Employment Hero

Employment Hero is Australia's largest HR and payroll platform, used by over 200,000 organisations. For trade businesses, it solves the HR headaches that come with hiring — onboarding, contracts, payroll, leave management, and critically, Award compliance. If you've ever been unsure whether you're paying an apprentice correctly under the Building and Construction General On-site Award, Employment Hero is built to handle exactly that.

The platform covers the full employee lifecycle: job ads and recruitment, digital onboarding (contracts, tax file declarations, super choice forms), rostering, time and attendance, payroll processing, and leave management. The Award interpretation engine automatically calculates correct pay rates, overtime, allowances, and penalties based on the applicable Modern Award.

Strengths: Award interpretation is the killer feature for trade businesses. The platform handles the complexity of the Building and Construction General On-site Award (MA000020) including casual loading, travel allowances, tool allowances, and overtime tiers. Payroll is processed through a compliant Single Touch Payroll (STP2) engine. Digital onboarding means a new apprentice can complete all paperwork on their phone before day one.

Limitations: Employment Hero is an HR and payroll platform, not a trade-specific tool. There's no job management, scheduling, or field service capability. The interface is functional but can feel bureaucratic — it's built for HR processes, not field operations. Pricing per employee can add up for larger teams, and some features (like the benefits marketplace) are geared more toward corporate employees than tradies.

If you're running payroll on spreadsheets or struggling with Award compliance, Employment Hero is the standard AU platform for a reason. Pair it with a job management tool and you've covered both operations and employment.