Organisational skills help you manage your time, resources, and tasks, ensuring that you stay on the right track to achieve your goals. Thus, they are paramount in the workplace and almost equally as important in your personal life.
In this article, we will cover some of the most useful organisational skills to include on your CV, show you how to do so, and teach you how to demonstrate them in an interview. We will also share a few tips on how to improve them and increase your employability, so keep reading!
Key Takeaways
The definition of organisational skills is that they are abilities that help you plan, prioritise, and manage tasks and resources to achieve specific goals.
There are two types of organisational skills: internal, which play a role in managing your time and tasks, and external, which help you organise systems, environments, and other people.
Crucial organisational skills include time management, goal setting, prioritisation, attention to detail, multitasking, planning, analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and delegation.
What Are Organisational Skills?
Organisational skills are abilities that allow you to effectively manage your time and resources to achieve your goals. As such, they are crucial in the workplace; most employers want to hire someone who can manage themselves and, potentially, others.
Since organisational skills aren’t specific to a single industry, they are considered soft skills; essentially, attributes needed in most professions. Some of those include planning, time and resource management, goal setting, prioritisation, and attention to detail.
Why Organisational Skills Matter in the Workplace
The importance of organisational skills can be observed in various aspects of both professional and personal life. Here are some instances when these abilities might be useful to you:
In the workplace. Organisational skills boost your efficiency, improve teamwork, and make you a well-rounded employee. It’s easier to complete your tasks when you have a concrete plan guiding you towards your goal.
In career advancement. Employees with excellent organisational skills are more likely to be promoted to leadership positions, which are often more rewarding and offer better pay.
In daily life. If you manage your schedule well, you will discover you have more time for yourself, your hobbies, and your loved ones. You’ll also be less stressed, as you won’t have chores and tasks weighing on you all the time.
2 Types of Organisational Skills
There are two types of organisational skills:
Internal. These focus on your tasks and work, helping you organise and manage your own time, tasks, and focus.
External. These are more observable and often involve visible systems and structures meant to organise and manage systems, people, and environments.
Both types of organisational skills are important for productivity and efficiency, but they work in different ways, and here’s how:
Type | Focus | Examples | How It Helps |
Internal Organisational Skills | Managing your own tasks, time, and focus | Time management (planning schedules, allocating time) Decision-making (evaluating options, choosing best course) Goal setting (defining and pursuing objectives) | Keeps you productive, ensures priorities are met, and supports personal efficiency. |
External Organisational Skills | Managing systems, people, and environments | Delegation (assigning tasks effectively) Managing physical and digital spaces (organising desk, files, folders) Communication (coordinating and aligning with others) | Improves teamwork, reduces clutter, streamlines workflows, and enhances collaboration. |
10 Key Organisational Skills Employers Value
The key organisational skills employers value include time management, prioritisation, goal setting, attention to detail, planning, analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication, delegation, and multitasking.
Below, we will examine all these skills in more detail:
#1. Time Management
Time management is a crucial organisational skill because it entails planning how to use your time in the most effective way. Employees with good time management know how to organise their schedules, prioritise tasks, and set effective deadlines.
Here’s an example you can put on your CV:
Time Management Skills Example
Implemented a time management system to help my team track and schedule their tasks, ensuring all projects were completed before the deadline.
#2. Prioritisation
Prioritisation is closely tied to time management, which often entails it. Essentially, it involves the ability to analyse tasks, determine their importance, and allocate appropriate resources accordingly.
This skill is vital for employees working in fast-paced environments where they are expected to juggle several responsibilities. For instance, leaders, project managers, entrepreneurs, administrative assistants, and event planners all use this ability daily.
Here’s how to incorporate it on your CV:
Prioritisation Skills Example
Managed several projects simultaneously by identifying key tasks and prioritising them to improve workflow efficiency.
#3. Goal Setting
An excellent example of an organisational skill is goal setting, the ability to define clear, measurable objectives along with a plan to achieve them. It isn’t just saying you will do something; it’s creating a step-by-step strategy to get there.
This is how you can talk about goal setting on your CV:
Goal Setting Skills Example
Set clear, measurable goals to consistently achieve targets and contribute to long-term project success.
#4. Attention to Detail
Attention to detail is important when organising because it ensures all particulars are accounted for and leaves little room for error. As such, it’s particularly useful to managers, CEOs, accountants, architects, and other similar professions.
Incorporate it in your CV by saying this:
Attention to Detail Skills Example
Maintained strong attention to detail when organising tasks to ensure accuracy and smooth project execution.
#5. Planning
Planning helps you determine the most effective way to achieve a particular goal, complete tasks on time, stay within budget, and meet established standards. It’s a key organisational skill in most workplaces, but particularly those that entail management and leadership.
Here’s how to showcase planning on your CV:
Planning Skills Example
Implemented a planning system to boost the company’s overall productivity by 30% in one quarter.
#6. Analytical Thinking
Analytical thinking can be considered an organisational skill because it helps you structure information logically, leading to better decision-making. That, in turn, boosts your prioritisation skills, improves strategic planning, and prepares you to overcome potential obstacles while pursuing your goal.
In the organisational context, you can talk about your analytical thinking like this:
Analytical Thinking Skills Example
Analysed workflows and evaluated priorities to improve my team’s efficiency by 27%.
#7. Problem-Solving
Like analytical thinking, problem-solving can help the organising process by helping you resolve potential issues in your plan. This refers to real problems related to the budget or task delegation, as well as potential ones that may arise as you execute the strategy. As a result, they are crucial to have in your arsenal.
Here’s how you can incorporate problem-solving into your CV:
Problem-Solving Skills Example
Applied problem-solving skills to identify issues, develop practical solutions, and streamline the strategy implementation process, leading to a 24% increase in efficiency.
