Organizational and management skills: how to assess and develop them
It is no secret now that organizational and management skills have become a top priority in recruiter research.
What the world of work demands is no longer just "a good resume," but increasingly complex, interdependent and specialized skill portfolios.
Just think that a study published in Nature Human Behaviour analyzed 70 million job transactions and showed that the most advanced and specific skills are always built on a foundation of more general skills, which include precisely organizational, management and social skills.
Not only that, skills that fit into this "nested structure" are associated with higher wage premiums, better career paths, and lower risk of automation.
If you are involved in recruiting, these considerations have a very practical consequence: when you assess a profile, you are not just checking whether he or she has the technical skills required by the role. On the contrary, you are trying to understand if the candidate has those "core" professional skills (organizational, managerial, relational) that will allow him to grow, take responsibility, coordinate people and processes, and build a path that does not leave him stuck in easily replaceable roles.
In this article we will look at what organizational and management skills really are in the resume, why they are central to selection decisions, how to recognize them, what phrases and examples can help you assess them, and how HR Tech tools like Skillvue can support more objective assessment and structured development over time.
What are really organizational and management skills in the curriculum?
When we talk about organizational skills or management skills, we often tend to aggregate them under the term "soft skills" without going further, but the meaning of each is broader and much more operational.
These are hybrid professional skills, combining two complementary dimensions:
- Personal and behavioral skills (such as communication, problem solving, time management);
- technical and methodological skills (such as planning, process management, coordination of activities or people).
These two types of skills tell a lot about a person: they describe how a candidate works, how he or she is organized, and how he or she handles responsibilities and relationships.
Specifically, by organizational skills we mean the ability to manage activities, priorities and workflows in a structured way, ensuring efficiency, order and business continuity.
These are skills that answer questions such as:
- Does the candidate know how to organize his or her work?
- Can you handle multiple tasks at the same time?
- Can you meet deadlines, procedures, and goals?
They are therefore about managing processes, not people.
By management skills, however, we mean the ability to coordinate people, make decisions, distribute responsibility, and facilitate collaboration.
These are skills you can analyze to answer these questions:
- Can the candidate grow into a responsible role?
- Do you manage communication well in the team?
- Can you lead a project or small work unit?
We can say, therefore, that they are about managing people and team dynamics, even in the absence of a formal managerial role.
Why are organizational skills so important?
Organizational skills, along with technical skills and communication and interpersonal skills, are what enable people to work better, faster and with less friction. Evidence confirms this:
- according to Global Talent Trends, the ability to organize work, manage priorities and coordinate tasks are among the skills that distinguish top performers from average performers;
- teams with good intermediate organizational skills reduce time lost in duplicate activities, interruptions and lack of role clarity;
- for the World Economic Forum, communication and interpersonal skills matter more than technical skills and competencies in organizational effectiveness: when one person can communicate, plan and coordinate, the whole team works better;
- in many companies, organizational skills and competencies are considered the first sign that a candidate can evolve into management roles, even without previous managerial experience.
Organizational and management skills: practical examples
After defining what they are, let us see which organizational and management skills are most relevant in selection processes today.
1. Meeting deadlines and time management
This is probably the most universally required organizational competency. It appears often on the CV, but is rarely described in a concrete way.
If you have to select a professional, the real signal to detect is the ability to correctly estimate time, predict critical issues, and meet deliverables even in the presence of external variables.
Practical example:
A candidate who reports managing a multi-team project, delivered by the deadline despite changes in requirements, demonstrates a mix of:
- planning;
- control-advancement;
- risk management;
- operational problem solving.
This combination certainly indicates operational maturity, one of the most useful management skills within a company (and one we recommend taking into account).
2. Work planning and prioritization
Among the most useful professional skills in management and organization is definitely theability to plan.
In this case, it means the ability to translate an overall goal into orderly, sequential activities with clear priorities.
Practical example:
An account manager who reorganizes the team's workflow by introducing short moments of alignment, weekly check-ins, and a shared system for tracking customer requests:
- Reduces bottlenecks;
- Accelerates productivity;
- Reduces errors;
- Improves internal communication.
