Bento: HRM for Africans by Africans

Human resource management, or HRM for short, deals with all the human relationship activities that occur within a business. This encompasses recruiting, hiring, training and managing staff. It also includes tracking performance, ensuring that company adheres to employment-related laws and distributing remuneration. What a mouth full! If it wasn’t for technology, how could human resource officers keep up?

Human resource management tools are a dime a dozen. There are many software solutions that have been developed across the globe to try and bridge the gaps that small businesses and entrepreneurs experience. From Sage to Bamboo HR, a quick Google search or scrolling on our platform will give you an idea of the wide range of tools available, as well as how they compare against each other. Another name to add too the list is Bento.

What is Bento

Bento is an African company, headquartered in Nigeria but it serves the global market. Its payroll offering integrates easily with other platforms, and is ideal for small businesses as well as larger enterprises.

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The brand was formerly known as Verify, but after reading the book This could be our future, the founders considered renaming the company. Bento is a name borrowed from Japanese culture, namely the bento box. This is a boxed meal for one that is made up of various foods and dishes, served in perfectly divided and aesthetically pleasing sizes. Balanced.

Drawing on this comparison, it has been Bento’s mission to present HRM solutions that offer clients the right amount of what they need as well as quality non-negotiables that make this platform worth considering. These features include:

Automations of processes
Security measures that keep company and staff information private
Flexible and adjustable customisations

What’s in the ‘Bento Box’?

The Bento App which is available on mobile (Android or iOS), offers features that address the needs of their clients.

Pay: This is your typical payroll feature. It helps you to pay salaries, taxes, pensions, and benefits (both monetary or other) in a few clicks. Furthermore, it provides real-time insights into human resource costs.

People: Bento People is a feature that enables users to find, develop, and engage with talent. HR officers can generate job descriptions that contain important keywords through AI-integration. Furthermore, it helps you shortlist candidates, set auto rejections and acceptance e-mails.

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Before advertising job openings, the feature notifies the hiring team of the progress of a candidate. You are also able to see analytics like the number of hires, time from opening to hiring, applicant views, and internal referrals.

Inclusive: This feature is specifically designed to include informal workers in the formal sector. It offers employers the chance to pay and provide benefits to day labourers or independent contractors – including health insurance, pensions and saving plans. Workers such as domestic workers, chefs, drivers, nannies or other caretakers that might be a salaried worker in your micro business is able to view their payslips and print them. Should this be tricky with illiterate individuals, support staff are on hand to phone and explain what their benefits mean.

The feature also allows you to track vacations, time off or indicate hiring and retrenchment.

EOR: Businesses that have grown to cover multiple countries, or perhaps use remote teams recruited internationally, require help from an Employment of Record. This feature allows companies to legally hire and collaborate with employees from other countries, while complying with local employment law and tax regulations. Bento’s EOR assists with everything from onboarding to salary payments, benefits and tax remittances – even indicating real time updates in the exchange rates.

How you use these features is up to you.

Pricing

Bento offers pay-as-you-go pricing that is flexible and transparent. The monthly subscription fee is determined by the amount of employees you have, and adjusted according to your local currency. According to the Bento website, businesses that use its platform only pay for what their company uses, when they use it.

Researching the HRM tools that can help you manage your business should be a vital part of implementing solutions in your business. That way, you can rest assured that the tool perfectly fits your business needs, and you aren’t wasting your money.

To find out more about payroll and human resource software, take a look at our reviews that compare some of our picks.