Cornerstone OnDemand vs. SmartRecruiters

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cornerstone OnDemand
Score 6.4 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
SmartRecruiters
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
SmartRecruiters’ Talent Acquisition Suite is a cloud-based recruitment marketing and collaborative hiring platform. It features an open marketplace for third party recruitment services. SmartRecruiters also offers talent sourcing and screening as add-on features.N/A
Pricing
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Corporate
Varies, per FTE
Billed annually
Global
Varies, per FTE
Billed annually
SmartStart
Free
up to 10 active job postings
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequired$1,000
Additional DetailsThe software subscription is determined by the number of a company's full time employees. There is a one time cost to set up software, including customizations, integrations, data migration and training.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Considered Both Products
Cornerstone OnDemand
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
UKG HR Service Delivery and Workday Professional Services Automation
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
It's been years since I've worked with another product. I don't really have a great answer for how it stacks up anymore, and Cornerstone OnDemand has acquired some of the bigger players in the same LMS sphere in Saba and SumTotal. However, they have positioned themselves as …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We have been with Cornerstone OnDemand for about 7 years now. I do not recall the other products we evaluated at the time, but more recently there was some interest in using Workday as an LMS since that is our HR platform. Their learning platform, however, simply couldn't …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
I have previously used SumTotal and Moodle and find Cornerstone OnDemand to be much more deep in terms of the amount of features available and custom configurations possible. From an admin perspective, Cornerstone OnDemand also has a much richer admin community and educational …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Mainly the annual costs of the suite: we are present in 7 countries and develp an implementation of SAP SSFF costs triple than Cornerstone OnDemand. Talentia was "in price" similar than Cornerstone OnDemand, but is more oriented to Europe customers than American or Latam. The …
Chose 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.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
My background is that I have been a teacher for more than thirty years. I have worked with a few different Learning Management Systems and when it came time for my company to implement its own LMS I evaluated more than twenty other Learning Management Systems. I went through …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We previously used Oracle Learn. Cornerstone OnDemand as a whole is a superior product built on a modern architecture.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand is a system that can fit a lot of different needs. It is a complex system that is maybe not too contemporary looking at the moment but it looks good enough. But the most important is that it's safe and it is compliant. And that is it's point of difference. …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We selected Cornerstone which offers to the possibility to create regional administration user, for the reports and the app.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
great customer service, great functionalities and spain office based which is key for us
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Since the platform can be accessed not only through the website but also through users' cell phones, Cornerstone's virtual training tool offers great accessibility for employees receiving training. It works with Android and iOS devices and collaborates with other apps to ensure …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
CSOD is by far the best talent management software I have used.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
In comparison to other platforms, Cornerstone checks all the boxes. They are always looking for ways to improve the platform with the suggestions from their users. It always evolving which is great because the platform is always staying current with trends as well as the …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand provides an overall fit for our organization's training needs. Our HR Directors are able to provide and monitor activities and stay abreast of annual mandatory trainings.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Each have their pros and cons. CSOD makes sense for our current business needs.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone is a more holistic system, we have all necessary modules in one place, don't need to switch between different systems. On the other hand, the admin panel in CSOD, especially in the learning module, is out of date, and preparing learning activities is very …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We have used Cornerstone [onDemand] for the past six years. We have not used or reviewed any other learning management systems during my tenure at Jack Henry.
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone is more complex, offering more features while allowing learners to see a more modern learning 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
All of the products are essentially the same. The difference between each company and product [is] minimal at best. Some offer additional tools such as integration, reporting, customization, and the like. Others are standard out of the box. Overall each product delivers what …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand was ranking quite high up in the Gartner's Learning quadrant and the Forrester Report and was also highly recommended in Bersin's findings. Cornerstone's team of consultants is fun to work with and they love and enjoy their work. Their treatment of their …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
The Sales Pitch for Cornerstone while being great, left us a bit disappointed when the tool got implemented. Although it is a game-changer and radically improved the learning experience the after-sales service has left us a bit disappointed. Since the overall package makes up …
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone perfectly fits into a mid-size company, also in prizing (annual fee and implementation), where flexibility is key.
SmartRecruiters
Chose SmartRecruiters
In terms of functionality and product development - SmartRecruiters is leaps ahead of other ATS platforms I've reviewed. The real differentiator for me is the ability to really customise the system and workflows for your needs and that the backend can be managed by a Recruiter …
Chose SmartRecruiters
We chose SmartRecruiters because we didn't have an ATS. We were looking for a tool that allowed multicasting but also responses to candidates automatically and deferred. We were also looking for a tool allowing the centralization of data with fluid and accessible collaboration …
Chose SmartRecruiters
Price, configurability, automation capability. At the top with Teamtailor and Workable IMO.
