Business English Sara Helm and Rebecca Utteridge

MARKETLEADER

Human Resources

Helm

U

tteridge H

uman Resources

MA

RK

ET LEAD

ER

MARKETLEADER

Human Resources

B1-C1

www.pearsonlongman.com www.ft.com

We recommend the Longman Business English Dictionary to accompany the course.

Human Resources is one of a range of new specialist titles designed for use on its own or with the Market Leader series. Ideal for students who need to learn the language of more specialised areas of business English, the book focuses on the reading skills and vocabulary development required for human resources.

It includes:

• authentic reading texts from the Financial Times© and other sources

• a glossary of specialised language

• two ‘Check Tests’ designed to help assess progress

Other titles in this series include:

• Accounting and Finance

• Business Law

• Marketing

• Logistics Management

• Working Across Cultures

For more information on the Market Leader series go to:www.market-leader.net

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3

Recruitment

1 E-recruitment 4

2 Social networking 8

3 The war for talent: Generation Y 12

Training

4 Executive education 16

5 Evaluating training programmes 20

6 Apprenticeships 24

Pay and reward

7 Executive pay 28

8 Benefi ts 32

9 Bonuses and incentives 36

Diversity

10 Ethnic diversity 40

11 Gender equality 44

12 Hiring locally or abroad 48

Strategy

13 Building a strong HR brand 52

14 E-fi ring 56

HR documents

15 Job advertisement 60

16 Letter of appointment 64

17 Performance appraisal record 68

18 Staff satisfaction survey 72

Check Tests 76

Answer key 80

Glossary 90

Contents

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40

unitEthnicdiversity10

Thisunitlooksatthebusinessbenefitsofhavinganethnicallydiverseworkforce.

before you read

Discussthesequestions.

1 Doesyourcountryorcityhavemanydifferentethnicgroups,orisitrelativelymonocultural?Hasthischangedmuchoverthelastfewyears?

2 Thinkofacompanyoreducationalestablishmentyouknowwell.Howmanydifferentnationalitiesorethnicgroupscanyoufindthere?

reading

A understandingthemainpoints

Readthearticleontheoppositepageandchoosethebestoptiontocompleteeachstatement.

1 Canadaisbecomingoneoftheworld’smost .

a) profitablecountries b) multiculturalsocieties

2 Forthelastfewyears,thelargestnumberofimmigrantshavecomefrom .

a) ChinaandIndia b) IndiaandVietnam

3 ProfessorRichardFloridasuggeststhatsuccessfulcitiesareoneswhich .

a) attracttalentedemployeesfromallaroundtheworld b) havethelargestimmigrantpopulations

4 The populationoffersthebestsourceofgrowthforsomecompanies.

a) local b) immigrant

5 SomeUScompanieshavemovedtheiroperationstoCanadabecause .

a) itcanprovideemployeesfromdiversebackgroundswhospeakdiverselanguages b) thefoodatthecompanypartiesismuchmoreinteresting

6 TheimmigrantpopulationinCanadastillhastoovercomeobstaclesinfindingthebestjobsbecausethey .

a) findithardtoachieveahigh-levelEnglishlanguagequalification b) havedifficultygettinglocalemployersandprofessionalbodiestorecognisequalificationstheyhave

obtainedoverseas

7 Theotheradvantageofemployingpeoplefromoverseasistheir .

a) broaderculturalunderstandingandexperience b) bettertechnicalknowledgeandskills

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unit10 •• EthnicDivErSity

B understandingdetails

Readthearticleagainandanswerthesequestions.

1 HowmanydifferentnationalitiesdoesCAEemploy?

2 WherewasCAE’sHeadofMiddleEastandIndiadivisionborn?

3 WhatpercentageofLeggetandPlatt’ssalesstaffwerebornoutsideCanadaorhaveforeignparents?

4 WhichtwoCanadiancitiesdoesRichardFloridadescribeasbeing‘globaltalentmagnets’?

5 AtwhichpartoftheimmigrationprocessdosomebanksregisternewcustomersfromoutsideCanada?

6 WhattypeofcompanyinMontrealparticularlybenefitsfromhavingamultilingualworkforce?

7 Howmanylanguagesdoitsemployeesworkin?

by Bernard Simon

A As part of its annual charity drive, CAE Industries encourages 3,000 head-offi ce employees in Montreal to bring in a dish that is emblematic of

5 their country of origin. Pasta, curry, enchiladas and chow mein are just a small sample of the offerings. CAE, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of fl ight simulators, has 110 nationalities

10 on its payroll.B Such diversity has also proved popu-

lar for CAE’s business. An Indian-born Canadian heads up the company’s Middle East and Indian division,

15 while a Chinese-Canadian is in charge of operations in China. It makes life

much easier if it’s a Hindu speaking to a Hindu. The company is among a growing number that have come to

20 appreciate the benefi ts of one of the world’s most multicultural societies.

