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PiiQ by Cornerstone

PiiQ by Cornerstone

Overview

What is PiiQ by Cornerstone?

Cornerstone’s PiiQ is an SMB offering formerly known as Sonar6. PiiQ is aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses and includes core learning management and performance management systems, including content creation, mobile accessibility, and in-product reporting.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

PiiQ by Cornerstone is a versatile performance management system that has been widely adopted across various organizations. Users have …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 10 features
  • Course catalog or library (11)
    6.8
    68%
  • Assignments (11)
    6.7
    67%
  • Learning content (11)
    6.6
    66%
  • Course authoring (11)
    6.0
    60%
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Pricing

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PiiQ Performance

$8.00

Cloud
per user per month

PiiQ Learning + Content

$8.00

Cloud
per user per month

PiiQ Learning + Content & Performance

$15.00

Cloud
per user per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • $1,000 per installation
    Optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://smb.cornerstoneondemand.com/pii…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Features

Learning Management

Features of LMS and LCMS systems, related to designing, administering, and consuming learning content in an educational, corporate, or on-the-job context.

6.6
Avg 8.2
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Product Details

What is PiiQ by Cornerstone?

PiiQ by Cornerstone is performance and learning management software designed for small to medium businesses (ideal for companies with fewer than 100 employees). The software drives employee engagement and productivity with its performance management tools and helps companies build a culture of continuous learning and development with a robust library of on-demand courses. The vendor’s value proposition is that managers can get up and running fast with the self-configurable and intuitive set-up.

PiiQ offers a suite of products; choose PiiQ Performance, PiiQ Learning, or both in one, simple platform.

PiiQ Performance:

  • Collaborative, continuous goal setting
  • Continuous feedback
  • Comprehensive, well-designed dashboards and reports to find hidden training needs, skill gaps, and struggling & outstanding employees
  • 9-box talent matrix graphs and employee profile
  • Easily configurable (no costly implementations!)
  • 360 reviews
  • Overall score & manager comments

PiiQ Learning:

  • Searchable library and self-registration
  • Compliance and training courses ranging from technical to soft skills
  • Ability to create your own courses
  • Reporting and insights dashboard
  • Mobile learning on the go
  • Learning Content through Cornerstone's Premier Content Partner, CyberU

PiiQ also offers a service and support team that aims to help businesses optimize the use of the products and enable success. Support ranges from immediate telephone support to full consulting packages – companies have the choice in how much they need.

PiiQ by Cornerstone Features

Learning Management Features

  • Supported: Course authoring
  • Supported: Course catalog or library
  • Supported: Player/Portal
  • Supported: Learning content
  • Supported: Mobile friendly
  • Supported: Progress tracking & certifications
  • Supported: Assignments
  • Supported: Compliance management
  • Supported: Learning administration
  • Supported: Learning reporting & analytics
  • Supported: eLearning
  • Supported: Micro-learning
  • Supported: Video learning

Additional Features

  • Supported: Goal Setting
  • Supported: Check-ins
  • Supported: 360 Feedback
  • Supported: 9-box Talent Matrix
  • Supported: Self-assessment
  • Supported: Manager Review
  • Supported: Competency Library

PiiQ by Cornerstone Screenshots

Screenshot of PiiQ Performance Employee ReviewScreenshot of PiiQ Learning on DevicesScreenshot of PiiQ Manager/Employee Check-insScreenshot of PiiQ 9-box Talent MatrixScreenshot of PiiQ Learning Publish New ContentScreenshot of PiiQ Learning Searchable Library & Self-registrationScreenshot of PiiQ Learning Assign, Track, & Monitor ProgressScreenshot of PiiQ Learning Employee Engagement

PiiQ by Cornerstone Videos

PiiQ by Cornerstone Overview
PiiQ Performance
PiiQ Learning

PiiQ by Cornerstone Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesUnited States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

Cornerstone’s PiiQ is an SMB offering formerly known as Sonar6. PiiQ is aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses and includes core learning management and performance management systems, including content creation, mobile accessibility, and in-product reporting.

