Cornerstone OnDemand vs. UKG Pro

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cornerstone OnDemand
Score 7.7 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
UKG Pro
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
UKG delivers cloud-based HCM solutions including UKG Pro that help businesses simplify payroll computations, accelerate talent acquisition, manage time and attendance, and support proactive, strategic talent management on a global level.N/A
Pricing
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
Considered Both Products
Cornerstone OnDemand
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We actually needed Cornerstone OnDemand because our main HRIS could not handle performance reviews or disciplinary history the way our company needed it done. We originally purchased Cornerstone because it was a learning management system. It is surprising that it is more …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
CSOD has the easiest to use user interface. If employees do not like to use it it will not be as affective as a tool to manage talent. All modules of CSOD are developed to the same level, in all other platforms I found there was a lacking in one of the areas of the platform …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone has many features and configurations. Articular is only good to create [content], and every admin needs a license.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
CSOD offers more customizable features than Netlearning. The curricula administration and learning assignment features are more robust than Netlearning. I would say Netlearning's provided content is stronger than CSOD though (CSOD has course offerings but they are an …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
I wasn't involved in the original selection process, but I understand we evaluated several learning solutions. Our top 3 learning providers ended up being Cornerstone, Brainier & Infor. Ultimately we selected Cornerstone for the following reasons:
  • User friendly.
  • Would interact …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Workday's LMS isn't as robust as Cornerstone OnDemand. For training compliance you really need a robust solution like Cornerstone OnDemand.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Contact me and I can provide many more details than I can write today.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
I believe that Cornerstone and UltiPro are two of the best resources out there. The thing that distinctly stands out, however, is their level of customer support. Cornerstone's dial-in support had historically been bad. The wait times were long. Now that Cornerstone has …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We purchased Ultimate Software after CSOD. Their module is much more simplistic and easier to use as an admin and an employee. For the size of our organization, it is an improvement.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Other products were either inferior or too expensive. The one product that was closest to what we needed was Halogen. In the end, our selection of Cornerstone was based on:

  • Breadth of services
UKG Pro
Chose UKG Pro
We currently use both Cornerstone OnDemand and UltiPro. UltiPro is a better overall product because its core HR is stronger. This means that the overall features of the basic HRIS are better. More specifically, import tools, back office, payroll administration, reporting, and …
Chose UKG Pro
UKG stacks up very well. The functionality covers just about all of the essential functions that are needed to operate a large organization that is constantly bringing in new talent and moving people around to other divisions or positions. The reporting is strong, and the …
Chose UKG Pro
UKG Pro HCM is much more robust and has increased functionality over that of Dimensions HCM.
Chose UKG Pro
Far more flexibility, better customer service.
Chose UKG Pro
We left ADP for UKG Pro due to poor customer service and inability to access the backend. Highflyer did not meet California regulatory requirements. Paycom's sales personnel were lacking and did not represent the company well (e.g. late for demos, did not meet the RFP deadline).
Chose UKG Pro
UKG Pro won hands-down. The flexibility, the family feel of the partnership, the customer support model, the reporting, the scalability, and the custom-programming needs of company-specific items were all much better than the competitors. The cost comparison also came in either …
Chose UKG Pro
UltiPro truly offers a one stop shop for a businesses HRIS needs. It's user friendly and they provide a great support structure that has been leaps and bounds better than other vendors I have worked with.
Chose UKG Pro
In terms of how robust the solutions are, UltiPro ranks ahead of the others. Where they may rank ahead of UltiPro is configurability and flexibility.
