Ready for the ‘Big Stay’ era of employee training? A guide to competency frameworks

The pendulum swung back. After the turbulence of the Great Reshuffle, companies are entering the “Big Stay” era, with fewer than 2.1% of workers choosing to leave their jobs.*

Unfortunately, some organizations may take this as a signal to ease up on development initiatives. After all, if employees are already staying, why invest shrinking budgets into upskilling and training? Won’t people learn as they go?

The answer is no — and Henry Ford put it best: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

However, creating the same training for everyone is an outdated (and inefficient) practice. Now, tailored development opportunities that align with team members’ career aspirations are your best bet to drive engagement and job satisfaction — and every company benefits when engagement and satisfaction are higher. You can achieve this by designing competency frameworks based on function and level that chart roadmaps for employee growth. 

With this article, we’ll help you get there: exploring what competency frameworks are, sharing best practices, and discussing how you can create competency frameworks for virtually any role. We’ve even created a free template you can download!

* US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024
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😁 No need to start from scratch when creating a competency framework

‍We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Our downloadable template is editable and shareable so you can get everyone on board with your company-wide development planning.

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What is a competency framework?

A competency framework — also called a skills matrix — outlines the skills, knowledge, experience level, and/or role-specific behaviors required to advance at every level within a company. It allows organizations to create blueprints that all employees can follow to progress to more senior positions, but it also gives them the flexibility to make diagonal or lateral shifts when it suits their career goals. 

Competency frameworks not only provide visualizations that make it easier for team members to plot out their professional development journeys — they also allow employers to create more transparent, development-centered company cultures. See how they simplify the chaos of charting paths for growth at each level in the example below:
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Why are competency frameworks important in the HR world in 2024?

In the “Big Stay” era, professionals are citing greater job satisfaction as the reason they want to stay in their current roles. And if people are sticking around in their jobs, some companies may deprioritize retention initiatives like implementing competency frameworks for employee development. 

However, keep in mind that rapidly advancing technology and new skills requirements urge us to think more strategically about ongoing development.

Take AI as an example: Executives anticipate upskilling nearly 40% of their workforce to keep up with AI innovation. “This is largely because humans need diverse skills — from technical proficiency to human understanding and adaptability in their thinking — to work most effectively alongside AI,” WorldQuadrant founder Igor Tulchinsky shared via the World Economic Forum. That doesn’t even account for other technical skills gaps in cybersecurity, cloud computing, and programming. 

This shift means competency frameworks are vital. They help employees revisit and build core competencies that fuel career growth. They also give HR a clearer view of skills gaps within their organizations, allowing for targeted, impactful training.
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Our free competency framework template

Our customizable template is a solid starting point if you’re evaluating which skills to prioritize or learning how to organize competencies by level. Divided into categories like problem-solving, self-management, project management, and communication, each skill level ranges from learner to expert. 

Download it, make a copy, test it with a couple of your teams, and see how you need to tweak it from there.

👀 Focus on specific skills rather than vague ideas
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Give managers and reports the resources they need to make evaluations and development conversations more productive.

‍👉 Download our competency framework template

3 examples of competency frameworks

Competency frameworks can be broad in scope and outline skill requirements for every role within your organization. But they can also be as detailed as you need them to be, which is particularly useful for more technical or managerial roles. Let’s look at a few examples to illustrate.
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Leadership competency frameworks

Managers and department heads need just as much help defining their roles as anyone. Leadership competencies should highlight skills employees need to move up and improve in management, focusing on the capabilities — rather than personality traits — essential for leadership.

You can design these frameworks to support all the different leadership levels in your company, from new manager to executive.
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Core competency frameworks

If you want to create more uniform performance management and learning processes, you might want to explore core competency frameworks. These resources allow you to define the skills every employee needs to demonstrate to progress to more senior roles.
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Technical competency frameworks

Specialized roles need technical frameworks to identify role-specific skills. Engineers and designers, for instance, have different requirements; frameworks for these roles should be created collaboratively with department heads to ensure relevance. 

Technical competency frameworks can seem particularly overwhelming at first, so coach employees to focus only on one skill at a time when exploring their own development paths.

When using a people enablement platform like Leapsome, managers can integrate feedback into their competency framework analysis. As a result, they can visualize the feedback their reports have received over time (including self-assessments) that relates to each competency — giving better context into each person’s skills development.
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Main benefits of competency frameworks

If transparency and role clarity alone aren’t enough to convince stakeholders, here are other benefits of adopting competency frameworks:

• More intentional performance management cycles — Predefined competencies can guide managers and reports and help them track progress throughout the entire performance management process (not only during formal evaluations). As noted by Charlie Southwell in an article for HR consultancy Let’s Talk Talent: “Grids and models should provide the guide rails that drive high performance within a team, but they should also be inspirational and generate motivation. Instead of pulling them out once a year to give ratings during the annual performance review, make sure they’re the foundation upon which you structure your regular career development check-ins or performance conversations.”
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• ‍More efficient recruitment — Gartner reports that 83% of human resources managers struggle to find professionals who have the skills they’re looking for. That’s likely because they’re hiring before they’ve defined the skills they need for every role, turning the recruitment process into a roll of the dice. Competency frameworks make this easier as they allow recruitment teams to translate skills matrices into clearer job descriptions and interview questions.
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• ‍Improved retention — 76% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. Competency frameworks support an ongoing development culture, empowering employees to take charge of their growth.
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• Better-informed promotions and succession planning — Rather than emphasizing formal qualifications and tenure above all else, competency frameworks allow you to make skills-based promotion decisions. According to Deloitte research, companies using this approach are 107% more likely to place people in the right roles and 98% more successful in retaining high performers.
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Turn development goals into reality with competency frameworks

When employees share that they want more learning and development opportunities, take them seriously. Competency frameworks are the perfect starting point for determining the skills your people need to succeed.

Still, competency frameworks work best alongside streamlined processes for goal setting, performance reviews, training, and compensation. That’s where Leapsome comes in. Our full-stack people enablement platform lets you set collaborative goals, automate your performance management cycle, create customizable learning paths, and hold more data-informed compensation reviews. With these tools in your kit, you can create a culture of continuous development and empowerment, keeping employees engaged and satisfied.
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🛠️ Make employee development effortless

Leapsome helps you identify skills gaps — and gives you the learning, performance management, and feedback tools you need to support your people’s growth.

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