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.
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.
Give learners and leaders a clear view of capability in action with assessments designed to remove guesswork, highlight real development opportunities & track growth over time.
- Run self, peer, SME & leader assessments for a complete picture of demonstrated capability
- Launch assessment campaigns on your choice of automated schedules for onboarding, probation, milestones, or reviews
- Leaders get a dedicated assessment interface to review evidence, compare against expectations & provide feedback
- Track change over time with dashboards showing behavioural progression and assessment history
Report on impact, not ratings.
Capability assessments drill down on the exact proficiency level learners are performing at, and give them the content they need to progress.
- Gap analysis shows gaps in knowledge at the learner and organizational level
- Track behavioral change with self and manager assessments
- Set capability assessments at pre-defined milestones
- Get 360-degree feedback on performance for learners and leaders
Help learners see their future.
Give employees goals to work towards with succession plans designed to develop them into the leaders your organization needs.
- Simplify finding high performers for succession with a gap analysis
- Decrease ramp time with automatically generated development plans
- Ensure relevance with AI-recommended content based on capabilities and job responsibilities
- Show learners how they impact overall strategy
Understand what people actually do.
Get a clear view of capability in action with assessments that remove guesswork, highlight real development opportunities & track growth over time.
- Run self, peer, SME & leader assessments for a complete picture of demonstrated capability
- Launch campaigns on set schedules for onboarding, probation, milestones, or reviews
- Leaders get a dedicated assessment interface to review evidence, compare against expectations & provide feedback
- Close gaps quicker with AI-recommended learning for development plans
Let Capabilities AI do the heavy lifting
Build your own capability framework.
Use Acorn to create your own custom framework with role, competency, and proficiency levels from our proprietary capability library.
- Acorn AI discovers and defines capabilities to match your organization’s strategy
- Build your own capability framework and immediately use within Acorn
- Leverage ready-to-use third-party frameworks keep you in front of industry trends
- Map content to capabilities for more contextual learning
Make the right content discoverable.
Map any content in your catalog to the right capabilities.
- Upload learning materials for Capabilities AI to analyse and suggest capability tags
- Save hours of manual effort with smart, scalable content-to-capability mapping
- Keep development plans impactful with the content learners need to improve
Instantly add new roles.
Quickly map new job roles to the right capabilities and cohorts.
- Upload up to 10 job descriptions or LinkedIn profiles for Capabilities AI to map to cohorts
- Create a shareable link so any leader can sign off without needing admin access
- Give leaders buy-in to their team’s performance — no need for HR to be SME for every department
How Capabilities Link Performance and Learning
Explore the Acorn Capability Library
New research: 58% of employees are proficient with AI tools but can’t apply them to their actual role. Read the report here.
One language for performance. One platform to drive meaningful conversations.
Capabilities shows your people what they need to succeed with development tied to their role and goals — not just ratings.
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.
Made for you
Head of Workforce Strategy
See if the workforce can meet current and upcoming demands before gaps become a problem.
Talent Intelligence Lead
See what capabilities the organization has today, where they’re strongest, and where to focus development.
HR Business Partner
Give managers a consistent, capability-led way to run development plans and performance conversations.
Department Head
Align development across teams by using the same role expectations and development plans everywhere.
Organizational Development Consultant
Set clear role expectations and use them to shape consistent development plans across the organization.
Team Manager
Run productive 1:1s with clear role expectations and a shared development plan to update over time.
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.