3. Coordination of people, processes and activities
Speaking of management skills and examples, this is one of the most complex.
The first principle to clarify is that coordinating does not mean "controlling," but harmonizing people and activities to arrive at a common result. Without coordination, organizational complexity comes to a standstill.
We can say that it is the ability that transforms a good performer into a figure capable of advancing an entire process.
Practical example:
A candidate who recounts coordinating a cross-cutting project between HR, Finance, and IT demonstrates stakeholder management skills, excellent communication skills, and an end-to-end view of the process.
4. Decision making and operational problem solving
Companies are looking for people who will not get stuck when something goes wrong.
Organizational problem solving is a structured way of dealing with problems and is one of the most valued and sought-after skills ever, especially at a time of great historical change such as we are currently experiencing.
Practical example:
A candidate who has faced a critical issue (supplier delay, technical error, sudden absence of a resource) and has:
- quickly analyzed the causes;
- Evaluated the alternatives;
- Proposed a solution;
- communicated the plan to the team
demonstrates highly expendable management expertise, particularly in nonlinear contexts.
5. Meeting management and team facilitation
The ability to run meetings effectively and facilitate the work of teams has become one of the most strategic management skills in recent years, especially in hybrid or full-remote settings.
Today, meetings are real operational hubs that determine the speed, quality and clarity of a team's work.
It comes as no surprise to us to learn that poorly run meetings are one of the biggest causes of lack of productivity for a team.
Conversely. a well-run meeting, on the other hand, becomes a productivity multiplier because it allows people to quickly align, clarify responsibilities and expectations, and improve collaboration.
Therefore, when evaluating candidates, facilitation is one of the most relevant emerging management skills: those who can run a meeting are often already predisposed to managing a more complex team or process.
Not surprisingly, many organizations see facilitation as an early indicator of potential leadership.
Practical example:
A candidate shows advanced management skills when he or she demonstrates:
- Conduct short and productive meetings;
- Define clear and shared goals;
- Summarize next steps and assign responsibilities:
- Document decisions made in a structured way.
6. Delegating effectively
Of all management skills, that of effective delegation is probably one of the most difficult aspects to learn and one of the most revealing of a person's managerial potential.
Delegating means assigning responsibilities strategically so that the team works better, grows and becomes more autonomous.
It is a skill that requires context awareness, knowledge of people, and the ability to balance control and trust. Most importantly, it is a skill that immediately distinguishes an operational employee from a professional who is capable of managing other people.
Practical example:
A professional demonstrates effective delegation when he or she tells of having:
- Analyzed the technical and soft skills of their team;
- assigned tasks strategically to enhance each person;
- Built a transparent workflow with clear goals and metrics;
- Maintained a constant but not stifling follow-up;
- granted autonomy to collaborators, intervening only when necessary;
- Improved overall team productivity through redistribution of work.
How Skillvue can support you in assessing organizational and management skills
Assessing organizational and management skills objectively is complex: it often happens to be based only on what the candidate states in the CV or on impressions gained during the interview.
But these skills, precisely because they are hybrid, behavioral and situational, require tools to measure them for real, reducing bias and making comparison between candidates more reliable.
Skillvue meets this very need.
By combining state-of-the-art psychometric science with proprietary AI technology, Skillvue enables rapid, scalable, behavioral evidence-based assessment of skills of all kinds. In just 15 minutes of assessment, candidates respond to real-world scenarios and situational questions structured according to a Behavioural Event Interview (BEI) model, allowing them to measure:
- Organizational skills (time management, planning, prioritization, operational coordination);
- Management skills (e.g., leadership, problem solving);
- future potential, leadership skills and readiness for responsible roles.
The result is a comparable, objective and bias-free assessment with clear insights into each candidate's strengths and areas for development.
Plus, with Skillvue:
- you can customize each skill assessment to your corporate competency model;
- you can choose from 150+ ready-made tests or build your own, based on your competency model;
- you can handle high volumes of applicants without losing hidden talent;
- you can integrate the platform with any ATS, maintaining a smooth process that is 100% GDPR and AI Act compliant.
👉Start assessing candidates today with Skillvue's Skill Assessments