Reviewsnap, Threads Culture, and Litmos are common alternatives for PiiQ by Cornerstone.

Reviewers rate Mobile friendly highest, with a score of 7.9.

The most common users of PiiQ by Cornerstone are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(64)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

PiiQ by Cornerstone is a versatile performance management system that has been widely adopted across various organizations. Users have found value in using PiiQ for employee goal setting, periodic check-ins, and annual performance reviews. The software allows employees to draft their own goals and self-assessments, fostering trust and engagement with their managers and the company. The built-in 9-box analysis provides teams or departments with a useful context for development and training. PiiQ is not only used as a performance management SAAS across the entire enterprise in 22 states, but it is also utilized for providing required compliance courses such as workplace ethics, diversity, construction zone safety, and harassment prevention. Managers and trainers are mandated to take courses on topics such as coaching, approachability, performance appraisals, and leadership skills. PiiQ has been instrumental in helping organizations identify skill gaps among employees and provide new skills to reinforce desired performance results. It supports ongoing learning and development by offering access to e-learning solutions. Additionally, PiiQ is effective in conducting annual performance evaluations and implementing a formal review process that ensures a consistent evaluation of talent at the same time and in the same way. The software's global usage for annual performance reviews provides detailed analytical reports that can inform salary reviews and career advancement decisions. Users also benefit from PiiQ's regular tracking capabilities for monthly or quarterly progress updates, self-review processes, seeking 360 feedback, and aligning strategic goals between managers and employees. Furthermore, PiiQ acts as a communication vehicle to address engagement issues and support future actions to improve overall performance within the organization. With its user-friendly interface, PiiQ enables employees to strive for peak performance while supporting their career growth and learning journey. However, some users have experienced challenges with the latest upgrade of the software, finding it less user-friendly than expected. They reported difficulties in navigating changes to the setup process and terminating user accounts. Additionally, some users have expressed the need for a more mobile-friendly and simple system for administrators. Nonetheless, PiiQ has successfully transformed manual performance monitoring into a computerized system, improving effectiveness, transparency, and data collection for analysis. Overall, PiiQ by Cornerstone has become an indispensable tool for organizations seeking to optimize their performance management processes and drive better talent conversations and career growth.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 25)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
November 12, 2019

