Vocabulary: Skill Up! — Human resources

Elisa Moolecherry: Hello and welcome to the Business Spotlight podcast for the 7th of February 2012. I’m Elisa Moolecherry.

Elisa: You’re probably familiar with the term “hire and fire”, in particular to refer to employment practices in the US. “Hire and fire” may not be a good method, but grouping verb pairs with contrasting meanings together is a good way to learn them. They don’t have to be exact opposites. Think positively first — and then try to remember the verb with a negative meaning, too. Let’s try this. In this exercise, you’ll hear a term for “hire”. At the tone, you give one for “fire”. Don’t worry if your answers are slightly different. Here, we’re working on building your vocabulary. Ready?

1.    appoint somebody    
+    axe somebody    

2.    keep somebody on   
+    get rid of somebody

3.    sign somebody on   
+    let somebody go

4.    take somebody on
+    lay somebody off

5.    recruit somebody
+    dismiss somebody

6.    retain somebody
+    lose somebody    

7.    redeploy somebody
+    make somebody redundant

8.    employ somebody
+    sack somebody

Elisa Moolecherry: Well done! We look at the fields of employment and human resources in the Skill Up! vocabulary builder that comes with Business Spotlight 1/2012. We bring you a new podcast next Tuesday at www.business-spotlight.de. Thanks for listening!

• Exercise: Human resources: a new year — a new career?