Workforce Capability & Competency Management Software
The capability and competency model behind Centranum
This page explains the capability and competency model that underpins all Centranum solutions — including competency management, performance management, career development, and talent management.
It clarifies how roles, capability inputs, and demonstrated competence work together to support credible assessment, development, and workforce decisions.
From role expectations to demonstrated competence
At the core of Centranum is a simple but critical distinction:
- Role expectations define what the job requires
- Capability represents the inputs a person brings — qualifications, training, experience
- Competency is demonstrated performance on the job, assessed in context
This model ensures that workforce decisions are based on what people are expected to do, what prepares them to do it, and what they can actually demonstrate in practice.
How role expectations and capability alignment work in practice
The Power of Alignment
Once role expectations, capability inputs, and competency requirements are clearly defined, the real value comes from keeping them aligned over time.
Alignment means that:
- people are assessed against the same role expectations
- development plans address real, role-specific gaps
- performance conversations are grounded in evidence, not interpretation
When alignment breaks down, organizations see inconsistent standards, duplicated effort, and development activity that doesn’t translate into better performance.
When alignment is maintained, organizations gain:
- Consistent performance standards across teams and locations
- Stronger risk and compliance control through role-based evidence
- Greater workforce agility, with faster upskilling and redeployment
By centralizing role definitions and mapped capabilities, Centranum replaces fragmented spreadsheets and disconnected tools with decision-grade insight into workforce strengths, gaps, and development priorities.
Levels 1–3 = Capability (Inferred) Levels 4–6 = Competency (Demonstrated)
Capability versus Competency- what’s the difference?
Many platforms stop at training and qualifications. But having a certificate doesn’t mean someone can perform to the required standard in the workplace.
Centranum distinguishes between:
- Capability — qualifications, training, and experience that indicate potential.
- Competency — demonstrated performance on the job, assessed in context.
This distinction is essential for:
- Identifying workforce performance risks early
- Making development plans that actually close role-specific gaps
- Ensuring workforce readiness — not just on paper, but in practice
Capability gets you to the starting line.
Competency gets you across the finish line.
Centranum helps you track both —creating a single source of truth for workforce capability and competency data.
Addressing common capability and competency challenges
Without a clear, connected view of role expectations, capability inputs, and demonstrated competence, organizations often struggle with inconsistent standards, unclear development priorities, and fragmented workforce data.
Centranum addresses this by unifying role architecture, capability mapping, competency frameworks, and organizational priorities into a single, coherent model — giving leaders visibility into current strengths, emerging risks, and development needs across the workforce.
Choose Your Starting Point
Not every organization starts with the same level of role definition or competency maturity — and that’s expected.
Centranum supports multiple adoption paths, allowing you to begin from your current strengths and build capability over time without rework or data fragmentation.
Path 1 Competency Framework First
✅ You already have a competency framework based on roles
❌ No CV or job definition module needed initially
🔍 Focus: Competency Assessment, 360 feedback, proficiency tracking
🌱 Grow into: Competency Development planning and capability analytics
Path 2 Job Role + Training First
✅ You’ve defined job roles and are tracking training
➕ Add performance reviews and core competencies
🔍 Focus: Compliance, onboarding, and core expectations
🌱 Grow into: Technical competency mapping, performance calibration
Path 3 Growth-Focused
✅ You have role-based profiles and want to support development and mobility
➕ Add career paths, development plans, and training alignment
🔍 Focus: Career growth, internal movement, succession
🌱 Grow into: Full career framework and talent readiness tools
Whichever path you choose, your data remains consistent across roles, competencies, assessments, and development.
How role clarity drives capability and competency
Regardless of where you start — roles, competencies, or career development — Centranum applies the same underlying structure to align expectations, validate performance, and guide development.
Step 1: Define Role Expectations
Clarify what each role is accountable for — including responsibilities, required capabilities, and progression pathways.
(Existing role architectures can be imported where available.)
Step 2: Map Capabilities & Competencies
Link roles to required qualifications, training, and experience (capability), and to demonstrated skills and behaviours (competency), with defined proficiency levels.
