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Training, competency and skills management — live and connected
Training, competency and skills management — live and connected
Feature overview
The People Hub in Q-Hub is designed to give your organisation a structured, repeatable way to manage training, competency and skills — across every person, department and site. It focuses on:
Building a live framework of activities, skills and roles that reflects how your business actually operates.
Automating competency tracking so that when people complete training, their skill levels update in real time.
Linking people data across Q-Hub via activities, forms and assets, giving you full traceability.
Rather than maintaining a static spreadsheet that goes out of date, People Hub is built to:
Standardise what training and competency looks like for each role in your business.
Automate the tracking of who has done what, and when it expires.
Make it easy to see who is overdue, what's coming up, and where skills gaps exist — in real time.
People Hub structure at a glance
At a high level, People Hub is built around four core components:
Component | Description |
|---|---|
Users | Individual people on your Q-Hub account |
Activities | Training courses, certificates and competency tasks |
Skills | Defined competency levels linked to activities |
Roles | Bundles of skills and activities for a job type |
Every piece of People Hub data flows through this structure. A User completes Activities, which build towards Skills, which combine into Roles that define what is expected of them in your organisation.
Core components
Users
Users are the individual people on your Q-Hub account. In People Hub, each user has their own People Hub profile that brings together everything relevant to them:
The roles they have been assigned.
Their current training status and any overdue or upcoming activities.
The skills they have been linked to and what level they are at.
Any certificates that are up for renewal.
Admins can view the full People Hub in their admin view. Individual users can also switch to a personal view to see their own training record, upcoming tasks and activity history.
Activities — the building blocks
An activity is anything that a person in your business needs to do in the realm of training, competency or qualifications. Activities are flexible by design and can cover a wide range of scenarios:
Internal training courses — e.g. health and safety awareness, operational training, internal auditing.
One-to-one training — e.g. NDT training delivered by an in-house expert.
Certificates and formal qualifications — e.g. CSCS card, Prince 2, IPAF, YASA.
External training — courses delivered outside the business that need to be recorded and tracked.
Activity templates, items and tasks
Activities work across three levels:
Level | Description |
|---|---|
Activity template | The blueprint for the activity itself — e.g. "Internal Auditing". This defines the type of training, the form to be completed, expiry rules and any attached materials. |
Activity item | A specific instance of that activity — e.g. "Internal Auditing — January cohort". Multiple items can be created from one template across the year. |
Activity task | The individual action assigned to each person attending that item. Five people on three courses = 15 tasks sent out automatically. |
Activity types
When creating an activity template, you choose from four types:
Self-managed training — the user receives a task, works through the material independently (watch a video, fill out a form), and marks it complete themselves.
One-to-one training — an activity manager (an internal expert) is assigned. That person can then assign the training directly to specific individuals.
Internal group training — allows you to create multiple activity items (i.e. planned course dates) and book employees onto the relevant session.
External training — used to categorise and track training delivered outside the business. Employees can upload certificates on completion.
Expiry and renewal
Each activity can be configured with one of three expiry settings:
Never expires — once completed, the activity is permanently marked done.
Expires after a set period — e.g. valid for 365 days or two years. Managers are notified as expiry approaches.
User-set expiry — the person completing the activity enters the expiry date provided by their training provider. The system then tracks renewal from that date.
General due dates — If you need everyone in the company to complete an activity by a specific deadline, you can set a general completion date on the activity template. As soon as the activity is live, it will be issued to all assigned users with that target date.
Skills
Skills in People Hub are designed around levels — reflecting the kind of competency or skills matrix frameworks that compliance-focused businesses already use. Each skill can have any number of levels (e.g. Beginner / Experienced / Expert, or 1–3, or 0–5).
Each skill includes:
A name, description and category — to help you organise and filter your skills library (e.g. Technical, Soft Skills, Compliance, Safety).
An owner — the person or department responsible for managing and defining that skill.
Skill levels with linked activities — so that achieving a certain level automatically requires the completion of defined activities.
How skills and activities connect
The key power of Skills is the link to Activities. You can define that achieving a specific skill level requires the completion of one or more activities. When a skill is assigned to a user:
The associated activities are automatically triggered as tasks for that user.
When the user completes those activities, their skill level updates automatically.
The Skills Matrix reflects the change in real time — no manual updates needed.
Example: Machining skill — A skill called "Machining" has three levels: Beginner, Experienced and Expert. Level 1 (Beginner) requires completion of an on-the-job training form in Form Hub. As soon as that form is submitted, the user is automatically awarded Machining Level 1. No manual review or spreadsheet update required.
Roles
A role allows you to bundle multiple skills and activities together and assign them to a user or group of users. Roles reflect the requirements of a job type within your business.
For example, a Senior Machinist role might require:
Machining skill — at Experienced level.
Health & Safety awareness — as a formal activity.
Vibration handling certificate — held and in date.
