Think of a competency framework as the blueprint for a high-performing team; it ensures everyone has the right skills and attributes to build something brilliant. Without it, you’re essentially assembling flat-pack furniture without the instructions—it’s frustrating, time-consuming, and likely to end in disaster.
With remote work becoming the norm, skill demands constantly evolving, and innovation knocking on your door every day, with the need for data-driven decision-making, it’s clear organisations need to make sure their teams are armed with the right skills and attributes to adapt and thrive. A well-designed competency framework is the Swiss Army knife of leadership; it helps senior leaders invest in training, make fair promotion calls, and build a strong leadership pipeline, all while sidestepping those costly hiring mistakes.
The numbers speak for themselves—organisations implementing competency frameworks have seen turnover drop by 30%, productivity jump by 17%, and employee engagement increase by 32%. No wonder 69% of employers support industry-led frameworks! Bottom line? Companies with solid frameworks don’t just survive, they thrive!
Building a competency framework might not sound like the most thrilling task at first, but trust us, do it right, and it can be a game-changer for your organisation. The right framework allows you to hire smarter, develop talent effectively, and create a thriving workplace culture.
But here’s the catch: is a competency framework really what you need? Have you thought about capability frameworks, behavioural frameworks, cultural frameworks, as ensuring the right approach ensures you are empowered to get, keep, and grow brilliant people. If you’re unsure where to start, don’t panic; we’re here to help!
What Makes For A Great Competency Framework?
A well-designed competency framework should align with your strategic goals, whether that’s boosting performance, strengthening company culture, or guiding career development. That’s why we use a future-back approach, starting with where you want to be and working backward to build a framework that gets you there. At its core, a great competency framework defines both the WHAT (skills) and the HOW (attributes), combining them with the right training and relationships to create a structured, fair, and effective employee experience. Our STAR model ensures your people initiatives, from recruitment and onboarding to development and succession planning, are all connected and driving real business success.
We have our fair share of working with and building competency frameworks that drive real impact and growth. By making the complex simple and actionable, we ensure these frameworks are your golden thread that connects performance, progression, and potential. If you want to learn how to translate your ambitious strategies into practical and impactful actions, this blog is for you.
But, like any big project, there’s a right way, and a very wrong way, and speaking from experience, we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. To help you steer clear of common pitfalls, we’ve put together some essential do’s and don’ts for building a competency framework that actually works. Let’s dive in!
The Do’s and Don’ts of Building a Great Competency Framework
1. DO: Get Everyone Involved from the Start
A competency framework shouldn’t be something HR develops in isolation. If you want it to be truly valuable (and not just another tick-box exercise), get your team, managers, employees, and even external experts involved early on. Think of it like planning a road trip; rather than just getting everyone on the bus and heading off, get people involved in the planning, do some maintenance on the bus, make sure it’s ready for the trip.
Gather insights through surveys, interviews, and workshops to understand what skills genuinely drive success in different roles. And just as important, create a safe space for honest feedback. Employees need to feel comfortable giving honest feedback, knowing it won’t come back to haunt them. The more open and confidential the process, the more useful (and real) the input will be! If your team struggles to provide honest feedback, utilising third parties is a great way to bridge the psychological safety gap. If you are intrigued to find out how, Yvette talks about how to do it in her Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety blog.
DON’T: Build It in a Bubble
If your framework is developed without input from the people who will use it, don’t be surprised if it falls flat. A top-down approach often results in something that feels detached from reality. If employees don’t see the relevance, they’ll treat it like that gym membership they swore they’d use—enthusiastic at first, forgotten within weeks.
To make sure your framework actually lands, socialise it properly. Host town halls, working sessions, webinars, and provide real training on how to use it, so that you get people on board. The earlier you involve your team, the better. Remember, collaboration, not command.
2. DO: Align Competencies with Your Business Goals
Your competency framework should be like a business GPS, guiding everyone in the right direction. Think about where you’re headed, what skills and behaviours will enable you to get there without making a wrong turn? When your framework is aligned with your long-term objectives, it’s not just another document collecting dust; it becomes a powerful tool for growth and success.
Your Competency Framework needs to be flexible, future-proof, and ready to evolve as your organisation grows. To ensure alignment, get buy-in from those closest to the strategy and its implementation—the ones who know where the company is going (and ideally won’t send you on a detour). Their support will help your team see why this framework matters, rather than dismissing it as another corporate fad. After all, the best frameworks aren’t just well-designed, they’re well-used!
