Dayforce vs Cornerstone OnDemand

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Our analysts compared Dayforce vs Cornerstone OnDemand based on data from our 400+ point analysis of HR Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Dayforce is a cloud-based human capital management (HCM) platform that offers a full suite of tools for managing payroll, workforce management, career development, benefits and HR tasks.

It's a great pick for larger teams looking to streamline onboarding and training with performance management tools that support ongoing career development. Plus, its self-service portal gives employees more independence.

Ranked in the top five on our HR software list, Dayforce stands out as the Best for Reporting and Dashboards. It shines with features like employee engagement, succession management and compensation management.

With tools for workforce insights, personalized coaching, and mobile access, managers can enhance engagement and adapt more efficiently, which helps cut down on turnover and anticipate trends. Mobile time-tracking tablets and time clocks help minimize errors and ensure more accurate payroll.

The platform offers customizable dashboards, automated payroll calculations, centralized employee info and engagement tracking. Users love its intuitive, easy-to-use design and self-service options that lighten the admin load. However, some find the reporting feature a bit tricky; while reports are customizable, getting them set up can be complex.

Pricing varies based on the number of users and chosen modules, generally falling between $6 and $12 per employee per month, which is mid-range compared to other options out there.

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Cornerstone OnDemand is a cloud-based talent and performance management product. Together with its subsidiaries, it helps companies cater to their people development and management needs, handling the employee lifecycle from start to end. Five modules support recruiting, learning, performance and content management. It can be accessed from anywhere at any time, regardless of the user’s location or device type.
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$6/Employee, Monthly
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Product Assistance

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24/7 Live Support
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Product Insights

  • Centralize Records: Store all your documents in a secure repository, using filters to easily find the forms you need. You can also monitor and manage compensation levels, performance metrics, and org charts. Dayforce’s document management gets an 81 out of 100, according to our data.
  • Improve Payroll Accuracy: Reduce timesheet errors for more accurate payroll processing. While payroll management scores a 75, Dayforce payroll calculates pay in real time as it's recorded, giving admins continuous data throughout the pay period and providing more time for verification, review and audits.
  • Enhance Engagement: Promote stronger team engagement and communication with TeamRelate. Managers can track employee engagement daily, tailor coaching, and gauge employee communication styles and motivators through surveys. Its employee engagement tools come in at a perfect 100.
  • Navigate Compliance: Access real-time information on all legislative rules globally, including monitoring regulations in over 200 countries, to ensure compliance. Configure what the system monitors based on specific needs.
  • Work Flexibly: Update availability, check schedules and submit time-off requests on the go. Users can preview earnings, clock in and out, and view the People Directory to contact coworkers.
  • Boost Communication: Enhance communication by highlighting managers and colleagues in interactive org charts. Build and arrange employees based on the company’s structure and hierarchy.
  • Manage Time and Time Off: Replace punch clocks with tablets offering accurate time and attendance information. Employees can record time, request time off or trade shifts, and view schedules via the mobile app.
  • View Workforce Insights: Track critical organizational indicators like turnover by location and age to understand operational trends.
  • Ease Benefits Management: Simplify benefits enrollment with side-by-side plan comparisons and smart recommendations. Employees can update their coverage via self-service.
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  • Attract the Right Talent: Showcase brand values and company culture via interactive media. An intuitive application mechanism, along with creative media, helps attract more quality job seekers and brings the right talent. 
  • Identify the Best Fit: Talent managers have a comprehensive view of the talent pool. They can receive suggestions and analyze candidates based on set requisition criteria to identify the best fit applicants. 
  • Simplified Hiring Process: Create automated workflows that simplify hiring procedures. Leverage detailed insights in a central place for candidate requisition purposes. 
  • Effective Employee Onboarding: Talent managers can create customized onboarding portals for hiring. Having a tailor-made, self-paced and interactive content platform helps eliminate challenges associated with onboarding. 
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Track employee performance and visualize data with configurable analytics to make faster and more informed decisions. 
  • Optimized Employee Training: Provide a modern and optimized learning experience with automated assignments, optional and recommended content, powerful searching, self-driven browsing for employee development and more. 
  • On-Going Performance Development: Engage, inspire, motivate and coach employees to improve performance, achieve organizational alignment and build business agility. 
  • Easy Deployment: Easily deploy content in any form, like interactive assignments, quizzes, videos and more, using self-developed content or content curated by Cornerstone OnDemand. 
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  • Core HR: Centralize employee info, manage performance, carry out recruiting, oversee payroll and get reports for data-driven decision-making.
  • Employee Self-Service (ESS): Let users enroll in benefits, view pay details, update personal information, access learning resources and stay current on announcements.
  • Payroll: Roll out a variety of payroll tasks, including tax management, employee verification and data entry for unique situations like retroactive payments. Dashboards provide insights and reporting tools support payroll reconciliation.
  • Benefits: Fast track enrollment by letting employees independently enroll for coverage. Admins can access enrollment totals, a library of qualification rules, on-demand calculations and streamlined COBRA management. It also integrates with hundreds of carriers and incorporates features to ensure ACA compliance.
  • Talent Management: Manage every phase of an employee lifecycle, from recruiting and onboarding to succession planning. Track performance in a holistic view, plan budgets effectively and reskill current employees with AI talent tools.
  • Workforce Management: Process payroll, manage sick days or vacation time, and view reports on key trends like spending for proactive planning.
  • Compliance Support: Safeguard sensitive information with role-based access and ease multi-jurisdictional tax filings with tax services for federal, state and local jurisdictions.
  • Customer Support: Get help with questions and concerns through live chat or phone. Access additional resources on the website like the help center and webinars.
  • Dayforce Wallet: Provide employees access to their earned wages before payday. This flexibility improves financial wellness and reduces employee stress associated with waiting for a paycheck. It also provides functionalities such as budgeting tools and financial planning resources. Note: The amount available depends on completed shifts and standard transfer time is between 1-3 business days. Faster transfers require additional fees.
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  • Enable an Integrated Ecosystem: Select from a range of pre-built integrations and quickly plug in to the most suitable choice. Having an integrated and holistic ecosystem helps support organizational needs effectively. 
  • Applicant Experience: Recruiting tools include applicant tracking and an easy-to-configure website that help improve the overall experience of applicants. 
  • Learning Management: Offers numerous learning experiences. Consists of informal learning, delivery method management and reporting, all in one place. 
  • Machine Learning: Recommends content to learners, helping them improve self-driven development via quality content. 
  • Robust Partner Ecosystem: Helps extend the life of systems existing at partner organizations, minimizes disruption, and maintains effective localizations and customizations. 
  • Audit Insights: Supports administering and auditing employee record changes. Audits are carried out with minimal risk and aim to align talent management to the organization's talent strategy. 
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Product Ranking

