Category: NOTICIAS EN INGLÉS

Choosing the seating for a meeting

Have you ever been in that situation that… you just don’t know? For me, it has always depended on the attitude of the others, so it has never felt like much of a problem – except of course, that one time. That one time it didn’t feel natural, other people were undecided, so, what did I do? I took decisions. I consequently was thinking about it for the rest of the meeting. Which in turn, made me doubt about my input and the final outcome. Point said – it doesn’t hurt to go into a meeting with some inside knowledge, you never know when it may come in handy.

Suggested extra work: where do you usually sit and why? Does it fit into the scheme of things outlined in this video?

Musicals – Sharing tastes?

I don’t think my huge love of musicals is shared by… any of my friends (yes – I have friends 😉 ). I tend to think that it’s somewhat cultural – most of the musicals I know originated in the Anglo-Saxon world. In the past, I think it’s safe to say that not so many people spoke English, much less understand the humour or culture. I also firmly believe that speaking languages doesn’t only open doors to verbal communication, but gives individuals the opportunity to expand their horizons. So – as our understanding of the world progresses with hands-on experience – how much do our tastes actually change? Do you think there is a changing cultural acceptance in our society?

This is a string of thoughts taken from REDDIT – a go-to place for conversations where people share opinions. I highly recommend it for language learners. Enter – participate (unanimously)! That is the homework suggestion to go with this article.

Disgruntled employees? Not here, that’s for sure!

I’ve always said that I’d hire anybody who has McDonald’s on their cv, before other candidates, and possible more qualified candidates. The work ethics are just incredible there! With so many viral videos of unhappy employees in other fast food chains, I guess I mistakenly put them into the same category. Mistake – big mistake.

This article interviews three previous employees of the popular food chain – and you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Each headline COULD HAVE BEEN a problem – and it wasn’t!

Anyways – a big fat thumbs up to McDonalds! Congratulations.

Click here to go to the original article.

Suggested homework: write an interview with an ex-employee of your company – how would THAT go? OR – better yet, perhaps of a previous company 😉

Have a great day.

Classified: Training manager financial industry

I typed: training manager financial industry into google and this is what I got. Quite different job descriptions. However, I particularly liked how it was done.
What do you think the job descriptions are for?
Would you post something similar, or vastly different?
These jobs are in Canada, and there is a constant: quite clear and concise, and all the while, they are selling their company to the potential candidates. Which brings me to think that, even though the jobs are demanding – that is not a down point, quite the opposite.
• Do any of these positions attract you?
• Any questions as to vocabulary?
• Can you guess the suggested homework?
Yes! Go ahead and write a job description for your job – and if you are too shy for that – choose a job and write a classified ad for it.
Click for original job ads (and the answers to some of my questions).

XXX

Essential Duties:
Approaches, greets, and offers assistance or direction to any customer who enters the dealership showroom or sales lot.
Greets customers politely and courteously when presented by salespersons on turnover.
Reviews all figures agreed upon between the customer and the sales department.
Discloses and/or confirms figures with the customer and discusses payment options.
Assists customers in selecting insurance and protection products or accessories for their vehicle.
Explains fully product performance, application, and benefits to customers.
Describes all accessory equipment available for customer purchase or lease add-on.
Reviews and verifies credit application information/credit reports and determines customer’s credit worthiness.
Works with lenders to structure loans according to customer needs and lender’s guidelines.
Prepares all paperwork required to complete the lease/purchase transaction including all registration forms, finance/lease contracts, licensing documentation, pre-delivery work orders, purchase orders, special parts arrangements and other documents required by provincial and federal regulatory agencies.
Ensures each customer fully understands the terms of their purchase/lease agreement.
Exhibits high level of commitment to customer satisfaction.
Knows and understands the federal, provincial, and local laws which govern retail automobile sales.
Establishes personal income goals that are consistent with dealership standards of productivity, and devises a strategy to meet those goals.
Attends product and sales training courses as requested by sales manager.
Keeps abreast of new products, features, accessories, etc., and their benefits to customers.
Knows and understands equity and values, and is able to explain depreciation to the customer.
Ensures that the sales manager reviews all completed deal files.
Answers questions that may arise from a purchase/lease transaction and provides documentation, if necessary, to the Vehicle Sales Clerk or Sales Manager.
Follows up on all post-delivery items, tag/title work, «we-owes», and special requests to be sure that all customer expectations are met.
Maintains an owner follow-up system that encourages repeat and referral business and contributes to customer satisfaction.
Maintains a monthly sales log to track and monitor sales volumes, penetrations and gross averages as established by the General Manager.
Reviews and analyzes actions at the end of each day, week, month, and year to determine how to better utilize time and sales techniques more effectively.
Attends all training and sales meetings.
Maintains professional appearance.
Responds to all pages in a timely manner.