It's an Efficient System

Gabriela Salgado, CHRP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use PiiQ by Cornerstone to manage performance reviews across the whole organization.
  • User-friendly.
  • It's easy to update goals and to complete reviews.
  • We're able to have peer reviews.
  • Adding new roles and assigning goals to each specific role can be time-consuming.
  • We would like to be able to have the option of typing the weights.
PiiQ is well suited for small organizations where the manager and the employee can easily complete this process and then meet to discuss.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
A great tool to get regular review and discussion between manager and employee. The conversation is now happening between them!
  • Easy implementation of the review.
  • Easy discussion happening thanks to the check-in function.
  • Great analytic tool for manager and HR.
  • Could be easier if automatic reminder could be scheduled, it is still quite manual to remind everyone of the deadline in self-review and submission.
It is quite useful in term of review but the learning part is not so useful in our field. As a pharmaceutical consulting company, most of our employee are engineers and are looking at developing and keep up with the latest information in their field. there is no such learning catalog for that.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PIIQ for every employee in the organization. We use it/will be using it 4 times a year to measure the performance of our teams, and identify areas that require support and resources.
  • User-friendly
  • Easy overview and easy to use for first-timers.
  • Reporting.
  • Being able to select more than one person when approving goals.
  • Options to identify which people managers haven't approved goals, dine a review etc...rather then having to mimic each manager to see how they are going.
  • 360 Feedback to stakeholders outside the business.
  • Being able to remove a role that isn't being used in the organization anymore.
It is very user-friendly and very easy to use. It's great how easy you can make changes to the goals and subgoals.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In 2015/2016 our Company successfully converted our manual performance monitoring into a computerised system by incorporating PiiQ (known as Cornerstone then) for approximately 80 salaried employees across various service areas and functions, including Sales and Operations. This has helped provide a systematic performance tracking platform with improved effectiveness, transparency and ease of data collection for analysis.
  • Clean and intuitive, user-friendly user interface
  • Availability of tools eg reports to help Managers/ Company make better informed decisions
  • Convenience of being able to access system via PC, smartphones and tablets
  • Automated reminders
  • Helpful and prompt customer service over e-mail
  • Ability to copy goals across different employees by Managers has not been made available
  • Terminologies can be confusing for some users
  • Users should be able to allocate different weightings for each goal according to job function
I would recommend PiiQ for its ease of use and sound customer service.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
PiiQ is being used to assess goals and competencies on a quarter by quarter basis. It is used by a 1/3 of our organization. We have not implemented this on the shop floor nor for our installers in the field as they are difficult to access. PiiQ is a tool that helps us align our goals and reinforce our values as we discuss this ongoing with employees.
  • User Interface
  • Sliders and Text Based Answers
  • Check In Feature is nice
  • Goal alignment/cascading in an OKR format does not exist. You cannot share goals and have them roll up to see how that objective is being accomplished cross functionally.
  • 9 box trends over time does not exist.
It's well suited for companies who need a tool that is easy to implement and highly configurable. It's also good for field employees as they can work on the application through their iPhone or iPad. It may not work well for larger companies who need more robust reporting systems.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PiiQ in our professional employee departments to track goals and competencies. Our focus is shifting to driving better talent conversation between employees and managers. Our goal is to drive engagement within these departments and focus on development and career growth.
  • The goals are clear and easy to use.
  • The support team is excellent. They help find solutions to our use cases and will help implement it.
  • My Check-in is a nice feature to track conversations but doesn't integrate with Outlook or other calendars. It makes for a multiple step process because most users aren't in PiiQ on a daily basis to track things.
  • It would be nice to be able to customize certain fields, titles, heading. It isn't as flexible as we would like it to be to match the language we use at the company related to performance management.
It is great if you want something off the shelf that you will use for a quick implementation of goals and competency ratings. People need to familiar with computer programs - our employees are not as tech-savvy and get confused with some of the features such as the rating sliders.

As we have matured in how we want to manage performance management with some more customized forms and process, it seems we have outgrown PiiQ. It's not great if you want a lot of customization.
Jason Budman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using both the PiiQ Learning and PiiQ Performance for our entire organization. PiiQ enables us to efficiently manage our learning and performance needs for our business all in one system.
  • You can create custom learning content and include links from multiple sources.
  • PiiQ Performance enables us to get a solid view of our entire organization. This is particularly helpful when looking to make personnel changes that support the business.
  • Managing the compliance of the performance review process was always challenging. With PiiQ, I can get real time data of exactly where we are in our review process.
  • I would like to see the reporting be more robust.
  • I would like to see the 9 box grid include kites and arrows like what existed in Sonar 6.
  • I would like to be able to have testing on the performance side.
PiiQ is well suited for small to mid-size companies. I would think larger companies may need a product with some more functionality.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PiiQ as our performance management tool to manage the KPIs of all staff on a quarterly basis. This data we use on an annual basis to inform salary reviews and career advancement. Throughout the year we use the platform to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses amongst the team and inform our training and staff engagement programmes.
  • Great way to visually identify how different staff members are progressing and performing
  • Simple and intuitive interface for staff members to use - making the process of job performance reviews more enjoyable
  • Good existing library of competencies to draw upon
  • 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
Great for managing medium sized teams of people spread over geographically dispersed offices. Not so good for small teams (less than 15). Requires a degree of time and effort to set up correctly to provide useful data for management and a good experience for staff members, but once that effort has been made the results are great.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
PiiQ is used by all departments in our company as our performance review system. We are trying to get our managers to get in the habit of using it for quarterly reviews as well.
  • Customization
  • Detailed spreadsheets
  • Mimic mode
  • The way that weighting is indicated on goals would be easier if you could just type in a number instead of those dots.
  • Not having the weightings automatically added/included to blank/empty goals
  • A feature that allows other managers to provide input on employees reviews (on the actual review, not via 360)
There are some things that made Cornerstone more user-friendly when the PiiQ upgrade happened, but there were some items that made it harder to use. Some of the features that were added were beneficial, but others were not. I feel like there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize PiiQ to complete annual employee reviews for all employees. This helps us get a better feel for competencies employees need to work on and for us to find out how we can help our employees grow. It is a little confusing to set up at first; we are still new to it so are still working out the kinks.
  • Great digital solution
  • Dashboard is easy to navigate/user-friendly
  • We like that we can mimic employees to make sure everything is set up correctly
  • Maybe provide an actual person to help with implementation
  • We did not use the goals section which makes excellent employees look marginal
  • It can be a little confusing trying to set up the questions for employees
This is a great digital solution for employee reviews; just need to make sure you set it up correctly.
Matthew Weintraub | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using Piiq for performance reviews of select employees. We will be launching it organization-wide to set goals for everyone in July for next year performance reviews. We are also using 360 for board members to review the leadership at the organization.
  • Digitizes a traditionally paper process
  • Good user interface
  • Very customizable
  • Needs drag and drop functionality
  • Once you set up a review cycle it is very difficult to make significant modifications without starting anew.
Great for small business and non-profit organizations that want to professionalize and improve processes. Great for organizations with limited administrative support.

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
PiiQ was our method of doing employee reviews for the entire organization. We canceled our contract as the product was not as user-friendly as we had hoped with the latest upgrade. If setting up the program was all that I did, then we might be still using it, but as an HR manager for 2 companies, I have much more on my plate. The instructions provided via webinar on making changes to your setup were not clear. Terminating users had to be done by contacting Cornerstone, not by the program admin, they did, however, allow the administrator to delete a user which was an improvement.

There was also not a signature page that a manager could print and have signed that a review was completed, it was completely electronic. If you chose to print anything, it was the entire review which, in our case was at least 15 pages long when all we needed was the last page. It was print it all or nothing.
  • With PiiQ managers could have employee specific goals verses the same goals for all employees in a specific classification.
  • Allowing printing of just the signature page.
  • Making it easier to make changes across the board.
Smaller companies where the reviews are more generic or where reviews are more goal specific per person since that is a new feature which is nice.
Corey Ellis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cornerstone is being used across the organization for learning and performance. All new hires complete a series of compliance courses and then at least one course related to their position. As part of the annual performance review, employees are expected to complete one manager-assigned course and one personal improvement course. Employees and managers are also encouraged to use the system independently for growth and development.

We use the 360 review functionality every 3rd quarter for the management team and the annual review process for all staff every 4th quarter.
  • PiiQ Learning has extensive content organized by category to make it easy to find and assign courses to the staff; managers and employees can assign training.
  • Reporting in both the learning and performance modules is simple and easy to understand. Particularly the graphics in the learning module are visually clear.
  • I thought the performance module was fairly user-friendly last year, but having the ability to make changes without contacting support has been wonderful this year.
  • I would like to have the ability to create profiles in the learning system so that when I onboard a new employee, I can assign training at the click of a button based on their role in the organization.
  • I would like the ability for managers to be able to hide comments in the check-in feature; there are some notes that managers may need to refer to during a check-in that are not always appropriate to share with the employee at that time.
  • I would love to submit a request in the learning portal for courses that are not in my package that I would like to add to the system. For example, if I need a course related to case management for social workers, I would like to be able to search other partners (from the learning portal) to see if there are courses in other packages or from other providers that I could purchase.
Our organization has grown from 60 employees three years ago to 150 right now. It is very useful to use at this point. I believe there are products for larger businesses and I would like to understand when it would be appropriate to start looking at those tools.
June 25, 2018

