Socium: one HR and payroll platform for the way Africa works
Head of Brand & Marketing
Socium is the pan-African HR and payroll software trusted by 200+ companies, from Lagardère Travel Retail to the Presidency of Senegal. Payroll that follows the rules of 20+ countries, a mobile app that works offline, and an AI assistant that knows your company. Here is what that changes for the people who use it.
The challenge
Global HR tools stop at the border. Payroll in Dakar doesn’t follow the rules of Abidjan, Casablanca or Douala, and a company growing across the continent shouldn’t need a different tool, a different spreadsheet and a different headache in every country.
Results
- Lagardère Travel Retail cut its HR admin time by 60%
- BNI cut its recruitment time by 45%
- Payroll, leave, documents and clock-in for 50k+ employees, in 20+ countries
- Backed by Partech, Breega, Orange Ventures, Kima Ventures and Teranga Capital
What Socium changes, concretely
HR gets month-end back. Payroll used to mean days of spreadsheets, rule checks and corrections. With Socium, each entity keeps its own collective agreement, taxes and currency, and payroll runs itself. At Lagardère Travel Retail, HR admin time dropped by 60%.
A recruiter stops losing good candidates. Every role and every candidate lives in one place, from the job post to the offer. BNI cut its recruitment time by 45%.
A warehouse worker clocks in without a computer. A QR code or GPS check-in from the mobile app, even offline, goes straight to payroll. No paper sheets, no disputes at the end of the month.
An employee stops queuing at the HR office. Payslips, leave, advances and documents are in the app. Fewer questions to HR, more trust in both directions.
A CEO sees the whole company, across countries. Headcount, payroll, skills and performance, side by side, to plan instead of react.
The six products
- Payroll: compliant, multi-country, multi-currency.
- Time: clock-in by QR code or GPS, timesheets, direct payroll export.
- Recruitment: an end-to-end ATS.
- Requests & approvals: leave, advances and expenses, approved in a few clicks.
- Documents: an encrypted vault for every contract and payslip.
- Performance: reviews, skills and workforce planning.
And ASSIA, the AI assistant, answers HR questions in French or English with the company’s real data: job descriptions, candidate screening, review summaries.
Built with and for African teams
Multi-country compliance, mobile first, offline mode, French and English: at Socium these aren’t options, they’re the foundations. Customer experience teams in 5 countries set the platform up in the client’s language and time zone, so it fits the way the company already works.
The companies that trust it say it best: the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal, Orange, Sonatel, Auchan, Eiffage, Djamo, Sénégal Numérique, Laiterie du Berger, Kera Health, Banque Islamique du Sénégal.
The people behind it
Socium was founded by three engineers who could have built their careers anywhere and chose to build here. Samba Lo, CEO, École Polytechnique, formerly at Goldman Sachs, Rothschild & Co and Deloitte. Serigne M. Seye, COO, École Polytechnique, who led national power grid planning at Senelec. Mohamed Thiam, CTO, a software architect who built his career in North America.
Around them, a team in Dakar and across five markets: product, engineering, sales, customer experience and marketing, building the HR software Africa didn’t have yet.
The mission
Transform the work experience in Africa. Payroll on time and right, leave approved in a click, careers that are seen and planned: small things, every month, that change how people feel about their work.
Go further
- Discover Socium: socium.link
- Try the free simulators: HR ROI calculator · Cost of a bad hire
- Watch Socium Talk #1, with Tidjane Dème and Omar Cissé
- The products, the mission and news from the inside: Inside Socium →
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