Features
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.8
131 Ratings
7% above category average
UKG Pro
7.9
579 Ratings
1% below category average
New hire portal8.068 Ratings8.1575 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8113 Ratings7.7461 Ratings
Compliance tracking and reporting7.5124 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.0
113 Ratings
12% above category average
UKG Pro
7.4
392 Ratings
7% below category average
Corporate goal setting7.894 Ratings7.2304 Ratings
Subordinate goal setting8.197 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting8.5105 Ratings7.4373 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.993 Ratings7.4262 Ratings
Performance tracking7.8108 Ratings7.6346 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.5
118 Ratings
13% above category average
UKG Pro
7.4
481 Ratings
6% below category average
Performance plans7.792 Ratings7.6429 Ratings
Plan weighting7.279 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager note taking7.568 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.380 Ratings6.9339 Ratings
Review status tracking8.195 Ratings7.8449 Ratings
Rater nomination workflow7.463 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders7.992 Ratings7.3413 Ratings
Workflow restrictions7.184 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.981 Ratings7.4348 Ratings
Reporting7.5112 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.2
57 Ratings
17% above category average
UKG Pro
7.1
198 Ratings
10% below category average
Create succession plans/pools7.448 Ratings6.9163 Ratings
Candidate ranking8.448 Ratings7.2172 Ratings
Candidate search8.351 Ratings7.2172 Ratings
Candidate development8.748 Ratings7.1161 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.6
65 Ratings
5% above category average
UKG Pro
7.6
475 Ratings
2% below category average
Job Requisition Management8.144 Ratings7.7451 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.140 Ratings8.0439 Ratings
Publish to Social Media7.137 Ratings7.4348 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.037 Ratings7.6407 Ratings
Customized Application Form8.139 Ratings00 Ratings
Resume Management7.142 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.339 Ratings7.0339 Ratings
Candidate Search7.140 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking7.940 Ratings7.8438 Ratings
Collaboration8.135 Ratings00 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation7.637 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Templates7.758 Ratings00 Ratings
User Permissions7.959 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.754 Ratings8.0406 Ratings
Reporting7.862 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.2
186 Ratings
2% above category average
UKG Pro
-
Ratings
Course authoring4.8137 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.2184 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal7.8171 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content8.1146 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly8.6134 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications7.6167 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments7.8180 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management7.0161 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration6.5183 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics6.3182 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning7.0115 Ratings00 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
-
Ratings
UKG Pro
8.0
828 Ratings
1% above category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.7752 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings8.5785 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings8.1756 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings8.1742 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings6.9664 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings8.1677 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings7.3536 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
-
Ratings
UKG Pro
8.4
769 Ratings
5% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings9.1731 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings8.3353 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.9252 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.7663 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.0723 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.2592 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings8.057 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
-
Ratings
UKG Pro
7.8
584 Ratings
4% below category average
Approval workflow00 Ratings8.0524 Ratings
Balance details00 Ratings7.7546 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings7.8449 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
-
Ratings
UKG Pro
8.4
821 Ratings
4% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings8.4792 Ratings
Update personal information00 Ratings8.7797 Ratings
View company policy documentation00 Ratings8.6583 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings7.6302 Ratings
View job history00 Ratings8.6782 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
-
Ratings
UKG Pro
7.8
201 Ratings
2% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings7.8201 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
-
Ratings
UKG Pro
7.6
758 Ratings
1% above category average
Report builder00 Ratings8.1737 Ratings
Pre-built reports00 Ratings7.7748 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings7.0515 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
Small Businesses
Paycor
Paycor
Score 7.5 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Workday HCM
Workday HCM
Score 8.4 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(256 ratings)
8.3
(955 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(37 ratings)
9.8
(196 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(37 ratings)
8.0
(189 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(5 ratings)
10.0
(75 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
10.0
(332 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(36 ratings)
4.3
(495 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.6
(4 ratings)
9.9
(87 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(10 ratings)
8.0
(205 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(10 ratings)
8.1
(86 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(114 ratings)
7.2
(77 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.5
(3 ratings)
10.0
(66 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(4 ratings)
9.9
(94 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(3 ratings)
9.8
(56 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(49 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cornerstone OnDemandUKG Pro
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
UKG
As a hospital with 1300 employees, we find that UKG is fully scalable and addresses all our needs with one product. UKG offers the Ready solution, which is aimed at smaller organizations. There are several different benefit solutions. Because of the other offerings, UKG products would work well for large, global organizations and smaller businesses that need automation and technology for payroll and timekeeping.