Financial Services Manager in Training
North Vancouver, BC
Apply Now
Please note that training will take place in North Vancouver. Upon completion, you will be placed in a branch within the North Vancouver/Vancouver Downtown market.

As a XXX, you will:
Be a key member of a collaborative and versatile branch team
Proactively engage with customers to identify their needs using the bank’s tools and your understanding of the customer.
Advise customers, offering financial solutions and products to meet their everyday banking, investment and lending needs
Help customers find new and alternate ways to bank with us by offering convenience and valuing their time.
Take the initiative and find creative approaches to enhancing the customer experience
Collaborate with various XXX partners and identify referral opportunities to further grow the customer relationship.
Keep up to date with the wider marketplace and regulatory environment, including operations, legal and ethical requirements.
It starts with listening

At XXX Group, the customer is always front and centre. We help them navigate a financial world that becomes more complex by the day. That means we ask more of our XXX Managers than ever before. You will need to get to know our business quickly and be fast on your feet, contributing to a flexible team that’s focused on keeping us competitive and customer focused. But underlying it all is your ability to build rapport with our customers and offer them personalized service. We’ll look to you to understand and anticipate their individual needs and shape our service to meet them.

Qualifications

Your passionate commitment to customer service will be matched by:

Experience in a consultative customer service or sales role, with a drive to deliver solutions
Good knowledge of lending, investment and partner relationships – ideally supported by an IFIC qualification (or equivalent) lending qualification
A focus on results and the ability to thrive in a sales environment
Readiness to collaborate and work in different capacities as part of a team
Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to build rapport and manage business relationships
An aptitude for solving problems, and responding flexibly and creatively to new challenges
A different kind of banking

We’re the XXX. Our vision is to be the XXX that defines great customer experience. After all, money is personal, and a XXX should be too – we’re people first and XXX second. And we care about our employees, our customers and the people in our communities. So whether you’re starting out in your career or looking for a change, XXX offers a range of possibilities for you to develop your potential to the fullest. You will get to know our business quickly, your ideas will be heard and your potential will always be recognized. Join us, and you will be part of a true team, collaborating with people who will help you build an exciting, solid career at XXX.

Our Values – Who We Are: Our four values define who we are. They guide us past the easy thing to the right thing;

Integrity: Do what’s right.
Diversity: Learn from Difference.
Empathy: Put others first.
Responsibility: Make tomorrow better.
XXX Group is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. By embracing diversity, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives.

What comes first, the money or the person?

When you think about this title, what comes to mind? Consumerism perhaps? Following your dreams? Never better said: don’t get fooled by the title! Such a lovely topic: money. Well – it turns out that this study came up with some results that I found to be extremely valid, obvious and quite frankly – surprising at the same time.

So – skim through this article and let me know – what were those findings? Had you thought about that before, or perhaps lived through any particular situation that you can reflect back on an think: yeh, I get it.

Link to original article.

WHY MONEY MANAGES US

KATHLEEN D. VOHS

JANUARY 28, 2019

We spend a great deal of time thinking about money. We talk about it, worry over it, wonder if we have enough to meet our immediate needs. If we’re lucky and have a lot of money, we think about using it to buy a new car, a new house, or a dream vacation. Since the days of our earliest ancestors, money has been one of our most important tools. But different from most other tools, money — even just thinking about it — influences our behavior in negative ways. We become more likely to prioritize our feelings, desires, and goals over getting along with and helping others. Money creates a tension between individualistic and interpersonal motives.

To understand why money has such a hold on us, it’s helpful to look back at its predecessor: trade. Early humans and Neanderthals overlapped for roughly 5,000 years, and, biologically speaking, Neanderthals should have had the advantage. They were on earth first and they had larger bodies and brains. So how did our human ancestors come out ahead? They traded more than Neanderthals and across longer distances, giving them access to more and varied resources, and improving their chances of survival. Anthropologists sometimes call these early humans “homo economicus” to signify the attribute that set them apart.

The Big Idea

The creation of money made trade much easier. Consider, for example, what would happen if you had oranges and wanted a cow, but no one who had a cow wanted oranges. Finding someone who has exactly what you want and who wants exactly what you have can be challenging. Now consider the role of time: Is what you have to trade perishable, as with milk? Is it time-bound in some way, as with cows, which age past their prime? Now add in exchange rates. If you need a cow, and you have oranges, that’s not a very equitable trade — but the cow can’t be divvied up to create a better deal. Money solved these problems by being a store of value, allowing people to save for and thus plan for the long term. With money, we became the humans we are today — for better and for worse, as I have learned.

