HR Software Setup for Canadian Small Business

Once you reach around 10 employees, managing HR manually usually stops making sense.

By that point, your business already relies on software to run accounting, manage customers, communicate internally, and produce documents. HR is just as operational, just as risky, and just as time-consuming. Yet it remains split across paper files, inboxes, and spreadsheets.

For as little as $10/ee/mo., HR software replaces filing cabinets, scattered documents, and constant follow-ups with one system that keeps everything in one place.

We help Canadian small businesses choose the right system, clean up the HR first, and set it up properly. We’re vendor-neutral and don’t sell software, so our recommendation is based on what fits your business, not what we’re paid to push.

Learn more about our experience, approach and track record.

How We Get your HR Software Up and Running

1. Clean up your HR

Get the Foundation Right

Before anything goes into the system, we sort out the HR behind it. Handbooks, employment agreements, employee data, forms, processes, work flows and anything outdated or missing.

2. Set Up Your HR Software

Configured for Your Business

We configure the system around the way your business actually works, organize your data and documents, and set up the workflows and features you need.

3. Launch & Train

Ready for Your Team

We get the system ready for admin, employees and job applicants, support the rollout, and show your team how to use it properly.

What HR Software Can Take Off Your Plate

The right HR software can automate and organize almost every part of HR, from hiring and onboarding to employee records, time off, documents, training and reporting.

Here are just a handful of examples:

Keep employee information, signed documents, policies, forms and records in one secure place instead of scattered across inboxes, shared drives and paper files.

The right HR system gives you one current employee record, makes documents easier to find, and cuts down on the version-control mess that comes with managing HR manually.

Employees can also view and update their own information, reducing routine admin while keeping records more current and easier to manage.

Keep candidate information, offer details, onboarding forms and new-hire tasks in one place instead of managing the process through email and spreadsheets.

Automated workflows can assign tasks, collect documents, track completion and make sure new employees get what they need before and after their first day.

Store Employment Agreements, handbook acknowledgements, policies and other required onboarding or training documents in one place, with electronic signatures and a clear record of what each employee has received and signed. The employee will also get automated reminders if a document is not signed.

It’s much easier to see what’s complete, what’s missing and which version applies to each employee.

Assign training, policies, forms and other employee tasks directly through the system, with automatic reminders and a clear record of what’s been completed.

Instead of chasing people by email, you can see what’s outstanding and follow up only where needed.

Give employees direct access to the information they need without routing every question through a manager or admin.

They can view or update personal information, access documents and policies, check time-off balances and find answers themselves.

Manage vacation, sick days and other time off in one place, with balances, requests, approvals and records kept up to date.

Employees can check their own balances and submit requests, while managers can approve time off and see who’s away without tracking it manually.

Connect HR information with payroll, benefits and other systems so employee data doesn’t have to be entered and updated in multiple places.

Depending on the software, integrations can reduce duplicate entry, improve accuracy and make changes easier to manage across your HR systems.

“Sienna HR transformed our document-based HR into a professional employee manual and successfully transitioned us to HR software.
Their hands-on support, combined HR and technology expertise, and thoughtful training delivered immediate ROI. Our team loves the system, and we couldn’t be happier with the result.”
Cleaning & Restoration, BC
Irene Barlas-Rimar
President, Coit
Full Review & More Client Testimonials

Who HR Software Works Best For

HR software is especially useful once spreadsheets, shared drives and manual follow-up start getting in the way.

It can work well whether HR sits with the owner, finance or operations, or you already have someone managing HR internally.

There’s usually a point where spreadsheets, shared drives and inboxes stop being manageable.

HR software gives you a proper foundation before employee records, documents, approvals and follow-ups become harder to control.

Give your U.S. HR team one place to manage Canadian employee records, documents, time off and HR activity while keeping Canadian information organized separately where needed.

We can also administer the Canadian HR side of the system for you.

When HR sits with the owner, finance, operations or an outside HR provider, software gives everyone one reliable place to work from. Documents, employee information, tasks and records stay organized even when HR isn’t someone’s full-time job.

Your outside HR provider can be given access to administer HR directly in your system instead of working through emailed documents, spreadsheets and back-and-forth requests.

You keep ownership of the system and your employee records while your HR provider can manage the work efficiently.

HR software makes it easier to manage employees across BC, AB, SK, MB and ON and for U.S. companies operating in multi-provinces in Canada without creating separate systems for every province.

You can keep common information and processes consistent while building in provincial differences where they’re required.

Why Sienna HR?

We’re HR people first, not software resellers.

We understand what needs to go into the system before we start configuring it: employee records, Employment Agreements, policies, workflows, time-off rules, onboarding and the other pieces that make HR actually work.

We’re vendor-neutral, so we recommend the software that fits your business, not the product that pays us to sell it. Then we help clean up the HR, set up the system and get your team using it properly.

Every Sienna HR consultant has at least 15 years of HR experience, so you’re not handing a major HR cleanup and implementation project to someone learning on the job.

Our testimonials probably say it better than we can or learn more about us.