Once a user is assigned a role, People Hub tracks how closely they meet its criteria and gives you a percentage adherence score — making it easy to see who is fully qualified for their role and who still has outstanding requirements.
Roles will also support additional features including:
Assigning specific forms or processes that must be completed as part of the role.
Read and understood acknowledgements linked to the role.
Target dates for skill levels to be achieved.
How is People Hub used?
People Hub is used in two main phases:
Design and setup — build your activity library, define skill levels, and create roles that reflect your business.
Day-to-day operation — assign activities, track completions, manage renewals and monitor your skills matrix.
"Live data in, live system out"
The value of People Hub depends on how well your framework is designed before you start assigning activities to users. A well-structured library of activities, skills and roles means the system largely runs itself.
Common starting points:
Some customers already have training matrices in spreadsheets and a clear list of role requirements.
Others are starting from scratch or have training records spread across multiple systems.
People Hub can handle both, but the setup process is smoother when:
Your activity types are agreed before you start creating templates.
Skill levels are clearly defined and tied to measurable activities where possible.
Roles reflect how your business is actually structured.
Recommended setup order
Best practice is to follow this order before assigning activities to users:
Identify your activities
Look at your existing training records, spreadsheets or registers.
List all types of training and certificates people currently hold or need to do.
Decide whether each is self-managed, one-to-one, group training or an external certificate.
Build activity templates in Q-Hub
Create each activity template with its type, expiry settings and training form.
Attach any supporting documents (e.g. course materials, briefing packs).
Set general due dates where the whole company needs to complete by a deadline.
Define your skills
Create skills with levels that match your existing competency frameworks.
Assign an owner to each skill.
Link activities to skill levels so completion triggers automatic progression.
Create roles
Build roles that reflect your job types or departments.
Add the required skills (with target levels) to each role.
Assign users to roles and activities
Assign users to roles — their required activities and skills will be triggered automatically.
For one-off or company-wide activities, assign directly to users or groups.
Verify and review
Check the Skills Matrix to confirm assignments are correct.
Review the Expiring Activities page to understand upcoming renewals.
Adjust activities, skill levels or role criteria as needed before going fully live.
Key pages in People Hub
People page
The People page is your central list of all users on the account. From here you can see each person's roles, training status, assigned skills and upcoming certificate renewals.
Clicking on a user opens their individual People Hub profile, which shows:
An overview of overdue and upcoming activities.
Any roles assigned to them and how well they meet the criteria.
Skills linked to them and their current level.
Activity and reminder history.
Activities page
The Activities page lists all your activity templates. From here you can create new activities, manage existing ones, and track who has been assigned to each.
Within each activity template you can:
View an overview of completion rates across assigned users.
See all activity items (individual course dates or instances) and the tasks created.
Edit the template settings, expiry rules and training form.
Deactivate an activity without losing historical records.
Skills page and Skills Matrix
The Skills page lists all skills in your organisation. Each skill has its own page showing assigned users, current levels, and any linked activities.
From the skills page you can also access the Skills Matrix, which gives you:
Matrix view — see all users against all skills (or activities, or roles) in a grid format.
Table view — a combined table of users, their roles, groups and training activities with advanced filtering.
Filter by group, role, activity or skill to create bespoke views.
Expiring activities page
The Expiring Activities page is designed to be a manager's best friend. It gives you a single view of:
Each user and the activities they need to renew.
The last completed date and the upcoming expiry date.
An urgency indicator to help you prioritise.
The ability to book people into upcoming activity items directly from this page.
Reports
The Reports page allows you to generate and export data on training and competency. Report types include:
Completed training activities.
Overdue or in-progress training.
Pending training activities yet to be started.
Reports can be filtered by activity type, group, role or user, and exported to spreadsheet format for distribution.
Use cases
Use case 1 — Company-wide mandatory training
Scenario: You need all employees to complete annual health and safety training by the end of June.
How People Hub supports this:
Create a self-managed training activity template for "Annual Health & Safety Awareness".
Set a general due date of 30 June.
Assign to all users or the relevant groups.
Each user receives a task automatically. Completions are tracked in real time.
Managers can monitor progress on the Skills Matrix or run a report at any point.
Use case 2 — Role-based competency management
Scenario: Different job roles require different skills and qualifications. You want to track how well each person meets the criteria for their role.
How People Hub supports this:
Define skills with levels for each competency area (e.g. Machining, Quality Inspection, NDT).
Create roles (e.g. Senior Machinist, Quality Inspector) and attach the required skills with target levels.
Assign users to their roles.
People Hub calculates a role adherence percentage and surfaces gaps automatically.
Managers can see at a glance who is fully qualified and who has outstanding requirements.
Use case 3 — Certificate management and renewal tracking
Scenario: Your team holds a range of external certificates (CSCS, IPAF, forklift licences). You need to track expiry dates and ensure renewals happen on time.
How People Hub supports this:
Create certificate activity templates for each type of qualification.