PiiQ by Cornerstone

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PiiQ to manage our performance management program across our company.
  • PiiQ provides a basic platform to allow managers and employees to address performance.
  • The ease of managing users is particularly easy.
  • PiiQ also showcases performance by team member via a grid. This allows managers to view their team members by performance level.
  • PiiQ has a basic platform. The user interface is poor and does not provide flexibility for administrator to make changes to it.
  • There is a 360 component to PiiQ however, you cannot adjust for anonymous feedback. Every manager that requests will see exactly who shared feedback
  • PiiQ allows you to set a review timeline but not a true workflow. (i.e. self review> 360> manager review> 2nd level approver> HR approver)
  • There are system generated messages but the administrator can not customize them to fit their organizations needs.
  • The system does not have a "sign-off" on review. You must create one that looks and feels like it is a misfit.
PiiQ is great for manager/employee updates. I think it is a great tool to provide feedback on a basic level and helps to keep information in one place.
Alessandra Vaughan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using PiiQ to manage our employee goal setting, performance reviews and for 360 feedback. It is being used across our whole organization and it allows us to support our team goals and professional development.
  • The system is very user-friendly
  • I love how it provides examples of roles and goals to build off of.
  • I wish it was easier to create employee logins without having them go through the forgot password process
It is very well suited for a medium-sized organization that is looking to standardize their employee growth and development.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used by whole organisation. Some areas of the business would like an area where they can record smaller job appraisals on an ongoing basis throughout the year, and then refer to this when completing a 6 monthly review.
  • Looks modern and appealing
  • Easy to use and follow
  • 360 Feedback function is great
  • Add a section where you can record ongoing feedback throughout the year, separate to the reviews. Then managers can refer to this section when completing a review.
  • Allow more flexibility in wording. I.e. administrators should be able to control what the automated email reminders say.
  • Remove the close date for the reviews so users can't see this. We often tell people to complete their reviews by x date, but don't set the close date until a week or two later. We don't want people to see the later (actual) date.
  • Allow more than one manager to be allocated to an employee. We often have people reporting to two managers, and they both want input into the review.
Good for remote working, works on a mobile phone for example. You can complete part of the review, then come back and complete later. Good for 360 feedback.
Sherry Shu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Cornerstone globally for annual performance reviews. We have been using PiiQ from Cornerstone for 3 years. I feel after the upgrade, PiiQ has improved the interface so it is more user friendly and can provide detailed analytical reports. The internet speed from China has been improved as well. I like it.
  • Friendly dashboard interface
  • Score reports by performance and competency
  • Nice boxes position to view incumbents' potential and performance
  • So far, cannot manually input the weight of each goal. Would like the weighting of each goals have the option to be manually input
  • Option to re-define goals and process/personal improvement
It can be used for annual performance company wide which is good. If we can use this tool to track and remind line managers to have monthly or quarterly review of their subordinates' progress and improvement, it will be better. For example, when we set the monthly goals or quarterly goals, the system can send email reminder to the manager and ask them to have the review.
Gene Aldava, SPHR | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
PiiQ by Cornerstone is the performance management system we use in our corporate office where our key business functions are domiciled. Those functions include finance, real estate development, property management, architecture, corporate communications/fund development, and human resources administration. We have deployed it as an interactive system for employee goal setting, periodic performance "check-in" meetings, and annual performance/merit review. It has been a key tool in moving from an annual, angst-ridden review experience toward a more useful dialog at different points during the year. The employees can draft their own goals and their self-assessment which helps build trust and engagement with their direct manager and the company as a whole. Also, the built-in 9-box analysis enables us to see team or department performance within a useful context for development and training.
  • 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.
  • Need to include a signature line or checkbox where the employee can acknowledge receipt and review of the final document as submitted by the manager (and the date of same). This would be very helpful so there is no viable argument about the content of the document especially if an employee dispute and/or lawsuit regarding performance issues arises in the future.
