Organizational Skills: Definition & Examples for Your Resume

Organizational skills are among the most desirable transferable skills an employee can have. Why? They allow you to effectively and efficiently use such resources as time, energy, or mental capacity to achieve the desired outcome.

But what exactly does it take to be considered organized? Do you need to have a kanban board wherever you go? Or is it enough to make your bed, and scrape out time for pursuing hobbies?

In this article, we’ll try to find the best organizational skills definition, show you why they're so important at work, and how to put them on your resume. You’ll also find a list of inspiring resources to help you improve your organizational skills as well.

This article will show you:

• The best organizational skills definition.
• What organizational skills to put on your resume.
• Examples of organizational skills that every employer values.
• How to improve organizational skills.

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Learn more about listing all kinds of skills on a resume in our guide: Best Job Skills to Put on a Resume

1

Organizational Skills—Definition

Let’s take another look at what organizational skills are:

Organizational skills refer to your ability to stay focused on different tasks, and  use your time, energy, strength, mental capacity, physical space, etc. effectively and efficiently in order to achieve the desired outcome.

Now—

The breadth of the organizational skills definition leads to a certain paradox.

On the one hand, they’re extremely desirable by employers of all kinds. Who wouldn’t want their employees to be effective and efficient?

On the other—

It’s hellaciously hard to put a finger on what exactly they are. Is it enough to keep your workspace nice and clean, have a to-do list, and stick to deadlines to be called organized?

Don’t worry.

We’ll clear things up!

Want to learn more about managerial skills? Head straight to our guide: Top 10 Management Skills: List & Great Advice (Not Just for Managers)

Before we take a look at some examples of organizational skills, let’s get one thing straight.

Organizational skills are transferable.

What does it mean?

Well, we have a whole article explaining what transferable skills are.

In short—

If you’re a well-organized person, you will remain well-organized regardless of the job you’ll be doing. It's one of the soft skills you'll bring with you to any position. And it's featured as an important employability skill for any employer.

Now, here’s a list of some of the strongest organizational skills:

Organizational Skills for Your Resume

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Delegation
• Mental organizational skills
• Physical organization
• Planning
• Prioritizing
• Teamwork
• Time management
• Work-life balance

Let’s break this down, and answer the question: Why are organizational skills important?

Well—

Strong organizational skills are important for a variety of reasons, but they all have one common denominator:

They turn you into an efficient and effective employee.

And this is exactly why employers value strong organizational skills so much. You have the right set of hard skills but without strong organizational skills, your productivity plummets. That's why both hard skills and soft skills matter in order to be a top-notch employee.

Here's a closer look at each of the skills from the list above:

Organizational Skills in the Workplace—Examples

Collaboration

Your success may depend on how effectively you can organize your collaboration with others. Plus, it’s just as vital to identify who to collaborate with and on what projects.

Communication

Disorganized and hectic communication will damage your productivity. You must speak and write in a clear manner to be sure your message is understood. This means your communication skills and active listening skills must be up to par to achieve success in the workplace.

Teamwork

Organizing work in a group of people is just as essential as selecting the right people to build a team in the first place. If your organizational skills are up to snuff, you’ll be able to put together a team of exceptional talents and achieve synergistic results while boosting your leadership skills.

Delegation

In fact, your delegation skills are related to your teamwork skills. Well-organized individuals know what they can do themselves, and what they need to delegate to other team members to achieve the best results. It also shows you have a strong set of interpersonal skills.

Planning

We can easily say that the most important part of a well-organized undertaking happens before anything else even takes place. The ability to plan is arguably the most important attribute of any person who claims to have strong organizational skills.

Prioritizing

Being able to give priority to your tasks is far more important than checking off items on your to-do lists. If you can identify roadblocks ahead, break complex projects into smaller components and assess their impact on the outcome, you’re building your project management skills and developing strong problem-solving skills when something doesn't go as planned.

Mental organizational skills

This goes far beyond being able to think in a logical and orderly way. Mental organizational skills allow you to research and analyze situations, prepare documentation, or think strategically among others. Thanks to your analytical skills you can adopt a methodical approach to solving problems. Here’s a list of some of the most important mental organizational skills:

• Analyzing
• Assessment and evaluation
• Attention to detail
• Conceptual
• Creative thinking
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making
• Documenting
• Identifying problems
• Research
• Strategic thinking

Physical organization

Being able to keep your workplace well-organized is also important. If you can’t find necessary documents, office utilities or your computer desktop is so cluttered that you don’t remember what your wallpaper looks like, your workflow will catch a hiccup. Here’s a look at a couple of skills that fall into this category:

• Filing
• Office management
• Record keeping
• Stock inventory

Time management

An extremely important organizational skill. An uberskill, if you like. The ability to perform your tasks in a timely manner, schedule, and stick to deadlines is the Holy Grail of strong organizational skills. If you can keep yourself and your team disciplined, your organization will benefit from you in each and every way. 

