Migrate your Cornerstone Recruiting data
Enterprise ATS and recruiting module within Cornerstone OnDemand's unified HCM suite, built for organizations scaling from 1,000 to 50,000 employees across global markets.
In its favor
Why people choose Cornerstone Recruiting
The signal that keeps Cornerstone Recruiting on the shortlist. Sourced from G2, Capterra, and customer scoping calls.
Cornerstone Recruiting integrates natively with Cornerstone's full HCM suite, providing continuity from hire through performance and learning within a single vendor relationship.
The platform scales to 50,000+ employees and supports organizations operating across 180 countries with locale-aware configurations and global compliance features.
Organizations value the configurable career sites, social recruiting tools, and employment branding features that improve candidate experience and reduce time-to-fill.
The ATS module offers configurable workflows and pipeline stages that adapt to different hiring processes across business units and geographies.
Cornerstone OnDemand's acquisition by Clearlake Capital in 2021 brought renewed investment in the platform's AI-driven skills intelligence and analytics capabilities.
Subscription costs escalate significantly as organizations add user licenses and modules, prompting mid-market companies to seek lower-cost alternatives.
The breadth of the HCM suite creates complexity for teams that only need an ATS without the full learning, performance, or workforce management stack.
Configuration and administration require dedicated resources, and organizations without dedicated HR IT staff report difficulty maintaining custom setups over time.
Integration with third-party payroll and HR systems outside the Cornerstone ecosystem can require custom connector development or workarounds.
Time-to-hire metrics remain a pain point for organizations seeking faster recruiting cycles, especially when the ATS workflow configuration adds steps to already complex hiring processes.
Reasons to switch
Why people leave Cornerstone Recruiting
The recurring reasons buyers give for replacing Cornerstone Recruiting. Presented as facts, not knocks.
Platform scorecard
Strengths, weaknesses, and where Cornerstone Recruiting fits
Grades across six dimensions, plus a SWOT-style view of where the platform shines and where it falls short.
SWOT — strengths, weaknesses, and use-case fit
Strengths
Weaknesses
Where it works
Where it struggles
Pricing tiers
Cornerstone Recruiting pricing overview
Cornerstone OnDemand uses a subscription-based pricing model structured around organization size, user license count, and selected modules. Pricing is custom-quoted and not publicly available; organizations selecting the full HCM suite with Recruiting, Learning, Performance, and Workforce Planning modules pay significantly more than those licensing the ATS module alone.
Recruiting Module (per-employee-per-month)
Tier 1 of 3
~$6-10 PEPM (typical range for individual module)
What's included
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Book a free 30 minute consultationPricing is informational. FlitStack AI does not bill on Cornerstone Recruiting's schedule — see our quote-based pricing →
What gets migrated
Cornerstone Recruiting object support
Object-by-object support for Cornerstone Recruiting migrations. Per-pair details surface during scoping.
Job Requisitions
Fully supportedRequisitions are the primary recruiting object, exposing fields like RequisitionId, RequisitionName, PositionId, and DivisionId. The GET Requisition API returns full requisition metadata including custom fields. We pull all active and historical requisitions at the org level.
Candidates
Fully supportedCandidates represent persistent profile information across applications. The Candidate object includes Name, Email, Phone, Address, and Ethnicity fields. A single candidate can have multiple applications across different jobs. We migrate candidates by email deduplication logic.
Job Applicants
Fully supportedJob Applicants are the intersection of a Candidate and a specific Requisition. The JobApplicant object includes ApplicationReceivedDateLocal, AverageRating, CandidateType, and PositionId. We preserve the applicant record alongside its parent candidate and requisition.
Applications
Mapping requiredApplications link candidates to requisitions with their own workflow status. The Application Workflow API manages stage progression. We map application status values to destination equivalents, noting that Cornerstone's workflow states are configurable per organization.
Custom Fields
Mapping requiredBoth requisitions and applications support custom fields defined by the organization. Custom field definitions are returned by the GET Job Requisition Custom Field API. We retrieve the schema per portal and map custom field values to destination properties, excluding sensitive PII fields which the Bulk API does not support loading.
Organizational Units (OUs)
Mapping requiredCornerstone organizes data through OUs: Cost Center, Division, Grade, Legal Entity, Location, Position, and custom types. The Bulk API schema endpoint returns all valid OU types. We map source OUs to the destination system's equivalent structure, flagging unmapped or custom OUs for manual review.
Attachments
Fully supportedResume files, cover letters, and supporting documents attach to candidate profiles and applications. The Attachment API returns file metadata. We extract attachments and re-associate them with migrated candidate and application records in the destination.
Application Workflows
Mapping requiredApplication Workflows define stage progression through the hiring process. The GET Application Workflow API retrieves workflow states and transitions. Workflow stages are portal-specific, so we map them to destination stages and flag custom stages that require manual reassignment.
