Serefin

In just two years, the initiative has established a more transparent and data-informed approach to workforce readiness—reducing onboarding variability, increasing visibility into learner progress and supporting more consistent expectations across departments. The result is a scalable foundation for targeted professional growth, stronger organizational alignment and a high-performing workforce built on consistent standards and real-world application.

Challenge

Aligning Workforce Development Through a Shared Framework

Serefin Health have long supported a high-performing workforce through structured onboarding, training and professional development. But as the organization evolved, so did the complexity behind how learning, performance and growth were defined.

“Different teams across the organization were supporting workforce development effectively, but they were often using different language, frameworks and approaches to define growth and performance. Over time, that made it harder to create consistent expectations and scalable development pathways across teams,” says Carrie Maynard, manager, learning experience design and architecture at Serefin Health.

For learners, this lack of alignment made it harder to see a clear path for growth. Expectations could vary by role or department, and without consistent benchmarks, it was more difficult to understand proficiency levels, track progress or identify meaningful opportunities for development.

At the same time, Serefin Health was committed to a more intentional, learner-centered approach—one that reflects both the realities of care coordination and the need for accessible, inclusive learning. The company wanted to ensure employees weren’t just meeting technical requirements, but also developing the relational, ethical and adaptive skills needed to succeed in complex, real-world environments.

To support this, Serefin Health looked to established frameworks such as Canada’s Skills for Success and the Ontario Essential Employability Skills, alongside its own guiding principles. But without a unified structure, it was difficult to connect these standards to day-to-day learning, performance and professional growth in a consistent and measurable way. Data existed across systems and teams, but it wasn’t always aligned or easy to translate into clear, actionable insights.

The goal was to bring these elements together—creating a shared North Star for workforce development that could align competencies; standardize assessment; and provide clear, structured pathways for growth. Without this alignment, it would remain difficult to scale development consistently, support workforce planning, and ensure equitable evaluation across roles and teams. Serefin Health needed a unified framework that could support recruitment, onboarding and ongoing development, while enabling more transparent, data-informed decision-making across the organization.

Solution

Designing a Scalable, Competency-Driven Learning Ecosystem

“I wanted learning to feel accessible, supportive and meaningful from day one—not just something employees completed, but something that helped them feel confident, connected and capable in their roles,” says Maynard.

To bring consistency and clarity to workforce development, Serefin Health reimagined its approach—designing a unified, competency-driven framework that connects learning, performance and professional growth across the organization.

At the center of this work is a structured, stepwise model organized as a sequence of interconnected steps that translate competencies into measurable, real-world outcomes. This model provides a clear, repeatable approach to connecting competencies, learning outcomes and assessments across the organization. Drawing on SFS, the EES framework and Serefin Health’s guiding principles, the team defined eight core competencies spanning both technical and relational skills—from communication and critical thinking to adaptability and inclusion. Each competency is supported by clear behavioral indicators and mapped across progressive proficiency levels using the Dreyfus model, giving learners and leaders a shared understanding of what growth looks like in practice.

“This wasn’t just about implementing a new framework—it was about creating a shared understanding of growth across the organization and helping teams see learning as something connected, measurable and meaningful,” says Maynard.

Bringing this model to life required more than design. It meant aligning multiple teams, perspectives and existing processes under a single framework. Serefin Health worked closely with subject-matter experts, People and Culture leaders, and operational teams to build shared understanding and ensure the framework reflected real-world roles. Using visual collaboration tools like Miro, teams mapped role-specific skills, identified gaps and validated competencies, creating a strong foundation for consistent, organization-wide adoption.

To ensure the framework was actionable, Serefin Health aligned each competency to knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors, along with measurable learning outcomes, assessments and behavioral indicators.

Through an ADDIE-informed design process and Universal Design for Learning principles, supported by accessibility standards such as AODA and WCAG, Serefin Health developed structured, scaffolded learning pathways that move from foundational awareness to applied practice and advanced integration. This approach helps learners build skills progressively, while ensuring learning experiences remain accessible, flexible and grounded in real-world application. It also ensures learning meets employees where they are, supporting diverse needs and enabling more inclusive participation across the workforce.

Brightspace serves as the foundational platform that brings this model to life. Competencies, learning outcomes, assessments and behavioral indicators are fully integrated, enabling Serefin Health to track learner progress, measure proficiency and generate actionable insights. Features like the Gradebook Mastery View provide visibility into how individuals are progressing across competencies, while supporting more targeted coaching, onboarding and professional development.

The result is a connected learning ecosystem that aligns recruitment, onboarding and ongoing development within a single framework. Because the model is structured, data-informed and built on existing tools, it’s also highly scalable. New roles and learning paths can be developed using the same stepwise approach, giving Serefin Health a repeatable model to support continuous workforce development.

Result

Driving Measurable Alignment and Scalable Workforce Development

Serefin Health’s competency-driven approach is helping transform how workforce development is delivered and measured across the organization. In just two years of using Brightspace, the organization has established a strong foundation for competency-based workforce development. By connecting learning more directly to performance, the team has created a more structured, transparent and data-informed model for employee growth.

One of the most significant outcomes is the development of a unified learning pathway for care coordinators. Learning Path 2A, a structured, competency-based training program for care coordinators, translates eight core competencies into clear, measurable outcomes aligned to recruitment, onboarding and ongoing professional development. Each competency is mapped to defined proficiency levels, giving learners and managers a shared understanding of expectations and progress.

With competencies, outcomes and assessments fully integrated into Brightspace, Serefin Health can track skill development in real time. Using tools like the Gradebook Mastery View, teams can monitor learner progress; identify gaps; and inform decisions about training, coaching and workforce planning. As one leader shared, this alignment is already enabling “data that is easily measurable and comparable,” helping teams “identify areas where education can have the biggest impact.” The approach is also helping improve alignment across departments by creating a shared framework for development, evaluation and workforce readiness.

The impact is also meaningful for learners. With clearer expectations and structured pathways, employees have greater visibility into what success looks like and how to achieve it. One care coordinator noted that the learning “feels practical, relevant, and directly connected to what strong performance looks like in practice,” making it easier to build confidence and apply new skills on the job.

Together, these capabilities help Serefin Health build a more data-rich learning ecosystem—one where competency data can be used to inform training, workforce planning and ongoing professional development.

Across the organization, the framework supports greater consistency and equity. By aligning competencies with recruitment, onboarding, performance management and workforce planning, Serefin Health has established a shared language for development and evaluation across teams. For learning teams, this has led to a more intentional approach to design—helping ensure that outcomes, activities and assessments are aligned and grounded in real-world application.

At the same time, the model is supporting efficiency and scalability. A repeatable, stepwise approach allows new learning paths to be developed more consistently across roles, helping reduce variability in onboarding and supporting progression toward competency. As one learning specialist explained, the framework has “brought a more structured and thoughtful approach” to how learning is designed and delivered across teams.

While many measurable data points are still evolving, the initiative is already demonstrating progress toward several long-term goals, including more consistent onboarding experiences, increased visibility into learner progress, standardized development pathways and stronger organizational alignment. By combining applied learning design with measurable outcomes and digital integration, Serefin Health has created a model that can scale with the organization and adapt to future workforce needs. As the framework continues to mature, Serefin Health is building toward a more scalable and measurable approach to workforce readiness and professional development across the organization.

What Serefin Health leaders and learners are saying: