Your human resources department leaves something to be desired. These five start-ups can help you find the best new hires, manage your expenses, and even make wellness fun.
Created in 2009, The Resumator is an online service that lets employers recruit and track potential hires. The process is pretty painless: You post your job opening anywhere you like (your company's Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or just on your website) using a special link. That link directs to a branded job board on The Resumator site. Then as the resumes roll in, your HR and management teams can track, rate, and organize them via one clean interface. The Pittsburgh-based company offers four plans, ranging from the Basic ($49 per month for three job posts) to Enterprise (which uses custom pricing for anything more than 10 posts per month).
Want to lower healthcare costs through…fun? Imagine your entire sales team taking a healthy cooking class, or your CFO winning a prize for biking to work everyday. It could happen. Former Google exec Adam Bosworth founded Keas, the San Francisco-based company (named after a precocious species of parrot) behind this program that uses gamification to encourage activity and nutrition. When a company signs up for Keas's 12-week wellness program, it breaks into small teams, in which compete to complete the tasks. Teams earn modest cash and gift prizes along the way. The idea is to let peer pressure encourage wellness.
Think "Facebook meets human resources." Founded in 2008, Rypple is an online platform for real-time employee-performance management, review, and feedback. It's a social hub where managers are able to post goals, assign help, and then instantly give employees comments—all in one place. Rypple, which is based in San Francisco, was recently acquired by Salesforce, which plans to re-launch Rypple as Successforce in April. Until then, you can still check out the paid packages (prices vary) or sign up for a 30-day free trial.
Specifically designed for smaller companies, this Web-based service company founded in Waterloo, Ontario, provides an entire HR department overhaul in one package: It lets you recruit and track potential hires, see a company calendar, and monitor employee profiles (which feature data like vacation days and recent goals). Bonus: There are a wide range of plans, from the 15-employee plan at $19 per month to the unlimited plan for $399 per month, so you're likely to get more bang for your buck.
Admit it: You hate doing expense reports. Founded in 2008, this online service lets users scan their receipts with a phone and sync it with their digital report or credit card account. Expensify, which is based in San Francisco, also has built-in mileage calculators, employee expense-comparisons, and integrates with custom accounting software or QuickBooks. The basic service is free for individuals, but for companies costs $5 to $10 per employee. —Nicole Carter
