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Look at the statements below and the five extracts from an article about ’offshoring’, the shift of service jobs to other countries, on the opposite page.
Which extract (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement (1-8) refer to?
For each statement (1-8), mark one letter (A, B, C, D or E) on your Answer Sheet.
You will need to use some of these letters more than once.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example:
0 Offshore functions will not necessarily stay abroad as financial considerations change.[*]
Off shoring
A
An article in McKinsey Quarterly says that some companies which have moved their back-office functions offshore have missed huge opportunities to reap efficiencies beyond those that come from just using cheaper labour. These companies often merely replicate what they do at home, where labour is expensive and capital is relatively cheap, in countries in which the reverse is true. They forget an additional benefit is that offshoring allows companies to work round-the-clock shifts, ferrying data back and forth from one place to another, and that it also allows them to rethink the way they solve IT problems. The most successful operators redesign business processes to take full advantage of the new environment’s potential.
B
There is no doubt that customers with complex queries requiring local understanding do not respond well to far-off operators repeating a series of specially learned responses. Convergys, one of the world’s biggest providers of ’contact-centre services’, advises companies to shift simple queries offshore while retaining the more complex ones on the same shore as the caller. It calls this process ’rightshoring’, and estimates that about 80% of the companies that it is working with in Britain are planning to split their call-centre operations in this way.
C
Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, a lobby group, says that offshore locations have so far captured just 3-4% of all American companies’ outsourcing. The bulk remains onshore in the hands of big firms such as Accenture and IBM. In fact, 60% of major corporates are doing nothing, or are only just beginning to investigate the potential of offshoring. Nevertheless, some big companies have told him that up to 40% of their outsourced business could end up offshore. That suggests the industry still has a long way to grow.
D
One thing currently limiting the ability of companies to outsource tasks offshore is the inflexible architecture of modern business-information systems. It forces firms to perform tasks as a series of discrete steps. So a business wanting to outsource some of those steps (billing, for instance), but not others, gets involved in complicated flows of information that are prone to error. Newer software and hardware promise a future in which firms will be able to outsource smaller slivers of their business. They will not, as now, have to commit to outsourcing the whole of a department or nothing.
E
Many service jobs are in industries like hotels and restaurants, or in public services like education and health, most of which can never be moved abroad. There are also alternative pools of labour to be tapped at home. Citigroup, for instance, has hired about 100 college students in America to do programming for it. In addition, some of the tasks currently going to low-cost offshore centres may eventually return because their underlying technologies will evolve in such a way that it makes economic sense to put them back in the home country.
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Read this text from an article about job interviews.
Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.
For each gap (9-14), mark one letter (A-H) on your Answer Sheet.
Do not use any letter more than once.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Interviewing on screen
The problems of global recruitment are disappearing rapidly. The reason for this lies in the technology that could redefine the traditional job interview. (0).....H..... These give them access to the global recruitment market, enabling them to interview and assess their choice of candidates on screen, for example via video-conference link, CD-ROM display or electronic file transfer.
The development of the use of technology as a method of recruitment has brought considerable benefits to recruitment practices. For example, it means great savings in terms of both time and the travel budget. 【P1】______.One problem with face-to-face interviews is that body language is bound to play an important part in them. 【P2】______.This necessarily leads to an inherent unfairness in such interviews. Putting distance between candidate and interviewer with the use of a video camera can help to overcome this problem as body language will be less obvious. 【P3】______.It could prove an unfair advantage, or possibly disadvantage, if used only with those unable to attend a face-to-face interview.
A great deal has been made in recent years of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming), which includes the science of body language and its value in job interviews. 【P4】______. Others, however, reject the new technology simply because they are afraid of it. The benefits of technology, though, are too great to ignore, when one considers that the best person for a particular job may decide not to attend an interview if he or she has to travel a considerable distance.
Appointing senior executives is increasingly seen as a global business. Companies which intend to select candidates for jobs from a wider pool will have little choice but to bear the cost of overseas travel to conventional interviews, or to embrace the new technology. 【P5】______. Inevitably, companies will be seeking more cost-effective ways of recruiting quality candidates, and for this, virtual interviewing may offer a solution.