(Frameworks can be imported, adapted, or built within the platform.)
Step 3: Capture Evidence
Validate credentials and on-the-job competence using assessments, observations, feedback, and the integrated Capability Passport.
(Supports audits, assurance, and ongoing development.)
Step 4: Close Gaps & Develop Talent
Identify capability and competency gaps, link them to targeted development plans, and review readiness against career and succession pathways.
(Enables continuous, evidence-based growth.)
Whether you use all four steps or focus on just one, Centranum provides structure and insight without forcing you into a fixed workflow.
If you’d like to explore specific parts of the model in more detail, you can dive deeper into the areas below.
Why this capability and competency model works in practice
Most platforms stop at recording skills or training completion. Centranum is a complete workforce capability platform that goes further — connecting roles, required capabilities, demonstrated competencies, and development planning in one integrated system.
Why this approach is different
- Flexible adoption — start from roles, existing frameworks, or learning records
- Capability and competency tracked together — credentials alongside demonstrated performance
- Built-in assessment — observations, feedback, and knowledge checks aligned to roles
- Audit-ready structure — time-stamped evidence and version-controlled frameworks
- Targeted development — gaps feed directly into role-aligned development plans
- Role-based access — staff, managers, and leaders see what’s relevant to them
Who this model supports
This capability and competency model supports different needs across the organization:
- Staff gain clarity on role expectations, verified capability, and development opportunities
- Managers gain visibility into team strengths, gaps, and readiness
- Leaders, HR, and L&D gain consistent frameworks, evidence, and workforce insight to support planning, assurance, and development
The same underlying structure supports all groups — without requiring separate systems or duplicate data.
With over 20 years of experience supporting capability frameworks and competency-based systems, Centranum is used across healthcare, engineering, government, technology, manufacturing and professional services organizations.
The platform supports enterprise-scale deployment, auditability, localization, with dedicated onboarding and long-term client support.
Centranum is independently audited against SOC 2 Type II, supporting secure, auditable operation in enterprise and compliance-driven environments.
Related insights
If you’d like to explore this capability and competency model further, you can review the summaries below or see it in action.
FAQs
The questions below address common considerations when implementing a capability and competency-based approach.
Can we build our own competency framework, or do we need to use yours?
You can do both. Our platform comes with an extensive validated multi-industry competency library — but you’re free to adapt that or import, edit, or build your own frameworks. Combined with our role clarity software, you can define role-specific profiles with required capabilities and competencies, and adjust them over time as your organization evolves.
How are capability and competency different in Centranum?
Capability refers to qualifications, training, experience — indicators that someone should be able to do the job. Competency is about whether they demonstrate those skills and knowledge in context. Centranum distinguishes between the two, allowing you to assess and track both separately and together for a more accurate picture of workforce readiness.
Can the system recommend development actions based on gaps?
Yes. Once gaps are identified, the system can link them to individual development plans, learning activities, and performance goals. You can also integrate your learning resources — or use AI suggestions (if enabled) — to provide targeted upskilling opportunities
How granular can we get with proficiency levels?
Very granular. Competencies are organized by category. You can define custom organization wide proficiency level scheme- and or have different proficiency schemes for particular categories. You can assign proficiency requirements at both the competency and role level. Assessment tools, observations, and feedback can all be aligned to those levels.
Can we track technical and behavioral competencies in one place?
Yes. You can define, assess, and report on both technical (task- or role-specific) and behavioral (soft skills, leadership) competencies in the same system — and align them to the same role profiles or development plans.
Is this suitable for regulated industries or audit-heavy environments?
Absolutely. We support audit readiness with timestamped records of training, assessments, observations, and development progress. You can track compliance for required capabilities across roles, people, and teams — ideal for healthcare, engineering, and other high reliability or high stakes environments.
Can we link capability gaps to succession planning?
Yes. Once capability and competency data is in place, you can identify talent pipelines, assess readiness, and highlight gaps to close before people move into new roles — all with full visibility.