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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
UKG
  • UKG has an amazing support team to reach out to if assistance is needed
  • All add-ons of UKG Pro integrate seamlessly making it a powerful software program
  • UKG Pro is very configurable to meet the specific needs of companies
  • It is easy to use and navigate
  • The mobile app is loved by all employees and provides on-demand access
  • The Ultimate Community is amazing!! On-demand information on all products and how they are used. Connect with other companies that use UKG Pro and learn from each other.
  • The Learning Centre is also amazing!! Learning right at your fingertips anytime, anywhere.
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
UKG
  • Onboarding and recruiting need an environment that is more stable and dependable.
  • Core Benefits could be enhanced to allow OE and LE events via the mobile app.
  • Service and support need to be increased; days and weeks now, when we first went live, it was minutes and hours.
  • Adapting all version of time management into one or two versions, at no cost to the customer would allow the resources from UTA, UTM and WFM Classic to be directed to future enhancements and would allow support services to be increased for the 2 remaining platforms.
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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.
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UKG
We have been a customer since 2015, we have gone to market and find that UKG Pro product is both user friendly for administrators as well as the employee. The qualify of support and service of UKG team is valued and we trust the product.
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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)
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UKG
Mobile App: Really easy to use and its nice to have an HR software that actually has an mobile application to be able to enter time and to take care of everything with. Web App: The system is relatively easy to use with maybe a little training at the beginning if you have used another system. But the site is really easy to use and a lot better having everything under one roof
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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.
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UKG
For the most part UltiPro has been reliable, but it could definitely be better. There have been several notable server issues where we were unable to access the product or unable to utilize some of the features. Customer support is usually quick to respond to questions about these issues, but they do not proactively reach out to customers whose environments have been effected by outages
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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
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UKG
Normally UKG Pro loads quickly. We had been having major issues with reports running in a timely manner but recently they broke out our virtual server to another instance where is wasn't sharing resources and that seems to have helped reporting run more efficiently.
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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.
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UKG
The quality of UKG Support is related directly to the UKG rep. who handles the issue. In some cases you get someone who really is good at supporting the product and others may not have as much experience and it shows
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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.
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UKG
I've been to a few in-person (hands on) training sessions and it is very similar to the online classes. You have the same reference material to look back on after the training. So regardless of in person training or online you really get the same thing.
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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.
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UKG
Most of the online training was very generic (to be expected) but we had specific requirements for configuration that could have been better addressed with more individual sessions earlier on from our project team. However, we did finally begin booking training sessions with our implementation team which were recorded, and so provided additional information for how to correctly configure and test the system.
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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
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UKG
Make sure you have all of your tax account information with all the states you are registered in available and that you are knowledgeable about the filing status, frequency, etc. We had some unique challenges with our state unemployment tax set up that I was not aware of and needed to be addressed prior to going live. Working with the state unemployment office can be a challenge.
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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
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UKG
We used ADP WFN prior to switching to UKG. We interviewed three different payroll companies to see what our options were. UKG stood out and aligned with our company values. The sales team was very helpful and asked questions about what we were currently doing and how they could assist with simplifying things. I personally had a side meeting with them to see if there were options for a process that we manually process and if UKG could actually eliminate the process. We came to the conclusion that we weren't able to get it 100%, but we could pull 80% of what we needed from UKG, and then we would only need to manipulate 20% of the information. It was also determined from that meeting that we wouldn't need to pay extra to have a special report built. The customer service is what we were sold on. The other companies that we looked at didn't give us the confidence that their customer service would be any better than what we previously had.
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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
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UKG
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
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UKG
Read full review
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.
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UKG
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.
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UKG
  • Personally as a veteran user of UKG Pro, in past employers I have seen many amazing increases in employee engagement and ROI.
  • With QuVa, we are still very new to the UKG Pro platform and are just now beginning to get out of the implementation phase where we can start measuring the change. I will be looking for changes in Overtime spending to reduce as a result of more informative and actionable dashboards for managers to monitor overtime and timeclock abuses in real time. I am also expecting employees to engage more with new features being pushed out to the mobile app.
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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.

UKG Pro Screenshots

Screenshot of UKG Pro People CenterScreenshot of UKG Pro PayrollScreenshot of UKG Pro Mobile AppScreenshot of UKG Pro RecruitingScreenshot of UKG Pro Employee Voice