Namely Ranked Among Top Payroll Software User Interfaces

Brian Westfall is a Market Research Associate with Software Advice, the organization helping buyers choose the right software for their needs. Brian covers the human resources (HR) market, focusing primarily on payroll, learning management systems and video interviewing software. To better help companies choose their payroll platform, Brian reviewed many softwares and highlighted those with the best user interfaces available.

“HR & payroll technology review firm, Software Advice, chose Namely for its Payroll UI Spotlight because it makes data simple and appealing. Within the payroll application, Namely's visual graphs and data sorting options make it easy to organize even the largest enterprise's employee database. Having payroll software that presents data in an easily digestible way is a necessity, and Namely is one of the best,” says Brian Westfall. 

Namely recently spoke with Brian to learn more about what he looks for when reviewing payroll software. 

Namely: In addition to payroll, Namely offers human capital management, performance management, benefits administration, time management, and employee engagement. Why do you feel organization benefit from using an end-to-end HR solution such as Namely?

Anytime a business can streamline a process or cut out extra tasks, that benefits everyone. Having an end-to-end HR solution like Namely means that there are fewer databases to update, fewer software platforms to integrate and fewer chances of human error. Having all of the applications you need in one solution can save you from headaches later on.

Namely: The number of self-serve payroll platforms has grown exponentially over the last few years. Why do companies choose to handle payroll internally and what are the benefits?

One reason that more companies are handling payroll internally is that the software has gotten to the point where it is more intuitive and user-friendly. Payroll is no longer a function that is strictly for CPAs. The tools are there now to guide any user to doing their payroll correctly and efficiently. By keeping your payroll in-house, you are also going to save money and have instant access to your data when you need it most.

Namely: In your review of Namely’s payroll UI, you discuss the ability to sort, filter, and easily digest all the presented data. Could you elaborate on this? What features or looks make a platform intuitive?   

The worst thing you can have in a function like payroll is static data - the kind that you can't manipulate to look at the trends that you want to see. How many salaried versus hourly workers do I have? Is my bonus structure encouraging my employees to work longer? Namely does a great job of allowing users to see the data they want to see in meaningful ways to get this important information. These are the kind of features that are important to making a platform intuitive - knowing the answers that users are looking for, and providing easy ways for them to get there.

Namely: By 2020 Millennials will make up 50% of the workforce. How do you see this changing the way workplace software looks, acts, and evolves?

We're already seeing these trends now in social features - the ability to collaborate and communicate with others within software. Millennials don't feel like they have to be the lone expert on everything, they know that they can find the information they need through Google or by asking around. Workplace software is growing to allow these kinds of collaborative efforts towards the desired end result. The lowered barriers of creating software or applications has also empowered Millennials to create their own solution if one in the marketplace doesn't cut it for their business needs. We can see this now in the growing availability of open-source software platforms. We're going to see a lot more flexibility in customization because of Millennials.