The Competency Management module (CMGM) gives organisations a structured, data-driven way to define what skills employees need, measure how they compare against those expectations, identify gaps, and plan meaningful development actions. It answers three fundamental talent questions at scale: What skills do we need? What skills do we have? and How do we close the gap?

Unlike standalone assessment tools that require managers to separately evaluate employees on skills, CMGM in GoodBooks is tightly integrated with the Performance Management module (PERM). When an appraisal cycle is finalised, CMGM automatically converts KRA evaluation scores into competency profiles using configurable mappings. Managers assess performance once — CMGM derives the skills picture automatically. This eliminates duplicate effort and ensures that competency data reflects real performance evidence rather than an extra round of subjective rating.

The module supports the full talent lifecycle: HR administrators build the skill catalog and behavioural anchor library, configure competency frameworks by job family, and map KRAs to skills. Employees view their own profiles, run self-assessments, and track career path readiness. Managers work with team gap matrices and drive development planning. Executives see organisation-wide heat maps, succession readiness by role, and capability trends across appraisal cycles.

Capabilities Matrix

CMGM serves four distinct groups of users, each with a different lens on competency data. Understanding which role applies to you determines which screens you will use and which decisions you are accountable for.

Before configuring or using CMGM, it helps to understand the terminology used throughout the module. The table below provides a plain-English definition for every key term, with a concrete example from a typical deployment.

The single most important architectural decision in CMGM is that competency profiles are derived from appraisal data, not collected through a separate skills assessment exercise. This has profound implications for how HR teams design their processes and what managers are expected to do.

The Profile Generation Flow

Worked Example

Consider an employee whose appraisal KRA "Client Communication" received a score of 4.2 out of 5.0. HR has configured the following KRA-to-skill mappings for this KRA:

The KRA score of 4.2/5.0 translates to Proficiency Level 4 on the 5-point scale (4.2 × 5 / 5 = 4.2, rounded to 4). Because Presentation Skills requires Level 4 and the employee has derived Level 4, the gap is Met. Because Active Listening only requires Level 3 and the employee achieves Level 4, the result is Exceeds. SQL Proficiency requires Level 4 but the Technical Delivery KRA score was only 2.8, yielding derived Level 2 — a gap of 2 on a mandatory skill, which is Critical.

Why This Matters for Process Design

Because CMGM derives profiles from PERM data, completing an appraisal cycle automatically refreshes the entire competency layer. HR teams do not need to run a separate "skills review" process. Managers do not fill in separate skill-rating forms. The accuracy of competency profiles is tied to the quality of the appraisal process — which means investing in well-written KRAs and clear appraisal scoring criteria directly improves CMGM data quality.

The skill catalog is the foundation of CMGM. Every other configuration — frameworks, KRA mappings, career paths, development plans — references skills from this catalog. Investing time in a clean, well-anchored skill catalog is the highest-leverage action HR can take to make CMGM effective.

Example: Communication Skill — Behavioural Anchors

The KRA-to-skill mapping is the bridge between the Performance Management module and CMGM. Each mapping record specifies: which KRA (from PERM) translates to which skill (from the CMGM catalog), at what expected proficiency level an employee should be when they perform well in that KRA, and whether the skill is mandatory for that role.

Mappings are stored in MCOMPETENCYKRAMAP and belong to a Competency Framework. When the profile generation engine runs, it reads every KRA the employee was evaluated on, looks up the matching framework mappings, converts the KRA scores to proficiency levels, and writes the employee's profile.

Example KRA → Skill Mapping Table

IsMandatory: How It Affects Gap Severity

The IsMandatory flag on each mapping directly controls how gaps are classified. Mandatory skills are those the role cannot function without — the employee must demonstrate them regardless of other strengths. Optional skills are valuable but not blocking. The distinction shows up immediately in gap severity: a two-level gap on a mandatory skill is Critical (red); the same gap on an optional skill is only Medium (yellow).

