3 ways my HR career prepared me for my customer-facing role

Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a variety of fields. My first role after undergrad was as an elevator sales consultant. After that, I joined the airline industry, and during my time there transitioned from customer care to operations and human resources. And for 15 years now, I’ve worked in HR, leading talent and recruiting teams focused on the tremendous possibility and contributions of people. When I joined Cornerstone over eight years ago, I was able to take my critical HR skills and apply them to a new area for me — customer success. Now, I find myself embarking on the next step in my career as Cornerstone’s Chief Customer Officer. I’m genuinely thrilled about this new role, and honestly, I feel more confident than ever. The combination of skills I’ve learned throughout my career in HR — empathy, grit and perseverance — and the skills I’ve learned serving our customers around the world have enabled me to anticipate their needs. I recently collaborated with some of our customers and colleagues in Paris, and the energy our teams and customers feel for the future is contagious. During my time there, I gained first-hand knowledge from one of our customers, Danone, about their next-level workforce engagement, growth and learning opportunities. I came away from this trip even more passionate about our work and making sure our customers are always at the center. How to be customer-first in your organization I like to think I have a healthy “customer obsession.” I’m always thinking about what Cornerstone can do better as an HR technology provider and advisor to uncover practical ways to turn ideas into realities. As the global workforce and economy brace for more change and challenges ahead, it’s time for every organization to be laser-focused on their customers’ needs and feedback. Based on my experience supporting both HR and customer-facing functions, here are three ways businesses can practice customer-centricity. 1) Be employee-centric first While I might be partial, I truly think running a customer-centric business starts with being employee-centric. The way your people feel about your organization has a lot to do with how they’ll make your customers feel. If you focus exclusively on customers at the expense of employee engagement, satisfaction, growth opportunities and more, ultimately, you’ll be doing your customers a disservice. Choosing to be an employee-centric organization can lead directly to greater customer-centricity in a powerful way. When your people are successful — continuously learning and growing and fulfilled by their jobs — their energy and excitement can come through in every customer interaction. 2) Let feedback inform your strategy, not define it One of my favorite parts of visiting with customers is hearing what they think we can do better. It’s not always easy to have these conversations, but they can prove to be extremely helpful in guiding your strategy. Let me give you an example. Our customers told us that they shouldn’t have to operate in a walled garden. They’re looking for technology solutions that can integrate easily with others, enabling them to have more options when choosing a solution that’s right for them. That feedback was key to why we made a couple of essential acquisitions this year — EdCast and SumTotal. They allow us to provide more choices to our customers and help them use the best technology that’s right for them. I share this as a great example of how customer feedback can lead to impactful change and growth for the business. When a customer is willing to take the time to share valuable feedback, we must listen. But we also must be careful with feedback and avoid the instinctive response to fixevery gripe immediately. Our job as business leaders is to listen, digest and prioritize decisions for the good of the organization and the collective customer base. I encourage us all to listen more than we speak and always be thoughtful in how we react to feedback. 3) Be a strategic advisor for your customers Often when I meet with customers, they’re very interested to know how other Cornerstone customers are using our products — particularly new approaches to new challenges. Customers want to understand whether they might be missing something in their own approach to learning and talent development, and they also want to get ahead of anything they haven’t yet anticipated. These conversations always remind me that our customers aren’t just looking to us for a quick transaction. They see us as experts in our field with knowledge and insights that they don’t have access to themselves. So as HR leaders, we must go beyond delivering products and services to them and excel as strategic advisors who help them unearth their challenges, strategize solutions and achieve their goals. It’s important not to let your advisership wither after the sale. Make an effort to share trends you’re seeing among your customers, share stories of success regularly and schedule a recurring time to discuss challenges and brainstorm new approaches. You’ll gain the advantage of having your finger on the pulse of your customers’ needs, and you’ll be first in line when those needs turn into new opportunities. A customer obsession is worth the work Being a genuinely customer-obsessed organization takes both time and effort. But if you commit to treating your people well, listening to and prioritizing customer feedback, and consistently counseling and advising your customers, you’ll reap the rewards far greater than your investment.

