This Review Covers:
- Overview
- What Do Users Like About BrightHR?
- What Don’t Users Like About BrightHR?
- What Pricing Plans Does BrightHR Offer?
- What are the Standout Features of BrightHR?
- Selected Positive User Feedback
- Selected Negative User Feedback
- What are BrightHR’s Review Ratings from Review Sites?
- What’s My Final Verdict on BrightHR?
Overview
BrightHR is a human resources software for small and medium-sized enterprises by Bright HR Ltd. This software has been around since 2015, and promises to transform how businesses manage their people, save them money, and help them grow with software plans tailored to their needs.
It also claims to help control costs, navigate the ever-changing work legislation landscape, and put a spotlight on staff well-being with a platform built for all users, not just HR folks. It can be used on desktop and mobile devices, giving users some freedom concerning where and when they can work.
BrightHR has a wide variety of features that address a lot of work aspects that can be divided into four major categories: human resource management, health and safety, employment law, and employee well-being and support. But the feature I’m most interested in, naturally, is its time tracking solution. For this, Bright HR has a dedicated app called Blip, which supposedly makes time tracking a breeze by offering two ways to clock in and keeping timesheets accurate and payroll-ready at all times.
Aside from time tracking, timesheets, and payroll, BrightHR also offers a whole battalion of features designed to make work processes and experiences easier and better. These include schedule and time off management, expense tracking, recruitment and onboarding, risk management and incident reporting, employment law and health safety advice, and employee assistance and counseling among others.
I love its ease of use and affordability. The wealth of features is impressive and shows that a lot of thought went into making BrightHR. I also like that the time tracker isn’t lumped in with the rest of the features, but gets its own app with Blip that allows users to track time from the comfort of their own smartphones. That separation makes it convenient, non-confusing, and more focused. Best of all, Blip is free for all BrightHR users!
But not everything is bright with BrightHR — it has its fair share of flaws, too, most of them with its dedicated time tracking app, Blip. Users have noted that Blip can be inconsistent in tracking time and locations, leading to problems with payroll. This is a big red flag for me, knowing the importance of reliable and accurate time tracking. It also has bugs that randomly clock people out, or prevent them from clocking in successfully on their mobile phones.
In addition to that, Blip doesn’t have an offline mode, they say so on their site. This makes it less than ideal for use by field staff, on-the-ground crew, and similar employees who may be in low to no internet connection environments on the regular. It can also be glitchy at times and is quite heavy on the battery.
To make matters worse, BrightHR’s cancellation and renewal policies seem to cause a lot of frustration among disgruntled users who feel like they didn’t get their money’s worth, decrying awful service and other awful things on review sites such as Trustpilot, particularly on the one- and two-star reviews. Now, to be fair BrightHR does have a clear set of cancellation and renewal policies in place, but there has got to be some issue there if so many users are expressing dissatisfaction.
But looking back on the bright side, I love the swift and easy onboarding process, and the helpfulness of reps tasked to make that happen. The ease of integration into existing workflows and IT ecosystems is also a huge plus.
Now, before we make any judgments on BrightHR, let’s first have a closer look at what it has to offer, its limitations, and what actual users have to say, so you can see for yourself if it is something that you’d consider using. So without further ado, let’s dive right in!
What Do Users Like About BrightHR?
- Ease of use
- Swift and easy onboarding with responsive reps
- Effortless integration with existing workflows and IT ecosystems
- Dedicated time tracker app
- Fuss-free interface
- Comprehensive leave and time off management
- Value for money
What Don't Users Like About BrightHR?
- Inconsistent tracking of time and locations
- Signing in to the Blip app can be difficult or downright impossible at times
- Random clock-outs from the Blip mobile app
- Time tracking does not have offline functionality
- Heavy battery consumption
- Cancellation and renewal policies cause friction and frustration
What Pricing Plans Does BrightHR Offer?
BrightHR’s pricing plans vary per country. In this section we’ll be looking at their pricing plans in the United Kingdom.
BrightHR offers their HR software beginning at £8.80 per employee per month for a minimum of three employees. They call this plan the Core HR software. Features include staff holiday planner & booking system, shifts and rotas planning, absence management software, overtime tracker, expense and time tracking apps, CPD accredited e-learning and LMS, online marketplace and employee perks, payroll navigator, and custom reporting.
The next plan, which is the Enhanced HR support, starts at £16.70/employee per month. It has everything from the Core HR software plan with the advantage of expert HR advice, HR document templates, and more.
