Cornerstone Galaxy vs. Development Dimensions International vs. Frontline Recruiting & Hiring

Cornerstone Galaxy is a good solution for larger companies that focus on training and want to offer a variety of options to their employees and departments. It is highly customizable. It does require a tech savvy team to set-up, and maintain. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it system. From an LMS perspective, it wouldn't be my top choice for employees who only need a mobile-friendly approach.

When I got hired on at my company, we needed some quick wins and instant content to get some of the initiatives going. Having the facilitator and participant materials all ready to go (Training in a box) was extremely helpful. What would have taken me years to put together myself, I was able to put together in a few months. The materials are very user friendly.

Incentivized

[Frontline Recruiting & Hiring] did TOTALLY replace our paper based system. HR seems to be satisfied with it & they support it from within their department. Interfacing [it] with other Frontline modules seems easy, but we don't because our "system of record" is another ERP solution. Thus far, interfacing with other systems it not easy & takes development people from both sides to work together to get it working....which we haven't successfully completed (1+ month working on it).

Incentivized

• Ability to provide multiple customizable access roles from general end user to full system admin and anything in between
• Powerful reporting system in the LMS to track a plethora of data points within the platform (user data, training information, transcript information)
• Great options to customize the look and feel of your "home page" to best meet your company's needs and goals.
• Ability to customize the transcript view for learners (i.e. when Completed training will move to their Archived transcript, what to do with Inactive training on transcripts)

Incentivized

• I enjoyed the process of getting certified to teach topics from DDI. Our master instructor was excellent. He gave wonderful feedback and provided an environment where we could practice our skills and be ready to teach.
• The facilitator and participant materials are very professional and well laid out. They are easy to follow. Especially as a facilitator of the course. The facilitator guide provides very detailed content of what to say and how to teach the topic.
• I love the additional job aids, videos, surveys and reinforcement of training tools they provide for you to use with your learners. They also are provided in various formats (mobile, hard copy, etc.)

Incentivized

• Keeps all information of applicants in one place.
• Makes the process quick and easy.
• Simplifies application process to allow for any individual to quickly complete an application.
• Allows user to have all applicants at their fingertips.

Incentivized

• Sometimes finding the right answer to your support question can be a bit more difficult than it should be.
• I would like to see more OSHA related courses.
• At times, the administrative interface seems to need to be updated, but the tradeoff honestly might be the absolute rock-solid stability of the platform.

Incentivized

• Some of the courses are a bit out of date. They don't always stay up with the times of current trends in the business world.
• I would like to have the option of using the participant materials in a mobile format instead of having to call in and order hard copy participant materials for each course I teach.
• I would like to see more courses converted to Industrial format. I work for an Industrial type company and some of the courses are not relevant or do not hit home for our learners. They say they cannot relate to the case studies, videos, etc.

Incentivized

• When Frontline Recruiting & Hiring notifies us that we have an interested applicant that applied. The email should include the resume and application.
• Based on our industry, it would be nice to be able to modify the application
• Frontline Recruiting & Hiring is not as user friendly when trying to search candidates after a certain period of time.

As long as pricing stays reasonable, we will likely stay with Cornerstone for at least one more contract renewal. It would be a large task to migrate all of our content to a new system. However, the LMS landscape is diversifying with new startups that are showing some real innovation.

Incentivized

It is an excellent product for hiring and for the applicants.

Incentivized

Easy to use, easy to learn, lots of support during the learning process. There are a few parts of the system we don't use and I'm hesitant to begin using because other clients have said they're difficult and cumbersome (certifications) or outdated (libraries)

While any and all platforms have room to grow and evolve. Frontline Recruiting & Hiring overall meets my expectations. There is still some room to grow in its functionality but they have a clear purpose for this platform, which they meet. As I mentioned previously, generationally applicants do not want to complete a lengthy application process. Frontline Recruiting & Hiring eliminates this when other employers use the same platform.

I haven't really had any major availability problems. The service is practically impeccable but it is true that at times, due to server and latency problems, the application has been slower. But these have been specific issues that have resolved themselves.

I haven't seen many issues at all with load times. Sometimes learning assignments will take longer then expected but it is still reasonable. They have taken great effort over the last couple years to speed things up like reports and search results so I expect that effort to continue in the coming year.

Incentivized

Its always important to have support when you are facing problems and when you are the main admin of the organization. Cornerstone Support is very supporting when you have not found the answer in the help guide. its very useful to have a team support to guide you.

