Market Perspectives

The necessity to empower people within an organization to be most effective and highly impactful is no easy task and is central to what business and HR leaders seek to enable. At the core of this mission is understanding the motivations of individuals who are eager to gain new skills that help their career growth while also supporting their current expected performance. Managing and motivating skills development require content and learning methods that align to the role and responsibility of the individual. Necessary steps in talent management include moving beyond a traditional learning management system (LMS) approach and creating learning experiences that are assembled from existing and new content, as well as from third-party providers, and are aligned to the individual’s needs.

The readily available LMS from years past provides easy access to a wide selection of job training programs, certifications and compliance-related written content. More recently, however, organizations have abandoned traditional, classroom-style learning in favor of asynchronous, self-paced e-learning, often structured into a personalized curriculum along an individual’s desired career path. By 2024, self-directed career management will be utilized by one-half of organizations using an LMS or LXP, supporting employee desires to explore alternative career paths while identifying any skills gaps that need to be addressed. To engage learners more effectively and ensure they retain new information, organizations are embedding social collaboration, knowledge sharing, gamification and virtual agent tools. Artificial intelligence (AI) provides guidance on the best learning medium to use for each learner and learning scenario.

Now, Cornerstone OnDemand, a leader in our Learning Management Systems Value Index, has been acquiring software companies like Saba, SumTotal, Lumesse, EdCast and others while also organically improving ways to create meaningful content that is designed to accommodate a wide range of training goals for organizations. Cornerstone OnDemand is a cloud-based software company that provides learning technology via a framework of talent applications designed to support new hires and existing members of the workforce to reach their full potential. Cornerstone’s learning and talent management software allows for scalable learning infrastructures and curated content collections.

Cornerstone OnDemand’s aim is to provide in-depth content that focuses not only on the specifics of a job role but also draws inspiration from leaders including Barack Obama, Arianna Huffington, Bill Gates and others, as well as the founders and CEOs of Netflix, Airbnb, Nike, Disney, Starbucks, Google, Pepsi and many more. Utilizing an audio-first format, organizations can deliver modern learning content in a mobile-friendly format and provide engaging, interesting material to their workforce through online learning and training courses.

Cornerstone’s growing portfolio of products has created challenges for existing customers who are looking to utilize multiple products without having to manage them separately. In response, Cornerstone has created what it calls the integration hub to ensure that it can better connect to external content, collaboration and HCM products in the market. The measure of success in this effort will be its specific roadmap and releases of support for these products that can help meet its customer needs.

Investing in software to effectively manage talent and learning from a global and more holistic view will not only set an organization apart competitively, but it will also create or reinforce a company culture that employees can stand behind. CEOs and HR leaders alike benefit from implementing a talent platform designed to keep employees engaged and productive. Ventana Research asserts that by 2024, LMS and LXP platforms with embedded skill and job ontologies that recommend optimal learning paths will guide one-half of organizations to elevate employee engagement, retention and productivity. Given today’s efforts to recruit and retain talent, organizations can get ahead of the curve by having a platform that supports these needs.

Cornerstone recently announced its Talent Experience Platform which unites the company’s portfolio of growth-centric learning and talent solutions with human-centered experiences, deep talent intelligence, and an open architecture. When it comes to workforce learning and skills development, its offerings are the most used in the industry, but Cornerstone now faces pressure to meet a portfolio of talent management needs including the hiring and onboarding process, compensation and performance expectations, and the ability to measure the experiences of the workforce. These areas are not currently strengths for Cornerstone but opens opportunities for them to further exploit components of the acquisitions they have made. Organizations that are looking to invest in skills and talent management software should consider Cornerstone in their evaluation of vendors that are focused on worker engagement and career growth.