Lions Eye Institute: Expanding Learning and Performance Capabilities

Lions Eye Institute for Transplant and Research (LEITR) is the only combined eye bank and ocular research center in the world. When LEITR expanded their core business to include tissue bank services, HR realized the nonprofit would also need to expand their workforce—and their talent management capabilities.

Since 2014, LEITR had relied on PiiQ, Cornerstone’s small & medium business solution. “PiiQ had been great for performance, but we had outgrown it when we doubled in size due to an acquisition,” said Meredith. “Our new COO had used Cornerstone at a previous organization, and he thought so highly of it.”

LEITR switched from PiiQ to Cornerstone in 2018. Meredith was initially worried about migrating employee performance review data. “We had a lot of different districts, as well as many new employees who had yet to be added to the system. But Cornerstone gave me a template that provided a way to streamline the documentation, and once I had that, it was pretty much cake.”

During the transition, LEITR also completed a full implementation of Cornerstone Learning within three months. “Cornerstone was on top of it every step of the way, helping us get this program up and running with both the migration templates and ongoing guidance, as well as the self-paced training program for administrators.” said Meredith.

Unified performance and learning within one system. While PiiQ offers an “out of the box” solution for learning and performance, LEITR wanted a more robust and configurable platform. “There’s so much more we can do in Cornerstone, including access to robust reporting capabilities, that we couldn’t in PiiQ,” said Meredith. “We’re all busy and have a hundred things to do in a day. Using Cornerstone makes multitasking so much easier. Everything is just one click away.”

Increased accessibility to compliance training. “We have a 100% compliance rate with users logging in to the system for SOP review and completion,” said Meredith. Cornerstone helped LEITR ensure that all employees, in-house and in the field, have immediate access to more than 276 standard operating procedures (SOPs), as well as FDA documentation. “Tissue banking is one of the industries that uses SOPs every single day. Being able to house all of our SOPs in Cornerstone has worked miracles for us,” said Meredith. “Our field employees can simply access the SOPs on their phones via the Cornerstone Learn app, which has been a great asset.”

Improved visibility with custom reporting. HR can pull custom reports on everything from compliance completions to individual performance goals, all from one system. “The standard reports are good, but when it comes to your own industry, you want to create your own metrics and custom reports,” said Meredith. “Cornerstone makes that easy to do.”

Streamlined new hire administration. When LEITR acquired a new company, the nonprofit brought on 98% of the company’s employees, most of whom were outside the Tampa area. “The acquisition increased our workforce significantly, but Cornerstone made the transition so much easier,” said Meredith. “Putting new employee information into Cornerstone is simple. It’s amazing to be able to customize profiles and match people with their managers.” Cornerstone has also made it easier for HR to assign learning to new employees. “Everything is set up so that new employees automatically receive the right training. It’s so simple. Even if I’m on vacation, people automatically get the curriculum they need. I love that aspect of Cornerstone.”