The document explains capability discovery as a process for mapping employee capabilities to job roles and functions using a capability discovery tool. This tool involves self-assessments by employees or managers, resulting in personal reports that outline competency levels and suggested development steps. Key implementation steps include aligning the tool with organizational strategy, designing effective assessments, and providing ongoing support post-assessment.

1. Capability
Discovery
Tool
How to use one for
organisational capability
building

2. What is capability discovery?
Capability discovery is a process to ensure that capabilities are
mapped to the right job roles, job families and business
functions.
A capability discovery tool assesses the capabilities an
employee possesses against a defined capability framework.

3. How does it work?
A capability discovery tool process starts with employees or
managers answering questions about their own or a team
member’s individual performance.
Users will typically select a certain number of capabilities to
assess from an entire suite of organisational capabilities. This
is usually done to support a specific development track.

4. How does it work?
At the end, a personal report is created. Depending on your
organisation’s intent for the tool, these reports will provide an
overview of the individual’s competency levels across several
chosen capabilities.
Many organisations offer free resources with suggested next
steps for development, too.

5. Capability
Discovery Tool
Functions

6. 1 --
It enables employees to self-assess their current
capabilities and competency levels against
organisational standards.

7. 2 --
It offers business leaders and decision makers insight
into the accuracy, maturity and availability of
organisational capabilities – optimising prioritisation.

8. Implementation
Key Steps

9. 1) Tie to strategy
• Before implementing a capability discovery tool, it’s important
to consider why it’s needed and the expected benefits.
Essentially, you’re looking for a business impact to be felt
from introducing the tool.
• The person responsible for the tool should provide relevant
resources to users/managers and design messaging for
stakeholders.

10. 2) Design assessment
• Discovery tools use reflective questions and statements for
assessment, which can be pulled from existing performance
indicators in the capability framework or created as scenario-
based questions.
• Most tools enable assessment at different levels of
competency and utilise a scale from ‘needs development’ to
‘exceeds expectations’.

11. 3) Provide support
• After the assessment, it’s important to offer clear courses of
action and resources to employees or managers.
• The report generated should provide suggestions for
development under each performance indicator assessed.
• Additional resources can include guides on how to use a
personal report in meetings, job design aligned with capability
profiles, succession plans with capability assessments and
personalised capability development plans.

12. You can learn more about this
topic by checking out the full
article:
https://acornlms.com/enterprise-learning-
management/capability-discovery-tool