The internet has no shortage of software reviews written by people who have never clicked past the pricing page. Marketing copy gets repackaged as editorial content, affiliate commissions steer recommendations toward the highest bidder, and readers are left wondering whether anyone actually tested the product or simply paraphrased the vendor’s own feature list with a few adjectives swapped out. The People Manager exists because we grew tired of watching this particular form of performance art pass itself off as guidance — and because we believed that people managers deserved something better.
Editorial Independence
Rankings cannot be purchased. Vendors pitch paid partnerships with the regularity of seasons changing; the emails are read, acknowledged, and declined. We participate in affiliate programmes and may earn commissions when you click through and subscribe, but commercial relationships do not touch our assessments. When an HR management suite is mediocre, we say so. When a performance management platform’s pricing model punishes the very growth it promises to support, we document it. When the support quality of a once-reliable onboarding tool deteriorates after an acquisition, we note the change and what it means for the teams that depend on it. Your trust matters more than any commission ever could.
Hands-On Testing
We sign up for real accounts and build real people management workflows. We navigate onboarding sequences step by step, configure employee profiles with the kind of detail that reveals whether a platform handles complexity or merely tolerates it, and push test scenarios through performance review cycles to discover which tools interpret “intuitive” the same way airlines interpret “comfortable seating.” We test HR analytics dashboards, examine learning management systems, and evaluate employee engagement platforms under conditions that mirror actual workplace use. Pricing analysis draws on real tier structures, not vague ranges. Feature comparisons reflect what we observed, not what the marketing page claimed.
Living Documents
People management platforms change constantly. Pricing increases arrive without fanfare, features disappear in overnight updates, acquisitions quietly alter the character of support teams. A review written two years ago describes software that no longer exists in quite the same form. We regularly return to our guides — updating screenshots, verifying pricing, and noting when a platform’s promise has drifted from its reality. The story of a product does not end at publication; it continues, and so must our coverage.
Critical Honesty
Every platform we review includes documented limitations alongside its strengths. If the onboarding workflow overwhelms new users with a labyrinth of configuration options, we mention it. If HR analytics amount to attractive charts that resist meaningful interpretation, we say so. If support response times have deteriorated to the point where urgency becomes irrelevant, we note it. The goal is utility: helping you choose people management software that genuinely fits your organisation’s needs, rather than the option with the most persuasive sales page or the loudest testimonials.
Corrections
We make mistakes. Software updates faster than any publication can track, and occasionally we get details wrong. If you spot an error, or notice that a feature has changed since we reviewed it, we want to hear from you at [email protected]