22 May 2025
How to upskill your workforce with competency frameworks
Jonny McAlister
Head of Customer Experience
Competency frameworks are a great way to ensure the right people have the right skills across your organisation.
Let’s explore how to upskill your workforce with competency frameworks.
What are competency frameworks?
Competency frameworks are structures that define the skills, knowledge and other attributes that your employees need to perform successfully in their roles. Compiling this information for every role in your organisation is the basis for showing and managing the competencies your organisation values in each role.
A competency framework might also be known as a competency model or capability framework.
What is the purpose of a competency framework?
There are several reasons for using competency frameworks. Some of the main ones are:
Streamlined L&D
With a clear plan of which roles need which competencies, it’s easier to streamline — and even automate — your L&D programme.
Better talent management
Competency frameworks make it easier to develop your people in ways that benefit them and your organisation.
More effective performance management
Competency frameworks create a structure to manage performance and create a culture of continuous improvement.
What are the benefits of a competency framework?
Using competency frameworks to upskill your workforce brings many benefits to an organisation. These include:
Improved staff retention
Competency frameworks help your employees to plan their growth and development within the organisation. Knowing the competencies they need makes it easier to chart their future career progression. This reduces the likelihood of them moving elsewhere.
More effective recruitment
A competency framework makes it easier to make good recruitment decisions. A defined set of competencies for each role informs the job description and assists the selection process. It also streamlines internal recruitment, which can have considerable financial benefits.
More efficient use of resources
Streamlining your L&D and recruitment processes saves time and money. This frees up budget and resources that your organisation can invest in further improvements.
Improved performance and culture
Clarifying the competencies your organisation needs in each role makes them easier to achieve and maintain. This provides a structure to drive continuous improvement and to build the organisational culture you’re working towards.
How to create a competency framework
The starting point for creating a competency framework is a clear idea of the competencies needed for each role. Central to that is a strong understanding of the business goals, objectives and strategy that the framework needs to support.
How easy this process is will depend on what information your organisation already holds. Possible sources of information to build a competency framework include:
HR system
What qualifications, skills and experience do the people currently in the role currently have?
L&D data
Do people who perform well in the role also achieve a specific outcome in particular courses or subject areas?
Managers and employees
Talk to people in each role, or those who manage them, to get their insights on the core competencies needed.
Past recruitment materials
Look at previous recruitment advertisements and job descriptions to see how key competencies for the role are defined, then cross-reference to see if anything was overlooked.
You then need to assign the competencies you’ve identified to each role. This involves defining the skills needed, along with the different competency levels for each skill based on each role and its seniority.
For example, you might have identified that an administrative assistant and a data analyst both need to be competent in the use of spreadsheets, but that the data analyst is likely to need a much higher competency level of that skill in their role.
Implementing a competency framework using an LMS
While it’s possible to implement competency frameworks manually, it is far easier and quicker to do so by using a learning management system. Learning management systems such as Totara Learn, Moodle LMS and Moodle Workplace all include functionality to create or manage competency frameworks.
Managing a competency framework using a learning management system makes it simple to:
Create a framework to organise multiple competences.
Add competencies — the individual items that will sit within your framework.
Set a competency scale to define the importance of each competency to a specific role.
Map competencies to specific roles in your organisation.
Map skills to people in your organisation.
Map competencies to specific achievements, such as course completions, other competencies and manual ratings.
If you also have a performance management system, like Totara Perform, you can:
- Create pathways towards achieving competencies.
- Set different achievement requirements for different ratings of each competency.
- Enable employees and their managers to track progress towards competencies.
Talk to us about competency frameworks
Find out which learning technologies will best support your business goals.
Get in touchUsing competency frameworks for upskilling
With all of the information and infrastructure in place, you can now start upskilling your workforce. There are a few ways you can make this work for your organisation:
Closing skills gaps
By using your competency framework to identify skills gaps, you can target particular employees with specific competencies. This will upskill those employees with skills that your organisation is currently lacking.
An LMS makes it straightforward to find the best candidates to develop the new skills and to make sure you’re equipping the right people with competencies that will support their future career development.
Developing your people
Competency frameworks give a clear overview of what employees need to progress to a more senior position or a different role. This improves employee engagement, offers transparent career development opportunities, and increases staff retention.
You can automate this process to follow logical career paths based on each employee’s current role. Alternatively, employees can train and develop to support their ambitions or prepare for a change of role.
Responding to market changes
Competency frameworks provide an infrastructure to adapt quickly to changing market conditions or business priorities. You can quickly find the best candidates to meet the new requirements and upskill them accordingly.
Find the right technology for your competency frameworks
Talk to our learning technology experts to discuss how the right platform can support your upskilling goals.
