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Capabilities

The capability picture your organization is missing

See where capability sits across your workforce, where the gaps are, and build the evidence to back every talent decision.

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One language for performance.

Capabilities shows your people what they need to succeed with development tied to their role and goals — not just ratings.

Forget the boring old skills taxonomies

Performance should impact business.
Employees should know how they can have an impact. That’s why Capabilities matter.

Have productive
performance conversations.

Report on impact, not ratings.

Help learners see their future.

Understand what people actually do.

Get started with Capabilities today

Acorn PLMS’s new, free capability framework builder.

Capability Assistant does the grunt work of identifying, defining and assigning competencies to job roles in your company, saving you hours to focus on more impactful work.

Build your Framework
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Let Capabilities AI do the heavy lifting

Build your own capability framework.

Make the right content discoverable.

Instantly add new roles.

Made for you

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Head of Workforce Strategy

See if the workforce can meet current and upcoming demands before gaps become a problem.

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Talent Intelligence Lead

See what capabilities the organization has today, where they’re strongest, and where to focus development.

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HR Business Partner

Give managers a consistent, capability-led way to run development plans and performance conversations.

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Department Head

Align development across teams by using the same role expectations and development plans everywhere.

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Organizational Development Consultant

Set clear role expectations and use them to shape consistent development plans across the organization.

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Team Manager

Run productive 1:1s with clear role expectations and a shared development plan to update over time.

I love this PLMS! I believe it has everything we need to be able to offer competency-based training!

What do you like best about Acorn PLMS?
The Capabilities for sure! Being able to offer competency-based training and assessment is the way to go! Acorn PLMS is easy to use, and the implementation process offers you support and help in every step.

5/5

Verified Review

Where we empower, you succeed.

Don’t get left behind – discover how others are taking control of their performance and learning destinies with Acorn.

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FAQs

Can managers use Capabilities for 1:1s and performance conversations?

Yes. Managers and employees see the same capability dashboard, including role expectations, assessment results, and development progress. This shared view supports structured and evidence-based performance conversations.

Can we use Acorn Capabilities for succession planning?

Yes. Gap analysis identifies high performers ready for progression, and development plans can prepare employees for future roles.

How long does it take to set up a capability framework?

Acorn AI can analyze job descriptions and business strategy, suggest relevant capabilities, and map them to roles automatically. Existing frameworks can also be uploaded via CSV.

Does this replace our performance management system?

No. Acorn enhances performance management with rich capability data. It’s designed to make your PMS smarter and support development-focused conversations alongside existing review processes. We also have an API and an integrations team that can build specific integrations to bring capabilities data into your existing review processes.

Can we map capabilities to specific learning content?

Yes. Content can be mapped directly to capabilities so relevant learning appears in a learner’s capability dashboard when a gap is identified. Mapping can be manual or AI-assisted.

How are capability gaps calculated?

Gaps are determined by comparing someone’s current assessed level of proficiency to the level required for their role, as determined by the team leader or people team. It provides a clear view of where expectations are being met and where development is still needed.

Can we use our own framework?

Our Customer Success team works with you to use Acorn’s proprietary capability library of over 1,600 pre-defined capabilities to map something consistent with your existing framework, and to apply a proficiency model like Kirkpatrick to those capabilities. Industry-standard frameworks like SFIA can also be integrated.

It’s time to step into the future of 
learning and performance.

Tell us how learning and performance is misaligned in your business, and we’ll show you how Acorn can get you ahead.

Keep learning about Capabilities.

Still not sure if Capabilities is right for your organization? Take a look through these resources.

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Build your capability framework in minutes with our AI assistant

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How Capabilities Link Performance and Learning

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Explore the Acorn Capability Library

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