Human resources: master the English of your profession!
Become fully proficient in English on subjects related to your job.
Why master the Human resources course in English?
Are you an HR professional working in a global context? You know how important a solid command of English is in building strong relationships with your employee teams. On the Human resources course, you'll advance your English skills to grasp what your employees' needs are, as well as to hold effective discussions with them through open and constructive communication. You'll also receive training on drafting professional documents in English that specifically relate to HR, recruitment and the support of your teams, with the goal of attracting top talent to join your company.
Why does one company flourish and another struggle and go bankrupt?
Luck, bad ideas, challenging market conditions, or government regulations are reasons that you often hear given. But, the primary reason a firm lives or dies is the people: the office staff, the technicians, the middle management, the upper management and the people in the shops or factory. If you’re people aren’t creative, enthusiastic, hard-working and knowledgeable, then a good idea, service or product isn’t going to do very well. This is why good human resources are imperative for a company. You want to hire the right people to do the job, and you need to provide good training and support.
Human Resources, or HR as it’s typically referred to in English, has its own set of skills and needs. IT people have their jargon and needs, marketing people have their own jargon and needs and so does HR. If you work in HR or want to work in HR, then you need to be able to conduct interviews, which means you have to be able to ask pertinent questions and understand the responses. You’ll need to be able to ask for clarification about certain points on a CV in an interview or email. You will also need to know how to evaluate cover letters in English. You’ll need to know how to appropriately refuse people who are seeking employment with your form. You’ll probably need to be able to state things in the politically correct fashion in English as what may be an acceptable thing to ask or say in your culture may be unacceptable in an English language work environment.
All of this can be tricky since it’s not just about using English, but using English for a very specific context. If you usually say things that are understandable, but not framed in the suitable language, then you could find yourself not being invited to key meetings or interviews, and you may not have advancement opportunities.
There’s a solution!
You may not know what to do. You know that you need some language course, but you want something that meets your specific needs. GlobalExam offers you a path to career success with our Business platform. We understand that you may speak English quite well, but you still struggle with the nuances of Business and missing these nuances can be the difference between a highly successful career and a stagnant one. The opportunity is here; you only need to step up and take it.
Human resources is the department in a company or organization that looks after its employees and their records, from recruitment to career progression and payroll. This department is also responsible for human resources planning, which is concerned with anticipating the future recruitment needs of the company and hiring the appropriate staff.
As the department that oversees everything to do with its employees, it has a vast array of responsibilities, from conducting interviews to paying staff. This means there are a range of possible job roles, including:
- HR Officer: overseeing general administrative tasks (payroll, contracts, etc.)
- Head of HR: heading up HR for the whole company, including recruitment efforts.
- People Manager: looking after recruitment and employee immersion specifically
- Recruiter: sourcing new candidates for job roles and preparing recruitment materials
- Talent Manager: recruiting new talent, overseeing the recruitment process, and nurturing existing talent
If you’re taking a job in HR, do some research before your first day to better understand the size of the team, the roles of your colleagues, and how your responsibilities coexist. A HR team might be large or small, depending on the size of the company. If the company is big enough, they might make a distinction between administrative HR employees, and those with recruitment-specific functions.
Key information
Human resources Course
Total duration: 11h
35 real-life situations to give you hands-on training
400 corrected exercises to help you progress step by step
Certification at the end of the course to validate your level
Available levels: Intermediate and Advanced
Ready to become a pro at English?
Do you want to be confident in English for your professional life?
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Human Resources course: what you need to know
A quick method for enhancing your English to work in a HR environment is expanding your vocabulary. By adding new terms to your lexicon, your workplace communication will become more specific and effective. Let’s look at some common English vocabulary for HR:
- Employee: a person who is paid to work for an organization or a person
- Staff: the people who work for an organization
- Self-employed: someone who organizes work for themself
- Freelance: someone who is paid job-by-job rather than having a fixed salary
- Personnel: the people who work for an organization
- Workforce: the total number of people who are employed by a company
- To recruit / hire / employ: to give someone a job
- To apply: to put yourself forward for a job role
- To fire / dismiss / sack: to tell an employee they can no longer work for you
- Redundancy: when your job is no longer available or your employee can no longer afford to pay you
- Severance: the money a company gives an employee when it must stop employing them
- Salary: the money an employee is paid by an organization each month
- Income: all the money a person receives from various sources of revenue
- Wage: the money an employee is paid for a specific task or for hourly work
- Pension: a regular sum of money paid by the state or a former employee to retirees
- Bonus: an additional sum of money paid to employees as a reward
- Payroll: the list of people who are paid by a company
- Strike: when workers refuse to continue working for a period of time as a form of protest
- Trade union: an organization formed by workers to defend their rights and interests
How many of those terms did you already know? This is only a short list of HR vocabulary that could come in handy. Start by learning these and then add your own.