C ‘Our people and our organisation are very refl ective of the “globalness” of our industry,’ says Klaus Dohring,

25 who was born in Germany and who is responsible for the Ontario-based automotive division of Leggett & Platt, a US conglomerate. Almost two-thirds of Leggett & Platt’s technical

30 employees in Windsor and 40 per cent of its sales staff were born outside Canada or have immigrant parents. ‘Having a multitude of ethnically diverse people on staff is a real

35 strength of ours.’D Some 255,000 immigrants arrived in

Canada in 2005, almost 0.8 per cent of the population, the highest of any industrialised country. The leading

40 sources of migrants to Canada for the last few years have been China and India.

E Richard Florida, Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University

45 in Virginia, believes the world’s most successful cities are those that become ‘global talent magnets’. In his book The Flight of the Creative Class, he cites Toronto and Vancouver as two

50 prime examples. ‘What makes these cities such formidable challengers to US regions,’ he asserts, ‘is that many of them, in particular the Canadian cities, not only boast a high immigrant

55 population, but a diverse one too.’F Canada’s strong fl ow of immigration

from many different countries may provide one of the country’s most important competitive advantages

60 in an increasingly global economy.

Immigrants offer one of the few sources of domestic retail growth for Canada’s fi ve big banks. The banks pay special attention to China, where they compete

65 to sign up customers before they even set foot in Canada.

G Some companies based outside Canada see the benefi t in its skilled multicultural and multilingual work-

70 force. Global Crossing, a US-based telecoms operator, has set up a call centre in Montreal to handle confer-ence calls for US companies. The Montreal operators can handle

75 calls in 16 languages, an important factor in Global Crossing’s decision to locate the centre there. Another com-pany has turned to employees with Indian, Chinese, South Korean and

80 Japanese backgrounds, among others, to spearhead sales and investments in their countries of origin.

H Nevertheless, Roger Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman

85 School of Business, says Canadian businesses are far from realising the full potential of an ethnically diverse society. One awkward issue is the diffi culties faced by immigrants in

90 gaining recognition for foreign qualifi -cations, especially in the engineering, technical and medical fi elds.

I Mr Dohring, however, remains con-vinced. Such employees ‘are intimately

95 familiar with the country where you want to do business’. At the same time, ‘they know you, they know your lan-guage, they know your culture.’

The united colours of Canada

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over to you

unit10 •• EthnicDivErSity

vocabulary

A Wordsearch

Findwordsorphrasesinthearticlewhichfitthesemeanings.

1 somethingwhichrepresentssomethingelse,suchasacountryornationality(paragraphA)

e2 employs(paragraphA)

haso itsp3 varietyofbackgrounds(paragraphB)

d4 worldwidenature(paragraphC)

g5 multicultural(paragraphC)

e d

6 someonewhomovestoacountryfromabroad(paragraphD)

i7 peoplewhogotoanotherareaorcountry,especiallytofindwork(paragraphD)

m8 citiesorcompanieswhichattractskilledemployeesfromallaroundtheworld(paragraphE)

g t m

9 worldwideeconomy(paragraphF)

g e10 speakingawidevarietyoflanguages(paragraphG)

m

B prepositions

Completetheseverbphrasesfromthearticleusingthecorrectprepositions.

responsibilitiesinacompany

1 tobeincharge operationsinChina

2 tohead thecompany’sMiddleEastandIndiandivision

3 toberesponsible theOntario-basedautomotivedivisionofLeggett&Platt

companiesandtheiractivities

4 tohave110nationalities itspayroll

5 tohaveamultitudeofethnicallydiversepeople staff

6 tosign customers

7 toset acallcentre

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4343

over to you

C Sentencecompletion

UsephrasesfromExercisesAandBtocompletethesesentences.

1 Inthis ,someCEOsheadmultinationalcompanies.

2 Peoplewhoareresponsible largecompanieswhichdealwithmanynationalitiestalkaboutthe

benefitsofemploying fromawidevarietyofethnicbackgrounds.

3 Somecitiesaresoethnicallydiversethattheyhavebecome .

4 An companycanbenefitfromhavinga workforcewhocancommunicatewithpeople

fromalargenumberofcountries.

5 Forthesecompanies, oftheworkforceisthesecretoftheirsuccess.

D understandingexpressions

Choosethebestexplanationforeachphrasefromthearticle.

1 ‘Aspartofitsannualcharity drive,…’(line1)

a) carraceforcharity b) money-raisingevent

2 ‘Havingamultitudeof…’(line33)

a) widerangeofnationalities b) largenumber

3 ‘...oneofthecountry’smostimportantcompetitive advantages…’(lines 58–59)

a) betterchancesofsuccessthanone’scompetitors b) bettercompetition

4 ‘…beforetheyevenset foot inCanada.’(lines 65–66)

a) arrivein b) travelaround

5 ‘…tospearheadsalesandinvestments…’(line 81)

a) lead b) fight

6 ‘…ingaining recognitionfor…’(lines89–90)

a) winningprizes b) gettingacceptance

unit10 •• EthnicDivErSity

1 Visitthewebsitesofafewmultinationalcompaniesandwriteashortreportcomparingtheirpoliciesonethnicdiversity.

2 Giveashortpresentationontheadvantagesformultinationalcompaniesofhavingamulticulturalworkforce.Includeanyspecificexamplesyouknowof.

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