Many-to-Many Relationships

One KRA can map to multiple skills — "Client Communication" maps to both Presentation Skills and Active Listening. One skill can appear in multiple KRAs — "Leadership" might be mapped from both "Team Management" and "Project Delivery" KRAs. When a skill appears in multiple KRA mappings, the profile engine takes the highest derived level from any single KRA to represent the employee's competency on that skill.

A Competency Framework (MCOMPETENCYFRAMEWORK) is a named grouping that brings together a set of KRA-to-skill mappings for a specific purpose. Frameworks exist so the organisation can have different competency expectations for different job families, departments, or levels — without needing to maintain separate skill catalogs.

When to Create Multiple Frameworks

Create one framework per job family or department that has meaningfully different KRA-to-skill requirements. An "Engineering Framework" emphasises technical skills; a "Sales Framework" emphasises commercial and relationship skills; a "Finance Framework" emphasises analytical and reporting skills. If all employees in your organisation share the same KRA structure and skill requirements, a single framework is sufficient to begin with.

Linking a Framework to an Appraisal Plan

Each framework is associated with one or more Appraisal Types or Plans in PERM. When an appraisal cycle runs using that plan, the system knows which framework's KRA-to-skill mappings to use when generating profiles for employees on that plan. This means engineers on the "FY2026 Engineering Appraisal Plan" automatically get their profiles generated using the Engineering Framework mappings.

Career paths (MCAREERPATH) document the progression routes from one role to another within the organisation. They are optional — CMGM provides full gap analysis and development planning without them — but career paths add a powerful dimension: they let employees see exactly what skills they need to develop to reach their next role, and let HR and executives assess succession readiness objectively.

What a Career Path Contains

Creating a Career Path — Step by Step

Employee Career Readiness

The system calculates a percentage readiness score for each employee against each career path they have selected. The calculation compares the employee's current proficiency levels (from their latest competency profile) against the path's CareerPathRequirements. A mandatory skill not yet at MinLevel reduces readiness significantly; an optional skill gap reduces it moderately; skills already at or above MinLevel count as satisfied.

Competency profile generation is the process that converts PERM appraisal scores into the skill-level data stored in TEMPLOYEECOMPETENCYPROFILE. It runs automatically when an appraisal cycle is Finalised in PERM, and can also be triggered manually by HR administrators.

What Happens During Generation

Manual Trigger

HR administrators can re-trigger profile generation at any time from the CMGM Admin screen — for example, after updating KRA-to-skill mappings to apply revised expectations to an already-finalised cycle, or after correcting a data issue. Re-generation overwrites the profile records for the selected cycle but does not affect other cycles.

Profile History

Each appraisal cycle creates a distinct set of profile snapshots. Employees and managers can view how skill levels have changed across cycles — showing growth trajectory over time. Gap trends across cycles are visible in the executive capability trend view.

The gap analysis view is the primary operational output of CMGM. It translates the raw proficiency data into an actionable picture — who has which skill gaps, how severe they are, and where to focus development energy. Understanding how to read and act on this view is the core skill for both HR administrators and managers.

Gap Severity Guide

How to Read the Gap Matrix

The gap matrix presents rows (employees or the current employee) against columns (skills). Each cell shows the gap severity using the colour coding above. Reading across a row shows one employee's overall competency health. Reading down a column shows how a specific skill is distributed across the team or organisation.

Available Filters

Both team and org views support filtering by gap severity (show only Critical, show Critical and High), by skill category (show only Technical skills), by competency framework, and by department or team. Use severity filters when conducting triage; use category filters when planning a specific L&D initiative (e.g. "all Behavioural skill gaps across the sales team").

A Skill Development Plan (TSKILLDEVPLAN) is the action layer of CMGM — it turns the gap identification into a concrete commitment with an owner, a method, and a deadline. Development plans can be created by employees for themselves or by managers for their direct reports. Both views are available from the CMGM and ESS screens respectively.

Creating a Development Plan

Development Methods

Integration with L&D and Gap Auto-Suggest

When a Critical or High gap is detected during profile generation, the system can automatically surface a suggestion to create a development plan for that skill. Employees see this as a prompt in their ESS dashboard; managers see it as a pending action in their team view. Clicking through pre-populates the plan form with the skill, current level, and required target level already filled in.

