Business Vocabulary in Use .
This part helps learners of business English improve their business vocabulary . It is for people studying English before they start work and for those already working who need English in their job . It also helps to develop the language needed for important business communication skills .
Work and jobs .
A - ] What do you do ? :
- I ‘work for’ a large European car maker . I ‘work on’ car design . In fact , I ‘run’ the design department and I ‘manage’ a team of designers : 20 people ‘work under’ me . It’s very interesting . One of my ‘responsibilities’ is to make sure that new model designs are finished on time . I’m also ‘in charge of’ design budgets .
- I ‘deal with’ a lot of different people in the company . I’m ‘responsible for’ co-ordination between design and production : I ‘work with’ managers at our manufacturing plants .
B-] Word combination with ‘work’ :
- I work in a bank . I leave ‘for work’ at 7.30 every morning . I ‘go to work’ by train and subway . I ‘get to / arrive at work’ at about nine . I’m usually ‘at work’ till six . Luckily , I don’t get ill very much , so I’m not often ‘off work’ .
- The percentage of people ‘out of work’ has fallen to its lowest level for 3 years .
C-] Types of job and types of work :
- A ‘full-time’ job is for the whole of the normal working week .
- A ‘part-time’ job is for some days of the week or some hours of the day .
- A ‘permanent job’ does not finish after a fixed period ; ‘temporary job’ finishes after a fixed period .
Ways of working .
A-] Old and new ways :
- I’m an ‘office worker’ in an insurance company . It’s a ‘nine-to-five’ job with regular ‘working hours’ . The work isn’t very interesting , but I like to be ale to go home at a reasonable time .
- We all have ‘clock in /on’ and ‘clock out /off’ every day . In this company , even the managers have to , which is unusual !
- I’m in computer programming . There’s a system of ‘flexitime’ in my company , which means we can work when we want , within certain limits . We can start at any time before eleven , and finish as early as three , as long as we do enough hours each month . It’s ideal for me as I have two young children .
- I work in a car plant . I work in ‘shifts’ . I may be on the ‘day shift’ one week , and the ‘night shift’ the next week . It’s difficult changing from one shift to another . When I change shifts , I have problems changing to a new routine for sleeping and eating .
- I am a commercial artist in an advertising agency . I work in a big city , but I prefer living in the country , so I ‘commute’ to work every day , like thousands of other ‘commuters’ . ‘Working from home’ using a computer and the Internet is becoming more and more popular , and the agency is introducing this : it’s called ‘teleworking’ or ‘telecommuting’ .
B-]Words used in front of ‘job’ and ‘work’ :
- The work is interesting and gives you positive feelings : satisfying , stimulating , fascinating , exciting .
- The work is not interesting : dull , boring , uninteresting , unstimulating .
- The work involves doing the same things again and again : repetitive , routine .
- The work is difficult and makes you tired : tiring , tough , hard , demanding .
C-] Nature of work :
My work involves : human contact , long hours , team work , solving problems , travelling a lot , dealing with customers .
Recruitment And Selection
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A-] Recruitment :
The process of finding people for particular jobs is ‘recruitment’ or , especially in American English ‘hiring’ . Someone who has been recruited is a ‘recruit’ or , in American English ‘a hire’ . The company ‘employs’ or ‘hires’ them ; they ‘join’ the company . A company may recruit employees directly or use outside ‘recruiters’ , ‘recruitment agencies’ or ‘employment agencies’ . Outside specialists called ‘headhunters’ may be called on to ‘headhunt’ people for very important jobs , persuading them to leave the organization they already work for . This process is called ‘headhunting’ .
B-] Applying for a job :
- Hashim is a van driver , but he was fed up with long trips . He looked in the ‘situations vacant’ pages of his local newspaper , where a local supermarket was advertising for van drivers for a new delivery service . He ‘applied for’ the job by completing an ‘application form’ and sending it in .
- Seraj is a building engineer . He saw a job in the ‘appointments’ pages of one of the national papers . He made an application , sending in his CV[ curriculum vitae – the story of the working life ] and a ‘covering letter’ explaining why he wanted the job and why he was the right person for it .
- ‘situation’ , ‘post’ and ‘position’ are formal words often used in job advertisements and applications .
C-] Selection procedures :
The head of recruitment at a German telecommunications company talks about he ‘selection process’ – the methods that the company uses to recruit people .
