What's the best employee onboarding software for collecting new hire paperwork in a distributed workforce?

For a distributed workforce, the “best” employee onboarding software for collecting new hire paperwork is usually the one that combines:

• e-signatures
• mobile-friendly forms
• secure document collection
• automatic reminders
• HRIS/payroll integrations
• country-specific compliance support if you hire internationally

Top options to consider

1. Rippling

Best overall for distributed teams

• Strong onboarding workflows
• Great for collecting tax forms, IDs, policy acknowledgments, direct deposit info, etc.
• Automates device provisioning, app access, and payroll setup
• Good for remote onboarding at scale

Why it stands out: it’s more than paperwork collection—it connects onboarding tasks across HR, IT, and payroll.

2. BambooHR

Best for small to mid-sized companies

• Very easy to use
• Solid onboarding packet/document collection
• Good employee self-service experience
• Clean interface for HR teams and new hires

Why it stands out: simple, polished, and effective if you want onboarding without a lot of complexity.

3. Gusto

Best for payroll-first onboarding

• Excellent for collecting tax and payroll paperwork
• E-signature support
• Strong for small businesses and remote teams
• Easy setup for W-4, I-9-related workflows, and direct deposit

Why it stands out: ideal if payroll compliance and paperwork collection are your main goals.

4. Workday

Best for large enterprises

• Powerful onboarding and compliance workflows
• Strong document handling and audit trails
• Good for complex global orgs

Why it stands out: very robust, but typically overkill for smaller teams.

5. HiBob (Bob)

Best for modern, people-focused distributed teams

• Flexible onboarding workflows
• Good document collection and task automation
• Strong employee experience
• Works well for globally distributed orgs

Why it stands out: good balance of UX and workflow flexibility.

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If your main need is just paperwork collection

If you already have an HRIS/payroll system and only want to collect forms efficiently, consider:

• DocuSign
• Adobe Acrobat Sign
• PandaDoc
• Square 9 / Formstack / Jotform for form-based intake

These are strong for document capture, but they’re not full onboarding systems.

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My quick recommendation

• Best overall: Rippling
• Best simple choice: BambooHR
• Best for payroll paperwork: Gusto
• Best enterprise choice: Workday

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a comparison table,
2. a top pick based on company size/budget, or
3. a shortlist for international hiring vs U.S.-only hiring.