How to build the power skills every employee needs today

You may have heard the buzz about power skills. People often describe them as a rebranding of soft skills or human skills. But they're so much more than that. This new world of work we're all operating in requires a combination of specific soft and hard skills to be successful. Every employee, regardless of business function, should possess these power skills to succeed in this digital transformation age. For many organizations, digital transformation happened in a hurry during lockdowns. Along with virtual working environments came the need for employees to be digitally savvy, better communicators and competent using a suite of collaboration tools, to name a few. But according to a Salesforce 2022 digital skills study, just 25% of respondents labeled themselves "advanced in collaboration technology skills needed specifically for the workplace." Their responses imply that a large majority of workers still feel unprepared for jobs in the digital-first economy. Organizations need to help employees upskill and feel confident that their power skills will help them operate effectively in this new work environment. The birth of power skills Historically, hiring managers emphasized employees' functional capabilities, referred to as hard skills, more than their interpersonal abilities, referred to as soft skills. Hard skills encompass the skills candidates can demonstrate through previous roles, typically based on their resumes. These hard skills can be anything like coding, bookkeeping, graphic design and so much more. And in today's digital, hybrid work environment, some hard skills are no longer just specialties for specific roles. In many cases, they're an expectation that employees across all functions of an organization can analyze data to make strategic decisions. And while these hard skills are necessary to do the job in most instances, many organizations have come to realize they can teach these skills to employees on the job and don't always have to prioritize them as much when hiring. That's when organizations unearthed an emerging need for softer people skills, such as empathy in leadership, strategic thinking and problem-solving. And digital transformation has amplified that need. Teams had to learn to collaborate virtually, and even jobs that required employees to continue operating in person required expanded tech proficiency. There's also an understanding that organizations are more attractive and enjoyable places to work if they're rich in soft skills. There are all kinds of benefits, like increased productivity, improved customer experience and loyalty, better job satisfaction and retention rates, and greater employee confidence and adaptability. We've now entered the era of power skills, the powerful combination of critical functional skills and people skills. Growing interest in power skills from employees across the globe Organizations aren't the only ones gravitating toward this new era of power skills. Employees across industries are increasingly seeking opportunities to develop their power skills. In the first half of 2022, Cornerstone saw more than 1 billion minutes of learning content consumed, with topics related to power skills leading the charge among learner interest. Courses centered around power skills secured four of the top five most-registered courses during this timeframe, reinforcing the growing need for organizations to incorporate these skills to continue to grow their people and organization. Similarly, power skills also claimed leading spots when looking at top self-directed learning courses, top curation subjects and overall learning time. These courses featured topics surrounding productivity, emotional intelligence, teamwork and more. This growing interest in power skills wasn't limited to just one region. At Cornerstone, learners' increased global interest in power skills topics. In EMEA, for example, the top course topics in the first half of 2022 included personal development, communication, productivity, execution and more. The emerging essential power skills Organizations that focus on upskilling employees' power skills have immediately impacted employees' daily function and their organization as a whole. The power skills critical to the work environment today — and tomorrow — include: Communication and teamwork Team building Business writing Intercultural fluency Bias to action and adaptability Emotional intelligence Leadership and management Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging Strategic thinking Critical thinking Problem-solving Coaching and mentoring Productivity and collaboration Computer skills Time management Communication tools (e.g., Slack, Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word) Collaboration tools (e.g., SharePoint, Google Drive, Box) Project management tools (e.g., Asana, Wrike, Jira, Monday, AirTable) Digital and data fluency Digital literacy Data literacy Microsoft Excel Data analysis Cybersecurity literacy Personal development and wellness Work-life balance Stress management Mindfulness Fitness Growth mindset As work continues to evolve, you could say that power skills are replacing the power suit as a linchpin of work. Power skills are a must to position your people to be successful in the future of work and grow with your organization. And no one understands power skills better than Cornerstone. If you want to take your organization's skill building to the next level with critical power skills, check out Cornerstone Content Anytime. You can use these subscriptions to build the power skills you and your people need to succeed today and tomorrow.