Incentivized

They are very helpful if necessary, but honestly, a lot of the page is easily managed on your own. This means that you do not have to spend a long time working with customer support, because you don't need it! The simplified process helps cut down on issues and makes it easily accessible and useful to any and all

Incentivized

we use also to admin all our training in person events and sessions. Its easy to admin this kind of trainings and automatize some processes we have. Also de user experience and the integration with other systems helps to the employees to use more. All modules integrated oriented to develop people is the principal reason to have CSOD. The training administration is very complete and allows to automate many processes.

The online modules are pretty good. You can access them at any time, which we have done. You learn a lot in the beginning, but having the ability to retake short lessons when you are working on those items was very helpful.

Incentivized

The implementation was pretty difficult. We felt they (Cornerstone) didn’t properly allocate the resources to complete our implementation in the timetable we wanted.

For example, we worked on Workday and SSO integrations - work that we had specifically contracted for in advance. When we were ready to work on that project, they didn’t have the people ready to help us, so it took a lot longer than necessary. That was my biggest pain point.

The implementation approach we went with was a self-led implementation. We would speak to the implementation manager once per week, and self-trained. We met with implementation manager to discuss issues, review things that we’d learned for 1 hour. We found that wasn’t enough. Other things would come up outside that one hour window that we couldn’t get answers to. We didn’t have anyone to ask about those things and we had to wait to ask during our weekly meeting.

The advantage of the self-led implementation approach was that it was really inexpensive – significantly less than the implementation cost for the other systems that we looked at. I also liked that we could pace ourselves. There were however big roadblocks. We would have to make sure the right resources were available. We had an implementation/project manager with a lot of experience and felt that the person was knowledgeable but missed on a few things.

In hindsight, I would still go with the self-led implementation, but knowing what I know now, I would ask for the integration person to be available more. I would work that into the contract. With single sign-on, we needed deep linking to build direct links through a Single Sign-On tool, e.g. when someone gets an email, it directs them to training. But it has to go through SSO to get them to the correct link. Deep linking wasn’t turned on in our system and they had to activate it. We encountered little things like that – sequencing pre-requisites which were problematic. We tried to troubleshoot ourselves.

I recommend you consider contracting for some extra implementation hours and determine when they are going to be available. Work it into the contract that you have the ability to call tech support during implementation. In addition to weekly implementation meetings, they have technical webexes – 4 every week, but 2 didn’t apply to us – one as we were using SSO. The challenge is they were not always relevant – we had specific questions that didn’t fall into those categories

The user experience is a lot better than using SumTotal as an admin CSOD makes working easy. Without having workarounds. Reporting is a lot better than both platforms. Reporting in CSOD is complex however easy to manage and create when you understand the data points collected

Incentivized

I like OpenSesame for the numerous options of topics you have to choose from. However, my DDI rep really helped me drill down the topics we needed to focus on. DDI simplified the process for me so it was not so confusing on where to start and what to use. We mapped out a plan together on how to support our employees and leaders in their development.

Incentivized

Our HR department went with [Frontline Recruiting & Hiring] w/o investigating other solutions. It was an easy choice since we were already working with Frontline for Substitute Management & Educational Training. Still would have been nice to see what other options were available.

Incentivized

It is important to be familiar with the terms and annual increases in licenses and other aspects of the contract. I recommend analyzing this from the beginning and the permanence is relevant because Cornerstone updates its modules and brings out new features that may allow you to leave a module to acquire another

It's a great product with some pieces that are set but many things that can be customized as needed for individual needs

Incentivized

As I have said before, I have no doubt that the services of the Cornerstone sales people were very good. In particular, our salesperson spent a lot of time in contact with us to make the process go smoothly. Perhaps being a large company in some cases the times were slowed down but it is something normal to take into account.

• We are in the process of trying to increase employee engagement through content expansion. We are in the early stages of this.
• The Edge Import Tool, in conjunction with Reporting 2.0, has done a great job of helping to automate/semi-automate tasks for huge time savings.
• Maintaining compliance. Achieved through dynamic/automated groups, assignments, communication, and reporting.

Incentivized

• We are a part of a dealer network. Before we rolled out the training and materials using DDI, we ranked 38 out of 52 dealers for our dealer loyalty score. We are now ranked #2.
• We are seeing our leaders confidence go up. They feel much more confident in how to lead their teams. The environment within the teams has improved. They are having more effective conversations with team members. 1x1s are happening in a more consistent basis.
• Our leaders have more tools than they have had before in how to lead and support their teams. Checklists, templates, surveys, etc.

Incentivized

• it helps us to be more streamlined, saving time and other resources
• allows us to be inclusive of all applicants in our communication
• provides consistent communication

Incentivized