RECRUITING TALENTS

I. TO START WITH

A. PICTURE

A job fair at the Queen Center Mall in the borough of Queens in New York

1 Describe the photo. What are people doing?

2 Say what the best ways to recruit talent are.

B. JOB ADS

A
➜ JOB VACANCIES
Urgently required
A well-established electrical engineering company is seeking for energetic personnel to fill the following
positions:

1. ACCOUNT ASSISTANTS
Technician Qualification from recognized institution with a minimum of three years of experience in
industry. Knowledge of an accounting package will be an added advantage.
Good communication skills and a working knowledge of MS Office are desirable. At least four traceable
employment references are required.

2. ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC DIPLOMA HOLDERS

Qualification in Electrical or Electronics at a diploma level with at least three year’s work experience.
Good communication skills and a working knowledge of MS Office will be desirable. At least three
traceable employment references will be required.

3. WELDER/BOILER MAKERS
Three years’ work experience and suitable qualifications required.

To apply, send the necessary documents to elecco@gmail.com

B
Recruitment
We’re looking for a secretary
Requirements:
• Minimum HAVO/MBO level
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• Fluent command of English and Dutch, spoken and written
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office
• Must be highly organised and process-oriented
• Must be discreet and trustworthy
• Must be able to work independently

To apply, please send your resume to info@ebs.com

1 Say whether these statements refer to ad A, ad B or both.

a • The company has several positions to fill. A
b • The candidate needs to know how to use Microsoft Office. A/B
c • The candidate must be autonomous. B
d • The company requires references from the candidate’s earlier employers. A
e • The candidate will send his/her application by email. A/B
f • The candidate must be proficient in certain languages. B
g • This company requires several years’ experience in the job. A
h • The candidate needs to be properly qualified. A/B

2 Complete the following sentences with the words from the ads above.
a • To …, send your resume and covering letter to the following address. Apply
b • You must be … in English and German. Fluent
c • We are … for an experienced engineer. Looking
d • We are .. candidates to fill several job vacancies in our company. seeking
e • You need to have an … qualification from a recognised institution. accounting

C. THE SELECTION PROCESS

Put the different steps of the selection process in the right order.
Interviewing candidates – making a job offer – advertising the job – making a shortlist of candidates –
reviewing CVs – testing the candidates’ skills – checking references.

D. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS<<

Match the interview questions (1-5) with their answers (a-e).

1. What are your reasons for leaving your current employer?

2. Why did you change jobs so frequently?
3. What do you think you can bring to my company?
4. What is your greatest weakness?
5. What are your strengths?

a. I’ve got great attention to detail and I’m a team player.

b. I can be a little bit slow at finishing projects; it’s because I’m very thorough.
c. I like what I do, but I’m looking for more responsibility with fresh challenges.
d. I wanted to acquire as much experience as possible.
e. My determination. I know I can achieve my goals.

E. A BAD INTERVIEW

Think of all the mistakes a candidate could make before and during the interview: body language,
attitude, answers.
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 F. ORAL PRACTICE

What is your ideal job?

II. TEXTS

Text 1
STEP BY STEP

The new way companies are evaluating candidates’ soft skills (and discovering high-potential talent)

Soft skills are the #1 talent trend of 2019, with 91% of employers saying they’re very important to the future
of recruiting and HR. But the problem is that they are notoriously hard to screen for. In fact, when we asked
9,000 hiring managers and recruiters what’s the biggest issue with the current interview formats (like
behavioral questions), 63% said it’s the inability to identify soft skills.

It makes sense: a candidate probably won’t say, “Oh, yeah, I’m an average communicator with sub-par1
time management skills and almost no grit2.” But soft skills (e.g., accountability, leadership, teamwork) are
super important: they can be the difference between a great hire and a toxic employee.

That’s where new solutions like predictive soft skills assessments come in. To fill the gap between the need
to measure soft skills and the inadequacy of traditional interviews, companies like Koru and Pymetrics have
developed pre-screening online assessments – user-friendly tests that take candidates about 20 minutes to
complete and give employers a sense of their soft-skill strengths and weaknesses.

Whether candidates play neuroscience-inspired games or answer straightforward questions, these online
tests let companies screen large pools of talent quickly and make smarter hiring decisions. […]

Georges Lewis, 26/02/20 LINKEDIN CORPORATION 2020 D.R.

1 sub-par: not up to standard, inferior
2 grit: determination

1 What are soft skills? Write S for soft skills and H for hard skills.
time management
typing speed
machine operation
communication
computer programming
teamwork
leadership
maths and statistics knowledge
flexibility
creativity

2 List the soft skills mentioned in the text.

3 Explain the following figures from the text.

a. 91%:
b. 9,000:
c. 20 minutes:
4 Say what the problem with traditional interviews based on questions is.

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5 Say why detecting soft skills is extremely important when recruiting a future employee.

