SumTotal vs Personio

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Our analysts compared SumTotal vs Personio based on data from our 400+ point analysis of HR Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

SumTotal Software Tool
Personio Software Tool

Product Basics

SumTotal is a cloud-based HR Management software catering to mid-sized to large organizations. It packs a comprehensive suite of features covering talent acquisition, learning & development, workforce management, and performance management. Users praise its robust reporting & analytics, rich learning library, and mobile-friendly accessibility. However, the extensive customization options and powerful tools come with a steeper learning curve for administrators. Additionally, SumTotal's potential for high integration costs and higher price point compared to basic solutions make it less suitable for smaller companies. While some users struggle with complex content creation tools and limited instructor-led options, SumTotal shines in its ability to scale and adapt to dynamic needs, making it a strong contender for organizations seeking a feature-rich, customizable HR management platform, especially those with substantial training requirements and a dispersed workforce.

Pros
  • Comprehensive learning library
  • Robust reporting & analytics
  • Scalable for large organizations
  • Mobile-friendly learning
  • Customizable user experience
Cons
  • Steep learning curve for admins
  • Limited instructor-led options
  • Complex content creation tools
  • Potentially high integration costs
  • Pricey for smaller companies
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Personio is a comprehensive software solution designed to streamline HR management tasks, including recruitment, payroll, and employee data management. It is particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized enterprises seeking to enhance their HR processes with a user-friendly and efficient platform. The software's intuitive interface and robust functionality make it an attractive option for businesses aiming to optimize their human resources operations without the complexity often associated with larger systems.

Key benefits of using Personio include improved organizational efficiency, reduced administrative burden, and enhanced data accuracy. Popular features encompass applicant tracking, performance reviews, and time tracking, all integrated into a cohesive system. Users frequently commend its ease of use and the seamless integration of various HR functions, which contribute to a more streamlined workflow.

In terms of pricing, Personio typically operates on a subscription model, with costs varying based on the number of employees and selected features. This flexible pricing structure allows businesses to scale the service according to their specific needs, ensuring cost-effectiveness. Compared to similar products, Personio is often praised for its balance of functionality and simplicity, making it a preferred choice for many organizations.