My research focuses on how we use and think about money. In an experiment, colleagues and I asked one group of people to perform a task that involved money and another group to perform a similar task that didn’t. For instance, some people mentally tallied up the value of a stack of cash, whereas others tallied up numbers printed on pieces of paper. This and similar experiments have found two broad buckets of effects when people are reminded of money. The first is generally positive: They prefer tasks that allow them to go it alone; resist being helped on tough problems; and perform better, longer, and harder. From an organizational and societal perspective, these are good things. Our second finding reveals a darker side: They share, help, and empathize less than people who have not thought about money. When it comes to the moral fabric of society, these are not ideal behaviors.

We’ve also found these behaviors in children. In an experiment with three-to-six-year-olds, we gave them either coins and bank notes or buttons and paper, and then asked them to do helpful things, such as bringing crayons to an adult, or cognitive tasks, such as completing a maze or puzzle. The children who had played with money were less helpful, though they worked smartly and diligently, for instance persisting on challenging puzzles and finding the correct way through a maze.

Since money has some helpful effects, my more recent work looks at whether we can mitigate its harmful ones. Colleagues and I studied groups of people who care deeply for each other. One experiment looked at romantic partners; the other, people in a collectivistic society (India). In both cases we found similar, familiar effects: After being reminded of money, people were less kind, less helpful, and less generous with each other. When it comes to how money influences us, these results are not the most encouraging.

Which brings us back to the overarching question of why people care so much about money. The answer, in part, is that money is deeply rooted in how we’ve evolved. It has a direct line to the success of our species, which helps to explain why it takes up so much space in our minds. Money also continues to produce powerful effects on our behavior that go beyond the symbolic governmental backing of a coin or bill’s value. As the ways we use and think about money change over time — think credit cards, Venmo, and Bitcoin — we need to keep studying the ways it affects our relationships with others. Money, while integral to who we’ve become, may also play a role in driving us apart.THE BIG IDEA

About the author: Kathleen D. Vohs is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Land O’Lakes Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota.

Brexit, gambling and the possible benefits for Spain

It seems that the world has gone mad… politics is just going – crazy! No matter what «side» you are on, no matter what conversation it is – there is no denying it. So – when I come across a little gem like this article – full forward. The original title varies, it speaks of the complexity of the situation and doesn’t outright speak of benefits.

Can you tell me what they are, and where does the article begin to change the tone?

It’s also laden with rich vocabulary for the finance industry – so keep your focus and get your pen out!

This is the first part of the article, from the Euro Weekly News. I strongly suggest continuing onto the link to the original article (at the bottom) to finish it.

Its sheer popularity provides a shot in the arm to economies around the world, but its benefits come in many forms: as well as employing a huge number of people (more than 100,000 in the UK) it generates valuable revenue that can be reinvested in vital public services.

For these reasons, it can be a welcome boost to countries who have struggled in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis of the mid-to-late 00s.

Spain’s economy has been under pressure for some time, having seen increased inflation and huge unemployment rates – the latter rising above 25% in 2013 and still only inching under 20% in present day.

Can the gambling industry provide Spain with the income it needs and a solution to the employment troubles?

A history of gambling in Spain

It was only at the end of Franco’s reign in Spain that the very act of gambling was decriminalised. From 1977, regulatory bodies on an autonomous community level were formed to govern their peoples’ wagers. But it was the emergence of online gambling in the late 1990s that really saw the industry take off.

With operators from all over the world quickly moving in to take advantage of a potentially lucrative market, gamblers found a huge range of online betting possibilities to choose from. New laws to govern the Information Society were added onto a 2007 Bill, which clearly defined what constituted online gambling.

The government introduced additional regulations in 2012, which meant gambling operators in Spain would need a licence to run their business. Along with difficulties becoming established, a number of approved regulated operators began handing back their licences.

Teething problems over with – the Spanish economy began to bounce back with some extremely healthy levels of revenue recorded in gaming. Today it’s estimated the Spanish gamble well over 1.9 billion euros per year, which is equal to around 480 euros per person – 15% of household income.

Click here for the Original article

Preaching to the choir in Human Resources

I’ve got a few questions for you. As far as I know the term “Human Resources” is becoming extinct. Now the titles are much more open. So – suffice to say, just the title of this Ted Talk caught my eye. As I listened, I noticed that this speaker is an excellent speaker for ESL students – well paced, great intonation, and her talk is rich in basic, useful vocabulary.

I think in Spain we’ve come a long way in a short time in the Human Resource departments. Not so long ago, it was quite common that companies with less than 150 employees didn’t even count on such a department. Now, it’s quite common to have divisions within. Everything she says, obviously makes absolute sense, I agree with her 100%, it just feels like she is preaching to the choir. I’m not sure who Mary Schaefer was thinking of when she prepared this speech, but somehow, I don’t picture any of my clients in her crowd. What do you think?

Suggested homework:

Take the transcript (direct from the source) and add the punctuation. TRY and do so as she is speaking. It’s a bit of a challenge, but if you stop the video once in a while, it’s possible and I’m sure that you are up to the challenge.

Putting the human back into human resources | Mary Schaefer | TEDxWilmington