  • A feature enabling employees to print out the final document. Right now, only the manager has a print command button on the screen. The employee can attempt this by using the browser’s menu option (i.e. mouse right click > print command) but the resulting hard copy is incomplete and poorly formatted. The word processor within Piiq has somewhat limited features compared to what is available in MS Word or even the more basic Windows Wordpad. But the interface is improved from the earlier version.
  • The final print out doesn’t match the screen output. Ratings that are displayed graphically on the screen are Instead displayed as text. The end result is wordy and, at best, awkward to read.
  • A 360-degree review that can be sent to parties outside the company would be helpful, especially for rating senior managers and executives who have extensive vendor or third-party relationships contributing to the overall performance rating.
Piiq by Cornerstone is a tool (actually, a set of tools) well suited for salaried and professional employees (e.g. corporate headquarters). May be a bit too sophisticated for the performance management needs of hourly/production staff. We also faced some cost constraints and elected to use a simpler online performance management tool offered by our payroll vendor.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PiiQ for performance management tracking as well as learning and informational videos.
  • Their competency templates
  • Cyber U videos
  • Customer service
  • Opportunity to adjust competency templates without erasing all past information
Really great for ease of use and performance management. Can be tailored to each business's specific needs.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use PiiQ for all staff for period goal settings, annual reviews, and 90 day reviews. We also use its learning capabilities. You need to measure performance or goals consistently in business to always continue to improve. The tools and reports give you this opportunity with this software.
  • Customer Service is outstanding
  • User friendly
  • Excellent help content and examples to get you started
  • You can't goal headers. Once something is in the library it will always show up when you set a goal period. I have had frustrated Managers because of this aspect but it could be fixed.
  • They are working on better one off review functions. It is a continuous tracking module but some companies like to do certain reviews with certain questions only at any time.
This product is great for setting up standard metrics that you want to continuously track at all times for all employees. The only issue is how the library is set and once you set your goal period you can't modify goal headings so thus you are locked into having a question answered in that category no matter what.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We selected Cornerstone on Demand about 4 years ago because the concepts and values aligned with our company objectives program, and the system was an easier way to monitor and collect data from the employees. We converted over to the PiiQ website last September, and we stayed with the new system because it still aligns very nicely with our company objectives. All our organization uses the performance module from the CEO down to our service group. We align our whole company with three objectives, and their assignments for the year will focus on either 1 or all 3 of the objectives. This year our company is focusing on execution, and the employee's goals reflect that objective. The tool helps us keep everyone aligned, and on target for 4 quarterly reviews. We use the results for incentive pay across the organization.
  • The new system (PiiQ) is very systematic in the design and implementation. It is consistent from employee use to the use of a supervisor.
  • It is simplistic and user-friendly. Although, teaching the new system coming from the old system has been difficult. I finally had to design a "guide sheet" with simple instructions to get our users more familiar with the way the new system is laid out. It has taken some time, but I think most users now "get it."
  • The new administrative side is much more effective, and allows the administrators to assist others more effectively. I haven't re-designed anything else since switching, but may do so in the future (which we couldn't do ourselves on the old system).
  • They have made vast improvements with their customer service. I now get the help much easier and quicker. Thank goodness.
  • The language Cornerstone chose to use "submit," "unsubmit," and "confirm" has been very confusing, and the hardest concept to teach, and from feedback from the supervisors, they dislike having to go to the extra step of confirming the goals. I completely understand why that step is necessary, and it makes it more necessary for the supervisor to have that conversation with their employee as they move through the steps.
  • I mentioned this to one of the customer service agents, and they said it was very low on the priority from the feedback, but I really loved the organization tree that was available in the old system. It was a quick way to see that I had everyone reporting to the right people, and easier to see organization as a whole.
For managers/supervisors that take the time as they should with their employees, it is a great system and user-friendly. Our organization requires our supervisors to perform 4 quarterly meetings, and this tool works great in those incidences. However, for a supervisor that doesn't like doing paperwork, and isn't as apt to meet with their team, in their minds it is a real drudgery. I just remind them most of the tools out there for performance is far more complicated and much more expensive.
March 15, 2017