If you want full BrightHR experience, you can opt for their Full HR, health and safety support & EAP plan. This plan costs slightly higher, at £28.20/employee per month. Some of the enhanced features that come with this plan include 24/7 health & safety advice from trained professionals, industry-specific advice, changing health & safety law updates and guidelines, and essential information to navigate HSE spot checks. There are even features focused on employee wellbeing which weren’t on previous plans. These features include access to an online wellbeing portal, My Healthy Advantage app, and life and leadership coaching, among others.
For more specific tailoring of features, BrightHR offers custom quotes according to the number of employees and feature requirements. The number of employees and feature requirements can be specified on their quote request page, and quotes are sent privately via email.
What are the Standout Features of BrightHR?
1. Time Tracking
Time tracking is the most important aspect for me in any software that I review. As previously mentioned, BrightHR gives users a separate time-tracking app called Blip that comes free with the HR solution.
BrightHR’s Blip app allows users to track time from their mobile phones using geofenced locations with virtual boundaries or QR code scanning. The geofence option prompts users to clock in when they enter the area and clock out when they leave it, allowing for greater accountability across the ranks. QR code scanning is useful for on-site operations and allows easy clocking in and out using a unique QR code that can be printed and displayed in the workplace. And when enabled by admins, users can also clock in and out on the go complete with location capture, which is handy for field staff, transport crews, and similar teams.
With Blip, Bright HR records working hours and locations, tracks overtime, ensures that staff takes law-mandated breaks with reminders and notifications, and saves official work time records, with the option for export.
The geolocation feature of BrightHR’s Blip app also means that admins have real-time visibility of where employees are. This is very useful in ensuring that workers on the clock stay where they are supposed to be. Aside from that, Blip also shows who’s on break, and who’s out for the day.
The data captured by Blip is automatically translated into timesheets that can be reviewed and modified on BrightHR, saving admins time that is usually spent agonizing over manual entry.
2. Payroll Navigator
Timesheets are only useful if they can be translated into payroll with ease. BrightHR allows employers to pay workers their hard-earned dues based on timesheet data and stay compliant with HMRC legislation with its payroll navigator.
The BrightHR payroll navigator allows users to store employees’ payroll details in one secure place for convenient access. It also generates and allows downloads of payroll reports so that users can supply accurate details to HMRC.
Payroll reports are important in ensuring that employees receive the right amount of compensation for their work. While recording hours and translating them to wages using rates is a fairly straightforward process, factors such as time off and sick days complicate the process. BrightHR helps users navigate these complications with a range of payroll reports that include absence, annual leave summaries, staff information, and payroll exception reports.
If all of that isn’t quite enough yet and payroll questions still linger, users are given access to the BrightAdvice helpline which connects them with legal experts 24/7.
3. Shifts and Rotas
BrightHR streamlines the creation and distribution of shifts and rotas. Using the shift scheduling and rota planning software, managers can create work schedules in a simple table layout in a matter of clicks, assign shifts, copy schedules, and duplicate rotas across multiple days and employees in minutes, use filters to find and edit any employee’s shifts, and automatically inform everyone of new schedules and rota or any changes to existing ones with notifications.
With BrightHR, employers can also kiss dropped shifts and last-minute no-shows goodbye with the open shifts feature, which allows employees to pick up extra shifts with ease. Managers only need to release unfilled shifts, and staff are automatically notified with real-time alerts. They can then pick up vacant shifts according to their availability and preferences. For more focused shift distribution, admins can also decide who among their staff can accept or decline shifts.
Best of all, creating and managing shifts and rotas can be done wherever there’s an internet connection with the BrightHR mobile app, so admins can find and implement scheduling solutions anytime, anywhere.
4. Leave, Time Off, and Absence Management
BrightHR simplifies the long-winded process of requesting leaves and time off into four very easy steps: staff submits a time off request in a matter of a few clicks using the app, employers are instantly notified of the request, the system flags any scheduling clashes to ensure that businesses are never understaffed at all times, and admins can then approve or deny the request — even on the go.
Aside from easy leave management, BrightHR also empowers businesses to be compliant with time off and leave legislation by doing all the calculations of leave entitlements and statuses.
In case unexpected life events prevent employees from showing up on time or showing up at all, BrightHR has a suite of absence management features to help employees and employers navigate lateness, sick leaves, and more all in one place.
The system logs common absences and allows users to upload and store documents, pictures, and forms for absence requests. It also generates reports from recorded absence data to identify trends. Plus, BrightHR gives visibility to employee availability so dropped shifts can be covered with ease.
But what I love the most about this suite of features is that it recognizes that it recognizes that sometimes, lateness and absences are more than just that — sometimes, they’re symptoms of something deeper. To help with this, BrightHR gives them access to leading employee assistance programs that may help them deal with personal challenges so they can eventually bounce back and return to an optimal state of productivity.
