From Cornerstone Client to Cornerstone Partner…

2020 – a new chapter!

From the start I decided 2020 was going to be a year that I would be bold and make strong decisions on how best to make use of previous transformative experiences. This year is particularly pivotal for me as my daughter is now 3years old so naturally not as dependant on me as she had been the past few years. This opened my eyes to seeking a new challenge.

After spending 6 and a half wonderful years in Professional Services as a client of Cornerstone OnDemand, I decided it was time to build on my expertise using the platform. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to join Northern Star as a Cornerstone Consultant. This was such an exciting leap for me for a few reasons:

  • Initially the thought of stepping out of my comfort zone working with various external clients as opposed to supporting the internal workforce I was used to.
  • Absorbing how different clients use the wide range of Cornerstone on Demand solutions.
  • Supporting clients to optimise their use of such a versatile platform and assisting them with their outsourced admin needs.

Becoming a Cornerstone partner rather than a client…  Could I do this? Imposter syndrome started to kick in…

Fast forward a month and it feels like I am part of the furniture here at Northern Star. I have such a strong cohesion with the team even though I’ve not had the opportunity to meet the majority of them face to face yet. Imagine starting a new role remotely, one week into a nationwide lockdown due to a global pandemic? That is a mouthful and has got to be defined as bold, don’t you think?

Being a former client adds a great perspective to consulting our clients – I can approach initially from a client point of view which really adds to the discovery process of establishing their needs. I underestimated how useful this would be. It’s refreshing to know that my past experience as a client and not just my role as a Cornerstone administrator continually feeds this new role. I am now going beyond my previous experience of supporting and am in a space where I can consult and offer solutions in a client specific way.

In my previous role as a Cornerstone OnDemand learning client I always had a strong focus on process improvement and to work smarter – making our internal administration processes just that bit more efficient to ensure a better experience for the user. To give an example, I worked on a project to decrease incorrect system notifications relating to compliance learning by improving the back-end process of updating data and relevant due dates. Nobody likes unnecessary chaser emails, so reducing these really improved the customer experience. I also had a strong focus to educate users on how best to use the platform through each interaction I had – this increased engagement and spread the word on best practice. This theme of education and improving knowledge is something that I continue to focus on.

It has been humbling and inspiring to see the world as we know it adapt to such an unprecedented time. Supporting our clients when they and their workforces are going through such extreme transitions of change has been an incredibly valuable skill to acquire. Every day I am learning new ways of working – building connections virtually, gaining more insight into how Cornerstone OnDemand products can be adopted and in general more about software as a service across the field. All the time being fed by my invaluable experience as a client, and from that offering tried and tested processes to support our clients with their varying use of the platform.

Looking forwards…

The future holds much, there is a lot to learn and work to do to continue to bolster my growing confidence in consulting our clients. I’m so pleased to be building on my “system champion” foundations and confidently establishing a client base in such a fast-paced environment.

What seems very evident is that life may not go back to “normal” for a very long time after the effects of the pandemic start to dissipate – perhaps ever. This should be viewed as a good thing and something to build on. We can write our own scripts for the “new normal” with no fear as we are so much more resilient than before. Still, I am so proud of joining a team that continually evolves to ensure we are supporting and guiding our varying clients no matter what the world throws at us.

Written by Jaime Wright, Cornerstone Consultant at Northern Star.

Let's work together

We pride ourselves on working collaboratively with our clients, every step of the way. As a team, we work together with you to ensure our solutions fit your requirements 100%.