#8. Communication
Communication is a particularly important organisational skill for teachers, managers, and leaders; essentially, anyone working with other people. It allows you to effectively impart information, express your expectations, and account for others’ needs and concerns, which ensures smooth teamwork and collaboration.
You may mention your communication skills as follows:
Communication Skills Example
Used active listening and effective communication to establish rapport with the team and help its members coordinate tasks more efficiently.
#9. Delegation
Delegation means assigning responsibilities to others and giving them the freedom to complete tasks as they see fit. Considering that, you must be aware of each person’s strengths and weaknesses to determine who would be the most suitable for a specific assignment.
Showcase your delegation skills on your CV like so:
Delegation Skills Example
Delegated tasks to junior employees and provided assistance to improve their skills and encourage them to take on more responsibility.
#10. Multitasking
Multitasking means handling multiple responsibilities at once while maintaining quality and meeting deadlines. This is a key organisational skill in healthcare, hospitality, customer service, management, and other high-stress professions.
Here is how you can include multitasking on your CV:
Multitasking Skills Example
Successfully managed multiple responsibilities at the same time, winning a staff recognition award two months in a row due to excellent performance.
How to Showcase Organisational Skills on a CV
To showcase organisational skills on a CV, you can add them to various sections, including the skills section, work experience, and personal statement.
It’s particularly easy to incorporate them in the skills section; you only need to list them without any further explanations. In practice, that would look like this:
Skills Section
Trello, Asana
Budgeting
Cost control
Time management
Goal setting
Attention to detail
As for the work experience section and personal statement, you need to get a little more creative. Typically, you’ll incorporate organisational skills alongside your significant achievements to demonstrate your value to your potential employer.
So, here’s what that may look like:
Personal Statement & Work Experience
Personal Statement
Highly responsible project manager with 5+ years of experience managing teams, meeting deadlines, and developing actionable plans to reach specific goals. Implemented time management software to improve my department’s task delivery speed by 15% and trained junior employees to use it. Known for my organisational skills, communication, and excellent work ethic.
Work Experience
Project Manager XYZ Company January 2022–February 2024
Set actionable goals and increased my team’s efficiency by 33% in a single month.
Effectively juggled multiple responsibilities, including budgeting, task delegation, scheduling, and client communication.
Implemented time management software to boost my department’s task delivery speed by 15%.
How to Showcase Organisational Skills in a Job Interview
To showcase organisational skills in a job interview, you can highlight them at the very beginning, when asked to talk about yourself. You can also sprinkle them throughout the conversation, particularly in questions relating to your strengths, skills, and abilities.
For instance, some commonly asked questions that prompt you to talk about your organisational skills are:
Common Interview Questions About Organisational Skills
“How do you prioritise tasks when faced with tight deadlines?”
“What software do you use to stay organised?”
“How do you keep track of your daily responsibilities?”
“Tell me about a time you had to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously.”
“Describe a time you managed a large project.”
In the final two, the so-called behavioural interview questions, you should talk about a specific situation, preferably using the STAR method. This method, which follows the Situation, Task, Action, and Result framework, helps your story stay organised, coherent, and easy to follow.
How to Improve Organisational Skills
To improve organisational skills, you can try the following techniques:
Use digital organising tools, like Google Calendar, Notion, Trello, Asana, and similar software. These will help you keep track of your tasks, ideas, notes, appointments, and any other important information you may need.
Break down large goals into small steps to make them more manageable. Setting a goal like “write a book” can be overwhelming, but focusing on smaller parts, such as a chapter, feels far more doable.
Set SMART goals following the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) framework. This framework can help you define your goal, develop an actionable plan, and stay on course as you pursue it.
Create routines, as they can help you form a habit and stay on track. Most people are more efficient when they follow a specific routine, be it a daily or a weekly one.
Declutter your physical and virtual workspace to clear your mind and focus on your tasks. Throw out any unnecessary items that may only distract you, and organise the files and folders on your computer. The cleaner and tidier your environment, the easier it will be for you to focus.
Seek feedback and reflect, especially if you’re trying out a new organising system. Others can offer their opinions on what may or may not be working, and you can consider those when making necessary adjustments.
Create a Professional CV Within Minutes
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Final Thoughts
Organisational skills are vital in a workplace, regardless of the career you’re pursuing. As a result, you should showcase them on your CV and demonstrate them during your interview. Hopefully, our article has shown you how to do that effectively enough to put you ahead of the competition!
Organisational Skills FAQ
#1. What are the 5 most important organisational skills?
The five most important organisational skills are time management, prioritisation, goal setting, planning, and delegation. These are crucial for anyone working in management, hospitality, and leadership.
#2. What is a good example of being organised?
A good example of being organised is having a clear goal and a detailed plan to achieve it. This plan should entail specific steps, resources, and time needed to reach your objective, as well as alternative options in case obstacles arise.
#3. How to amplify my organisational skills at work?
To amplify your organisational skills at work, use lists, calendars, and scheduling apps, declutter your space, and set small, manageable goals. Also, be sure to regularly evaluate your approach and communicate with your team; that way, you’ll be aware if anything needs to be improved.
#4. What if a hiring manager doesn’t ask for my organisational skills?
If a hiring manager doesn’t ask for your organisational skills, you can still mention them when you discuss your strengths or bring them up in your other answers. You can also demonstrate them by describing a situation when you’ve used them or by showing how well-prepared you are for the interview.
#5. Can organisational skills be learned or are they innate?
Organisational skills can be learned; they aren’t innate, as no one’s born organised. For some people, organisation comes more naturally, but everyone can develop the habit of using a calendar or scheduling app and manage their time effectively.