5. Employment Law Support
There will inevitably be legal and HR questions that businesses will struggle to answer on their own. To ensure that these important questions are answered correctly, they often have to consult or hire expensive solicitors. That is not a sustainable model for SMEs.
To help businesses with their legal advice needs, BrightHR connects them with legal advisors who provide them with expert employment law advice via phone call to help them avoid costly mistakes, employment tribunals, and other similar headaches.
BrightHR’s employment law assistance is available 24/7 and guaranteed confidential. Advisors won’t bombard users with legal jargon, and will always give clear and tailor-made answers to HR and legal questions any time of the day — or night.
And if talking to someone doesn’t sound quite appealing for any reason, users can access the BrightBase library of expertly-written HR policies, document templates, and guides. Users can access and download employment contracts and handbooks, how-to guides, and factsheets, along with articles on parental leave, agile working, employee management, disciplinary action, grievances, onboarding, and a lot more.
BrightHR’s BrightBase is continually updated to reflect any changes in legislation and guidance, so users are assured that any material they’re accessing is up-to-date and in line with the law. And best of all, it’s accessible from the BrightHR dashboard, so users have the power to discover answers to any HR or legal question at their fingertips at all times.
Selected Positive User Feedback:
The following are actual user reviews taken from trusted review platforms. They are a mix of reviews of the BrightHR app and the Blip app, BrightHR’s dedicated time tracking feature.
- “Great interface for both staff and managers to work with.” – Richard Swan (Source TrustRadius)
- “So easy for my members of staff to book their holidays and see all of their HR files in one place.” – Richard B. (Source GetApp)
- “Overall, a fantastic product and system. Very easy to use, and most importantly affordable for SME’s!!” – Clare H. (Source GetApp)
- “The ease and speed at which the system could be implemented and accessed is astounding considering systems that I have used in the past. The onboarding was clear and concise and as a business owner it feels like a huge weight has been lifted.” – Richard G. (Source GetApp)
- “Makinzie Welch did our onboarding session which was friendly, helpful and informative. She explained everything in full and answered all our questions. She offered support after the session if we were stuck. The system seems very easy to use for admin and users. keeps everything HR in one place. Perfect to cover all our needs” – Jude Dune (Source TrustPilot)
- “Integration of the system into our current day to day was easy and straightforward, and training was brilliant. The platform is really easy to use.” – Faye B. (Source GetApp)
- “It’s a really great app to track your staffs and monitor their time In and Off from work […] And while using it, I could also see what all staff ar up to, where they are and how many breaks they took in a calendar year. You can do a whole lot of things from this single app, from sharing Rotas to training staffs and setting up payments” – Elite Ogogo (Source Google Play)
- “I was extremely pleased with the fast and efficient support from an adviser on the phone today who took me through a screen share to assist me to update information on my employees annual leave entitlement. This was a perfect visual assistance which made my job easier. I highly recommend this service.” – Helen W. (Source G2)
- “The system is user friendly and is easy to navigate. The system assists you in calculating holidays and the reports can be tailored to your needs.” – Lauren D. (Source GetApp)
- “easy to use, simple to understand and streamlines jobs.” – Miss L. (Source Capterra)
Selected Negative User Feedback:
The following are actual user reviews taken from trusted review platforms. They are a mix of reviews of the BrightHR app and the Blip app, BrightHR’s dedicated time tracking feature.
