Interview with Chiara a Human Resources Manager

Human Resources Manager Interview

English for Human Resources

In the Executive department, we very often welcome people from the Human Resources field.  The area of Human resources is a really wide and rich area, with many different strands.  In times of economic ‘carefulness’ Human Resources is one area where the pressure is on to make sure it is correct, unhappy staff members are an expense no one can afford.  We have found that the area of recruitment and interviewing is an area particularly where English is used and is one of the most requested areas we are asked for help with.  The language of advertising vacancies, interviewing and ultimately employing and then training can be fraught with false friends and difficulties.  As the world gets smaller and we become more global, it makes sense that many companies are widening the net for their recruitment, and whereas, in the old days, people were recruited from the local area, now it may not even be the same country.

When it comes to the language of staff development and training, or job satisfaction, motivating staff, disciplining staff, staff appraisals and evaluating performance, recruitment and the interview process it is not always obvious the subtleties of the language and can be really helpful being guided towards the correct and concise phrases necessary for the job.

We recently had one such HR consultant, Chiara from Italy. She works for a large Industrial company in the North of Italy and is an HR Business Partner focussing on talent management.  She very kindly agreed to talk to us about her job, her need for English and how she feels about her course.

Chiara from Italy:

An Interview with an HR Consultant

Chiara: Hello, my name is Chiara. I am a human resources business partner for an industrial company in Italy.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: How long have you worked in your company and which specific area are you focused on?

Chiara:  I’ve worked there for 15 years in total. Now I focus specifically on talent management, but I’ve worked in just about every area of human resources in my career. For me personally, the most interesting area was recruitment, because it gave me an opportunity to meet many people, often people who were perhaps at the start of their career and then look at how we could match their skills with the needs of our company.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: How did you start in Human Resources? What was your training?

Chiara: I was studying Human Resources at university and did a work placement in a local company in my town and I absolutely loved it and felt that this type of work was really for me. I still enjoy it because it gives me the opportunity to work with people, but it is also very strategic with a lot of opportunities for development and change and promotion.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: Do you use English in your job?

Chiara:  I do use English in my job now, although that is a relatively recent occurrence. When I first started I occasionally needed to use English, but at that time my English wasn’t that good, although I managed to get by, but as the years have rolled on we have found that a little English is just not enough for what we do anymore. Everything we do is becoming much more international, so I need English almost every day.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: How has the English for Human Resources course at LSI/IH Portsmouth helped you?

Chiara: This English for Human Resources course has given me more confidence in listening and speaking skills, it’s helped me understand a little bit more about the English tense system, so I know I am more correct now than I was a week ago, but more importantly it’s given me the skills and language for all the tasks I carry out in English, whether that’s negotiating with a foreign partner, or making a presentation to my colleagues from around the world, or whether it’s just writing an email.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: What do you think will be the challenges you face in the future?

Chiara: What are my future challenges? I think that in this increasingly digital age we will be having meetings solely by teleconference, the challenge in that is that you don’t have that direct face to face contact, you can’t even see the lips, and you just simply have to have the English language at your fingertips. That’s one of the challenges, another one is that nowadays young people, new graduates are coming to us with very high expectations of their employer, whether it’s salary or promotion opportunities or and this is maybe even more important, they are wanting opportunities for flexible working so that they have the tools, the digital tools for them to work anytime. We have people who want to work in the middle of the night or to move around, and if you want the brightest and the best you have to give them the opportunities which will allow them to do the job in the way they want to.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: Would you recommend the English for Human Resources course to your colleagues or any other HR person?

Chiara: Yes I would recommend the HR English course, one hundred per cent, I wish I’d done it before, but I was always too busy, or we didn’t feel that there was a budget, but I’ve learned so much and feel that my colleagues could as well, just in one week and I know my second week is going to be even more beneficial than the first, I just want to say Thank you so much.

LSI/IH Portsmouth: Thank you Chiara, we appreciate the time and the kind words.

If you have a specific area in Human Resources that you would like to study, get in touch with us and we can see where we can help you.

See here for more information on our Specialist English for Human Resources Course

See here for more information on all our Specialist English Courses.