A Centralized Competency Management System

Last Updated: July 31, 2026

Overview

Template-level competencies (from here on referred to as “Legacy”) have officially transitioned to a new, centralized approach in Performance Reviews.

Let’s walk through what’s changed, how it impacts your existing reviews, and what happens next.

Legacy state

Legacy competencies were set up within individual Performance Review templates, which over time led to:

Duplicates across multiple templates
Inconsistent competency definitions
Extra work to keep competencies aligned across reviews

Centralized competencies will solve this by allowing you to define competencies once and reuse them.

A Centralized Competency System

Competencies are managed in a centralized competency system
Competencies are not defined at the performance review template level
Admins can choose between:
- Org-wide competencies
- Role-based competencies*

*Role-based competencies require purchasing Growth, our employee development tool

Centralized Competencies

We’ve moved from competencies defined at the template-level to a centralized competency management system.

This competency management approach allows admins to define shared expectations once and reuse them across all Performance Review templates and other areas of Quantum Workplace, starting with Growth.

Important: Because legacy and centralized competencies use different data models, legacy competency data will not trend with centralized competency data.

Role-Based Competencies

For organizations who utilize Growth, role-specific expectations will also now be available. Learn about role-based competencies in Growth here.

Next Steps

Legacy competency questions can no longer be added to Review templates, and review cycles can no longer launch with templates that still use them.
Nothing will change to previously launched cycles. These review cycles can continue as normal.
All historical data will stay the same. Past reviews will not be modified.

Required Migration Steps:

Step 1: Define centralized competencies

Start by defining your org-wide competencies:

Navigate to Global Settings > Competencies
Create your org-wide competency definitions

Reminder: Org-wide competencies represent company-wide expectations and act as a single source of truth. When you add the org-wide competency question type to a Performance Review template, all active org-wide competencies will automatically be included in the review.

Step 2: Prepare new review templates

We recommend duplicating existing templates rather than editing templates already tied to historical data.

Duplicate your existing Performance Review template
Remove legacy competency questions from Review templates
Add org-wide competency question types
For any role or leadership-specific competencies:
- Create scaled questions
- Optionally, group these questions into categories within the template and match each category name to the corresponding legacy competency
Confirm the scale used across all competency questions

Duplicating templates preserves historical review data while allowing you to transition smoothly to centralized competencies.

Step 3: Any future cycles must be launched using centralized competencies

Once your competencies and templates are updated:

Use the new templates for future review cycles
Avoid making competency changes after participants are added

Need help?

Our support team at Quantum Workplace is available to assist you.

For more on understanding competencies, check out our detailed guide here.