Topic 2: Organisational Awareness and Industry Knowledge
How much do you know about the company you work for? When you start a new role, it’s important to dedicate time to build your awareness about your team, how your team contributes to achieving organisational goals, and where your organisation sits in its broader economic and social context. This awareness is pivotal to career success. A person with organisational awareness:
Is curious and finds out what is happening across all parts of the organisation
Makes time to understand the organisational culture and dynamics
Keeps up to date with all business activity – not just what’s happening in their team
Understands where the key decision points are and where the key points of influence are
Demonstrates empathy and understanding of the pressures other people are under and their concerns
Understands the sectoral and social context and issues that impact the organisation’s operations
Looks at the business's broader place in society
In this topic, we’ll give you some useful links and tips to help you increase your organisational awareness and keep up to date with what's happening in your industry. Remember: in today's world - change is a constant. Once you have increased your organisational awareness you need to maintain it.
How much do you know about the company you work for? When you start a new role, it’s important to dedicate time to build your awareness about your team, how your team contributes to achieving organisational goals, and where your organisation sits in its broader economic and social context. This awareness is pivotal to career success. A person with organisational awareness:
Is curious and finds out what is happening across all parts of the organisation
Makes time to understand the organisational culture and dynamics
Keeps up to date with all business activity – not just what’s happening in their team
Understands where the key decision points are and where the key points of influence are
Demonstrates empathy and understanding of the pressures other people are under and their concerns
Understands the sectoral and social context and issues that impact the organisation’s operations
Looks at the business's broader place in society
In this topic, we’ll give you some useful links and tips to help you increase your organisational awareness and keep up to date with what's happening in your industry. Remember: in today's world - change is a constant. Once you have increased your organisational awareness you need to maintain it.
Are you aware of any additional resources that relate to this topic? They could include articles, websites, podcasts or videos. If you do - list them here!
Recall
main points from each Transport agency’s annual report
Recall
main points from your placement team’s business plan
You will also:
Spend 1 hour per week reading the intranet
Follow
Transport on social media
Have
established a mentoring relationship with a more established colleague
Have subscribed to a relevant industry
publication
Alignment with the PSC Framework
Commit to Customer Service
Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the services provided
and relay to customers (intermediate)
Influence and negotiate
Utilise facts, knowledge and experience to support
recommendations (intermediate)
Plan and prioritise
Understand team objectives and how own work relates to achieving
these (intermediate)
Consider the implications of immediate and longer term
organisational issues and how these might impact on the achievement of
team/unit goals (intermediate)
Think and solve problems
Find and check information needed to complete own work tasks (foundational)
Relevant job interview questions
How do you stay aware of the activities, priorities and changes of
other areas of your organisation? Why is this important? Give us a specific
example of when you have done this.
How have you kept informed of what is going on in your area of responsibility?
Give us an example.
What kind of information have you used to stay informed of what
industry organisations are doing? Tell us about a time when you used that
information.
In the next six months, what major organisational issues do you expect
to have to deal with? Specific to RMS?
How have you familiarised yourself with the current situation in your
organisation or work group after you have been away for several days? Give us
an example of a time when you did this.
Describe a major company issue that affects you and other work groups.
How does this affect your work group? How does this affect other groups?
