Firstly what is Capability?     Capability is defined as a personal attribute that can be used to predict performance – directly or indirectly.    Capabilities such as Education have an association with job performance.   In cases like Education the link is indirect, through other capabilities such as Cognitive Ability which facilitate the learning of job knowledge – a direct predictor of performance.

We use Capability Frameworks to manage those aspects of capability that are able to be documented, but that do not necessarily have a direct impact on job performance.

We use a separate Competency Framework to manage directly observable knowledge, core competencies and job specific technical competencies.

There are many dimensions or categories of capability including Education, Experience, Training, Military Service and so on.   Each Category may have one or more subheadings.

You need to set up your framework so that you can specify the information you gather for each dimension and subheading.

Depending on what the capability is you will need particular information – for example if it is a qualification you would want to know what academic institution awarded it –  the date awarded,  and you may want to know the country.  You will  need to know the type of qualification –  diploma, degree, postgraduate degree.   You may also want to know any areas of specialization or special achievement.

If it is a certification you will need to know the expiry date.    If it is a professional registration you will need the renewal date and a valid  membership or registration number.

The easiest way to get the information is to allow staff to add it to their profile themselves.   For example details of experience and special projects completed.

You may decide that there are some aspects of capability that should only be managed by HR, for example qualifications.

For those entries made by staff themselves you should plan on a way to validate them – or to show that they have not yet been validated.