New deployment automated processes, and provides an integrated experience for employees
Background
The Town of Apex was looking for a sophisticated Talent Management System (TMS) to automate learning and performance processes and provide an integrated experience for employees.
Client
The Town of Apex is a local government in Wake County, North Carolina. The town was established in 1873 and was recently ranked on Time’s list of the nation’s top places to live. With an estimated population of 65,682, Apex is one of the fastest growing municipalities in North Carolina.
Challenge
Apex used multiple systems and platforms to support their existing talent management processes. They managed employee performance through paper-based processes, and teams were siloed across the board with different divisions taking on different evaluation approaches. Additionally, the Town of Apex lacked a centralized platform to guide their 500+ employees on the most efficient path to find internal resources and materials. To help them streamline their talent management processes and optimize their current intranet portal, they needed to find a robust Talent Management System.
Solution
After reviewing several talent management solutions, Town of Apex selected Cornerstone OnDemand as their Talent Management System based on their ability to automate learning and performance processes and streamline their internal systems. After selecting Cornerstone, Town of Apex brought in Educe Group as its implementation partner to guide them through the entire project. Collectively, they decided on a two-phase approach to transform their talent management.
Phase 1
With guidance and advice from Educe, Town of Apex used the Cornerstone Core and Connect functionality to build out an integrated intranet solution for their learning and performance functionality – truly making the system a one-stop shop for employees. They used a combination of Cornerstone’s Connect Communities, Knowledge Bank and Custom Pages to achieve what they were looking to replicate from their former intranet into Cornerstone.
Cornerstone Connect allowed Apex to create several communities, including:
- A benefits center with information on employee benefits
- A PEAK wellness community for health and wellness resources
- A community to showcase employee accomplishments and company events
During Phase 1, Educe helped Town of Apex gather requirements to implement Cornerstone Learning, load users, and deploy single sign-on. They had a successful launch at the end of 2019.
Phase 2
Next, Educe supported Town of Apex through the transformation of their performance management approach. Apex’s primary focus was to standardize the performance review cycle by improving employee performance reviews and goal management. Educe helped Town of Apex set up dynamic performance review tasks to automate the process of pushing out a form for each employee and tracking their six-month marks, in addition to tracking performance feedback throughout the year. The performance implementation went live on July 13, 2020.
Results
Town of Apex was able to decommission their old intranet and have a single system for their employees. Apex employees are now able to take training, reference important documentation, interact with their peers, and track their performance all in one place. Apex has gone the extra mile to leverage Cornerstone Connect as an internal database that empowers employees to collaborate, offer feedback, be recognized for their efforts (with PEAK Performers recognition) and build community across the organization.
Town of Apex has also improved their performance management strategy. The new system allows administrators to track all progress and review results in one central place – creating a standardized review process for the organization.
What’s Next
Town of Apex is continuously looking for ways to expand their system and make it valuable for employees. After go-live, they pushed out their annual performance review and designed several other review processes, including Probationary Reviews and Performance Improvement Plans; these initiatives will be rolled out to users in the next 3 months. Their next objective is to add Cornerstone’s Recruiting module to their overall talent management mix. In the short term, they plan on expanding the learning experience for users by offering additional content offerings through Cornerstone’s Cyber-U platform.
Educe Group’s expertise in Cornerstone functionality assisted us in making the best use of our technology investment. Educe’s management of our Cornerstone implementation helped us to stay on track with our project milestones and set us up for a successful go-live.”
Mary Beth Manville, Human Resources Director
Town of Apex, NC
