Communication skills selection criteria examples

As a senior policy officer at the Department of Transport and Regional Roads, I write the briefs and correspondence that executives and the Minister’s office use to make decisions.

In February 2026 the Deputy Secretary needed a two-page decision brief on whether to extend an on-demand bus trial in three regional towns. The consultants’ evaluation was 74 pages of technical writing, and the brief was due in four days.

I pulled out the three facts the decision turned on: cost per trip, the patronage trend and who was using the service. I put the recommendation and the decision needed in the first paragraph, then gave one short section each to the evidence, the cost, the risks and the three options. I turned 12 data tables into one table comparing the towns and moved the method to an attachment. After checking every figure with the evaluation team and the finance branch, I asked a colleague who knew nothing about the trial to tell me what decision the draft was seeking. Their answer showed one option was unclear, so I rewrote it.

My director and executive director cleared the brief without changes, the Deputy Secretary approved a 12-month extension in two towns, and the brief is now the model in our branch’s writing training.

As a project officer at Calloway City Council, I present projects to the community and negotiate with the people they affect.

In 2025 I led communication on a $2.4 million footpath upgrade along a shopping strip with 38 small businesses. The contractor’s plan closed each block for three weeks, and at the first information session traders said it would ruin their Christmas trade.

Over two weeks I visited every business, asked about their busiest days and hours, and logged their concerns. Three patterns emerged: cafes needed lunchtime foot traffic, two shops took deliveries before 9 am, and nearly everyone needed December left alone. I took these to the contractor and our engineer and negotiated a new sequence: two-week closures, temporary ramps to keep doorways open, no work from 1 December to 10 January, and night work for the noisiest stage. I presented the new program at a second session with a large map showing each block’s dates, and sent a weekly two-line text update.

The works finished within budget and a week later than planned. We received four complaints, compared with 27 on a similar project the year before, and the traders’ association wrote to council supporting the next stage.

Writing health information people can understand and act on is the core of my role as health promotion officer at the Upper Darran Public Health Unit.

Before summer 2025 I was asked to update our heatwave fact sheet. It ran to four pages and opened with the physiology of heat stress, and local GPs said their older patients and Vietnamese- and Arabic-speaking communities hadn’t understood it.

I started with what readers needed to do: keep cool, drink water, check on others and know the danger signs. I rewrote the sheet as one double-sided page under those four headings, kept sentences to an average of under 15 words, and replaced medical terms with everyday words. I tested the draft with a seniors’ group and, through an interpreter, a Vietnamese women’s group, then added a picture of the danger signs and a large-print phone number in response to their feedback. I briefed the translators to keep the plain style and recorded a two-minute segment for community radio.

We distributed 9,000 copies through GPs, pharmacies and community groups. In a follow-up survey of 120 residents, 71 per cent could name at least three of the four actions, up from 34 per cent the year before.

As an APS 4 compliance officer at a Commonwealth regulator, I often give people news they don’t want to hear, and I’ve learnt that how I listen matters as much as what I say.

In April 2026 I had to phone the owner of a small transport business to say his accreditation renewal would be refused unless he sent missing safety records within 14 days. He had already received two letters, and when I introduced myself he said we were trying to put him out of business and he would hang up.

I asked for two minutes to explain how I could help, and he agreed. I let him talk without interrupting, then summarised what I’d heard: his office manager, who kept the records, had left, and he didn’t know what we needed. I apologised that our letters hadn’t been clear, walked him through the three missing records with examples of what would count, and asked which would be hardest to find. I emailed him the list straight after the call, booked a follow-up for the next week, and told my supervisor about the problem with our letter.

He sent all three records within nine days and his accreditation was renewed. Our standard letter now lists the exact records needed and gives a contact name.