Cornerstone Learning with a dash of Performance
Updated February 01, 2019
Cornerstone Learning with a dash of Performance
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Cornerstone OnDemand
We use Cornerstone OnDemand across our organization of over 2600 users for both Learning and Performance. For Learning we utilize the software to assign online and instructor-led training as well as let users take online training on their own. For Performance we use annual performance reviews, ad hoc reviews, and goals.
- Learning: The learning assignment tool does a great job at both one off assignments and dynamic assignments that can be based on different Organization Units.
- System: The system is very customizable which is great for allowing it to fit within your organization. It does make it a more complex system to manage that something that is out of the box but if your organization is complex, this is definitely a pro. You can assign custom fields in most places in the system too.
- System: Security is robust and allows for many different permissions that can be assigned to groups then people can be added to groups either as a person or by an organization unit or by custom fields.
- Learning: It handles instructor led training very well which is something many other LMS's do not do at all. In our organization we have many of these every year that we need to track for CPE (Continuing Professional Education) purposes.
- System: Web service (API) or FTP interfaces are available for automating the data flow in and out of Cornerstone.
- System: Custom Reporting works very well and allows a report writer to create and share reports to users as needed. I use the custom reports 100% over the standard reports to get exactly what I need to the correct users.
- System: Customizable emails can be configured at the system level as well as at the learning object level or performance task level as needed. It is recommend for easy of administration to utilize the system level as much as possible for any types of future changes (such as logo or wording changes needed).
- Performance: Performance tasks are very configurable to go out to who you need them do and shut down on a schedule.
- Performance: The ability to bring in last years goals so you can rate them as well as a next year goal planning is a great feature.
- System: Online help is very robust and very thorough.
- Releases: Quarterly releases are very well managed with many details in the release notes and full cycle to complete testing in a Stage system.
- Performance: I would be great if the system would prevent launching an ad-hoc review to yourself. This is the number one support request we have to address, deleting these erroneous reviews.
- System: In many places, the system could really use the ability to mass edit. For example, you have 25 sessions to adjust a field on, it would be nice to mark each checkbox and then edit in mass. There are lots of administrative pieces that are very click intensive.
- System: Their community resources need a much better boolean search system. It currently doesn't support using quotes to search phrases or dates to eliminate posts from 2010 which are just no longer relevant. The applies to their Idea forum, without the more complex searches we end up with 50 ideas on the same suggestion instead of 1 idea with all the votes for it tallied on the same suggestion.
- Performance: If you have custom emails at the performance task level and the task is still active, you cannot edit the email at all. This is especially troublesome on the task for ad-hoc reviews which is ongoing.
- System: The biggest overall issue I have is with their support ticket system. It can take 30 days to get a response to tickets. They are trying to fix this but so far this is my biggest problem.
- Our business is reliant on providing and reporting on the amount of CPE credits our service professionals have. The learning product is essential in providing the ability to present our learners with CPE learning and to accurately report on the completed CPE training.
- The self-service aspect of the system sending reminders has a large impact on the bottom line. We no longer have to dedicate a person to sending out reports on past due training. We still have to do a part of this since there is always the ones who ignore automated system reminders but it is greatly reduced.
- Due to the ability of the system to allow custom fields and send out automated email reminders, we have reduced our dependency on manual functions and put the information in the hands of those who need it in a timely manner.
Cornerstone OnDemand Feature Ratings
Using Cornerstone OnDemand
2600 - We are a CPA firm so the majority of our learners are in professional client services seeking continuing professional education credits. We also have support departments such as accounting, marketing, IT and HR. We provide technical training, professional development and compliance training.
6 - This is a bit of a tricky question as the word "support" can mean many things. We have one system administrator (me) and I spend a few hours each day at the most doing system admin support for Cornerstone. That is for both learning and performance. We also have a whole Learning and Development department who do much more than support the system but they provide expertise in helping our learners in Cornerstone. We develop our own curriculum and create our own learning so that is about 4 people and they create content, upload the content, troubleshoot users who have problems with online completions etc. We also do many large events each month for instructor led training (ILT) and we have three people supporting that - their Cornerstone involvement is creating events and sessions and managing who is enrolled in those sessions. We have a compliance team that verifies attendance at those ILTs and handles the CPE compliance of those that went to training.
- Handling instructor led training including the details of the training so that we can issue CPE for the training. Many learning systems do not do this part or don't do it well.
- Publishing content so learners can view training on their own schedule. We upload scorm content that includes some videos only which are typically webinar recordings and some self-study courses which have interaction.
- Managing course completions so we can issue CPE where it's applicable.
- Learners can save their own CPE certificates.
- Reporting on completions for analytics.
- Cornerstone is very customizable so we use lots of custom fields to provide and report on the details so that we can be a CPE provider for our employees.
- We feed data into Cornerstone so we can create dynamic groups that assign training automatically based on employee information.
- Custom reports allow us to get to data we need and then ingest that data into other software to create detailed itineraries for large events.
- Mobile enabled training using the Cornerstone app is on something we will implement soon.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Accessing transcript and launching courses.
- Finding users and learning.
- Uploading and publishing courses
- Data load wizard makes some bulk work easier.
- From the administrator perspective, doing some things in mass can be difficult and very click intensive.
- In some admin screens, doing a search then going back to the same screen, you lose your filters and have to re-filter.
- Sharing reports is not user friendly.
- The system is very complex and very customizable which makes for a learning curve for admins. For users though, it's a very usable system.
- Doing 360 reviews anonymously is not possible (despite what sales may claim).
Yes, but I don't use it
Yes - Learning side: Sort of - we used to use a different learning system but it wasn't really a full LMS so can't really compare apples to apples on this one. It didn't even track course completions well and wasn't conducive to creating content.
Performance side: yes - we replaced SilkRoad WingSpan (now just called Performance). It lacked a lot of features and wasn't customizable. Reporting was really non-existent. The vendor had to write the reports - for a fee and took a long time to completed them.
Performance side: yes - we replaced SilkRoad WingSpan (now just called Performance). It lacked a lot of features and wasn't customizable. Reporting was really non-existent. The vendor had to write the reports - for a fee and took a long time to completed them.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
The decision to purchase was made before I was hired but from what I know it came down to features/requirements.
We would have talked to more customers for real reviews of what the product can do versus what sales says it can do. In the end though, we would have likely purchased it again but had better knowledge going into the implementation. You need a dedicated system admin to understand this complex of a system.
Cornerstone OnDemand Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Knowledgeable team Support understands my problem | Slow Resolution Poor followup Problems left unsolved Not kept informed Escalation required Difficult to get immediate help Slow Initial Response |
No - Premium support is very expensive. If they still had a dedicates support person assigned to our account we maybe would try it but I understand from another customer that they just changed this to a team so we will see how they evaluate the change before we consider it.
Yes - I have had quite a few instances where the bug fix was in the next release (quarterly) or even sooner if a patch was needed. I don't always get a response from those tickets until they say it's fixed. Again this goes back to when we create a ticket, it's not an easy answer, it's a complex issue. The better you are as system admins at providing all the details, steps etc the better.
I really can't - see my other answers. I will say though their online community of other clients is excellent.