4 Capability Framework Examples and How They’re Used in Organizational Strategy

It’s handy to have a few examples when building your capability framework. In this guide, we’ll take a look at four examples of the capability framework in public sector and private businesses, how and why they utilize their frameworks differently, and the key elements to include in your own framework. 

Without further ado, let’s dive in. 

What is a capability framework?

A capability framework outlines the skills, knowledge, tools, processes, and behaviors your organization needs to achieve its goals. It establishes a universal language in your workforce, offers a baseline for career planning, and enables clearer workforce planning. 

If you’re curious how that differs from skills taxonomies, our Head of Capabilities Ben Satchwell breaks it down here:

How to use a capability framework

Done right, a capability framework should be accessible and understandable for everyone in your organization. That includes individual contributors, organizational development professionals, HR, L&D, managers, and executives alike. 

That gives you an incredibly diverse set of use cases, beyond simply developing a capable workforce. A framework can be the foundation for: 

• Consistent but nuanced role descriptions across functions 
• Best practice and impartial recruitment processes 
• Informed performance management and development 
• Talent mobility based on universal descriptions of capability requirements and availability 
• Strategic learning and development pathways 
• Individual career planning for employees 
• Analyzing current and future talent gaps. 

How to structure a capability framework 

Despite the myriad of people it is meant to help, a capability framework is not as complex a concept as it sounds. 

It will take time and the help of key stakeholders to develop, but there are only a few key elements you need to outline when creating your own capability framework. 

Think of a framework as layered. That gives you a breakdown of: 

1. Capability sets
2. Role-related capabilities 
3. Proficiency levels. 

Keep in mind there’ll be other business processes and policies that’ll have to align with a capability framework, which will influence the language you use. 

Think about learning and development. Most corporate learning—and the solutions designed for it—is based on the broken promise of skills taxonomies, which don’t address business goals. This is part of what led us to create the performance learning management system (PLMS).

It’s designed to align directly with your capability framework, so you can map content to capabilities and then build specific learning pathways based on job role, performance, and business needs. This way, you’re codifying and operationalizing capabilities to improve organizational efficiency and providing impactful and contextual learning opportunities. Win-win.

Capability sets

Capability sets are the overarching groups of capabilities in your framework. These are functional and technical groupings that map to job families or functions, like:

• HR
• Finance
• Product Management
• Governance. 

This organization of capabilities is kept deliberately minimal, as context will come from capabilities within the set and their corresponding proficiency levels. 

When defining capability sets, look to business drivers or functions and their reinforcing activities. The aim is to cover the range of functions within your organization without getting too niche into the weeds.

Beyond functions, we’ve also included strategic capability sets in our free Capability Library. These focus on transformation, not departments. Think:

• Leadership
• DEI
• AI Fluency.

These are capabilities that are needed across the organization, roles, departments, and contexts.

Capabilities 

Under each capability set will be a collection of capabilities that break down critical skills, behaviors, and knowledge. 

The number of capabilities in a set is really up to your organizational needs, but we recommend including only enough for meaningful job design. Between public sector and enterprise, we’ve seen anywhere from 12 to 25 in a set.

Above all else, remember that capabilities are unique and exhaustive. Even if you take a role-based approach to organizing capabilities, they should not be duplicated across sets for a number of reasons. 

1. Assessment chaos: People get confused if asked to rate or assess the same capability twice.
2. Reporting distortion: Duplicates skew data and make it harder to see real capability gaps.
3. Framework fatigue: Employees and managers disengage when they feel they’re doing redundant work.
4. Maintenance nightmares: Updates have to be made in multiple places, creating inconsistency and wasted effort.
5. Loss of strategic value: Capabilities stop being modular building blocks and instead become siloed, making frameworks harder to combine and scale.

Proficiency levels 

Managing the performance of capabilities comes courtesy of proficiency levels. All capability frameworks utilize proficiency in some way, though you may see them referred to as performance or behavioral descriptors. 

To define proficiency levels:

1. Pick a number: 4–6 levels; five is usually the sweet spot.
2. Label clearly: Use neutral, intuitive terms (Foundational, Developing, Advanced, Expert).
3. Show progression: Levels should increase in independence, complexity, influence, and impact.
4. Write simply: Short paragraphs, 2–3 sentences in plain English.
5. Test with users: Make sure employees and managers can see themselves in the levels.
6. Stay consistent: Apply the same structure across all capabilities.  

For example, you may have the capability of Coaching talent. A foundational proficiency level could be Shares own knowledge and experience to develop others. 

If you’re not a fan of the grading scale, you can always assign competency to job levels like the ACT Public Service does. 

Organizational capability framework examples 

Here’s the thing. Enterprise capability frameworks are hard to come by, and for good reason: They are an organization’s secret sauce. 