If your organisation uses a Training Management module, development plans can be linked to specific training programmes. When the linked training is completed, the completion date and outcome can flow back to update the plan status automatically.

Progress Tracking

Each development plan progresses through status stages: Draft → In Progress → Completed or Cancelled. Managers and employees review plan status together during periodic 1:1 meetings. The manager's team dev plan dashboard shows a summary count of plans by status per employee, making it easy to spot who is on track and who may need additional support.

The self-assessment feature lets employees record their own view of their proficiency against each skill in their competency framework. It is an entirely separate data set from the appraisal-derived profile — the two are stored independently and shown side by side, not averaged together. This distinction is deliberate and important.

Why Self-Assessment Matters

The most valuable insight from self-assessment is not the number itself — it is the gap between what the employee believes and what the appraisal evidence shows. When an employee rates themselves at Level 4 on "Stakeholder Management" and their appraisal-derived profile shows Level 2, that discrepancy becomes a powerful, specific topic for a development conversation. It opens the door to understanding: does the employee have blind spots? Did the KRA scores unfairly represent their stakeholder work? Was the appraisal calibration off? These conversations are far more productive than generic performance feedback.

How to Complete a Self-Assessment

The Three-Column View

Once both the appraisal-derived profile and a self-assessment exist, the gap view shows three columns for each skill:

Manager View — Team Competency Matrix

The manager's primary view in CMGM is the Team Competency Matrix. This screen places all direct reports on the vertical axis and all skills from the active competency framework on the horizontal axis. Each cell displays the gap severity for that employee-skill combination using the five-tier colour code (Critical / High / Medium / Met / Exceeds).

The Team Competency Matrix also shows development plan status for each employee-skill combination — a small icon indicates whether a plan is Pending, In Progress, or Completed for that gap. This lets managers quickly identify which Critical gaps have no plan yet (highest risk).

Available Filters for Managers

Filter the matrix by skill category to focus on a single domain (e.g. see only Behavioural skills), by gap severity to see only actionable items, or by competency framework if an employee is covered by multiple frameworks. Filters persist within the session for efficient review.

Executive View — Org Heat Map and Succession Readiness

Organisation-Wide Heat Map

The executive heat map aggregates gap severity by department (or cost centre / organisational unit, depending on HR configuration) and by skill. Each cell shows the percentage of employees in that department-skill intersection who have a Critical or High gap. Cells with high percentages appear in deeper red; cells with low or no gaps appear in green. This instantly shows which departments have significant capability risks and which skills are most broadly lacking across the organisation.

Succession Readiness by Role

For each key role that has a career path configured, the succession readiness report shows how many employees with that role as their target path are at three readiness states: Ready (all mandatory CareerPathRequirements met), Gap (one to two mandatory skills below MinLevel), and Not Ready (three or more mandatory skills below MinLevel). Executives can drill into each readiness group to see the specific employees and their outstanding requirements.

Capability Trend

The capability trend view shows the average proficiency level per skill across the organisation, plotted across successive appraisal cycles. A rising trend in a skill indicates that development investment is working. A flat or declining trend despite development plans suggests the plans are not effective and warrants review. This view is most useful after at least three appraisal cycles of data have been accumulated.

Critical Skill Risk Indicator

CMGM flags any skill where 30% or more of the assessed employee population has a Critical or High gap. These skills appear in a dedicated "Critical Skill Risk" list in the executive dashboard, ordered by percentage of employees at risk. This view is specifically designed to surface systemic capability risks that require strategic response — such as a new hiring initiative, an external training programme, or a framework adjustment that re-classifies the skill as optional.

CMGM is not a standalone module. It sits at the intersection of several GoodBooks modules and derives maximum value when connected to them. The integrations below are either automatic (happen without configuration once both modules are active) or configured (require a one-time linkage setup by HR).

Use this checklist to track progress through the CMGM setup and go-live process. Items are ordered for a first-time implementation starting from a clean state. Items marked Optional can be deferred to a later phase without blocking core gap analysis functionality.