6 Say what the new solutions available to employers to detect soft skills are.

7 Pick out two different formats for online soft skills assessment.

8 Choose three soft skills and say which of them you possess and which you need to work on. Give
examples/situations that show that you have or haven’t got those skills.

Text 2
THE NEW FACE OF JOB-SEEKING:
HOW SOCIAL MEDIA HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE LOOK FOR WORK

Technology has changed the way jobseekers find work, and how recruiters find potential candidates.

Today, prospective candidates are increasingly using social platforms to advertise their skills and
experience, and to “build their brand”, and recruiters are turning their attention to these sites more than ever
before.

Ask any recruiter, which social media tool is best for job-hunting, and the majority will say LinkedIn, which
has more than 15 million active job listings and 25 million job-seekers visiting the site every week. But
Facebook and Twitter are also being utilized to a greater extent. In February, Facebook announced that it
was expanding its job-finding function to more than 40 countries, including Britain, raising the prospect that
it will come to compete with LinkedIn as the go-to employment network for jobseekers and businesses alike.
It claims that one in four Americans now look for a job on the social network.

And while Twitter often flies under the radar as a tool for job-searching, the ability to use hashtags such as
#jobs, #jobsearch and #careers helps individuals locate job listings posted on the site, and recruiters are able
to find active job-seekers. A spokesman for Twitter said #jobs had been one of the most popular hashtags in
Britain this year, used more than 3.3 million times as of last month. #Hiring is also one of the top UK
hashtags of the year, he added.

So how essential is social media in finding new work, or prospective candidates?

LinkedIn has more than 26 million companies on its platform, many of which actively use it to discover and
hire new talent. One of these is online fashion giant Asos. Its talent brand and engagement partner, Holly
Middlemiss, said the retailer had been using social media to recruit and attract potential employees for years,
and did so by direct messaging passive job-seekers – those not actively searching for a job. Asos also utilises
its own careers page to showcase the company culture and get an “authentic voice across to our audience”.

Ms Middlemiss said social media was particularly beneficial because the retailer is able to engage with a
wider “targeted” audience. “As a business, we don’t want to spam people with irrelevant job information, so
we ensure we utilise social media by pushing the right content towards the right audience,” she said.

While Asos continues to use traditional methods of recruitment, such as attending career fairs, conferences
and larger recruitment events, there is an increasing focus on social networks, she said. […]

Sophie Smith, September 18, 2020 © Telegraph Media Group Limited

1 Find the facts.

a. Names of the social media networks mentioned in the text:
b. Number of job listings on LinkedIn:

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c. Proportion of American people looking for jobs on social media:
d. Number of companies registered on LinkedIn:

2 Choose the right alternative.

1. “raising the prospect” (line 8) means:
a. drawing the attention to the fact
b. increasing the probability
c. announcing

2. “Twitter often flies under the radar as a tool for job searching” (line 11) means:
a. Twitter is not well-known as a tool for job-searching
b. Twitter offers illegal methods for job-searching
c. Twitter doesn’t offer very good tools for job-searching

3. “to showcase the company culture” (line 21) means:

a. to demonstrate what the company culture is about
b. to illustrate what the company culture is about
c. to draw attention to and emphasise the good aspects of the company culture

3 Answer the questions.

a. What is the growing trend among recruiters and job-seekers alike?

b. According to recruiters, which is the best social network for job-seeking?

c. What tool does Twitter possess that can help both job-seekers and recruiters?

d. How does Asos use social media to attract potential employees? Pick out two different strategies.

e. True or false? Asos has completely stopped using traditional hiring methods.

4. Write an account of the article in French in 180 words (+/– 10 %).

5. Essay (100-120 words): What are the pros and cons of using social media for job-hunting?

III. VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBfLOl41IwI&ab_channel=BBCLearningEnglish

IV. LANGUAGE AT WORK

A. RULES

Observez les phrases suivantes.

1. Tell us what you do in your spare time.
2. Can you start next week?
3. Do you have a driving licence?
4. What is your greatest weakness?
5. Why did you leave your previous job?
6. How long do you plan to work for us?
7. I wonder why you didn’t finish your studies.

Classez les questions (1-7) en trois catégories (A-C).

Complétez la structure de base pour chaque type de question.

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 A Questions fermées B Questions en wh- et how C Interrogatives
indirectes

Numero de la
phrase
Structure

B. EXERCISES

1 Find the question corresponding to the words in bold.

a. I lost my job two years ago.

b. I left my job because I was bored.

c. I played tennis for five years, then I stopped.

d. She’s 19 years old.

e. I have told him nothing.

2 Translate the following questions into English.

a. Tu parles anglais ?

b. Que t’est-il arrivé ?

c. As-tu regardé la liste des postes vacants ?

d. Je me demande quand il va venir nous voir.

