Taking a pulse on the state of our industry: Insights uncovered in Q3 at Cornerstone

For 25 years, Cornerstone has been steadfast in our commitment to creating industry-leading learning and talent development technology for thousands of organizations across the globe, because we believe in the value of helping our customers transform their organizations to meet the new challenges of the modern workforce.

In Q3, we used that long-standing experience and our deep insights to help educate and guide our industry toward the future. From a growing customer community to thought-provoking industry research to trend forecasting for the months and year ahead, Q3 was filled with incredible discussions and increased momentum.

Let’s take a deeper look into everything Cornerstone was up to.

Q3 was bittersweet as we rounded out the final leg of our 2024 Connect Live Tour. Making our final stops in Mumbai, Tokyo and Singapore, we continued to enjoy hearing the incredible success stories of our customers, showcasing what’s new and next for Cornerstone in the coming months and year ahead and unpacking some of the most pressing industry challenges and trends that organizations are navigating today.

Cheers to an incredible, successful Connect Live Tour and a huge thank you to all our customers who were a part of it. Big things coming for more customer connection in 2025 – stay tuned!

Customer award wins were the theme of Q3 as we proudly watched and celebrated as a number of our accomplished customers received some well-deserved recognition. Shout out to Cornerstone customers Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) for their Gold Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Award win for Best Program to Improve Individual Development Planning, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited for their Silver ETHRWorld Future Skills Award wins for Excellence in Learning Tech Implementation and Excellence in Learning Experience and Bristlecone for their Gold ETHRWorld Future Skills Award win for L&D Future Leaders.

Join us in a huge round of applause to the entire VCU, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited and Bristlecone teams. It’s an honor to be a partner in their continuous journey to learning and development excellence.

And in even more exciting customer news, we were honored in Q3 to welcome new customers to the Cornerstone family, including:

• ALPLA

• Associated Materials

• BEUMER Maschinenfabrik

• Cisco Systems

• Eckes-Granini Group

• Fairview Health Services

• Glen Raven

• Imagine Learning

• Nippon Sanso Holdings Singapore

• OneAdvanced Computer Software Group

• Pepper Advantage Management

• Senoko Energy

• Telefonica Educación Digital

• Teufelberger Service

• Wacker Chemie AG

And have continued or expanded our valued relationships with:

• Aflac

• Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)

• Enphase Energy

• Esquel Enterprises

• F. Hoffmann-La Roche

• FirstBank

• Guess?

• Kraft Heinz

• La Poste

• NSPCC

• Sandals Resorts

• Sanofi Winthrop Industrie

• Sopra Steria

We relish the opportunity to develop and share our internal research findings, which take a holistic and accurate pulse on where our industry stands today, and where it’s headed tomorrow. We know that skills continue to dominate the conversation, and to best serve our customers, we must keep a close eye on these constantly evolving skills and workplace trends in real-time. This is the only way that we will be able to help our customers forecast and stay competitive in their respective markets.

In Q3, we announced the release of our SkyHive by Cornerstone Global State of the Skills Economy Report, where we provided an in-depth look at the evolving landscape of workforce skills, an analysis of the past five years and indicators for future trends and demand forecasting.

The report revealed a significant 65% increase in job postings related to AI and ML since 2019, with demand for Generative AI roles surging by an incredible 411%. However, the demand for human skills, or soft skills, such as leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence, consistently exceeds the need for digital skills across all regions – globally, human skills are 2X more in demand than digital skills.

The report not only cemented our belief that skills are evolving faster than organizations and individuals can keep pace with but further emphasized that even in the age of AI and digital transformation, the importance of retaining critical human skills across organizations is paramount.

Have you ever wondered about the potential ROI that a workforce agility strategy can have on your organization? Well, thanks to the release of our recently commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, ‘The Total Economic Impact™ of Cornerstone Galaxy,’ you can see a glimpse into that insight and more.

In Q3, Forrester’s study found a potential 443% ROI for customers who adopted Cornerstone Galaxy, a 49% reduction in time to hire, and a 40% decrease in employee time to productivity. Pretty incredible right? What’s more, the Forrester study stated that “After investing in Cornerstone Galaxy, interviewees described a significant transformation in how their organizations managed learning, talent development, and their ability to bridge the workforce readiness gap.”

Now, we know we’re biased, but when it comes to the benefits of a Cornerstone Galaxy investment, we’d say the proof is in the pudding.

If you’re interested in digging into the study further, click here to learn more.

In between data deep dives and trend forecasting, we also found some time to share our latest industry insights, market trends and emerging technologies on the big stage at the 2024 HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. We enjoyed a jam-packed three days of networking with peers, showcasing our latest product demos and presenting our future-forward solutions for powering workforce agility.

Cornerstone leaders like Chief Customer Officer Toya Del Valle, Chief People Officer Carina Cortez, Global VP of Strategic Initiatives Mike Bollinger and General Manager of SkyHive by Cornerstone Sean Hinton all took the stage to present their expert insights – from unpacking the need for companies to forecast emerging critical skills and anticipate future needs to how the widening workforce readiness gap is costing organizations incredible opportunities for growth and attrition.

The event was an incredible opportunity for our leaders, customers and industry peers to connect and imagine new ways to implement innovative talent strategies today.

We strengthened our leadership bench in Q3 with the exciting addition of Michael Pawlyszyn as Cornerstone’s Chief Revenue Officer, Americas.

Michael joined us from SAP SuccessFactors where he served as SVP, Chief Revenue Officer North America. Prior to SAP SuccessFactors, he held sales and strategic leadership positions at Oracle and Salesforce. With nearly three decades of experience in enterprise technology, Michael’s insight will be invaluable in helping Cornerstone bring out the best in our global customer base.

Join us in welcoming Michael to the Cornerstone family!

It was a celebratory quarter as we proudly welcomed a lineup of top-tier industry and analyst recognition for our customer experience, product innovation, executive leadership and company culture, including:

• Constellation Research ShortList™ for Talent Acquisition

• Fall 2024 G2 Reports Leader – Enterprise Learning Experience Platforms (LXP), Enterprise Corporate Learning Management Systems and Highest User Adoption in the Implementation Index in the category of Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

• Fosway 9-Grid™ for Cloud HR – Core Leader

• Great Place to Work Institute India

• Nelson Hall NEAT evaluation (inclusive of the 2024 Skilling, Gen AI and Learning reports) – Leader

• Nucleus Research Talent Management Value Matrix – Leader

• Products that Count Product Leader Awards – Brenda Reid, Cornerstone SVP & GM of Product Management

• Sapient Insights Voice of the Customer Award Badges across nine categories:

• Top 5, Vendor Satisfaction: Learning (Mid-Market/SMB)

• User Experience: Learning (Enterprise)

• User Experience: Learning (Mid-Market/SMB)

• User Experience: Performance (Enterprise)

• Vendor Satisfaction: Learning (Enterprise)

• Vendor Satisfaction: Performance (Enterprise)

• Vendor Satisfaction: Performance (Mid-Market/SMB)

• Vendor Satisfaction: Succession (Enterprise)

• Vendor Satisfaction: Succession (Mid-Market/SMB)

• Training Industry Top 20 Online Learning Library Companies

• Training Magazine Network Choice Awards

And what a jam-packed Q3 it was – filled with customer connections, thoughtful industry insights, new faces and so much more. Check back soon to say farewell to 2024 and see what’s in store next!