Cornerstone OnDemand vs. Small Improvements

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cornerstone OnDemand
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Cornerstone OnDemand is a cloud-based application for talent management. Cornerstone offers suites for recruiting, training, performance monitoring and planning, learning, and HR data management. It is scaled for enterprises.N/A
Small Improvements
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Performance Reviews & 360s Provide employees with structured opportunities for reflection and assessment through performance reviews and peer feedback. Customize the questions, define who participates, establish a cadence that suits an organization’s schedule, and run reviews for different departments at the same time. Ongoing Feedback Praise coworkers for a job well done and request feedback at any time from anyone. Prepare for…
$2
per user, per month
Pricing
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Engagement and Retention Add-on
$2
per user, per month
Performance Starter Pack
$5
per user, per month
Feedback and Performance Suite
$7
per user, per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsWe also offer volume discounts if you have over 200 employees! Please see the calculator on our pricing page to calculate your exact price.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Considered Both Products
Cornerstone OnDemand
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Small Improvements is a much stronger tool for Performance Reviews. It auto-saves work, shows past reviews easily in one place, and is highly customizable.
Small Improvements

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.2
132 Ratings
11% above category average
Small Improvements
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.369 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools8.0114 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance tracking and reporting8.4125 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.3
114 Ratings
13% above category average
Small Improvements
8.1
8 Ratings
5% above category average
Corporate goal setting8.095 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Subordinate goal setting8.398 Ratings7.53 Ratings
Individual goal setting8.8106 Ratings8.98 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility8.194 Ratings7.83 Ratings
Performance tracking8.1109 Ratings9.17 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.8
119 Ratings
13% above category average
Small Improvements
9.3
8 Ratings
13% above category average
Performance plans8.193 Ratings9.87 Ratings
Plan weighting7.480 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Manager note taking7.969 Ratings10.07 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.781 Ratings8.33 Ratings
Review status tracking8.396 Ratings9.78 Ratings
Rater nomination workflow7.664 Ratings9.76 Ratings
Review reminders8.293 Ratings10.07 Ratings
Workflow restrictions7.485 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.082 Ratings9.15 Ratings
Reporting8.1113 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
9.1
58 Ratings
24% above category average
Small Improvements
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.449 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.349 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search9.352 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.249 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.6
66 Ratings
16% above category average
Small Improvements
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management8.745 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.841 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.738 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting8.638 Ratings00 Ratings
Customized Application Form8.740 Ratings00 Ratings
Resume Management8.743 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention8.840 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate Search8.641 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.841 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration8.836 Ratings00 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation8.638 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Templates8.359 Ratings00 Ratings
User Permissions8.360 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.355 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting8.363 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.5
187 Ratings
6% above category average
Small Improvements
-
Ratings
Course authoring5.6138 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.4185 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal7.8172 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content8.2147 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly7.9135 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications7.4168 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments7.8181 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management7.5162 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration7.5184 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics7.7183 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning6.9116 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Small Businesses
Paycor
Paycor
Score 7.3 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Darwinbox
Darwinbox
Score 7.9 out of 10
Reviewsnap
Reviewsnap
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Score 7.5 out of 10
Bridge Learning Platform
Bridge Learning Platform
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(257 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(37 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(37 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(36 ratings)
7.1
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(115 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cornerstone OnDemandSmall Improvements
Likelihood to Recommend
Cornerstone OnDemand
I feel Cornerstone OnDemand is a great solution for companies that have a large amount of compliance training that needs to be assigned and closely tracked. The features of dynamic groups (based on specific user criteria) allows you to target very specific audiences. The assignment functionality gives you great flexibility on when the assignment runs and how often, and also provides many options for due dates (static date or dynamic date - x days from hire date, date assigned, etc.). This has allowed us to have a clear and consistent user experience for both our newly hired employees and our seasoned employees.