#9

among all
HR Management Software

#26

among all
HR Management Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

79
73
64
96
78
42
88
70
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Availability and Scalability
Employee Engagement
Platform Security
Reporting and Dashboard
Succession Management
Availability and Scalability
Employee Engagement
Learning Management
Succession Management
Performance Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Dayforce
Cornerstone OnDemand
+ Add Product + Add Product
Applicant Tracking And Recruiting Benefits Management Compensation Management Document Management Employee Engagement Employee Onboarding And Administration Employee Self Service Learning Management Payroll Management Performance Management Platform Capabilities Reporting And Dashboard Succession Management Time And Attendance Management Workforce Management 64 78 88 81 100 74 78 82 75 83 86 100 100 87 90 96 42 70 93 100 85 67 100 64 98 86 92 100 45 65 0 25 50 75 100
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91%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Dayforce
Cornerstone OnDemand
+ Add Product + Add Product
Availability And Scalability Deployment Options Integrations And Extensibility Mobile Platform Security 100 50 61 100 100 50 42 92 0 25 50 75 100
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83%
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17%

Analyst Ratings for Vendor Qualification Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 3463 reviews
Great User Sentiment 1252 reviews
85%
of users recommend this product

Dayforce has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 85% when considering 3463 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

84%
of users recommend this product

Cornerstone OnDemand has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 1252 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (24)
5.0 (21)
4.2 (792)
4.1 (464)
n/a
4.3 (211)
4.3 (969)
n/a
4.6 (541)
4.3 (157)
4.0 (1137)
4.2 (399)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Dayforce and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Employee Engagement, Reporting and Dashboard and Succession Management.