Use the user-set expiry option — employees enter the date on their certificate when they upload it.
The Expiring Activities page shows all upcoming certificate renewals across the business.
Managers can book employees onto renewal courses directly from this page before the certificate lapses.
Use case 4 — Linking training to assets and operations
Scenario: You want to tie training records to specific pieces of equipment — for example, ensuring that only people who have completed vibration handling training are recorded as operating specific machines.
How People Hub supports this:
When creating the activity template, include an Asset field in the training form.
Employees select the relevant asset(s) when completing the activity.
The record links back to the asset in Asset Hub.
The Asset Work tab on the machine shows a history of who has trained against it and when.
Best practices
Design activities around outcomes, not admin. The goal is a live record of what people have done, not just a task list. Build activities that reflect real training events or certificates your business already manages.
Define skill levels clearly before linking activities. Agree with skill owners what each level means and what evidence or training is required. Vague levels lead to inconsistent assessments.
Set up activities and skills before assigning users. People Hub is designed so that roles and skills form a template. Build the framework first, then assign people to it.
Use expiry dates consistently. Decide upfront whether activities expire after a fixed period or are user-set. Mixing approaches makes the Expiring Activities page harder to act on.
Assign skill owners. Each skill should have a named owner — someone who is responsible for keeping the skill definition current and overseeing competency in that area.
Use the Skills Matrix for regular reviews. Rather than running one-off reviews, use the live matrix as part of regular management meetings. It replaces the need to maintain a separate spreadsheet.
Link activities to assets where relevant. If training relates to specific equipment, use the Asset field in the training form to build up a linked history in Asset Hub.
Set up roles for phased onboarding. For large businesses with many job types, build roles department by department rather than all at once. This reduces complexity and allows you to verify each role before moving on.
Troubleshooting
Issue: "A user isn't seeing their assigned activities."
Possible causes:
The activity has not yet been issued to that user.
The user is not in the group or role that the activity was assigned to.
The activity template is set to inactive.
Solutions:
Check the activity template and confirm the user is in the assigned group.
Verify the activity is active and that the item has been created and scheduled.
Check the user's People Hub profile to see what activities are currently assigned.
Issue: "A user completed training but their skill level hasn't updated."
Possible causes:
The activity was not linked to a skill level in the skill settings.
The activity task was not marked as fully complete.
Solutions:
Check the skill settings and confirm the activity is linked to the correct level.
Confirm the task is marked as complete (not just in progress).
Review the activity item to ensure the user's task has been fully submitted.
Issue: "I can't see expected skills or roles in the matrix."
Possible causes:
The skills or roles have not yet been assigned to any users.
A filter is applied that is hiding certain rows or columns.
Solutions:
Confirm that users have been assigned to the relevant role or skill.
Clear any active filters and check whether the expected skills appear.
Check that the skill has been saved and is active.
Issue: "Expiring activities are not appearing on the expiry page."
Possible causes:
The activity template was set to "never expires".
The user has not yet completed the activity, so there is no expiry date to track.
The user-set expiry date has not been entered by the user on their task.
Solutions:
Review the activity template's expiry settings and update if needed.
For user-set expiry activities, confirm the user has submitted their task with an expiry date.
Check the Expiring Activities page filters to ensure nothing is hidden.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the difference between an activity template, an activity item and an activity task?
A: The template is the blueprint (e.g. "Internal Auditing"). An item is a specific instance of that training (e.g. "Internal Auditing — March cohort"). A task is the individual action assigned to each person attending that item. One template can have many items; each item can have many tasks.
Q: Do I have to link activities to skills?
A: No. You can use activities standalone — for example, a one-off company-wide training event that doesn't form part of a formal competency framework. Linking activities to skills is optional but unlocks the automatic skill progression feature.
Q: What is the Skills Matrix?
A: The Skills Matrix gives you a live view of where all your people are against their skills, activities or roles. It replaces the static spreadsheet approach and updates automatically as activities are completed and skill levels change.
Q: Can People Hub handle certificates from external training providers?
A: Yes. You can create a certificate activity template where users are required to upload evidence (e.g. a scan of their certificate). You can also use user-set expiry so the expiry date from the certificate itself drives the renewal tracking.
Q: What is the Expiring Activities page for?
A: It is a manager's view of all upcoming training renewals across the business. It shows each user, the activity they need to renew, the last completion date, the expiry date and an urgency indicator. Managers can book people into upcoming activity items directly from this page.
Q: Will People Hub send reminders to users automatically?
A: Notifications and reminders will be enabled as part of the full release. In beta, they are not yet active to avoid confusing users while the module is still being refined.
Q: Can I import my existing training matrix into People Hub?
A: An AI-assisted import feature is planned — you will be able to upload your existing spreadsheet and Q-Hub will help map your roles, activities and skill levels into the system automatically. This will be part of the onboarding toolset in a future release.
People Hub is currently in beta. Full release including notifications, AI features and portal access is planned for May 2025.
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