If you’re running a growing business, the admin around your people — leave requests, pay runs, onboarding paperwork, keeping up with awards and compliance — can quietly eat up your week. Employment Hero is a cloud-based HR and payroll platform built in Australia to take that load off. This guide explains in plain language what it does, how much it costs, and whether it’s the right fit for your business.
The short answer
Employment Hero brings hiring, onboarding, payroll, leave management and compliance together in one online platform. It’s designed for small and medium-sized businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets and manual processes. It can genuinely save you hours of admin every week — but it’s not the cheapest option on the market, and small teams should read the pricing fine print before signing up.
What does Employment Hero actually do?
Think of it as the back office for your team. Instead of juggling separate tools for payroll, leave forms, contracts and rostering, everything lives in one system, and your staff get their own self-service portal to manage payslips, leave requests and personal details.
Key features
- Automated payroll. Run pay runs with tax calculations, super contributions and Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting to the ATO handled for you.
- Award interpretation. This is a big one for local employers. The platform automatically applies the correct pay rates from complex industry awards, so you’re not guessing at overtime and penalty rates.
- Digital onboarding. New hires can sign contracts, share bank details and complete tax declarations online before their first day — no paper chasing.
- Employee self-service. Staff check payslips, apply for leave and update their own details through a portal and mobile app.
- Recruitment. A built-in applicant tracking system lets you post job ads, shortlist candidates, schedule interviews and run assessments.
- Leave, rosters and timesheets. Leave requests, rostering and time tracking (rostering is available as a paid add-on).
- Compliance tools. Contracts, policies, documents and reminders in one place, built around local employment rules.
- Integrations. Connects with popular accounting software like Xero and MYOB, plus a range of other business tools.
Employment Hero pricing
Pricing changes over time, so treat these numbers as a guide based on their published pricing page — always check the current page before you decide.
The HR plans are charged per employee, per month:
- HR Essentials — from $10 per employee/month (10-employee minimum)
- HR Engage — from $14 per employee/month (10-employee minimum)
- HR Elite / Employment Unlimited — priced on request
Add-ons sit on top: rostering and time tracking costs around $4 per employee/month, and payroll is a separate add-on (managed payroll is quoted at $20 per employee/month with a minimum monthly charge). Only the top tier bundles payroll in.
What does that mean in practice? A 10-person team on HR Engage pays roughly $140 a month for HR features. Add payroll on top and you’re looking at several hundred a month. The minimum charges matter most for small teams: if you have 5 staff, you still pay for 10. Most plans are also sold on 12-month terms, so factor that in before committing.
Who is Employment Hero best for?
Employment Hero fits best if you:
- Have a team of roughly 10 to 200 people and want HR and payroll in one place
- Are still doing payroll or leave manually and losing hours to it every pay cycle
- Deal with award-based pay rates and want the calculations done automatically
- Want a professional onboarding experience and a self-service portal your staff will actually use
It’s probably not the best pick if you:
- Have fewer than 10 staff — the minimum charges make it expensive per person
- Mainly need rostering for shift workers — dedicated rostering tools do that job better for less
- Just want simple payroll — a payroll-only product may be all you need
Pros and cons
Pros
- One platform for HR and payroll, instead of five disconnected tools
- Strong local payroll compliance — STP, award interpretation, super and tax table updates
- Digital onboarding genuinely saves hours per new hire
- Clean, easy-to-navigate interface with a handy employee app
- Good range of integrations with accounting and business software
Cons
- Costs add up — minimum charges, add-ons and tier-locked features mean the real price is higher than the headline number
- Some customers report slow or uneven customer support (its lowest review subscore)
- Occasional bugs and glitches reported by users
- 12-month contracts can feel rigid if your team size changes
Alternatives worth knowing
No platform is perfect for everyone. If Employment Hero doesn’t sound right, rostering-first tools like Deputy or RosterElf suit shift-based businesses, while options like HiBob focus more on people experience and culture. If you only need payroll, a dedicated payroll product may be simpler and cheaper.
Frequently asked questions
Is Employment Hero an Australian company?
Yes. It was founded in Australia in 2011 and is headquartered in Sydney. It was co-founded by Ben Thompson and Dave Tong.
How much does Employment Hero cost?
HR plans start from $10 per employee/month with a 10-employee minimum, and rostering and payroll cost extra as add-ons. The exact pricing changes, so check their website for the latest figures.
Does Employment Hero handle payroll?
Yes — it has native payroll with Single Touch Payroll reporting. Payroll can be added to an HR plan as an add-on or comes bundled in the top tier.
What do users rate it?
It holds around 4.4 out of 5 on G2 from thousands of reviews. Reviewers praise the centralised HR features and payroll automation, while the most common complaints are about customer support and cost for smaller teams.
The verdict
Employment Hero is a strong, genuinely useful platform for small and medium businesses that want to stop drowning in HR admin. Its biggest strengths — automated payroll, award interpretation and digital onboarding — solve real, expensive problems. Just go in with your eyes open about the true cost: work out the full price including add-ons and minimum charges for your team size, and make sure the features you actually need aren’t locked behind a higher tier. Do that, and you’ll know quickly whether it’s worth it for you.