Work-life balance

Yes, it's definitely a vital organizational skill. Efficiency at work starts with a good night's sleep and fresh mind. Organize your mental and physical hygiene so there's room for work and play. Remember: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you want to find out something more about work-life balance, here’s an article that may get you interested: Work-Life Balance Is Dead, and Here's Why

Even if you happen to be the best-organized person in the world, no one's gonna believe you.

Unless you prove it.

On your resume, organizational skills can show through in at least a couple of ways. Some more, some less obvious.

Here’s a closer look at three ways in which you can give prominence to your organizational skills on a resume:

Organizational Skills on Resume—Layout

Before any recruiter reads a single word on your resume, they'll cast a perfunctory glance at the document.

A fraction of a second is enough to form a first impression.

So make sure your resume is well-organized and grabs the recruiter's attention for a longer while.

Here's how:

• Go for the reverse-chronological resume format. It brings your experience and key achievements to the front. If you're a career changer or you're writing your first resume, read our guide on how to choose resume format.
• Choose simple and readable fonts. They don't just look good but are compliant with the ATS software.
• Write simple headings. They'll help the recruiter identify different resume sections quickly.
• Put white space to good use and avoid clutter on your resume. You want to come across as organized. Clutter is your enemy.
• Be concise. If you can fit your resume on a single page, do it. You may want to experiment with font sizes, numbers of columns, etc. Our resume builder makes it really easy.
• Begin your resume with a summary or career objective. Read our guide on how to write a resume summary, or how to write a resume objective.
• Then add experience and education. Learn how to describe your work experience on a resume and how to nail the education section.
• Include a key skills section to make sure they really stand out.

Remember—

A well-organized resume layout will serve as hard evidence of your organizational skills.

But that's not everything.

Want to make your resume grab the recruiter’s attention for good? Read one of our guides:

• How to Make a Resume for a Job: Writing Guide
• 6 Tips on How to Tailor Your Resume to a Job Description

Organizational Skills on Resume—Job Description

In resume writing, there's only one rule.

Relevance.

That's why it's not enough to pick the best template for your resume.

You must identify the organizational skills the employer is looking for, and show them you've got what they need.

Start by looking at the job offer.

The job listing may look something like this:

Administrative Assistant—Organizational Skills (Job Description)

• Inventories, receives, and shelves routine supplies.
• Reviews invoices/packing slips to ensure shipment is correct.
• Schedules rooms, meetings and/or tours.
• Performs routine, simple filing and non-critical copying. Collates documents, distributes mail.
• Refers calls, greets visitors, and gives standard information in response to phone or in-person inquiries.
• Performs simple data entry into single screen.

This job description comes from a listing for the position of an administrative assistant who must have excellent organizational skills.

All the planning and organizational skills that the employer requires are highlighted in yellow.

Now—

The trick is to prepare the experience section of your resume on the basis of the job posting.

This is how you could describe your organizational skills in your resume job description:

• Managed a busy 50+ employee office.
• Devised and implemented a tracking system that inventoried and kept track of routine supplies.
• Reviewed 100+ invoices and packing slips weekly to ensure all shipments are correct.
• Scheduled 10+ conference rooms, organized meetings and company events. Introduced a shared calendar system to coordinate office logistics.

See how it works?

A job description like this does three things:

• It targets relevant organizational skills, specified by the employer.
• It describes your organizational skills in terms of achievements.
• It is ATS friendly because it uses the phrasing from the job ad.

We can still take it a step further.

Organizational Skills to Put on Resume—Key Skills Section

If you take another look at the job description above and take out the very essence of it, you’ll end up with a list that looks more or less like this:

• Attention to detail
• Documenting
• Office management
• Planning
• Record keeping
• Stock inventory

To give more prominence to these organizational skills, put them in a separate key skills section.

This way they’ll not just truly stand out on your resume, but will be entirely justified by what you’ve put in the experience sections.

To sum up—

There are at least three ways in which you can display your strong organizational skills on a resume:

1. By laying out your resume in a well-organized and easily-navigable manner.
2. By identifying the organizational skills the employer listed in the job ad, and working them into your resume job description.
3. By giving them extra prominence in the key skills section.

Do you happen to be writing a resume for an administrative assistant? Well, we have a resume writing guide just for you: Administrative Assistant Resume Sample & Guide (20+ Examples)

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

4

Organizational Skills—Interview Questions

Once your resume lands you the long-awaited job interview—

You need to be ready to answer interview question about your organizational skills.

What to expect?

Well, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.

But before I tell you what exactly to expect and how to nail your answers, let’s take a closer look at a certain interviewing technique.

Have you heard of the so-called behavioral interview questions?

These are questions that refer to particular situations from your past work experience and whose aim is to learn how you coped with or behaved in that situation.

For example:

• Tell me about a time when you were involved in a stressful situation at work and how you handled it.

• Tell me about a situation when you succeeded in achieving a goal.

• Give me an example of a goal you failed to achieve.

