Skill Up! (12)

Goodbye – and good luck!

Download the contents and checklist for Skill Up! (12)

The many faces of HR

HR professionals can play a key role in the future of a company. They often help to decide who is hired — and who is fired. But their role can be a strategic one, too, as they usually advise on staff development policies. This issue of Skill Up! focuses on a variety of HR roles and responsibilities.

Interviews are usually the first – and sometimes the last — meetings between employees and HR professionals. In Picture This! (pages 4–5), our illustration shows how emotional these interviews can be. The vocabulary of recruitment is also the topic of the first part of our Word Bank (pages 6–7). In the second part (pages 8–9), you can learn the vocabulary to talk about other HR functions, including health and safety issues and employee relationships.

HR constantly has to deal with staff. Our In Focus section (pages 12–15) pre­sents the key vocabulary you will need to discuss staff policies, working conditions, pay and benefits. For a closer look at pay, turn to Close Relations (pages 18–19), where you can find out more about the “pay” family.

In Small Talk (pages 20–21), you can learn informal expressions for talking about your decision to leave a company. Just be careful who’s listening. We’d like this guide to help you find a job — not lose one.

The sections:

• Picture This! Use illustrations to help you to visualize the meanings of words.
• Word Bank Study key expressions and translations in our vocabulary list.
  
• False Friends Use visual memory aids for tricky translations.
  
• In Focus Memorize common word partnerships to become more fluent.
  
• Essential Idioms Learn idiomatic language through dialogues.
  
• Close Relations Focus on words and word families.
  
• Small Talk Learn common idioms and expressions for socializing.
  
• Your Profile Personalize our guide with your own example sentences.

We hope you enjoy our new guide and look forward to your comments.

Deborah Capras