Employee Records (post-hire)
Mapping requiredOnce a candidate is hired, the record transitions to Core HR as an Employee. Employee records include employment status, compensation history, and manager assignment. We map Employee data to the destination HR system, respecting the effective-date status fields.
Sensitive PII Fields
Not in this platformThe Cornerstone Bulk API explicitly does not support loading data to secure custom fields and sensitive personally identifiable information (SPII) fields. We do not attempt bulk migration of these fields and flag their presence for manual post-migration review and re-entry.
| Object | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Job Requisitions | Fully supported | Requisitions are the primary recruiting object, exposing fields like RequisitionId, RequisitionName, PositionId, and DivisionId. The GET Requisition API returns full requisition metadata including custom fields. We pull all active and historical requisitions at the org level. |
| Candidates | Fully supported | Candidates represent persistent profile information across applications. The Candidate object includes Name, Email, Phone, Address, and Ethnicity fields. A single candidate can have multiple applications across different jobs. We migrate candidates by email deduplication logic. |
| Job Applicants | Fully supported | Job Applicants are the intersection of a Candidate and a specific Requisition. The JobApplicant object includes ApplicationReceivedDateLocal, AverageRating, CandidateType, and PositionId. We preserve the applicant record alongside its parent candidate and requisition. |
| Applications | Mapping required | Applications link candidates to requisitions with their own workflow status. The Application Workflow API manages stage progression. We map application status values to destination equivalents, noting that Cornerstone's workflow states are configurable per organization. |
| Custom Fields | Mapping required | Both requisitions and applications support custom fields defined by the organization. Custom field definitions are returned by the GET Job Requisition Custom Field API. We retrieve the schema per portal and map custom field values to destination properties, excluding sensitive PII fields which the Bulk API does not support loading. |
| Organizational Units (OUs) | Mapping required | Cornerstone organizes data through OUs: Cost Center, Division, Grade, Legal Entity, Location, Position, and custom types. The Bulk API schema endpoint returns all valid OU types. We map source OUs to the destination system's equivalent structure, flagging unmapped or custom OUs for manual review. |
| Attachments | Fully supported | Resume files, cover letters, and supporting documents attach to candidate profiles and applications. The Attachment API returns file metadata. We extract attachments and re-associate them with migrated candidate and application records in the destination. |
| Application Workflows | Mapping required | Application Workflows define stage progression through the hiring process. The GET Application Workflow API retrieves workflow states and transitions. Workflow stages are portal-specific, so we map them to destination stages and flag custom stages that require manual reassignment. |
| Employee Records (post-hire) | Mapping required | Once a candidate is hired, the record transitions to Core HR as an Employee. Employee records include employment status, compensation history, and manager assignment. We map Employee data to the destination HR system, respecting the effective-date status fields. |
| Sensitive PII Fields | Not in this platform | The Cornerstone Bulk API explicitly does not support loading data to secure custom fields and sensitive personally identifiable information (SPII) fields. We do not attempt bulk migration of these fields and flag their presence for manual post-migration review and re-entry. |
Gotchas
What to watch for in Cornerstone Recruiting migrations
Issues we've hit on past Cornerstone Recruiting migrations, tagged by severity. FlitStack AI handles every one — surfacing them up front because buyer engineering teams want to know.
Sensitive PII fields are excluded from Bulk API loads
Portal-specific corpname drives all API endpoints
Throttling limit of 417 requests per minute applies across all Foundational APIs
LoadPrimaryKey setting determines employee identifier behavior
New employees get default password or no password if backend setting is absent
| Severity | Issue |
|---|---|
| High | Sensitive PII fields are excluded from Bulk API loads |
| High | Portal-specific corpname drives all API endpoints |
| Medium | Throttling limit of 417 requests per minute applies across all Foundational APIs |
| Medium | LoadPrimaryKey setting determines employee identifier behavior |
| Low | New employees get default password or no password if backend setting is absent |
Leaving Cornerstone Recruiting?
Where Cornerstone Recruiting customers move next
5 destinations Cornerstone Recruiting can migrate to.
How a Cornerstone Recruiting migration works
Four steps, Cornerstone Recruiting-specific
Connect
API key (Bearer token via services authentication) into Cornerstone Recruiting. Scopes limited to read-only on the data we move.
Map
We translate Cornerstone Recruiting-specific structures (custom fields, objects, value lists) to the destination's model.
Sample
Test with a 50–200 record subset to validate Cornerstone Recruiting quirks before production.
Migrate
Full migration with Cornerstone Recruiting rate-limit handling. Rollback available throughout.
FAQ
Cornerstone Recruiting migration FAQ
Answers to the questions buyers ask most during Cornerstone Recruiting migration scoping. Not seeing yours? Book a call.
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