Working in HR is about working with people, which means you have to pay special attention to creating a comfortable and inclusive work environment. When we’re speaking in a foreign language, it can be easy to slip up with our vocabulary. Here’s a short list of HR terms that are best avoided to ensure a happy office:
- “Guys”: avoid addressing a mixed group of colleague with this term
- “Let me know”: to work in HR, you need specifics.
- “I’ll do my best”: speak with clarity
- “I think”: the best way to speak with authority is to use assertions rather than beliefs
- “I don’t know”: if you have to use this phrase, follow it with “...but I’ll find out”
When you start learning with GlobalExam, head to “Boost my career” then “Human resources” for specialized learning materials. Our human resources online course for intermediate learners covers the following themes:
- Introduction to HR
- Finding and attracting the right candidates
- Engaging and recruiting the top candidates
- Successfully onboarding a new hire
- Motivating and retaining your employees
Each unit in course is composed of different situations. The “Introduction to human resources” theme covers these situations:
- HR made easy!
- HR in action!
- Guess who is responsible for what?
- Yes, we can!
Each situation lasts about 20 minutes and begins with a video comprehension exercise - the transcripts for the videos are also available on the screen to help you if you need it. In each situation, you will be introduced to key vocabulary and grammar concepts, then they will be put to the test with exercises.
The nature of the exercises vary from putting words in the correct order, listening and answering multiple choice questions, to gap fills and associating pictures with phrases. The tasks are designed to keep you interested and engaged in your learning without any traditional grammar lessons. Take a look at an example exercise:
You’ll notice that the correct answer is accompanied with an explanation so you can be sure to clarify any mistakes.
Not everyone is cut out for human resources, it’s a role that requires people skills and a passion for administration. If you’re entering the HR field, here are out top tips for being the best HR manager you can be:
- Be organized
- Don’t be afraid of negotiation and saying no (especially when it comes to interviews)
- Be discrete: remember that you’ll often be working on sensitive and private matters
- Prioritize recruiting top talent
- Remember why you’re doing it: people over paperwork.
Business has specific needs such as HR. Typical English courses that are offered don’t cover Business (they are really unlikely to deal with the topic of Human Resources) in the detail that you need to make a difference in your career. This is the reason why we developed a new set of courses specifically for business professionals and staff who work with English regularly. With our Business program, you will learn the terminology and the cultural expectations of an English language HR department.
GlobalExam’s introduction of our Business platform offers you the chance to hone your English speaking and writing, develop awareness of cultural considerations and improve soft skills. These are aspects often overlooked in most English courses, and they are critical to success in business and the development of your career. You can improve your confidence by learning to communicate more clearly and succinctly. With greater confidence, opportunities will become available. Our new platform offers you different pathways to follow:
“Boost my Skills” is the route to take if you intend to function effectively in negotiating, managing a project,managing interculturality, writing a professional email, recruitment, answering the phone, travelling in business, conducting a meeting, greeting a client or congratulating teams. There’s vocabulary, and grammar, too.
“Boost my Career” is the route to follow for specific job skills. The area of HR is on this pathway, and you will learn all that you need to function confidently. English for HR is one of 7 Business online courses dedicated to job skills, here is the list of the others you can find:
- English marketing course with GlobalExam
- English course for communication
- Business course for sales
- English for purchasing
- English course for management
- English for customer service
“Boost my Level” is the route to follow for those professionals who feel the need to work on all the skills whether you are at an advanced level or just starting out. Determine your level before you begin your studies, we offer a level test.
If you’re targeting the world of human resources for your next career move, we recommend honing your English communication skills with a virtual lesson. Why not try our group lesson on making a phone call, or giving a presentation? These are two skills that certainly won’t go wasted in a HR environment. Our virtual lessons are available as half-an-hour individual sessions or one-hour group sessions, depending on the kind of learner you are.
If you’re new to online learning, here are some advantages to bear in mind:
- TESOL-certified English teachers
- Desktop and mobile friendly lessons
- Six learners per group lesson
- Choose your teacher according to learner ratings and recommendations
- Teaching assistants participate in group lessons
- Full technical support
Do not wait any longer and start taking a professional English course online with GlobalExam!
The ability to choose and be flexible is a central part of GlobalExam’s services. We provide you with options. We don’t like to see people waste their time and money on things that are irrelevant to them. Discover the Business course today to boost your career!
GlobalExam’s Business platform offers our clients the following:
- 25 paths of scripted material to create an immersive experience
- 500 situations from the real business world to practice
- Video coaching with an instructor
- Detailed feedback for work, so you are clear about your problems and will know how to fix them
- Certification after completing a course
- CV writing aid that will get your CV concise and professional
A well-designed website, offering easy navigability, and our team of professionals, striving to bring about your success, are also part of what we have for you.
Find out more and learn top 10 tips to stay motivated when learning English online.