Chemie Verband Feedback - Specialist Language Services

12 | 2014
festgehalten
Die Veranstaltungen der Chemieverbände Rheinland-pfalz
INHALT
How to do a safety walk
Recuitment and selection
Meetings
English for HR personnel
Germanys social system
nachgefragt
This 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.
English in business is indispensable.
How good are your English skills?
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 Rheinland­Pfalz
English for HR personnel | Deidesheim
Recruitment and selection
During the training the participants talked about HR, their role and res­
ponsibilities. A main field of HR activity is the recruiting process. These
terms might be useful if you deal with international job applications.
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
Recruitment process
carry out a CRB check
Polizeiliches Führungszeugnis checken
head-hunter
Headhunter
job specification
Anforderungsprofil
Imagine 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:
shortlist
Engere Auswahl
succession planning
Nachfolgeplanung
„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.
take up the references
Die Referenzen eines Bewerbers checken
employment contract
Arbeitsvertrag
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.
interviewer
der Interviewer
interviewee
der Interviewte
personell development
Personalentwicklung
notice period
Kündigungsfrist
probation
Probezeit
selection interviewing
Bewerbungsgespräch
training needs
Qualifizierungsbedarf
working time directive
Arbeitszeitvereinbarung
How to do a safety walk
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 grammar
What is possible, impossible, necessary, obligatory or forbidden?
can=
possible
can’t=
impossible
must=
necessary / obligatory strong!
mustn’t = prohibited / forbidden
have to
= necessary / obligatory
don’t have to = it isn’t necessary
Interviewing
12/2014
Meetings
During 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 meeting
Shall we start?
Right, if everyone’s ready we can begin.
Let’s get straight down to business.
How to start the discussion
As 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 interrupt
Could I just interrupt at this point?
Sorry to butt in, but…
How to accept or reject an interruption
Please do.
Go ahead.
Just let me finish making my point.
One moment, please.
Germanys social system
Germany 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 compa­
nies in the German welfare system or their current challenges, this list
will be of use.
ageing workforce
alternde Belegschaft
demographic change
Demografischer Wandel
How to get back to the point
Could we go back to the subject under discussion?
We seem to be getting off the point, here.
early retirement
(vorgezogener) Renteneintritt
flexible working
flexible Arbeitszeiten
employer association
Arbeitgeberverband
How to move to the next point
That brings us to the next item on the agenda…
Can we look at the next issue?
industrial politics
Industriepolitik
pension agreement
pension providers:
company pension
private pension
state pension
Rentenvereinbarung
remuneration/agreement
master collective agreement
Tarifvertrag
Manteltarifvertrag
remuneration policy
Tarifpolitik
small and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs)
kleine und mittlere
Unternehmen (KMUs)
social partnership
Sozialpartnerschaft
social system
Sozialsystem
trade union
Gewerkschaft
welfare and employment
politics
Sozialpolitik
work council
Betriebsrat
How to summarise and close the meeting
We’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.
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.thepaperboy.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.
Betriebsrente
Rente aus privater Altersvorsorge
gesetzliche Rente
English for HR personnel | Deidesheim
nachgefragt
David Wilson is Senior
Instructor at Specialist
Language Services (SLS).
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?
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 oppor­
tunities 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.
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.
„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
Impressum
Herausgeber: Chemieverbände Rheinland-Pfalz, Bahnhofstraße 48, 67059 Ludwigshafen, Telefon 06 21-5 20 56 ‑0, Telefax 06 21‑5 20 56 ‑20, info@chemie-rp.de, www.chemie-rp.de,
Redaktion: Stefanie Lenze, Fotos: Marcel Hasübert, mh-foto.de, Gestaltung: gestaltbar@netcologne.de, Köln, Druck: Chroma Druck & Verlag GmbH, Römerberg-Berghausen,
Auflage: 400, Stand: Dezember 2014. Die Veranstaltung fand am 21.–23. Juli 2014 in Deidesheim statt.