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Chromebook
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Employee Retention: Provide tools for employee development, management and learning practices that encourage employee retention. 
  • Enhanced Productivity: Talent managers can continuously onboarding to speed up overall productivity. 
  • Organizational Stability: Learning-centered employee development builds an agile workforce that is adaptable to changing business environments. 
  • Learning Ecosystem: Invest in research and development on the latest learning trends, which managers can leverage to enhance employees' learning experience. 
  • Talent Engagement: Engage top talent while moving through the recruitment process, understand the workforce, identify the best talent and build a seamless experience for candidates as well as hiring teams. 
  • Enhanced Candidate Experience: Offer smartphone-optimized sites with intelligent and automated interview tools, candidate matching, and an easy-to-use mobile app interface. Keep applicants informed about upcoming interview details via a user dashboard. 
  • Accelerated Time-to-Performance: Seamless onboarding training helps new hires get up to speed quickly. Provide unique company policies and work culture for them to become familiar with the company. 
  • Smooth Role Switch: Access onboarding plans for new roles that include defined goals, new teams and KPI’s that ensure a more seamless transition to new responsibilities. 
  • Robust Manager and Admin Capabilities: Managers and administrators can easily view, schedule, filter, mark up and share reports from a mobile dashboard. Leverage reporting tools, advanced reports and dashboards at a single click. 
  • Informed Compensation Plans: Create smart, data-driven compensation plans according to preset or custom parameters. Real-time performance insights and budget modeling make compensation informed, fair and cost-effective. 
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  • Data Security: All personnel data and analytics are secure from theft and tampering, in compliance with EU General Data Protection Regulation. 
  • Accessibility: Employees can apply for absences on the go and have them approved by managers. 
  • Tailor-Made Plan: Access a detailed project plan customized according to business requirements to make the best use of all capabilities quickly. 
  • Automation: Allow automation of various core HR processes and enable the automatic flow of salary, hourly wages and bonuses to payroll. 
  • Time Saving: With efficient HR processes and an overview for all employees’ performance, save time to improve productivity by focusing on more pressing matters. 
  • Deliver on Time: Ensure timely delivery of tasks and minimal missed deadlines with automated reminders to employees and executives for tasks and to-dos. 
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  • Talent Development: Provides combined functionality of talent onboarding, talent management and learning management solutions to cater to talent development requirements. 
  • Talent Acquisition: Helps create a streamlined hiring cycle, hire the right talent, engage fresh recruits and drive productivity from day one. 
  • Learning Management:  
    •  Helps provide a customized, personalized and engaging learning experience tailored to the skill and competency of individuals rather than the whole team. 
    •  Ease of access on all devices, along with an offline mode, ensures seamless and consistent access to content and courses. 
  • Talent Management: Personalized and intuitive tools help employees pursue career growth and development. Capabilities include performance management, 360-degree feedback, succession planning and compensation management. 
  • Performance Management: Provides comprehensive feedback and tools that make feedback actionable, constructive and insightful. Measures workforce productivity, progress and priorities in real time. 
  • Succession Planning: Enables talent managers to identify and assess skill gaps, build agile talent pools, and align employee success with business goals and objectives. 
  • Compensation Management: Simplifies and streamline compensation plans, and helps build competitive packages to attract and retain top recruits. Workflow automation and compensation management tools aid compliance with complex global policies. 
  • Workforce Management: Bundled payroll, benefits and expense management minimize time, cost and efforts while maximizing accuracy. Features include automated scheduling, time and attendance, absence management, and compliance. 
  • Applicant Tracking System: Includes real-time alerts and notifications for offer approvals, a unique dashboard and reports widgets, customizable requisitions, and a consolidated requisition workspace. 
  • Mobility: Provides access to tools and reporting capabilities at all times and from any location. The dashboard can be operated using a tablet, desktop, mobile app or a phone browser. 
  • Growth Edition: Caters to the needs of fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses. Includes webinars, instructor-led training, approvals, and additional learning resources that users can access and configure anytime. 
  • Extended Enterprise: Helps build a brand image, accelerate growth and drive new sources of potential revenue. Facilitates an enriched and optimized learning experience for distributors, partners and customers. 
  • Gamified and Collaborative Learning: Helps: 
    •  Assess and accelerate learning with gamification capabilities that include leaderboards, points, levels and badges. 
    •  Enhance employee engagement by identifying and rewarding the right learning behaviors. 
    •  Enrich the knowledge of new hires with collaborative learning, up-to-date content, feedback and social ratings. 
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  • Payroll: Access all personal data in a centralized location. Employees can also make changes to their master data to ensure accuracy. 
  • Performance Management: Record performance, define qualitative or quantitative individual goals and document them. Results from linked goals and bonuses can be shared automatically with payroll. 
  • On-boarding: View onboarding tasks centrally and send automatic reminders for tasks. Minimize the effort for coordination with automated onboarding. 
  • Digital Personnel File: Store and access all personnel data in compliance with laws and regulations in a centralized database. Set access rights defining who can view and change personnel data. 
  • Time Tracking: Records and calculates working hours accurately with supervisor confirmation. Also evaluates working hours using reports and reminds executives of outstanding permits. 
  • Employee Self Service: Allow employees to: 
    •  View and update their personnel data, working hours and absences. 
    •  Request vacation. 
    •  Access an overview of payslips, remaining vacation time and job references. 
  • Reporting and Analytics: Enable smarter decision-making and strategize personnel processes and planning based on predefined or customized reports. 
  • Integrations: Improve efficiency by connecting with third-party applications like DateV, askDante, Boomr, Circula and more. 
  • Workflows: Simplify the approval process and save time by using templates. Also allows electronic signature for documents. 
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Product Ranking