Chose SmartRecruiters
Smartrecruiters matches all request from our recrutement team, specially about the fact that this is easy to use as we wanted managers to have the hand on the tool. This is also easy to train them with Smartrecruiters and wuth the help center, better than some other tools. It …
Chose SmartRecruiters
We previously used SnapHire which required a different account for each of our brands, and SmartRecruiters has been a vast improvement for our business in integrating our brands onto one applicant tracking site. This improves both the recruiter and hiring manager experience, …
Chose SmartRecruiters
I really don't know this one. I am a franchise and our home office said SmartRecruiter is preferred.
Chose SmartRecruiters
All in one solution with enterprise capabilities and a brilliant UI.
Chose SmartRecruiters
I have used several recruiting platforms during my career and every one has its pros and cons. SmartRecruiters is extremely helpful with cross-team collaboration and interview scheduling, however I think needs strong resume searching capabilities. I am overall satisified with …
Chose SmartRecruiters
Much better features and support
Chose SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters is connected with LinkedIn and it is very user friendly. I can even reply from my email account to the candidates and the conversation is saved in SmartRecruiters, which makes a recruiter's life easy. We can add reviews and ratings for candidates so it helps our …
Chose SmartRecruiters
I selected SmartRecruiters in just first go in its demo itself as I liked [its] features very much. The major thing is that I don't need to make now excel to store Data. Plus communication is also going smooth. [In the end,] I can track every [recruiter's] data how much work …
Chose SmartRecruiters
Overall, SmartRecruiters is more modern, cutting edge and has an easier learning curve than the others we evaluated.
Chose SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters was a good fit at the time of purchase. The price was competitive and the features were exactly what we needed to move as a blended company with multiple locations, brand names, and a large employee base. The company really did a good job of helping us get …
Chose SmartRecruiters
I have only used our previous tool, which was an in-house development.
Chose SmartRecruiters
We used Qandidate before it was bought out by SmartRecruiters. We liked Qandidate, but features were very basic. SmartRecruiters has more features and the online application looks more professional.
Chose SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters is fully functional for recruiting and hiring. It eliminates tedious manual data entry and automate processes, so there's no need to chase interviewers down to get feedback and make sure all relevant information is available in one system.
Chose SmartRecruiters
We actually use both. The Applicant Manager (TAM) is more expensive but also more thorough. We like TAM and SmartRecruiters more than ZipRecruiter and Google Hire.
Chose SmartRecruiters
I have not used or evaluated others.
Features
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.7
Ratings
5% above category average
SmartRecruiters
-
Ratings
New hire portal7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance tracking and reporting7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.9
Ratings
10% above category average
SmartRecruiters
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Subordinate goal setting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.4
Ratings
12% above category average
SmartRecruiters
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Plan weighting7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager note taking7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Rater nomination workflow7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow restrictions7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.8
Ratings
12% above category average
SmartRecruiters
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.2
Ratings
0% above category average
SmartRecruiters
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.80 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.80 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Publish to Social Media6.40 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting6.30 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customized Application Form7.80 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Resume Management6.40 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention6.70 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Candidate Search6.40 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Applicant Tracking7.50 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Collaboration7.80 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation7.20 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Email Templates7.50 Ratings9.70 Ratings
User Permissions7.80 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.40 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Reporting7.60 Ratings1.70 Ratings
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.3
Ratings
3% above category average
SmartRecruiters
-
Ratings
Course authoring4.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration6.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics6.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Small Businesses
Paycor
Paycor
Score 7.0 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Engagedly
Engagedly
Score 8.4 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.5
(0 ratings)
7.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cornerstone OnDemandSmartRecruiters
Likelihood to Recommend
The dashboards and reporting needs more additional features to clean up the old reports, manage dashboards more effectively is my main concern. I recently launched one of three phases for dashboards and I noticed I cannot work efficiently seeing which dashboard is important to me, which has been shared with me. More organization is requested
Read full review
SmartRecruiters has allowed us to enable our hiring managers to self-service their requirements for recruitment, simplifying our internal processes. We have visibility of recruitment requirements and significantly improved our approvals process using the software. We have been able to configure our hiring processes relevant to different areas of the business. Collaboration for our hiring teams (managers and business partners) is simple and effective. Candidate experience is enhanced and engaging. The platform has brought many benefits to our Resourcing business partners and hiring managers. We have visibility and insightful data which has integrity, allowing us to make informed business decisions. Our offer process has seen significant improvements and provides an engaging candidate experience, previously this was a labour-intensive process that is now streamlined and automated. The recently launched Community for collaboration amongst customers is very helpful and insigtful for how other people are using the software and exploring ideas with each other
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Pros
  • The user group community is unlike any other. It is easy to connect with other clients and the CSOD team is actively engaged, always interested in what clients want and need.
  • Vast content catalog from a wide variety of providers. Content delivery service makes my job easier. I don't have to deal with course files and metadata!
  • Ease of use for non-admin admins! I was not a LMS administrator prior to implementation so I learned as I went which was fully supported by the robust training available to system admins.