A capability framework will outline business objectives and the essential knowledge, skills, and behaviors that achieve their organizational success. Enterprises may also create multiple specialist frameworks, such as a sales capability framework. Because of the complexity involved in mapping capabilities across a workforce of thousands, it’s common for consultants to do the heavy lifting of identifying capabilities.

Deloitte’s leadership capability model is a good example of using strategic drivers as the tentpoles of your framework. 

Capability sets are derived from the most complex leadership responsibilities, grouped under people, relationships, and business leadership. But from there, capabilities—not just proficiency levels—are linked to specific tiers of leadership. 

Similarly, the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI) has a capability framework for L&D professionals. It uses five capability sets with 25 capabilities a piece, each with four measurable levels of proficiency (and the baseline proficiency of no experience). 

These measures of proficiency are not tied to job roles, but an ultimately strategic display of performance. The framework is considered a descriptive idea of best practice, based on a key set of principles that all L&D professionals should uphold. 

The takeaway from these examples 

At its core, a capability framework should effectively align performance with organizational outcomes. You don’t need to create a specific leadership model to do this (though it is a framework rooted in organizational goals more firmly than most others). Just remember that for every behaviour, skill, process or expertise noted, there should be a strategic impact felt by the performance of that capability. 

Public sector capability framework examples

Most public sector frameworks follow a few core principles. 

1. An agile approach to capability creation and prioritisation rooted in the often unpredictable nature of their environment (think: pandemics, changing budgets, social upheaval). 
2. Capabilities developed in tandem with changing workforce plans, which adds to the need for agility. 
3. Just as much effort is put into creating supporting resources that help the workforce better understand how to use the framework. 

On that note, let’s look at a couple of examples. 

NSW Public Service Commission capability framework 

One of the most accessible capability framework examples out there comes courtesy of the NSW Public Service Commission (PSC). 

In their guide, they outline 20 organizational capabilities organised into five groups, where each capability has five levels of behavioral indicators (or proficiency, in our vernacular). 

Generally speaking, there are more performance indicators given as proficiency scales in complexity. This isn’t necessary for all frameworks, but it is useful for those that don’t tie capabilities to job roles within the structure of the framework itself. 

In fact, that context comes from the myriad of resources the PSC provides to aid in using the framework, including: 

• An application tool that helps employees demonstrate their capabilities in job interviews
• A summary of the latest changes made to the framework
• A discovery tool for self-reflection
• User guides for processes like onboarding, professional development, recruitment, and workforce planning. 

Office of Personnel Management competency approach 

Quick note: The American vernacular uses competency, but we and many industry thinkers prefer capability. Ultimately, we’re talking about the same thing in this context, though we have our own definition for competency. 

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has a big job in helping to create, catalog, and utilize government-wide capabilities. Their capabilities are created and framed within the context of nearly 200 federal job roles. 

They then offer two approaches to the departments they serve. 

1. Ready-made frameworks for certain functions, such as cybersecurity and IT. 
2. A list of identified capabilities that local HR units can utilise to manage performance, design roles, and create development opportunities. 

Their leadership model is the best example of this. Every capability comes with a proficiency level, a definition of that proficiency, and an illustration of that in action. The capability of Flexibility is needed from leaders across departments, with the corresponding proficiencies offering clear expectations for performance. 

The takeaway from these examples

Both of these examples act simply as a pool from which functional managers and human resources can draw from for processes like: 

• Job role design 
• Performance management 
• Talent mobility 
• Career planning. 

However, both utilize cumulative levels of proficiency as a definitive measure of performance, regardless of the parameters for measurement. This allows for defined capabilities to be more freely mapped to job roles across departments, and ensures there is enough context for the framework to be used by all stakeholders. 

If you’d like a closer look at public sector capability frameworks, check out our guide here.

Key takeaways  

It could be argued that the public sector makes its frameworks as a workforce tool, placing a heavy emphasis on career planning and development, while enterprise capability frameworks focus on defining strategic drivers. We’re not going to tell you one approach is better than the other—actually, it’s our purview that blended approach is the best way forward. 

That gives you a few takeaways to carry with you when developing your own framework. 

1. Start by thinking about business outcomes, no matter if you’re building a framework for a specific function or use case. All capabilities should have an impact on your business mission or strategy. 
2. All capabilities should have measures of proficiency, as these are the indicators that enable performance management.  
3. Capabilities can change if your strategy does. Regular environmental scans will reveal if your framework is sustainable.  
4. Think about capabilities as tasks and behaviors necessary to meet business goals. This will help you create them from strategic drivers.  
5. While a crucial business tool, a capability framework needn’t be overly complex. Consider creating supporting resources to enable widespread adoption and use. 
6. Your framework should be unique to you. Whatever inspiration you take from these examples, consider how work needs to get done by your workforce, within your business architecture, and to the standard that you set for the organization.