New partnerships with Cornerstone and StaffCircle bring powerful learning and performance management tools to the IRIS ecosystem 

LONDON, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IRIS Software Group (IRIS), a leading global provider of accounting, education, HR, and payroll solutions, has announced new strategic partnerships with Cornerstone OnDemand and StaffCircle to enhance its HR Marketplace offerings. As workforce planning and employee retention rise to the top of the HR agenda, driven by ongoing talent shortages, rising costs, and shifting employee expectations, IRIS is helping businesses meet these challenges head on. These new partnerships offer HR leaders access to powerful, easily integrated tools to boost engagement, performance and development without added complexity. The new partnerships are now live in the IRIS HR Marketplace, giving customers immediate access to comprehensive workforce agility through Cornerstone’s Galaxy platform, and AI-assisted performance management through StaffCircle.

Recent research indicates that 77% of the global workforce is either not engaged or actively disengaged with their workplace, making it difficult for businesses to reach organisational goals. In contrast, businesses with an engaged workforce experience an 18% increase in staff productivity, a 23% increase in profitability, and a 78% decrease in absenteeism. A key driver of engagement is access to meaningful learning and development opportunities, which not only support individual growth but also underpin effective succession planning and long-term employee retention. 

Stephanie Coward, Managing Director for HCM at IRIS, said: “With employee disengagement and retention challenges at an all-time high, businesses need powerful, flexible tools to build and support high-performing teams. Our partnerships with Cornerstone and StaffCircle bring more choice to our HR Marketplace, giving businesses access to cutting-edge workforce management solutions that integrate seamlessly with their existing software. By enabling access to performance and learning platforms in one place, we’re empowering HR leaders to create dynamic environments where employees can grow, contribute and stay.” 

Delivering a complete employee lifecycle solution

Cornerstone enhances IRIS’ capabilities by integrating workforce agility solutions that make it easier for organisations of any size tor sector to elevate their people, support self-directed learning, career mobility, and development. With access to over 51,000 in-demand skills and a vast library of premium content, Cornerstone enables businesses to drive continuous growth, remain competitive, and achieve long-term success. 

“Today’s business challenges can’t be solved with yesterday’s tools. HR leaders need integrated, intelligent solutions that not only respond to talent shifts but anticipate them,” said David Wood, GVP Alliances at Cornerstone. “Together with IRIS and StaffCircle, we’re streamlining that complexity by putting the power of AI-driven development, performance, and skills strategies right at their fingertips. This collaboration brings our workforce agility solutions directly to HR leaders who need them most – delivering immediate value, seamless integration, and the flexibility to grow at pace.” 

Similarly, StaffCircle connects IRIS’ HR offerings with its AI-driven performance management, skills-based development, and real-time engagement tools creating a comprehensive approach to talent management. StaffCircle’s platform enhances career development and succession planning – a top priority for 49% of organisations – by providing tools that help identify high-potential talent, create competency frameworks, and build structured development plans. This enables HR teams to nurture leadership pipelines, foster internal mobility, and ensure long-term business resilience by cultivating the next generation of leaders within the organization.

Mark Seemann, CEO & founder of StaffCircle, said: “Our strategic partnership with IRIS adds significant value to the IRIS ecosystem. Employee Performance and Development are top priorities for customers, and by integrating with a platform as robust and intuitive as StaffCircle, IRIS is equipping HR and L&D leaders with the tools they need to support, grow, and retain their people. Together, we’re enabling smarter, faster decision-making, underpinned by real-time people data.” 

IRIS’ HR Marketplace provides businesses using IRIS Cascade with the opportunity to streamline processes further with unique API integration, developed using IRIS’ own technology – eliminating the need for manually importing and exporting data between systems and mitigating the risk of error, inefficiency, and duplication. IRIS Cascade delivers a fully-integrated, centralised HR and payroll solution, used by more than 260,000 employers and managing 800,000 employees.

Media contact:    
IRIS Software Group    
news@irisglobal.com   

About IRIS Software Group   

Founded in 1978, IRIS Software Group is a global provider of mission-critical, cloud-hosted software solutions and services to more than 100,000 customers across 135 countries. IRIS is a trusted partner to businesses, finance, HR and payroll teams, educational organisations, and accountancy firms of all sizes, providing innovative operational solutions that streamline complex processes, maintain compliance, and unlock growth. Through simplifying, automating and providing insights on everyday mission-critical tasks for organisations of all shapes and sizes, IRIS ensures customers can look forward with certainty and confidence. IRIS is certified as a 2024 Great Place to Work® in the UK, Ireland, India, Romania, Canada and the USA. Follow IRIS on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. More information on its award-winning software solutions can be found here.        

About Cornerstone

Cornerstone powers the potential of organisations and their people to thrive in a changing world. Cornerstone Galaxy, the complete AI platform for workforce agility, meets organisations where they are. With Galaxy, organisations can identify skills gaps and development opportunities, retain and engage top talent, and provide multimodal learning experiences to meet the diverse needs of the modern workforce. More than 7,000 organisations and 140 million users in 186 countries use Cornerstone Galaxy to build high-performing, future-ready organisations and people today. 

About StaffCircle

Founded in 2017, StaffCircle is an award-winning performance management and employee development platform used by 150+ UK and US mid-market businesses. StaffCircle empowers organisations to drive performance, increase engagement, and build strong career pathways through its unified, data-rich platform. More information on StaffCircle’s award-winning software solutions can be found here.

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