Read full review
Small Improvements
I'm honestly not sure why my company chose to use Small Improvements. We used Lattice before for the all the same use cases I mentioned here. The employee performance review feature might be a bit better in Small Improvements, but the goal-setting tool and the 1:1 tool are very weak. I may not have benefitted yet from all the features that Small Improvements have to offer, but so far it looks like a pretty basic HR tool with much better alternatives out there. If it's cheaper than the competition, that might be the only argument to go with it.
Read full review
Pros
Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Automatic recurring assignments are easy to get that refresher training out without needing to assign it fresh each time.
  • Reporting 2.0 makes it easy to write and share your reports with just selected filters. Making it easy for people receiving it to just change what they need to see.
  • Learning Admin Console makes it easy to peek at what is going on in your portal and open up connected reporting when needed.
  • Success Center is a great resource for getting peer answers to questions and learning about the releases and suggesting changes that should be added to the roadmap.
Read full review
Small Improvements
  • Take shared or private notes tied to each week's 1-1 meeting
  • Remind each other of open action items until they are checked off
  • Manage the performance review cycle
Read full review
Cons
Cornerstone OnDemand
  • 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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
  • Interface can be cluttered at times
  • There isn't a lot of help or knowledge readily available when first using the tool
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Cornerstone OnDemand
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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cornerstone OnDemand
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)
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Cornerstone OnDemand
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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cornerstone OnDemand
Pages do not load quickly. Often times any action or selection of a box, drop down, check, pretty much ANY Javascript interaction causes the whole entire page to load/reload/start doing something in the background. This makes a nightmare for having to mass edit courses or upload ILT sessions. It's the one of the archaic web designs they use that really bugs me as an admin and makes working in the portal at times intolerable and insufferable
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cornerstone OnDemand
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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
I never had to contact their support so far. There's no "N/A" option so I'm going with a neutral "5".
Read full review
In-Person Training
Cornerstone OnDemand
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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Cornerstone OnDemand
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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cornerstone OnDemand
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
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cornerstone OnDemand
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
Read full review
Small Improvements
Lattice was able to link in with core OKRs whereas from my memory, Small Improvements didn't support this goal setting and tracking framework. While it was good for sentiment and management frameworks, it was unable to connect with the greater company vision as well as Lattice - that was the reason that we moved.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Cornerstone OnDemand
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
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Cornerstone OnDemand
It's a great product with some pieces that are set but many things that can be customized as needed for individual needs
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Cornerstone OnDemand
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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cornerstone OnDemand
  • 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.
Read full review
Small Improvements
  • It helped keep my goals on track, both in documentation and email updates.
  • It helped free up my manager's bandwidth to focus on other tasks.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Cornerstone OnDemand Screenshots

Screenshot of A personalized, modern user experience and self-service capabilities to engage employees, ensure productivity, and centralize employee dataScreenshot of With Cornerstone Learning, go beyond compliance and training - truly develop an engaged and collaborative workforce.Screenshot of Cornerstone Recruiting takes care of all talent acquisition needs and provides candidates with an amazing experience.Screenshot of With Cornerstone Performance, benchmark your people's performance, align them with your strategy, and provide feedback that matters.Screenshot of Cornerstone HR offers a personalized, modern user experience and self-service capabilities to engage employees, ensure productivity, and centralize employee data.Screenshot of With Content Anytime, quickly deliver hundreds of eLearning courses covering key soft-skills such as communication, time management, leadership, teamwork, and emotional intelligence.

Small Improvements Screenshots

Screenshot of Provide employees with structured opportunities for reflection and assessment through Performance ReviewsScreenshot of Decide whether or not you want manager to approve nominations for 360 FeedbackScreenshot of Share agenda items, meeting notes, and follow-up discussions with 1:1 MeetingsScreenshot of Create templated 1:1 meeting agendas for your managersScreenshot of Identify goals, set success measures, and track the results with ObjectivesScreenshot of Give public kudos to your colleagues with Praise