Employee Engagement Award
Reporting and Dashboard Award
Succession Management Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Cornerstone OnDemand and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Employee Engagement, Learning Management and Succession Management.

Employee Engagement Award
Learning Management Award
Succession Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Easy PTO Tracking: Dayforce simplifies requesting and viewing PTO and tracking employee hours.
User-Friendly Interface and Features: Dayforce receives praise for being easy to set up and navigate.
Comprehensive: Dayforce is effective for managing payroll, benefits, and workforce management (WFM), providing real-time data and streamlined record-keeping. Custom reporting, time management and compensation planning are highlighted as strong features.
Consistency: The system integrates well across various functions such as HR, payroll, and time management, helping to consolidate processes and improve efficiency.
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Reporting: The reporting feature is simple to use and intuitive, with several options to choose from, according to 90% of reviews on reporting.
Robust Learning Module: It constantly stays up-to-date with the latest and effective learning trends to provide a better user experience, as indicated by 100% of reviews mentioning learning features.
All-in-One Solution: Cornerstone OnDemand is a complete solution for all performance management needs of companies in all industries, according to all reviews on this aspect.
Regular Updates: The platform consistently releases updates to serve users better, according to all reviews on software updates.
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Reporting: Report creation can be cumbersome and not very user-friendly. The ability to convert fixed reports into customizable formats and access more diverse formats is limited.
Outdated Employee Self-Service: Some users found this feature outdated without improved auditing and traceability features for payroll elections.
Frequent Updates: Some updates lead to slow down and create a learning curve for some users.
Implementation Process: Users reported implementation can have high up-front costs, take longer than expected and cause frustration.
Customer Support: Users experienced long response times and additional fees.
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Customer Service: All reviews on customer service indicated that the response and resolution times are slow.
Learning Curve: According to 80% of reviews on this feature, there’s a steep learning curve and adapting to the system is time-consuming and complex for new users.
Mobile App: It has a slow and underdeveloped mobile app compared to the web platform, according to all reviews referring to this feature.
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Dayforce, a popular AI-powered HCM solution, caters to businesses across various industries on a global scale. It’s perfect for large teams and companies needing a scalable and adaptable platform. Most of its features are user-friendly, making it relatively easy to learn and navigate.Dayforce stands out with its mobile time-off requests, smart benefit enrollment recommendations, TeamRelate, Dayforce Wallet and automated payroll calculations. It also offers robust support for day-to-day operations, including reports and dashboards, org charts, shift trades, and compliance.The mobile app and self-service platform give employees the freedom to handle tasks like accessing pay stubs, viewing schedules, and submitting time-off requests independently, which reduces the need for admin intervention.Dayforce tackles common HR challenges like managing varied payroll and compliance needs, dealing with tricky reporting, and making employee self-service easier. While users appreciate its mobile features and schedule management, they’ve mentioned that reporting can be a bit complex and time-consuming, sometimes leading to long waits for customer support.The demo reveals a comprehensive hub serving as a centralized dashboard, providing news updates, team objectives, pending tasks, and recommended applications like performance management and recruiting.Personally, I thought the scheduling module looked a little cluttered/complicated for beginners, but you can use filters to narrow down results and make it look less busy/cleaner.Payroll processing demands a hawk's eye when it comes to details. I thought Dayforce had a reasonably straightforward payroll design.Engagement surveys offer compact insights into employee sentiment and effectiveness, while customizable dashboards and scorecards display key metrics on workforce dynamics, such as availability, recruitment metrics, and turnover rates.Automated alerts and integration with job boards enhance recruiting, and self-service features support career development, HR and benefits enrollment.The chatbot provided a brief welcome and directed me to the Help Center after I chose support. The chat ended there, and I encountered the issue of the conversation not clearing when the page was reopened.Pricing is competitive, based on user numbers and selected modules (charged per month).Overall, Dayforce is a comprehensive HCM software that effectively supports managing people, pay and compliance.

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Cornerstone OnDemand’s cloud-based talent and performance management solutions deliver robust learning capabilities alongside comprehensive performance tools. Slow customer service, a steep learning curve and an underdeveloped mobile application are some of the most repeated cons among user feedback. However, users thought highly of its regular updates and simple, intuitive reporting. Those, along with the learning and performance features make it a good option for companies with a high priority in those particular areas.

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Screenshots

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