RedThread Research

Curious about how #GenAI will affect people practices and the tech that supports them? Us too :) Next week, we get to talk to 4 product leaders in the HR tech space. Join us for a panel with: ▶ Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf, COO, retrain.ai ▶ Adam Binnie, Chief Innovation Officer, Visier Inc. ▶ Josh Kamrath, CEO, Bongo ▶ Xabier Ormazabal, GVP, Eightfold These product leaders will touch on topics like: - What HR leaders should be thinking about when developing an AI strategy - Ethical AI use in HR technology - Understanding truth from claim when talking to HR tech vendors Link for registration in the first comment. A special thanks to our #TechConsortium for their support in making this happen! #AITechnology #FutureOfWork #EthicalAI #HRStrategy

Cornerstone OnDemand acquires SkyHive, rounding out their skills offering. This morning, May 22, 2024, Cornerstone announced its acquisition of SkyHive, marking a significant milestone in the rapidly changing skills technology landscape. This move is pretty strategic and hints at Cornerstone's ambition to become the ultimate platform for skills management and workforce planning. We had the opportunity to speak with Cornerstone shortly after the deal had been inked. Some highlights here, with a link to the full article in the comments. Cornerstone's Perspective ▶ It’s a true “get.” Skyhive has been on Cornerstone's wish list for ages. ▶ The Skyhive acquisition completes Cornerstone’s skills platform puzzle. While many vendors specialize in 2 or 3 skills functionalities, this acquisition may make Cornerstone the most complete skills platform we've seen. ▶ They’re still committed to having an open platform. Despite now owning all the critical functionalities for a skills platform, Cornerstone says they’ll remain committed to an open and interoperable platform. RedThread’s Perspective In a nutshell, it's a smart move. It’s poised to make significant waves in the learning and skills tech spaces. Some of the things we’ve noticed about the deal: ▶ Their marketing announcement now makes sense. Cornerstone's recent unifying language probably isn't just talk - they may actually be able to create the platform they say they have. ▶ Integration and harmonization (fancy words for “making things work together”). SkyHive’s normalization and harmonization capabilities can effectively tie Cornerstone's disparate technologies together, allowing the different pieces to share data and “talk” to each other. ▶ They’re likely going after more than just learning. With workforce planning becoming a critical aspect of organizational strategy, integrating labor market data and addressing both the supply and demand sides of skills will be invaluable. ▶ This acquisition fits the trend of consolidation of people practices. In a conversation with our Tech Consortium yesterday, providers told us they now need to convince their traditional buyer – as well as other leaders in different parts of HR, sometimes business functions, and often IT as well - of the need of certain tech. Platforms with functionality all can use makes that easier. To sum up: In essence, Cornerstone has just put a giant exclamation point on its commitment to skills and workforce planning. By integrating SkyHive’s advanced capabilities, Cornerstone strengthens its market position and offers clients a comprehensive solution for navigating the complexities of skills management in the modern workplace. That said, the success of this acquisition will absolutely hinge on Cornerstone's ability to execute effectively and maintain strong partnerships.

Today, Cornerstone announced its new Cornerstone Galaxy platform. You can read the full press release in the link in the comments. This change is a looooooong time coming and needed for a couple of reasons. Reason 1: Cornerstone has been on a buying spree for the past few years, acquiring their competition as well as smaller solutions that expand their reach and functionality. Until now, however, we secretly considered Cornerstone to be more like a holding company. Individual solutions mostly retained their branding and tech stack. While there has been some effort to integrate these acquisitions, the market messaging hasn't been cohesive. Cornerstone Galaxy aims to unify all these solutions into a single platform, leveraging AI to enhance integration and functionality while allowing clients like those using Saba to maintain their existing tech stacks. Reason 2: The new messaging around workforce agility from Cornerstone represents a broader shift we're seeing across tech providers. Instead of focusing solely on an LMS or LXP, this new language taps into conversations happening within organizations about the need for a holistic approach to employee experience. This isn't just about needing an LMS; it's about needing a workforce that is agile enough to adapt to rapid changes. With these shifts, Cornerstone and others are pushing talent leaders to think more expansively about their roles and the tools they need to foster an agile workforce—a top priority for CHROs and CEOs alike. While we haven't yet had a full briefing to unpack this new direction, we're excited to explore what it entails. However, we also have questions: ❓ How deep do these changes go—is it just marketing, or are there substantial backend architectural changes? ❓ What exactly is the role of AI here? At every conference this spring, AI has been a buzzword, but how is it genuinely enhancing the solution? ❓ Is the market ready to pivot from traditional software solutions to those enabling workforce agility, and how will Cornerstone educate them further? ❓ How will Cornerstone help organizations understand and bridge their workforce readiness gaps, especially regarding skills assessments? ❓ To what extent does Cornerstone Extend open up new partnership opportunities beyond content provision? What are your thoughts? Disclosure: Cornerstone is a RedThread Tech Consortium member. #CornerstoneGalaxy #WorkforceAgility

#Skills. Four years ago, when RedThread Research started exploring what skills could do for an organization, it was very hard to find leaders willing to talk to us. That's changed. As tech and data get better, more organizations are embracing a skills mindset and doing some pretty amazing things. On May 8, I get to moderate a panel with 4 of them at TechWolf's event in NYC. where we'll discuss the key aspects of a skills strategy. Who's coming? ▶ Diane Gherson, former CHRO at IBM and board director ▶ Angela LE MATHON, VP People Analytics at GSK ▶ Dan Weiss, VP People Planning and Insights at MetLife ▶ Nick Statler, Managing Director of Talent Acquisition & Talent Management, United Airlines Can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this event!