-‘ We advertise in national newspapers .We look at the ‘backgrounds’ of ‘applicants’ : their ‘experience’ of different jobs and their educational ‘qualifications’. We don’t ask for handwritten ‘letters of application’ as people usually apply by email ; ‘handwriting analysis’ belongs to the 19th century .
- We invite the most interesting ‘candidates’ to a ‘group discussion’ . Then we have individual ‘interviews’ with each candidate . We also ask the candidates to do written ‘psychometric tests’ to assess their intelligence and personality .
- After this , we ‘shortlist’ three or four candidates . We check their ‘references’ by writing to their ‘referees’ : previous employers or teachers that candidates have named in their applications . If the references are OK , we ask the candidates to come back for more interviews . Finally , we ‘offer’ the job to someone , and if they ‘turn it down’ we have to think again . If they ‘accept’ it , we ‘hire’ them . We only ‘appoint’ someone if we find the right person .
Skills and qualifications .
A-] Education and training :
- The trouble with ‘graduates’ ; people who have just left university is that heir ‘paper qualifications’ are good , but they have no ‘work experience’ .
- ‘Education’ should teach people how to think , not prepare them for a particular job . One of the last years’ recruits had ‘graduated from’ Oxford in philosophy and she is doing very well .
- Philosophy is an interesting subject , but for our company , it is more useful if you ‘train as’ a scientist and ‘qualify as’ a biologist or chemist – ‘training for’ a specific job is better .
- We do not just need scientists . We also need good managers , which we can achieve through ‘in-house training’ courses within the company . We have ‘put a lot of money into’ ‘management development’ and ‘management training’ because they are very important . You need to have some management experience for that , It is not the sort of thing you can learn when you are 20 !
B-] Skilled and unskilled :
‘A skill’ is the ability to do something well ,especially because you have learned how to do it and practiced it .
Jobs and people who do them can be described as :
1- ] Highly skilled : [ e.g. car designer ] 2-] skilled : [ e.g. car production manager ]
3-] Semi-skilled : [ e.g. taxi driver ] 4-] Semi-skilled : [ e.g. car cleaner ]
- skilled at [ noun ] customer care , electronics , computer software .
- skilled in [ verb + ing ] communicating , using PCs , working with large groups .
- good with , computers , figures , people .
C-] The right person :
These words are often used in job advertisements . Companies look for people who are :
- self-starters , proactive , self-motivated , or self-driven : good at working on their own .
- methodical , systematic and organized : can work in a planned , orderly way .
- computer-literate : good with numbers .
- motivated : very keen to do well in their job .
- talented : naturally very good at what they do .
- team players : people who work well with other people .
Pay and benefits .
A-] Wages , salary and benefits :
- I am a hotel manager . I get paid a ‘salary’ every month . In summer we are very busy , so we work a lot of extra hours , or ‘overtime’ . Working in a hotel , we also get nice ‘perks’ , for example free meals .
- I work as a waiter . I like my job even if I do not ‘earn’ very much : I get paid ‘wages’ every week by the restaurant . We get the ‘minimum wage’ : the lowest amount allowed by law . But we also get ‘tips’ , money that customers leave for us in addition to the bill . Some tourists are very generous .
- I am a saleswoman based in Paris . I get a ‘basic salary’ , plus ‘commission : a percentage on everything I sell . If I sell more than a particular amount in a year , I also get extra money – a ‘bonus’ , which is nice . There are some good ‘fringe benefits’ with this job : I get a ‘company car’ , and they make payments for my ‘pension’ , money that I will get regularly after I stop working . All that makes a good ‘benefits package’ .
B-] Compensation 1 :
- I am a specialist in ‘pay and benefits’ . ‘Compensation and remuneration’ are formal words used to talk about pay and benefits , especially those of senior managers . ‘Compensation package and remuneration package’ are used especially in the US to talk about all the pay and benefits that employees receive . For a senior executive , this may include ‘share options’ [Br E] or ‘stock options’ [Am. E] : the right to buy the company’s shares at low prices . There may be ‘performance-related bonuses’ if the manager reaches particular objectives for the company .
C-] Compensation 2 :
- ‘Compensation’ is also used to talk about money and other benefits that a senior manager [ or any employee ] receives if they are forced to leave the organization , perhaps after a ‘boardroom row’ . This money is in the form of a ‘compensation payment’ , or ‘severance payment’ . If the manager also receives benefits , the payment and the benefits form a ‘severance package’ .
- In Britain , executives with very high pay and good benefits may be referred to as ‘fat cats’ , implying that they do not deserve this level of remuneration .
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