DON’T: Copy and Paste Generic Frameworks
We get it—creating a competency framework from scratch takes time, and the idea of borrowing one from someone else might seem like a quick win. But what works for them won’t necessarily work for you. Every organisation has its own unique culture, goals, and ways of working, and a one-size-fits-all approach will never fit quite right.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t take inspiration from other organisations. Benchmarking from across industry can be a useful exercise, but don’t fall into the trap of blindly following their lead. If a competency framework isn’t personalised to your business, no amount of tweaking, stretching, or wishful thinking will make it truly effective. Instead, invest the time to build something that genuinely reflects your company’s DNA; this will ensure you create something that drives impact across your employee experience. Benchmarking is something you don’t need to do yourself; ask us how we use our vast network to get you the most up-to-date framework trends.
3. DO: Keep It Simple!
A great competency framework should be easy to understand, easy to use, and, most importantly, not make people’s eyes glaze over. Focus on clear, straightforward language that outlines the skills and behaviours that define success. The goal is to create a practical tool that employees and managers can actually use. Keep it simple enough that people know exactly what’s expected of them, and managers can confidently evaluate and support their teams. The clearer the framework, the easier it is for people to see where they stand, what they need to improve, and how they can grow.
DON’T: Make It Too Big
A competency framework isn’t a buffet; more isn’t always better! A bloated framework quickly becomes bulky, overwhelming, and impossible to navigate. If employees are drowning in a never-ending list of competencies, they won’t know what to focus on, turning development into an endless to-do list, rather than something meaningful. Instead of cramming in every possible skill, prioritise quality over quantity; hone in on the key competencies that truly drive success in your organisation. Best practice suggests a leaner, well-structured framework of 6-8 competencies keeps employees engaged, makes career growth feel achievable, and allows for greater flexibility as needs evolve. After all, the best frameworks aren’t the ones that try to cover everything; they’re the ones that people actually use!
4. DO: Integrate Across HR Approaches
You have built a brilliant framework, but if it just sits in a folder on your shared drive, what’s the point? The real magic happens when you weave it into your current approaches so it actually guides how you get, keep, and grow brilliant people. Use it in talent attraction to ensure you’re attracting top talent with the right skills, embed it in your performance approach so employees get meaningful feedback, and embed it into training initiatives to ensure you are growing the skills you need for your long-term organisational growth. Think of it as the foundation of your people strategy—the more consistently it’s used, the more it becomes a natural part of how your organisation empowers talent. If done right, it won’t feel like another HR initiative; it’ll just be how things are done, making work clearer, fairer, and a whole lot more effective!
DON’T: Treat It as a One-and-Done Project
Imagine using a fax machine in 2025—outdated, impractical, and completely out of touch with reality. This is what a Competency Framework that never evolves will become. Organisations change, industries shift, and new skills become essential, so if your framework stays frozen in time, it’ll quickly lose relevance. Employees will start ignoring it, and managers will struggle to apply it. To keep it working, your framework needs regular check-ups, updates, and tweaks to stay aligned with your organisational growth. Think of it as a living, breathing tool, not a “set it and forget it” policy. After all, if your business is evolving, shouldn’t the way you define success evolve too?
5. DO: Communicate and Train People on How to Use It
For a competency framework to be truly useful, employees and managers need to understand what it is, how to use it, but most importantly why it matters. Training brings the framework to life, showing people how it connects to their roles, career growth, and development. Done right, it transforms the framework into the tool to use to ensure success.
Skip the training, and employees won’t know what the framework means, managers won’t know how to apply it, and performance reviews will turn into awkward grading against outdated frameworks—don’t get us started on the 9-box. At best, it’ll be ignored; at worst, it’ll create more problems than solutions. Instead of guiding development, it’ll feel like another mystery no one really understands. So, unless you want your competency framework to become the HR equivalent of a fitness tracker no one bothers to sync, invest the time in training; it’s worth it!
When done best, we’ve seen these training sessions combined with critical skill development such as courageous conversations and effective feedback so that managers have the skill, will, and confidence to not only use the tool but also have great conversations. Check out our people development workshops for some inspiration!
DON’T: Under Communicate
A well-communicated framework helps employees understand exactly what’s expected of them, how they can grow, and what skills they need to level up, whether that’s getting better at their current role or working toward that next big promotion. Instead of feeling like just another corporate hoop to jump through, it becomes a roadmap to success—one that makes career development clearer, fairer, and actually achievable. So, take the time to sell the benefits; otherwise, your shiny new framework will be overlooked faster than an ‘URGENT’ email sent at 5:00 PM on a Friday.
In Conclusion
Building a great competency framework isn’t just about ticking a box; it’s about creating a practical, powerful tool that drives real business success. Get it right, and it will help you attract top talent, develop your people, and create a culture where everyone can thrive. But the secret sauce? It needs to be simple, relevant, and embedded in everything you do.
Are you confident that your competency framework is truly driving performance, retention, and business growth? If not, let’s talk. At Let’s Talk Talent, we specialise in building frameworks that don’t just sit on a shelf but transform how you attract, retain, and grow brilliant people.
Book a free 30-minute strategy session with our experts to assess where your framework stands and how to optimise it for maximum impact.