Blog Post

Rise above the rest: How Cornerstone Elevate empowers organizations to grow, retain talent and meet employee expectations

Cornerstone Editors

For organizations, staying ahead means more than just keeping pace with the latest consumer trends — it's about actively building a workforce that's agile, engaged and poised to tackle whatever comes next. Workforce agility refers to an organization's ability to adapt its talent pool to meet new demands by shifting priorities quickly and solving unforeseen challenges.

Agility is crucial in today's rapidly evolving landscape — whether in business, education or the public sector — shaped by constant technological advancements, changing market dynamics and diverse consumer expectations. Organizations must stay agile to adapt to these rapid changes and maintain a competitive edge.

So, how do you ensure your employees are equipped for today's challenges while preparing for tomorrow's opportunities?

Deutsche Post DHL Group faced this exact challenge. With over half a million employees worldwide, they needed a solution to reskill and upskill their workforce at scale while ensuring they could maintain agility across their global operations. Workforce agility was critical to their success, allowing employees to take on new roles, respond quickly to market demands, and remain competitive in a fast-moving logistics industry. What’s more, by positioning and promoting internal talent, DHL maintained consistent productivity while significantly reducing its external hiring costs.

Using Cornerstone Elevate, DHL harnessed AI-powered tools to identify skill gaps, personalize development experiences, and guide employees toward their aspirational career paths. This strategic approach created a more dynamic, responsive workforce that met the business's current needs and adapted to future changes.

The takeaway is clear: If you want to transform your top talent into true industry leaders, you need a comprehensive solution that gets you there. With Cornerstone Elevate, you'll be able to grow, retain, and empower your people while navigating the complexities of an ever-changing job market.

What's holding organizations back?

Organizations worldwide face shared challenges. Finding the right talent with the necessary capabilities to fill open roles is increasingly difficult, especially as market disruptions reshape the talent landscape. A lack of visibility into skills and competency gaps across the organization leaves critical positions unfilled, creating a barrier to business growth.

Employees seek fulfillment and want to contribute meaningfully to their organization's mission. By providing clear career pathways and diverse opportunities for advancement — whether traditional or non-linear — organizations empower their employees to grow and thrive. When companies fail to provide these opportunities, dissatisfaction grows, and turnover rates climb. According to SHRM, 77% of employees who left their jobs stated they would have stayed if their employers provided career development.

Compounding these challenges is the impact of disconnected talent development systems, which make it difficult for organizations to manage costs, prove ROI and provide consistent employee experiences. With five generations now working side by side — from Baby Boomers to Gen Z — employees have varying learning preferences. Some thrive on hands-on, project-based experiences, while others prefer structured classroom training or self-directed online courses. This diversity in learning styles creates a complex landscape for organizations aiming to provide effective talent development.

What's the solution?

Cornerstone Elevate addresses these issues head-on by giving you the capabilities you need to accelerate employee growth, foster career mobility and prevent turnover before it happens.

What can you accomplish with Cornerstone Elevate?

Identify and develop top talent faster

Meeting your business objectives starts with aligning employee goals with your organization's needs. Cornerstone Elevate enables you to proactively close capability gaps by connecting performance data with career preferences. By doing so, organizations can make more informed, data-driven decisions that optimize internal mobility and foster employee growth and retention — ultimately building a stronger, more agile workforce prepared to meet future demands. This positions high-potential employees for future roles and builds a more agile workforce, ready to adapt to new challenges.

DHL's CLO remarked, "With Cornerstone, we can track learning and performance in real-time, which helps us focus on coaching and development." This visibility into employee progress is key to their success, allowing them to reduce external recruitment costs by 10%.

Empower employees with personalized career pathways

Employees today expect more from their careers. Cornerstone Elevate delivers personalized, AI-powered recommendations that guide employees toward their aspirational roles through learning, mentorship, and projects. Ongoing development conversations, supported by managers yet driven by employees, align with organizational goals to boost engagement and deepen your internal talent pipeline. In fact, 35% of employees who receive skill development opportunities advance within their organization, contributing to improved retention rates as engaged employees with clear growth paths are more likely to stay.

Create a unified talent ecosystem for maximum agility

Managing multiple, disconnected talent systems drives up operational costs and creates inefficiencies that slow decision-making. Cornerstone Elevate eliminates these silos by consolidating talent processes into one cohesive platform. This integrated ecosystem gives leaders a complete view of their workforce, enabling more precise decision-making and better resource management. By streamlining processes and unifying insights, organizations can respond to evolving business challenges faster and more effectively — while clearly demonstrating the ROI of their talent strategy.

H&S Specialist/L&D Advisor at Vitaco, Leeza Law, emphasizes, “Good performance starts with good development planning. From our perspective, linking learning and performance gives our employees the option to improve and work through the next steps. Employees are automatically prompted to complete their development planning when they’re doing their reviews. They understand what their goals are and what they want to do next in their careers.”

Proven value from industry leaders

Real-world success stories illustrate the benefits of Cornerstone Elevate. For example, Hyatt now has complete visibility into their available talent. Canon saw a marked increase in internal hires after using Cornerstone to access real-time employee resumes and career plans. Similarly, Regions transformed their internal recruiting process by replacing outdated, local spreadsheet data with Cornerstone’s real-time access to employee resumes and career plans, resulting in a significant increase in internal hires and a stronger talent pipeline for key positions.

Ready to elevate your workforce?

Organizations that prioritize their people will lead the way. Cornerstone Elevate stands out as a unified solution designed to address the multifaceted challenges both organizations and their people face today. By integrating various aspects of talent management — performance, talent acquisition and career development — Cornerstone Elevate empowers organizations to effectively navigate workforce dynamics.

This approach reduces costs by streamlining processes and eliminating the inefficiencies of fragmented systems. It bridges competencies and skills gaps by offering tailored learning experiences that align with individual and organizational needs, ensuring employees acquire the capabilities necessary to thrive. Moreover, Cornerstone Elevate fosters career growth by providing clear pathways and development opportunities, helping employees visualize their futures within the organization.

Cornerstone Elevate serves as your key to long-term success, equipping you to cultivate an agile, engaged, and resilient workforce. Investing in this comprehensive solution allows your organization to adapt to changing demands, enhance employee satisfaction, and drive performance.

Don't wait to future-proof your workforce.

Start building a more agile, engaged and resilient team today with Cornerstone Elevate and prepare to face tomorrow's challenges head-on.

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