V. PREPARE AN ELEVATOR PITCH

What is an elevator pitch?

It is a short summary used to describe a person in a quick and concise way. It is based on the idea of meeting
someone in an elevator and having a couple of seconds to chat. An elevator pitch is an important tool for
your job search. It’s an effective way of telling a potential employer and/or contact – such as someone you
meet in an elevator – who you are, how you can contribute, and what kind of position you’re seeking.

Your task
Now use this sample to create your own elevator pitch and practise it with a partner
Hi. My name is.......................... . I have a degree in................ and/or I have......... years’ experience
in............................. . I am currently seeking jobs such as [name 3-5 job titles, and/or in, name 3-5
industries or companies]. I have experience in......... . In my past work experience, [example of positive work
experience]. So I am hoping to continue to [your ideal position].

TIPS
How to prepare your elevator pitch

1. Write it down

2. Keep it short

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You want a pitch that would fit into the average elevator ride of about 30 seconds to 2 minutes. In most
cases, that means less than 200 words.

3. Clarify your objectives

Identify what you want to accomplish.

4. Quantify your achievements

5. Focus on your audience

Think about what your listener needs and highlight the benefits you could deliver to them. State your ability
to enhance quality, save money, or create more efficient systems by using an example from your past. Be
prepared with more details in case there are any questions.

6. Highlight your strengths

Use a positive statement about your qualifications, focusing on your strengths, and back it up with an
example. Don’t just say “I’m hardworking,” but back it up with a specific story such as, “Throughout my
college career I worked 20 hours a week and attended school full-time…” From there, move on to a specific
example that is related to the type of work you are seeking.

7. Rehearse carefully
Practise while looking in a mirror or record yourself. Learn your pitch from memory. You can’t read it from
a piece of paper.

8. Be confident and enthusiastic

Make eye contact with the person you’re talking to.

VI. KEYWORDS

A. LIST OF WORDS

◗ to familiarise yourself with the company culture: se familiariser avec la culture d’entreprise
◗ a graduate: un diplômé d’université
◗ to hire, to recruit: embaucher
◗ to interact with employers: interagir avec des employeurs
◗ a job fair: un salon de l’emploi
◗ a job interview: un entretien d’embauche
◗ a job-seeker: un demandeur d’emploi
◗ to make a pitch: se promouvoir
◗ packed, crowded: bondé
◗ a skill: une compétence
◗ a challenging job: un travail stimulant
◗ a great pay package: une très bonne rémunération
◗ to make a difference: apporter un plus
◗ to progress: évoluer
◗ self-motivated: motivé
◗ a team leader: un chef d’équipe
◗ well organised: organisé
◗ to be a good listener: savoir écouter
◗ to cope with stress: gérer le stress
◗ effective communicator: bon communicateur
◗ the job market: le marché du travail
◗ to apply for: postuler à/pour
◗ classified ads: des petites annonces
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◗ an employment agency: une agence pour l’emploi
◗ a graduate: un diplômé d’université
◗ a job centre: Pôle emploi
◗ job-hunting: la recherche d’emploi
◗ a job-seeker: un demandeur d’emploi
◗ to look for a job/to seek a job: chercherun emploi
◗ building your CV: faire son CV
◗ achievements: des réalisations
◗ a CV/a resume (US): un CV
◗ a degree: un diplôme d’université
◗ knowledge: des connaissances
◗ a skill: une compétence
◗ a strength: une force
◗ a weakness: une faiblesse
◗ recruiting: le recrutement
◗ an advertisement/ad/advert: une annonce
◗ an applicant: un candidat
◗ an application: une candidature
◗ available: disponible
◗ benefits: des avantages
◗ to hire: embaucher
◗ a job interview: un entretien d’embauche
◗ job opportunities: des débouchés
◗ a network: un réseau
◗ to recruit: recruter
◗ required: exigé
◗ requirements: les exigences
◗ salary: le salaire
◗ to suit/suitable: convenir/qui convient, adapté
◗ a vacancy: un poste vacant

B. EXERCISES

1 Complete these extracts from job ads using the words.

team closely opportunities dynamic graduate skills previous

a. We are seeking a young, … professional to join our marketing ...

b. You must have a positive attitude, strong creative …, and an ability to work well in a team.
c. There are excellent … for promotion within the department.
d. We are looking for a … to join our company.
e. You will work … with the Chief Strategy Officer to help create and develop new products.
f. You must have … work experience in a similar position.

2 Write the words in the correct order to make interview questions.

a. work / in / you / Do / team / a / well

b. you / any / questions / got / Have

c. should / you / employ / Why / we

d. start / could / When / you

e. leave / current / to / Why / you / employer / want / your / do

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3 Match the verb with the noun.
1. to seek… a. a vacancy
2. to apply for… b. extensive knowledge
3. to recruit... c. a position
4. to require... d. a job
5. to fill... e. an accountant