English for HR personnelThis festgehalten is written in English. Why? Because it is a summary of an English training that the employer association organized for the HR personnel of its member companies. For this training, the employer association invited a trainer who not only had a lot of experience in courses for business personnel, but also was familiar with the German chemical industry and its characteristics.

Right from the start English was the language of choice. Naturally also during the breaks. Thanks to this the attendees very quickly began to speak fluently and gained more and more confidence. And ultimately this was the goal of this workshop.

The training offered plenty of opportunities for practice, role play and team work. The course participants learned the important terms for their HR work, including vocabulary for legal and safety issues. More over the attendees trained their presentation skills, e.g. as they presented a profile of their employer. In this festgehalten, we sum up the main topics discussed and the most common phrases presented.

Stefanie Lenze | Chemieverbände Rheinland­PfalzEnglish in business is indispensable.How good are your English skills?

INHALTHow to do a safety walk

Recuitment and selection

Meetings

Germanys social system

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festgehaltenDie Veranstaltungen der Chemieverbände Rheinland-pfalz

12 | 2014

Recruitment and selectionDuring the training the participants talked about HR, their role and res­ponsibilities. A main field of HR activity is the recruiting process. These terms might be useful if you deal with international job applications.

English for HR personnel | Deidesheim

How to do a safety walkImagine you have successfully interviewed a job applicant. Now you want to show your visitor around your factory site. The tour could go off like this:

„Let’s have a look at the site. Before we begin the tour, I need to issue you with some protective clothing, and talk you through some basic Health and Safety procedures. Let’s go through to the changing room. It is here next to the entrance of this floor.

If you’d like to take your jacket off. You can leave them in the lockers over here. I think one of these coats will fit you. And you’ll need safety shoes as well. You can leave your shoes beneath the chairs. And I’ll give you a safety helmet and goggles. You’ll need a hair net as well.

If you need a rest room, you’ll find it between the planning office and the kitchen. It is opposite the mail room, on the left.

We’ll be passing through some busy areas, so for your health and safety, could you please follow the walkway. It is important that you stay between the yellow lines, as many forklift trucks go throughout the factory site. Follow me please. I don’t think we need the elevator. We’ll take the stairs down to the first floor.”

A little bit of grammarWhat is possible, impossible, necessary, obligatory or forbidden?

can = possiblecan’t = impossiblemust = necessary / obligatory strong!mustn’t = prohibited / forbiddenhave to = necessary / obligatory don’t have to = it isn’t necessary

Job application

vocational training Ausbildung

job applicant Bewerber

application Bewerbung

application form die (schriftliche) Bewerbung

experience Erfahrung

desirables skills gewünschte Fähigkeiten

job offer Jobangebot

essential skills notwendige Fähigkeiten

qualification Qualfizierung

Interviewing

employment contract Arbeitsvertrag

interviewer der Interviewer

interviewee der Interviewte

personell development Personalentwicklung

notice period Kündigungsfrist

probation Probezeit

selection interviewing Bewerbungsgespräch

training needs Qualifizierungsbedarf

working time directive Arbeitszeitvereinbarung

Recruitment process

carry out a CRB check Polizeiliches Führungszeugnis checken

head­hunter Headhunter

job specification Anforderungsprofil

shortlist Engere Auswahl

succession planning Nachfolgeplanung

take up the references Die Referenzen eines Bewerbers checken

Germanys social systemGermany has an elaborate social security system that contains several types of insurance covering areas such as health, nursing care, pensions, unemployment and accidents. If you need to explain the role of compa­nies in the German welfare system or their current challenges, this list will be of use.

MeetingsDuring the training the participants spent a lot of time discussing the various aspects of their work as HR professionals. During role plays, they learned how to give their opinions and how to chair a meeting. These expressions can help you structure the conversation.

How to open the meetingShall we start?Right, if everyone’s ready we can begin.Let’s get straight down to business.

How to start the discussionAs you know, we’re here today to…Could you give us your views to…?

How to give opinions, to agree and disagree I’m convinced (that)…The way I see it…How about you?I’m afraid I disagree.I see what you mean. However…I totally agree with you on that point.