#23

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HR Management Software

#361

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HR Management Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Fair User Sentiment 132 reviews
Great User Sentiment 396 reviews
69%
of users recommend this product

SumTotal has a 'fair' User Satisfaction Rating of 69% when considering 132 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

87%
of users recommend this product

Personio has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 396 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

3.2 (39)
4.4 (134)
2.7 (7)
4.31 (131)
n/a
4.4 (128)
4.0 (56)
n/a
2.9 (30)
4.25 (3)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Robust Tools: All reviews on this feature suggest that SumTotal provides a robust set of talent development and management, payroll, and workforce management solutions.
Effective Tracking: According to 80% of reviews on tracking, the software optimizes talent management by tracking development and career growth.
Self-Service: Managers and employees can access and complete training courses at their convenience, according to all reviews on self-service.
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Intuitive Interface: Many users praise Personio for its user-friendly interface, finding it easy to navigate and use for tasks like managing employee data, tracking absences, and generating reports.
Automation Capabilities: Personio's automation features are a big plus for users, as they streamline tasks such as onboarding new hires, managing approvals, and tracking time off, freeing up HR staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Comprehensive Reporting: Users appreciate the detailed reports generated by Personio, which provide valuable insights into workforce data, such as employee turnover, performance trends, and compensation analysis.
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Outdated Course Content: About 70% of reviews on course content reported that some modules aren’t frequently updated, resulting in an outdated learning experience.
Non-Intuitive Functions: Most features and functions aren’t intuitive, making it difficult to navigate, according to all reviews on this aspect.
Access to Reports: Accessing and pulling reports is extremely tedious and slow, according to 100% of reviews on reporting.
Customer Service: All reviews on customer support suggest that customer service is very slow and unresponsive.
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Reporting limitations: Users express frustration with the limited reporting functionalities, particularly the inability to generate comprehensive reports without exporting data to other tools.
Complex user interface: Some users find the platform's interface difficult to navigate, especially when trying to locate specific functionalities or complete tasks quickly.
Customer support challenges: There are reports of delayed response times and difficulties in getting support for technical issues, leading to frustration among users who require prompt assistance.
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SumTotal users paint a mixed picture, praising its robust functionality and mobile accessibility while critiquing its clunky interface and steep learning curve. Many laud its comprehensive suite, encompassing everything from onboarding to performance management, finding it a one-stop shop for HR needs. One user gushes, "It's like having a whole HR department in the cloud!" However, ease of use seems to be a major sticking point. Comments like "The interface feels outdated and unintuitive" and "Learning curve is a mountain, not a hill" pop up frequently. This is often contrasted with praise for competitors like Workday, lauded for its sleek design and user-friendliness. One user sums it up: "SumTotal has the depth, Workday has the polish." Mobile accessibility shines as a bright spot, with users appreciating the ability to manage tasks on the go. This stands out compared to some competitors, making SumTotal a good fit for companies with a mobile workforce. Ultimately, SumTotal seems to be a powerful tool for organizations willing to invest the time and effort in mastering its complexities. As one user puts it, "It's not perfect, but it's incredibly versatile. If you can handle the initial climb, the view from the top is pretty good."

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Is Personio the personal touch your business needs to manage its people? User reviews from the last year suggest that Personio is a user-friendly HR software with a wide range of features, making it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. Reviewers praise its ease of use, flexibility, and customer support. Some users highlight the software's ability to integrate with other business systems, simplifying data management and saving time. Others appreciate the comprehensive nature of Personio, covering most aspects of HR, from recruitment and onboarding to payroll and performance management. This all-in-one approach makes it a valuable tool for streamlining HR processes and improving efficiency. However, some users point out that Personio's pricing can be a bit steep, especially for smaller businesses. Despite this, many believe the software's extensive features and functionality justify the investment for most organizations. Personio seems best suited for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking for a comprehensive and user-friendly HR solution. Its ability to centralize and automate various HR tasks, coupled with its strong customer support, makes it a valuable asset for businesses seeking to optimize their HR operations and free up time for more strategic initiatives.

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