- “Inconsistent log in, doesn’t connect properly. Lots of missed log in and log out.Payroll is constantly chasing people for ‘corrections‘BLIP doesn’t give a ‘real’ time experience – users can be out the door and on their way home before the geo fence finds them. No tracking of actual activity – users can log on and off as they please with no physical activity of being on the job.” – Ron (Source GetApp)
- “It’s alright, not being able to clock out after you’ve left the zone is really silly, so if you forget to clock out you have to remain clocked in till you get back to work the next day, clock out and request a shift adjustment. The app seems to be down a lot, not letting the entire team clock in for 2 hours, not opening at all etc. I enjoy the structure of it, being able to time your breaks and such is good but there’s more negative than positive about the app personally.” – Ruth Ferguson (Source Google Play)
- “It has some bugs. Sometimes it doesn’t clock in and out properly or will randomly clock people out.” – Julie (Source GetApp)
- “This app has a fundamental flaw. Unfortunately, it needs an Internet connection in the background to make it work! As we all know especially rurally the network connections are patchy to say the least!!! Sometimes, even with an Internet connection, it doesn’t seem to want to connect or work. When you have a workforce that use this for their timekeeping, this is quite critical! The only way this app could possibly be any good is if it worked off-line.” – M0UJD (Source App Store)
- “Very glitchy recently. drains battery. some users not able to shift adjust. otherwise the app is OK” – Geri Murphy (Source Google Play)
- “I am not happy with the service. They first told me that I could cancel my account and there’s not going to be any termination fee. When I closed my business, I had to pay everything until the end of the contract. They’re a bunch of liars. Service is horrible as I’ve emailed them several times and it takes weeks to get any reply from them. DO NO SIGN UP WITH THEM. UPDATE: BrightHR is threatening to sue me to take down the review. I will be sending them all the evidence and emails. This is call bully for those who post honest reviews.” – Christophe Lo (Source TrustPilot)
- “More robust reporting would be great. More training material for training purposes would be great.” – Faye S. (Source G2)
- “over complicated, not the most mobile friendly app.” – Mr Home (Source Google Play Store)
- “Not a very user friendly app at all, for both employees and managers. Having to clock in and out with Blip, (which doesn’t work), and then having to submit overtime on Bright HR?” – Scott Vandenberg (Source Google Play Store)
- “Very poor app. Constantly crashes. Since installing the recent update, it doesn’t even open.” – Tom Johnson (Source Google Play Store)
What are BrightHR's Review Ratings from Review Sites?
(As of June 2024)
- Capterra: 4.7/5
- G2: 4.4/5
- Software Advice: 4.7/5
- TrustRadius: 7.7/10
- TrustPilot: 4.8/5
- GetApp: 4.7/5
- Google Play Store: 5/5
- App Store: 4.8/5
What's My Final Verdict on BrightHR?
BrightHR is a thoughtfully and beautifully designed HR software that addresses many pain points in the modern workplace. But aside from being just an HR software, it also tackles time tracking, payroll processing, scheduling, time off management, and even employment law support. Its respectable arsenal of features is designed around the concept of simplification, and the way the features function is proof of that.
The Blip time tracking app is BrightHR’s answer to the pressing need for easy time tracking for employees and is a great attempt to shift a huge chunk of the burden of attendance monitoring off of managers’ backs by automatically capturing time and location data upon logging in and out of shifts and when starting and ending breaks. The data captured by Blip is instantly reflected on a dashboard that shows managers who’s in, out, and on break in which locations. The additional layer of accountability added by geofencing and log-in photo capture reduces the risk of buddy punching and other time theft shenanigans that make businesses lose money amounting to tens of thousands of dollars annually. Punches are also automatically translated into timesheets that allow employees and management to transparently see time entries and correct them if necessary.
Paired with the payroll navigator which takes care of the number crunching from time sheets to actual wages, the Blip app aims to ensure that workers are paid their hard-earned dues by capturing every minute of every working hour. When timesheets are finally processed by the payroll navigator to factor in variables that affect pay such as deductions, statutory sick pay, mandatory holidays, and more, BrightHR then keeps records of all payroll reports for easy access and for ease of supplying correct information to HMRC.
However, the fundamental flaw in these processes lies within the BrightHR time-tracking solution itself, Blip. It can be unreliable due to bugs and glitches. If the Blip app keeps logging users out and makes it hard for them to log back in, how can it do its most important job — track time accurately. And because timesheets and payroll are dependent on the information captured by the time tracker, the integrity of their output is compromised when Blip fails to function as advertised.
But on to the more positive things: the shifts and rotas features make scheduling so much easier and help ensure that all sites are manned adequately at all times. The leave, time off, and absence management features make quick work of the traditionally cumbersome process of requesting leaves and managing tardiness and absenteeism. With these suites of features, BrightHR demonstrates its commitment to simplicity and helps ensure that businesses are always on top of issues that affect attendance. If they could make the scheduling features more intuitive by listening to user’s requests for more granular customizability, they’d have an even more powerful tool to offer.
I really admire BrightHR’s commitment to actively assisting its users with two very important features. First is the employee assistance program that helps employees deal with life and its challenges with advice from mental health professionals. Second is their employment law support that empowers businesses to solve complex legal and HR questions with 24/7 phone consultations with legal experts and the BrightBase library.
Listen, I’d say that overall, BrightHR is a promising solution worth looking into. It’s not the best in terms of time tracking but it is generally a good HR software.
It’s an all-encompassing system that takes care of many aspects of HR that would be difficult if not downright impossible to handle gracefully and easily without the help of a powerful tool such as BrighHR. So if you wanna take things a step further and see for yourself if the solution they offer is compatible with your needs, go ahead and pop into their site and book a free demo today.