Skills Development & Adaptive Learning: What Enterprises are Focused on in 2022

LMS vs. LXP vs. TXP – A Complete Guide to Help You Decide What You Need

The Utility of LMS, LXP, and TXP For many years, the Learning Management System (LMS) has been the foundation of the Learning and Development (L&D) technology. For many years, companies have questioned how technology can be best used to manage their training strategy. And within L&D itself, there were three camps: believers in face-to-face learning, those who were passionate about working with people, and the future-gazing few who loved e-learning tech and claimed that the future was digital. The LMS The “LMS” brought all three worlds together. Training sessions were managed, with enrollments for the classroom captured, joining instructions issued. It also became the place where e-learning could live. The world of L&D became more and more familiar with “SCORM” (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) and other such L&D tech jargon. In essence, there was an acceptance that learning could take the form of both e-learning and in-person learning. As the name suggests, the focus of the LMS was “Management” – the technology-empowered the company to ensure that proper training happened. The current technological landscape has pushed the boundaries of LMS. Yes, there is still the need to manage the required training, but learning is so much more than “training.” The LXP The LXP (Learning Experience Platform) has arisen out of a baseline belief that learning at work is an experience unique for everyone. Just as consumers have freed themselves of the constraints of the television schedule, high street shops, and radio schedules with on-demand services like Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon, corporate learners expect more than a top-down training schedule managed by their bosses. LXPs empowers users to discover content from a variety of sources. They have become popular in suggesting personalized content, recommending third-party articles, index documents, videos, and other digital assets by deploying intelligent methods. The LXP embraces the fact that learning happens all the time in an almost infinite number of modalities. But there is a problem with this. Improving the Learning Experience is excellent (and necessary), but how can companies ensure they push the formal learning? The TXP The next chapter in the saga is the TXP (Talent Experience Platform). The TXP ensures that this improved learner experience aligns with the organization’s goals and the world. Companies today need their employees to develop and learn new skills. The world is changing quicker than ever, with external factors like the pandemic and climate change altering the paradigm for the future of work. The TXP refers to a new employee experience. The end-user is presented with a consolidated platform that maximizes the learning experience and guides the user on required skills related to the company’s unique situation. For example, if your company needs more Data Scientists, the TXP will promote these skills and roles to the current workforce, ensuring that the Talent can change where required. Functional Differences between LMS/LXP/TXP LMS The primary objective of LMS is to distribute e-learning (or face-to-face learning) and administer the company’s internal training. These systems were designed to support critical functions, including registrations, validation workflows, and sign-up sheets for face-to-face training. With the content curated by L&D professionals, it is highly structured, aiding companies in organizing and managing employee learning needs while tracking and managing content consumption. While LMSs offer content and user experience, they facilitate tracking progress and reporting learning performance. Primarily driven by internal Learning Administrators, LMSs don’t allow users to create and consume their content. They are typically management-centric systems for learning focused on business rules, compliance, and other organizational courses. LXP LXPs go above and beyond limited role content to create personalized learning experiences and help users discover new learning opportunities. With LXPs, users are in charge of their learning, not limited to consuming prescribed content. For instance, they house powerful search and personalization functions to screen content from expansive and open-ended repositories. The open-architecture ecosystems and aggregators take learning beyond the company’s repository by integrating with external sources. This delivers better learning experiences and is set up with categorized content, much like streaming platforms, from which users can browse. They are designed to supplement L&D with broader skill development, micro-targeted towards enhancing specific domain/job-related skills. LXPs augment learning interactions by data-driven insightful feedback. This creates a holistic understanding of the impact between learning and on-job performance. With an adaptive learning ecosystem, learners can add new content and decide what to consume and how. Content on LXP can also be learner-generated by collating content from several external service providers for diverse content options. TXP A TXP starts with a user profile similar to social media applications such as LinkedIn. EdCast by Cornerstone's TXP creates an engaging environment using nudges and activities relevant to specific roles, employee journeys, and essential work activities. Our TXP is designed to be conversational. By leveraging videos, short messages, suggestions, chat, and mobile interfaces, the TXP can be seamlessly integrated into the workflow. Additionally, most TXPs, can be combined with existing communication software such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc. Unlike ERP systems, TXPs requires no training. Intuitively designed, the UI is simple, making the end-users aware of the use/feature. Unlike integrated Talent Management systems, TXPs are focused, functional, and innovative.Our TXP can input data from the existing ERP or active directory to access user information without duplicating or replacing existing data. TXPs are built using the cloud, making them highly suited for the current digital landscape. The EdCast by Cornerstone TXP is highly adaptable with responsive interfaces and a well-developed mobile application. By integrating AI into its basic architecture, TXPs grow more intelligent and more predictive with time. Our TXP provides actionable insight by analyzing data gained over several hundred employee journeys allowing for tailored recommendations. TXPs are designed to be fun and easy to use. EdCast by Cornerstone TXP, for instance, has gamification integrated with the form of points, nudges, and recommendations. This allows employees to find other people, share knowledge, communicate, and encourage peers. This will go long in building work LMS vs. LXP vs. TXP. Top-down vs. Bottom-up The critical difference between LMS and LXP is that the LXP empowers employees/users to choose how and what content they want to consume. This fosters social and curation-based learning against the structured, organizational approach of an LMS where the company decides the content. In an LMS, the learning material is assigned to specific employee demographics based on business requirements such as compliance maintenance, responsibilities, onboarding, etc. LMS offers robust tools to help develop skills relevant to the industry or role through structured courses. These formal learning courses are an integral part of corporate L&D. In contrast, LXPs are designed for bite-sized content. This includes videos, podcasts, and animations. LXPs allow employees to contribute, share, or curate content. Additionally, an LXP will enable users to interact and build customized resources by offering learners their choice of content. Training delivered through LXPs delivers immersive learning experiences and is more responsive, personalized, and contextual than traditional LMS. This feature of LXPs has been vital for businesses to foster self-driven learning among employees. A TXP takes care of your organizational learning needs in today’s digital landscape while offering room for employees to independently. Additionally, a TXP allows users to focus on their development and career planning by looking at various courses and selecting them based on relevance and requirement. With business resilience increasingly critical, especially in the wake of the pandemic, assessing team-wide skills is imperative. EdCast by Cornerstone TXP allows organizations to build self-assessment and team assessment tools into the system. The Final Word While LMS will continue to be a necessity among organizations, the road ahead will lead to TXPs growing popular by offering the best of LMS and LXP. EdCast by Cornerstone TXP extends and enhances the capabilities of traditional learning platforms by offering structure while enabling free-form learning. This helps employees understand the value addition they bring to the table while building long-term relationships with the company. Creating an effective TXP instills a sense of meaning, growth, teamwork, and healthy alignment once an employee is settled within the organization. This goes a long way in enhancing the day-to-day employee experience to improve engagement and performance.

