Freshteam is the result of a decade-long journey from the parent company Freshworks, which was founded in 2010 and focuses on cloud based software. Other products in its library include Freshdesk for customer service, Freshservice, and Freshsales. As this company grew, notable milestones include a rating as a “Top 25 Private Cloud Company to Work for during COVID-19,” and an IPO in 2021 that landed them on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Currently, Freshworks claims that it has approximately 50,000 companies using its software.
Plans and pricing
For starters, we note the 21-day free trial, and appreciate that no credit card is required during the trial. Also, there is the option to pay for a plan monthly, or annually and by prepaying for the year, the price is adjusted to include two months for free. We also appreciate that there are no contracts or cancellation fees. Finally, there is a free tier available.
The lowest tier is called Free, and does indeed not have any cost. Also, don’t think this is some time limited offering, as Freshworks even says that it is “Free forever.” It can be used for up to 50 employees, can publish up to 3 job postings, has an employee directory and email integration, and even includes the mobile apps, but does not have all the support options.
Moving up a tier takes us to Growth, the lowest of the paid tiers. It has an affordable cost of $1.20/employee/month, which is quite inexpensive, until you realize that there is also a Platform Fee of $71/month, which is pretty inconsequential to a large business, and kind of high for a smaller one. This plan includes everything from the Free tier, but can be used on an unlimited number of employees, and can also publish up to 20 job postings. Additional features encompass the management of unlimited employee documents, full phone, email and chat support, time off approval workflows, and interview scheduling with the Google and Outlook calendars.
Next up is the Pro tier, which raises the cost to $2.40/employee/month, and also the Platform Fee rises to $119/month. It includes everything in the Growth tier, and supports up to 100 job postings, Additional user roles with custom restrictions, integration with e-sign software, and unlimited work-week configurations.
Next up is the top Enterprise tier, which has a cost of $4.80/employee/month, and a Platform Fee of $203/month. This carries forward all the features of the lower tiers and adds Custom user roles, advanced leave reports, one click data export, and a dedicated account manager.
Features
Freshteam is a cloud-based software, designed to modernize all of the demands of a busy HR department. The areas it covers can be grouped into applicant tracking, onboarding, employee information system, time off and mobile. There are a number of essential and attractive functions within each module.
By way of example, there is the ‘Time Off Management’ module that is designed to provide a central location that can “Track, approve and manage all paid time off.” More than just a place to fill out timesheets electronically, it offers quite a bit of flexibility to accommodate any workplace, as each has its unique nuances. This includes ‘Simple approval workflows,’ so employees can easily request time off, and then the manager can easily approve or refuse the request in an organized workflow. There is also ‘Time Off Reporting,’ so time off balances can be tracked, but also time off requests as well, along with tracking when staff are not available. With an AI approach, absenteeism trends can be located, and also addressed.
Support
It is refreshing to see that among the multiple support offerings that Freshteam has, there are some direct support options to choose from. While a predone article can certainly impart knowledge, when things get complicated, it is nice to be able to reach out directly, you know, to an actual person. Therefore, we appreciate that there is both a direct phone number to call (toll free no less, although with contemporary calling plans this is rarely of any issue), which is staffed 24/5 along with a chat box with the same hours. There is also a direct email address, rather than having to go through some portal, which gets covered 24/7. The only missing contact methods of a fax number can be noted.
For those new to the platform, or just need some more basic info on the processes, there are plenty of predone articles as well, such as the detailed ‘Cheat Sheet,’ a complete video library, and a comprehensive User Guide. There is also a comprehensive Knowledge Base, for example the article “Creating a Work Week,” can be found in the Time-Off section of articles.
Final verdict
Freshteams is a modern tool for HR. The big pluses are the choice of tiers with both a free tier and trial (rarely found among competitors), the large range of support choices with quality content in both video and text, and the lack of contracts nor cancellation fees, among the many features such as electronic timesheets and simple time off requests. Keep in mind the drawbacks, such as those niggling platform fees, that the phone support is less than 24/7 with no fax option, and the free tier is limited to a max number of employees that is only 50 among its limited features (although this may be fine for a cash strapped smaller business with the understanding that they hopefully will outgrow it at some point). Overall, Freshteams is more than worthy of an evaluation as your HR software.
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