Now—

In order to nail your answer, it’s best to stick to the so-called STAR structure. STAR is an acronym which stands for:

• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Result

A good answer consists of all four elements:

You describe a situation where you were given a particular task related to the interviewer’s question. Then you explain the actions you undertook to cope with the task and discuss the results of your actions.

In the case of interview questions to determine your organizational skills, you may expect something like:

“Tell me about a situation when your planning skills and attention to detail made a difference.”

Here’s the promised good news—

The interview questions to assess your organizational skills will be based on your resume.

So, if you followed the steps outlined in the previous section:

You’ll know exactly what to expect.

Since your resume highlights your planning skills and attention to detail among others, well, expect the recruiter to be interested in these organizational skills in particular.

Now—

The only thing you need to do is to connect these skills to the achievements in your job description and structure your answer according to the STAR method.

Your answer could recount how your attention to detail and strong focus helped you review 100+ invoices and packing slips weekly to make sure all shipments are correct.

You can detail your process and tell the recruiter what steps you take to do the task efficiently. Maybe there was a moment when this task was particularly difficult to complete? How did you manage to get things right? If you failed, what did you learn?

As to your planning skills, focus on how the introduction of a shared calendar system helped you coordinate office logistics.

Tell the recruiter about the challenges you had before and how the calendar helped you deal with them.

Remember—

The interview questions to test your organizational skills will not be random. They will be based on your resume and the requirements for the position.

If you’re still not sure how to cope with interview questions on organizational skills, read our guides:

• STAR Method for Acing Behavioral Interview Questions (25+ Examples)

• Common Job Interview Questions & Answers [Top 20 Samples for 2019]

• 20 Situational Interview Questions and Answers to Nail Your Interview

If someone tells you, you can’t learn organizational skills—

They're either lying or have no clue what they’re talking about.

After all, we’re not talking talents.

We’re talking skills.

And skills you can learn.

The first step is to realize you need to develop your organizational skills.

But—

We can safely assume you’re past this stage.

So, without much further ado, here’s a list of resources you may find useful:

TED Talks—Organizational Skills

Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator

Tim Urban was once a self-proclaimed master procrastinator who realized that life is just too short to put things off. And came up with a brilliant way of getting organized.

How to Gain Control of Your Free Time

Laura Vanderkam is a time-management expert. In her talk, she will teach you how to “build the lives we want in the time we’ve got.”

How to Manage Your Time More Effectively (According to Machines)

This short TED Lesson casts an entirely new perspective on scheduling. If you want to become the master of your time, this one is just for you.

How to save the world (or at least yourself) from bad meetings

As the title suggests, David Grady will show you a couple of ways in which you can make your meetings more effective.

Time Management: How to Write a To-Do List & Know Where Your Time Goes

Gina Trapani, author of “Upgrade Your Life,” will show you how to put simple to-do lists to good use to take better control of your time.

Forget Multitasking, Try Monotasking

As a Product Designer, Paolo Cardini must work effectively and efficiently. In his talk, Paolo questions the value of multitasking, to encourage monotasking, that is doing one thing at a time.

Books on Organizational Skills

Time Management & Organizational Skills for Students

This book is not just about improving high school students’ time management and organizational skills, it’s for their parents as well.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

This classic book by David Allen will help you get organized and get rid of stress.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Another classic. Stephen R. Covey teaches you how to maximize your effectiveness and efficiency.

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World

Well, if you want to get a grip on yourself and make sure your organizational skills are second to none, learn how to do it from a former Navy SEAL. General McRaven's military experience can be universally applied to a lot of non-military contexts.

Organizational Skills—Training Online

If you’re seriously serious about honing your organizational skills, you might want to consider taking one of the online courses:

• Get Things Done: How To Organize Your Life And Take Action
• Master Organization: Your Digital & Physical Stuff Organized
• Improve Your Organizational Skills
• Developing Better Organizational Skills Course
• Organisational Skills Training Course

And—

Try some of these apps to help you get organized:

Organizational Skills—Apps

• Tasks—this basic app will help you create and manage your to-do lists
• Wunderlist—a to-do list app on steroids, you can create multi-layered lists, collaborate with others, add files, and whatnot
• Google Calendar—the simplest way to keep track of your time
• Evernote—a versatile note-taking app. Its premium version offers some powerful features, such as Chrome integration or website clipping
• Google Keep—a simple note-taking app
• Todoist—this time-management app will help you get a grip on your daily or weekly goals
• Trello—a Kanban board on steroids with a lot of extra functionalities. It gives you an overview of what’s been done, what’s being worked on, and who’s doing what

Here’s a quick recap of what you need to know about organizational skills:

• Your organizational skills help you stay effective and efficient—both professionally and personally.
• Organizational skills are among the most desired skill sets by the employers.
• You can display your organizational skills on your resume in many different ways.
• If you get your resume right, you can easily prepare for your organizational skills interview questions and answers.
• There are many resources (online, books, apps, etc.) that can help you improve your organizational skills.

Do you have any questions about organizational skills? Maybe you’d like to share some tips on developing organizational skills? Give us a shout out in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you!