The history of Juneteenth – and how to honor it this year

On June 19, 1865, news that the Civil War was over reached Galveston, the capital city of Texas. A brief statement, General Order No. 3, was read aloud. It went like this: The order freed the enslaved Black people of Texas, marking the end of official slavery in the US. The tradition of Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteen) began June 19 of the following year. Despite the historical significance of Juneteenth, it took until June 16, 2021 for President Joe Biden to sign a bill into law, recognizing it as a federal holiday in the United States. Why learning is an essential part of Juneteenth According to research from Deloitte, educational opportunities outside of the standard unconscious bias training are key to driving diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging efforts. Making sure employees understand the history of Juneteenth and the history of being Black in the United States is important for your DEIB efforts because it serves as a reminder of Black Americans’ ongoing pursuit of racial equity and justice. “Being an ally is critically important in this work,” Duane La Bom, chief diversity officer at Cornerstone, said in a recent blog post. “Sometimes allies feel as if they’re supposed to have all the answers, and it’s the exact opposite...An ally is supposed to listen, learn and leverage their strengths and privilege to help when it makes sense.” Celebrating Juneteenth this year Organizations have moved a little faster than the federal government when it comes to recognizing the significance of Juneteenth. In 2020, 48 major organizations made Juneteenth a permanent, paid holiday, including major companies like Spotify, Twitter and Lyft. In addition to giving employees paid time off to celebrate Juneteenth, employers can encourage their people to acknowledge the holiday in other ways. Pull together a list of ways to support or donate to Black Lives Matter movements or other anti-racism initiatives in their local communities Coordinate with local, online Juneteenth events (like festivals, poetry readings, online celebrations or protests) and encourage your employees to attend Remember: When celebrating Juneteenth at your organization this year, there are also 364 other days a year where you can take action to better support your Black employees and the Black community.

