Competency Frameworks
Professional competency frameworks: structure and showcase your talent
Jobs evolve fast, skills are now strategic, and talent management can’t rely on gut feel. Building a professional competency framework gives your HR team and line managers a common, objective foundation to recruit, develop and retain your people.
With Actual Talent, this work gains a human and operational dimension—designed to address your real-world challenges.
What is a competency framework?
A competency framework is a structured document that defines, for each role or function in your organisation, the key competencies expected: technical skills, professional behaviours and soft skills. It becomes the shared lens that aligns candidates, employees, managers and HR around the same criteria.
Unlike a job description, which focuses on tasks, the framework centres on the competencies mobilised to perform the work. It helps you assess employees objectively, steer internal mobility and plan the learning needed to anticipate future demand.
In short, it is a people-management tool, a lever for collective performance and a strategic support to guide business transformation.
Why build a competency framework in your organisation?
Creating a framework isn’t an academic exercise. It’s a practical way to steer your talent and de-risk decisions.
It becomes the backbone of your talent strategy—structuring action, supporting confident decisions and showcasing your people.
Sharper hiring: clearly define the competencies for each role and reduce the risk of costly mis-hires.
Smoother internal mobility: compare employees’ skills with role requirements to spot who’s ready to step up.
Targeted learning plans: identify gaps between current and required competencies and invest in training that matters.
Stronger organisational performance: align people around the critical skills that set you apart.
Fairness and transparency: everyone is assessed against the same criteria, building trust in your processes.
The benefits of a well-built framework
A clear, usable framework is a genuine strategic lever. It doesn’t just list skills; it shapes practice and improves performance day to day.
In practice, a well-designed framework becomes a daily reference for managers, HR and employees—linking individual decisions to your wider business strategy.
Better recruitment: evaluate each candidate against precise, role-relevant criteria.
Guided career development: every employee can see strengths, development areas and routes to progress.
Proactive talent management: surface potential and prepare internal moves.
Effective workforce planning: align headcount and skills with today’s and tomorrow’s needs.
Higher engagement: people feel recognised and supported in their careers.
How to build a professional competency framework
A framework that works doesn’t happen by accident. It must be created within a clear, participative structure that reflects the reality of your business. At Actual Talent, we follow a methodical approach that guarantees precision and buy-in.
Step 1 – Analysis & scoping
Define objectives, the roles in scope and project boundaries.
Step 2 – Exploratory interviews
Speak with employees and leaders to surface critical competencies and what the work really involves.
Step 3 – Collaborative workshops
Co-create with your teams to ensure relevance and ownership.
Step 4 – Structuring & levelling
Draft the framework, define proficiency levels and observable indicators.
Step 5 – Validation & integration
Align with existing processes (recruitment, mobility, learning, annual reviews).
Step 6 – Implementation & follow-up
Embed into everyday practice and iterate over time so it stays live and relevant.
These stages produce a concrete, clear and usable framework that speaks to managers, HR and employees alike.
The Actual Talent methodology
Designed for rapid adoption, our method combines co-creation, objectivity and operational deployment.
A participative, human approach focused on your priorities: co-design workshops, on-the-ground interviews and alignment with your strategy. Clear, shared language for HR, leaders and employees.
Tools and methods that make competencies measurable: frameworks structured by proficiency levels, observable indicators, evaluation grids, role benchmarks and inter-rater calibration.
Support from thinking to doing: scoping, co-creation, pilot, training for managers/HR, a practical toolkit (guides, matrices, templates) and a change-management plan.
Integration with your existing tools: compatible formats (Excel/CSV/API), connection to your HRIS/ATS/LMS, and practical use across recruitment, mobility, reward and talent reviews.
Why trust Actual Talent with your framework?
Building a framework is demanding: it must be precise, usable and accepted by all stakeholders. With Actual Talent, you gain a partner who is both expert and pragmatic.
- Proven expertise: over 20 years’ experience in assessment, development and skills management.
- An objective external view: we challenge current practice to ensure a relevant, market-aligned tool.
- Time saved through structure: progress with a clear, efficient approach—without getting lost in complexity.
- A strong human anchor: employees are involved and valued, driving adoption and ownership.
- Ready-to-use outcomes: leave with a robust tool you can apply immediately (mobility, learning, and more).
With Actual Talent, your framework becomes a true strategic lever in service of team performance and growth.
Ready to implement your competency framework?
With Actual Talent, you turn a complex project into a practical accelerator for your teams. We help you structure, objectify and showcase competencies in a simple, human and strategic way.
Speak to our experts today.