek and user-friendly interface that practically anyone can use.

The primary modules included with OrangeHRM are:

● Administration
● Personal Information Management
● Leave Management
● Time Module
● Employee Self Service Module
● Recruitment/Applicant Tracking Module
● Performance Module

With that core, there’s very little your HR department can’t get done. And because OrangeHRM is used in over 100 countries with 4 million+ active users, you can be sure it’s capable of taking on the needs of your company.

OrangeHRM does offer an open-source, community edition for free. That edition, however, is limited to only 20 employees.

ADempiere

ADempiere is more than just an HRM solution. Here you’ll find an industrial-strength combo of HRM/ERP/CRM/MFG/SCM/POS tools that includes solutions for:

● Sales
● Purchasing
● Manufacturing
● Material Management
● Finance
● Human resource management
● Project management
● Maintenance management

The amount of features you’ll find in ADempiere is staggering and can be used by businesses of almost any size.

The one caveat to ADempiere is that you need a working instance of JAVA installed, which can be tricky to get on some platforms. But once you have this multi-functioning tool up and running, your HR department will long for nothing more. In fact, once you get this tool installed any number of your company departments will happily hop on board. But don’t think the size and scope of ADempiere make it specific for larger businesses. Even smaller shops can take advantage of this powerhouse web-based software.

OpenHRMS

OpenHRMS is suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises. This take on the HRM suit offers an intuitive and easy to use interface that can help employees and management perform nearly every human resources related task in the book.

The OpenHRMS feature set includes the likes of:

● HR Dashboard
● Salary advance
● Multi-company
● Shift management
● Loan management
● Employee reminders
● Employee branch transfer
● Advanced employee master
● Biometric device automation
● Appraisal plans and strategies
● HR announcements
● Employee insurance
● Resignation process
● Vacation management
● Lawsuit management
● Appreciations and memos
● Entry and exit checklists
● HR documents management
● Custody/property management
● Automation on leave request mails

OpenHRMS is also easily themeable, and if you don’t want to host the tool on-site, you can always opt to purchase a cloud-hosted version, selecting from a few different plans (from $19.99 USD/month to $49.99 USD/month).

Conclusion

If your HR department is breathing down your neck to get a proper software solution, don’t think for a second, you’ll have to break the bank to make them happy. Take a look at any one of the above solutions to see if you find the right tool for the right price. And if you’re lucky enough to have an IT department up for the task (or you have the budget to hire offshore software engineers), many of these software titles are available as on-premises solutions that you can run in your local data center servers or off-the-shelf hardware.