Ensuring your organization is future ready: Cornerstone Originals wins 6 Telly Awards

The results are in! Three Cornerstone Originals series — A Seat at the Table, DNA: Sustainability and The Glossary — recently received a combined six Telly Awards. This was the second consecutive year we’ve won Telly Awards. The Telly Awards, for the uninitiated, honor excellence in television and video across all screens. Telly Awards Executive Director Sabrina Dridje stated on their website, “Today, the quality of video work is measured using a new set of values that consider the impact on a global scale. As our community continues the important work of storytelling, it returns with a new perspective rooted in values of innovation, agility, equity, and tenacious creativity.” We joined other 2022 Telly Award winners, The Walt Disney Company, ViacomCBS, GLAAD, Sony Music, The Washington Post and more for excellence in learning content. Go us, but how do these awards help your organization? This year, the Cornerstone Originals series that won Telly Awards covered topics relevant to successful organizations, like Diversity & Inclusion, Workplace Culture, Sustainability and Corporate Training, in innovative and engaging ways. “We are set on breaking down barriers and pushing the envelope in how we deliver authentic, relevant and brief learning content to employees around the world,” said Cornerstone Vice President of Content Summer Salomonsen. The three award-winning series that Salomonsen and her team produced — A Seat at the Table, DNA: Sustainability and The Glossary — are each built to help your organization find success in unique ways. How to have real conversations about DEIB — A Seat at the Table The Cornerstone Original series A Seat at the Table won two gold and two silver Telly Awards this year. In this series, real professionals have honest and authentic discussions about DEIB topics like Asian stereotypes, BLM, ageism, transphobia, mental health, disability and more. To help produce the series, Cornerstone brought on Emmy award-winning producer David Grant as the head of production. Each episode of A Seat at the Table features four non-actors in unscripted, open conversations around sensitive yet critical topics within the workplace. “Nothing is more powerful than a person’s lived experience. Real people sharing their stories and experiences humanizes topics and issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. The roundtable format created a safe space for our participants to engage in constructive conversations. For learners watching, we hope that A Seat at the Table will help build the skill of empathy,” said Cornerstone AVP of Original Content Doug Segers. You can bring the honest, perspective-shifting conversations of A Seat at the Table to your organization through Cornerstone Content Anytime. Building a greener organization – DNA: Sustainability Climate change is a dire situation and fighting it starts with learning and skills development. DNA: Sustainability address the actions organizations and their people can take to do their part directly and won a silver Telly Award for it. The series, part of the larger Digital Native Advancement (DNA) umbrella, can help you and your organization promote recycling in your office, work with people who have different views than yours, make sustainable choices while traveling for work and more. Per Segers, “DNA was our first original series built around teaching interpersonal skills to Gen Z, often referred to as a generation of digital natives. Shorter, episodic learning does become an easier ask than longer-form content when people’s lives are busy. It’s about meeting people where they’re at when competing for their time. It’s important for us to make a variety of types of learning available, taking into consideration which formats and genres are popular and how people are consuming content across devices.” Learn what your organization can do to fight the climate crisis with the DNA: Sustainability courses in Cornerstone Content Anytime. Creating a common language at your organization — The Glossary The Glossary, the Cornerstone Original series focused on defining and contextualizing common terms people hear in the workplace in less than 60 seconds, won one bronze Telly award. According to Segers, “The Glossary was born from conversations over the years with both employees and clients. It is essential for organizations to have a shared vocabulary around common words, helping employees understand their company’s broader strategy and better align with employee and corporate goals. This alignment helps prevent miscommunication and improve cross-functional understanding, leading to increased productivity.” The microlearning courses in The Glossary use memorable icons to contextualize common workplace terms. The combination of visual icons with definitions helps the words stick in learners’ memory and provide them with long-term retention. You can ensure that everyone at your organization knows all the same acronyms, initialisms and other business terms when you bring The Glossary to your Cornerstone’s Content Anytime library. More to come from Cornerstone Originals With new, innovative series coming soon, nothing is stopping Cornerstone Originals from releasing more award-winning caliber content throughout 2022. “Innovation in learning content, combined with our organization’s unique ability to connect learning back to skills, reinforces our fierce dedication to providing customers with resources for creating a more engaged, inclusive, future ready workforce,” said Salomonsen. Learn more about Cornerstone Content today.