Betterworks vs. PiiQ by Cornerstone (discontinued)

BetterWorks really helps keep track of quarterly objectives, as long as the entire company follows the OKRs framework. The objectives and key results of each employee can be linked to the general objectives of the organization and that really helps align on the same mission. I wouldn't recommend using BetterWorks as a standalone platform to follow up on objectives if the rest of the organization is not on board with the OKRs framework.

Incentivized

Well suited for:

• A busy environment where you want learners to be self-sufficient and to be able to access learning solutions at a time that suits them.
• For anyone who wants to access learning using different platforms such as iPad, mobile, PC, etc
• Anyone who needs a more in-depth learning solution rather than an overview of key learning points.

Incentivized

• Web based platform with everyone being able to access it anytime anywhere
• Allows for company wide OKRs management and promotes transparency
• Has some reporting functionalities

Incentivized

• Enables employees to draft work goals and collaborate with their supervisors on a final version - improves mutual understanding right up front.
• Combines performance goal ratings with competency ratings and provides a blended score. Simplifies the goal weighting so you don't have to do any calculations.
• 9-box matrix provides useful definitions and descriptions so managers can prepare development notes or plans for individual employees.

Incentivized

• It's sometimes hard to see ONLY your milestones and goals
• Having more default units of measure might be nice (or being able to save your own custom ones)
• Native integrations with software (like HubSpot) would be great

Incentivized

• Would be good to have have a virtual "top level" (eg board) user built in to allow senior execs without a direct manager to be able to be set up with KPIs instead of having to create a dummy user
• Reports have difficulty downloading if pop ups disabled or in some browser environments
• When competencies are updated while a cycle is open, any changes don't effect that open cycle but only future ones. Would be nice to be able to have the option to apply changes to existing "open" cycles

Incentivized

We've been using it for going on four quarters now and it's become part of how our team plans our work for the quarter, holds ourselves accountable, and decides who is doing what work and why. Without it we'd certainly have to replace it with something else - plus it's so nice to see the other departments and top company goals so easily.

Incentivized

It's not that CSB isn't a decent performance management system, but we have decided to go with just one vendor (Workday) for an HRIS/performance management/payroll system so we can directly relate pay to performance. We are more interested in having just one system that "talks" to the other pieces instead of having to work with several vendors. It reduces the hassle of having to communicate with different support teams, having different contracts, and so on.

Overall the platform is clean and easy to use. It's quick to learn and not unnecessarily complex. While a few specific filtering features can be wonky it's nice that it's simple and clean. There are a lot of icons where words may be more appropriate in the navigation but otherwise the platform is easy to use and quick to hop into and check in.

Incentivized

There are specific things within the goals and competencies that are user-friendly. For example, the rating slider isn't great in my opinion. You can slide in between ratings which can create some odd scoring (if you use scoring). It seems a better solution would be a drop down where you select your rating. There are also some glitches in the system and have been told Cornerstone is aware of them but are focused on delivering new features. There are workarounds, but that doesn't seem to be a great answer.

Incentivized

So far 100%.

The saving process slows it down. It doesn’t auto save. If you leave a page, it will sometimes warn you, but not always. When you hit the save button, a window pops up that says creating/saving packets. It feels very archaic.

My assistant could better address this issue. My perception is that there is not immediate assistance, and that there can be a wait for help. That is not a negative, just a perception. I have not used support in two years.

Incentivized

We bought training provided by 3rd party – it was fabulous.

I think we could have done a better job of rolling out the tool to our managers. We were under a tight timeline. In the training, we showed them everything and said go do it by this date. Looking back, I would have done it in pieces: for example, 2 weeks to write goals, 2 weeks to get sign-off from direct reports. I just let them go at it. Since then we’ve moved to agile development environment and are applying the technique to everything. In future would only do through change sprint. It is a big change I didn’t take it seriously enough.

I had a team of 3 project managing. You need a champion from every department to make sure you’re getting it right and to make sure what’s happening is communicated. It’s not something you can do without input from department heads

I have used Asana, Jira, and VersionOne. I find BetterWorks the most intuitive and organized. It is fairly easy to use and learn, as long as everyone else does the same. Since the team implemented the quarterly reviews and stayed on top of using it, it has been successful so far.

Incentivized

Lesson.ly has been great to work with but it is a very clear and simple, user-friendly system that anyone can pick up with very little training as it is self-explanatory. It also has a great mobile interface and lots of different features that are easy to add for the admin but really impactful for the user.

Incentivized

• A tool like this was highly viewed by the new hires as it shows the company's commitment to track everyone's contribution to corporates goals
• Provides transparency into what each team does
• The implementation was a big effort

Incentivized

• It's tool and it's only as good as the person wielding it. The investment in PiiQ was accompanied by a quarterly cadence and manager feedback training. We feel like our employees are given regular feedback and bonuses are tied to objective accomplishment.

Incentivized