How to interruptCould I just interrupt at this point?Sorry to butt in, but…

How to accept or reject an interruptionPlease do.Go ahead.Just let me finish making my point.One moment, please.

How to get back to the pointCould we go back to the subject under discussion?We seem to be getting off the point, here.

How to move to the next pointThat brings us to the next item on the agenda…Can we look at the next issue?

How to summarise and close the meetingWe’ve had a lively discussion. Thank you all for your input. See you next Wednesday at the same time. Let’s close the meeting and agree a time for the next one.

12/2014

Websites for practising your English

The BBC offers an online service with free audio, video and text materials: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/

If you want to read newspapers, you can find at http://www.thepaper-boy.com/ all newspapers from uK or usA.

At http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/ you meet up with a native speaker who skypes with you – a great chance to improve your speaking skills and to learn a lot about different cultures.

ageing workforce alternde Belegschaft

demographic change Demografischer Wandel

early retirement (vorgezogener) Renteneintritt

flexible working flexible Arbeitszeiten

employer association Arbeitgeberverband

industrial politics Industriepolitik

pension agreement Rentenvereinbarung pension providers: company pension Betriebsrente private pension Rente aus privater Altersvorsorge state pension gesetzliche Rente

remuneration/agreement Tarifvertrag master collective agreement Manteltarifvertrag

remuneration policy Tarifpolitik

small and medium­ kleine und mittlere sized enterprises (SMEs) Unternehmen (KMUs)

social partnership Sozialpartnerschaft

social system Sozialsystem

trade union Gewerkschaft

welfare and employment Sozialpolitik politics

work council Betriebsrat

English for HR personnel | Deidesheim

Mr. Wilson, if someone doesn’t feel comfortable speaking English, and is afraid to make mistakes, what do you think might help them to gain more confidence?

Don’t worry if you don’t understand single words, because language is a matter of context. Learning English is like saving money. You don’t see the effect after a week, but only after a month or two. You should certainly notice an improvement after three to six months. Actively look for oppor­tunities to speak English: at work, online, anywhere. Enjoy saying what you can say. Don’t focus on what you can’t say. And, above all, don’t worry about making mistakes. Just have a go and try to communicate.

What do you recommend if someone wants to practice on a daily basis?

Start with common and trivial words and make a plan. Say, learn seven words every week: one word a day. Of course it helps if you read or listen to the news in English every day, for example, when you have a lunch or coffee break.

If someone wants to improve his or her English level – where should he or she begin?

It’s practice more than anything. Don’t think so much of English in terms of level. Level is an artificial concept in communication, invented by language schools and teachers. There will always be people with a „higher level” than you, and also with a „lower level”. In the real world we need to learn to communicate with people who are „better” at English than us, and with those who are „worse”. If you must compete, compete with yourself over time. For example, say to yourself: „I’m better now than I was three months ago”. And to get there you need to look for opportunities to speak and listen to English wherever you can, and try to use the language (however briefly) every day if possible.

Start with something you already know. It’s easier and more useful to learn phrases and expressions than single words because they have a context. For help with technical and specialist HR words I recommend that you use www.dict.leo.org.

IMpREssuM Herausgeber: Chemieverbände Rheinland­Pfalz, Bahnhofstraße 48, 67059 Ludwigshafen, Telefon 06 21­5 20 56 ­0, Telefax 06 21­5 20 56 ­20, info@chemie­rp.de, www.chemie­rp.de, Redaktion: Stefanie Lenze, Fotos: Marcel Hasübert, mh­foto.de, Gestaltung: gestaltbar@netcologne.de, Köln, Druck: Chroma Druck & Verlag GmbH, Römerberg­Berghausen, Auflage: 400, stand: Dezember 2014. Die Veranstaltung fand am 21.–23. Juli 2014 in Deidesheim statt.

„The course was well structured and we had a lot of fun learning. There was time for questions and spontaneous discussions about topics which weren’t on the agenda.”Thomas Gauza

David Wilson is senior Instructor at specialist Language services (sLs).

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