Read full review
  • Job Referrals - can easily refer others to a job posting and view the status
  • Job Postings - can easily search for job openings and read job description and criteria
  • Application online - Can easily apply for the job directly and see who the hiring manager and hiring recruiter is
Read full review
Cons
  • User-submitted external training is editable by users even after it has been approved and completed on their transcript, UNLESS a transcript lock is put into place--which also renders all submitted certificates un-openable once approved. Thus they can never be referenced after approval.
  • The system is designed for annual compliance training to be re-versioned annually. I [believe it] is a very un-user friendly for training that we don't want to re-version because users take it on a rolling, as-needed basis.
  • Some very key components are not configurable and cause our users a great deal of confusion. For example, there is no way to turn off the search bar on a user transcript or even to edit the prompt text within it. Our users are constantly searching for training here, and end up re-opening/re-launching completed courses rather than registering for a new occurrence of a course.
  • In general, we find Cornerstone [onDemand] clunky and that it does not really meet our needs.
Read full review
  • Not having feature of referral data, who has referred
  • Another problem is that in [the] emails section it shows 'company name' field will show as Smartrecruiters vs. the name of our agency that will make confuse to [candidates]
  • Major problem of this is that it does not support api in the free version
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Likelihood to Renew
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
I thoroughly enjoy using SmartRecruiters and have shared this feedback with those responsible, however I am not a decision maker in the process. I understand that at the moment there are lots of factors affecting the economy and business outcomes, so I cannot comment with certainty on the renewal of SmartRecruiters at this time, not involved in the confirmation of renewal.
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Usability
For End-users it is exceptionally easy to use. There is admittedly a steep curve for admins, but simply because there is so much that is truly possible with the system. Cornerstone has been updating many features in recent years, though, which have been moving overall usability in a favorable direction.
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I would give this rating as overall it a great combo of all your problems. With just one click you can get away with all your problems such as recruitment, candidate update, Interview scheduling, updating candidates, reports of a job perspective, and recruiters perspective. Usability is worth of SmartRecruiters. The dashboard is also very attractive and once you open you will love working on this platform again and again. I would say it is the best platform to use once for smooth work in your organization.
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Reliability and Availability
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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Rarely is there an issue and if the product is down, it typically is restored quickly.
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Performance
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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I have no complaints about performance. The system works virtually flawless.
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Support Rating
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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Response is normally very fast. There are times, however, when the response is not useful. It is difficult to work with the reporting and the offer letter templates, and the front line support agents usually are not very knowledgeable. Second, if there are any issues with integrations, the regular support agents will not be able to help you. You'll have to create that ticket and ask them to escalate it to an integration specialist.
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In-Person Training
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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Quick and easy to learn.
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Online Training
Overall our rep changed a handful of times during our LMS switchover, which made the training inconsistent. They offer a large amount of online training not specific for what we were looking for at the time, but we were able to make it work
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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It really was a painless and easy process to switch to SmartRecruiters.
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Alternatives Considered
We have been with Cornerstone OnDemand for about 7 years now. I do not recall the other products we evaluated at the time, but more recently there was some interest in using Workday as an LMS since that is our HR platform. Their learning platform, however, simply couldn't compete with what Cornerstone OnDemand can give us, especially with our critical need of robust reporting.
Read full review
We previously used SnapHire which required a different account for each of our brands, and SmartRecruiters has been a vast improvement for our business in integrating our brands onto one applicant tracking site. This improves both the recruiter and hiring manager experience, and is much more user-friendly for tracking job approvals and postings, and tracking candidates through their applications.
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Scalability
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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No explanation really, just a great product.
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Return on Investment
  • Our goal is to standardize training across our company and its 5 permanent locations allowing us to build a common culture across the company.
  • Our goal is to be able to push out specific training to our teams which are spread across an enormous geographical area of the United States.
  • We are currently meeting our objectives - in less than three months' time our team members have completed more than 1500 individual courses through Cornerstone OnDemand.
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  • SmartRecruiters has unified the approach of my recruiting team, so everyone is processing their jobs the same way, which gives me the confidence that my payroll system will be loaded correctly.
  • SmartRecruiters has offered me integrations with electronic signatures, background checks, and job boards so that I don't have to manage multiple platforms to see recruitment/hiring information.
  • SmartRecruiters has given me the ability to see at-a-glance how we are doing in recruiting and our application volume to see how well our efforts are working.
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.

SmartRecruiters Screenshots

Screenshot of a candidate experience to  reach, engage, and connect with talent wherever they are.Screenshot of engaged hiring managers empowered by collaboration tools and applicant tracking to drive better hiring decisions.Screenshot of digital offer management, onboarding, and reporting deliver a seamless journey for new hires and recruiters.Screenshot of how SmartRecruiters eases the burden of juggling multiple open roles and hiring large volumes.Screenshot of an example of the routine task automation that frees up hiring teams to focus on making great hires and delivering a better candidate experience.Screenshot of where to find and discover qualified talent while getting the most from the advertising budget.