CSOD Fail

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It was being used for one department for testing and then we were thinking about rolling out to others but found it was not fit for purpose. This was for a few reasons. Firstly, we needed something mobile friendly and we also needed a simple user friendly system for administrators which we found this was not.
  • Organisation structures
  • SCORM
  • Branding
  • Usability
  • Mobile friendly
  • Support
I struggled to enjoy working with CSOD so I disliked it in all scenarios. This was because it took a very long time to train a team member on how to use the back end system and the customer support was insufficient, meaning even minor changes took a long time.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the system for all of our office employees across the whole organization.It has helped us become more paperless by eliminating paper reviews. It also helped us to enable 360 performance reviews throughout the company.
  • Paperless performance reviews
  • 360 reviews
  • Easy end-user interface
  • Unable to use the performance system on iPad
  • Unable to work offline so data can be lost rather easily when not using a strong internet connection (airplane, wireless, etc)
The setup process is very customizable - there are so many features that can be turned on or off based on your company's culture and structure. Depending on how our current system is, it can either be recreated or start new with system defaults.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Really easy and straightforward to complete objectives and performance reviews. Anyone can figure this system out without referring to the manual!
  • Visual representation of performance (ex. sliding scale reviews, 9-box grid) is compelling and is a great snapshot of overall performance and objectives.
  • Overall comparisons between direct reports' performance reviews and objectives are easily accessible for managers
  • It's so easy to switch from the current performance appraisal period to older data for comparison
  • I really like how you can add Notes (qualitative data) easily to objectives and self-appraisals.
  • Setup and ongoing maintenance can be frustrating, needs more options for customization. We have to call their help line almost every day when we're setting up the system for the next appraisal period, and a lot of our requested features
  • Needs better user management, should be much more user-friendly, process on handling terminated employees doesn't make the most sense (ex. it's unfortunate that we have to pay an extra fee to download data if we would want to delete users in the system. I wish we would "hide" terminated/inactive employees so they don't show up with giant Xs across their chest - it's really weird and it looks like they're on a hit list.)
  • Reporting is very limited. If there is a manager with four direct reports and I, as an admin, want to see how much of each review the manager has completed so far, I can't. The numbers are only reported in the aggregate. If CSB added more in-depth reports, the system would be greatly improved.
  • I think it's silly that you need to click "Save" and that the data entered does not save automatically. I shouldn't have to remind employees to always click on "Save" every few minutes.
  • I wish the "Share" feature was more pronounced and obvious. This is probably the number one question we get - "how do I share my review with my manager?" Also, managers are never notified via e-mail upon successful completion of a self-appraisal. More notifications would be great and would remove lots of guesswork or missed time. We are on an extremely tight schedule for performance reviews and want to make sure people have enough time to complete the process.
  • It's ridiculous that Admins cannot download employee data and reviews directly from their Admin accounts. We shouldn't have to sign in as an employee's manager to read or download their reviews. Imagine doing this for 300+ employees.
I highly recommend CSB to any colleague who is currently working with a tedious performance management system or even worse, just paper. CSB is really easy to use from the end user perspective, and it takes all of the frustration out of completing reviews, which is great! The last thing that I want is to be forced to use a difficult system and take hours just to complete a self-appraisal and objectives. I was able to complete my own self-appraisal in CSB in a half hour.

Prior to CSB, our organization used another system (Halogen) which honestly took weeks to set up for mid-year and end-year reviews. It was an absolute nightmare. Then, from the employee perspective, it was also a nightmare to complete the review. Our employees and admins had terrible feedback on the system.

Since we had a terrible system to begin with (and only did paper reviews before that), CSB was a welcome upgrade!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • It takes a lot of the fear out of performance reviews. We were very liberal about the way we implemented performance reviews before. As we grew, we knew we needed to be more organized. We wanted something that fit our culture – simple to use – and not just something that someone would use twice a year, but would use in 1-1s. It's simpler than Success Factors and happens to have features we’re looking for.
  • The analytics are good and the graphical interface is engaging. The analytics allow you to benchmark employees against each other in a non-threatening way.
  • The way it saves data/changes is a little archaic. I have gotten complaints from people doing hours of work and losing it.
  • It could be more proactive in notifications. Notifications could be improved.
  • It could provide more direction for users to know when they are complete with a review. There’s no you’re done with this review. This is important for compliance reasons when you are trying to get through reviews. They do have an indicator of completeness for reviews, a progress bar for your whole team but not for individual reviews. I keep getting the question from my staff, am I done?
We did have some issues with browser support in IE in the beginning.
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