The greatest value of face-to-face interviews is at the stage of final selection. 【P6】______. Nevertheless, there are many positive aspects of using technology as a recruitment tool. Times are changing, and unless the die-hards who ignore new technology change with them, they may find themselves left behind.
Example:[*]
A At the same time, the economic climate suggests that there is a very real prospect of leaner budgets in future.
B We are instinctively inclined to feel more positive to people who are similar to us.
C However, some experts feel that the main advantage of on-screen interviewing is that it addresses flaws in the conventional interview.
D For this reason there will always be a place for them.
E For some posts, applicants may be able to choose between a face-to-face interview and an on-screen interview.
F Some people in industry consider this to be a far more reliable approach to selection than a high-tech interview.
G But for it to be completely fair, the on-screen method would have to be used with all candidates.
H Employers now have at their disposal a range of communication tools.
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Read the following article about the problems small companies may have in recruiting staff, and the questions on the opposite page.
For each question (15-20), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.
Small companies often struggle in a crucial area - the recruitment of additional staff. With little time or budget for recruitment and training, mistakes are made all too easily.
Last year, Sally Thomas, managing director of a small software company, thought she had found the ideal project co-ordinator to handle long-term client relationships, after a two-year search. ’We had already tried a couple of internal people, but they were not suited to the role,’ she says. “The role does not require a detailed knowledge of information technology, but does demand enough expertise to understand current and future projects and the ability to talk about them meaningfully and sensitively to customers.’ Ms Thomas and her technical director gave several short-listed candidates in-depth interviews and psychometric tests. They then decided to follow their instinct and pick the individual who had performed least well in the tests but felt like the right person for the job. The new project co-ordinator lasted just six weeks. ’It was very disappointing,’ says Ms Thomas. ’In the end the psychometric test proved to be more accurate than our own belief in who was best.’ Luckily the candidate who scored most highly in the tests was still available and is now doing well in the job.
Tony Jones used personal contacts when setting up his electronic repair services company, recruiting four people he already knew for the top management team. This worked well, but on technical staff he has been less successful, with a 50% drop-out rate in just four months. ’It’s easy to make snap judgements because you’re so busy running the business,’ Mr Jones says. ’Instead of a thorough testing process you tend to do it too fast. Someone seems like a nice person who knows what they’re doing, so you give them the job but eventually you come to regret your decision.’
Mr Jones has tried employment agencies, but finds them expensive and lacking in knowledge of sectors such as electronics. ’Finding electronic engineers is not like looking for bankers for example,’ he says. ’The right people for us tend to have been stuck in the bedroom with a soldering iron in their youth, rather than having done particularly well academically. We could be talking about the dark side of the moon as far as most agencies are concerned.’
Recruitment from outside is a huge problem for small companies, but according to Louise Punter, chief executive of the Surrey Chamber of Commerce, ’People who have moved from other firms bring a fresh look and a big injection of new ideas.’ Those who have worked for medium-sized or large companies are particularly valuable, because they are familiar with processes and systems that can be just as effective in a company of ten people as in a company of thousands. ’Small companies tend to deal only with the immediate problem, whereas a larger organisation would put in place a process that would prevent the same thing going wrong again. People who know how to do this can be very valuable.’
On the other hand, given the current skills shortage, low unemployment and the expense involved in recruitment, it makes sense to promote from within where possible. ’A classic mistake is that companies overlook the skills their existing staff have: for example, a marketing person might have good financial skills,’ says Mrs Punter. She recommends conducting a skills audit to identify staff expertise, in particular what is transferable or not being fully exploited. In larger companies, these issues often come out in appraisals, but in small ones they are easily missed.
Not surprisingly, finding the right staff can present small companies with their biggest challenge.
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Read the article below about promotional discounts.
Choose the correct word to fill each gap from A, B, C or D on the opposite page.
For each question (21-30), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNTS FOR CORPORATE
CUSTOMERS
Promotional discounts are a form of discount used primarily to (0)______ a new product, to try to increase sales of existing products, or to reduce the inventory 【C1】______of a particular product or products. They can also be employed to 【C2】______customers to place an extra order, or increase the size of a regular order, so that the order will 【C3】______for a price reduction. Many companies use this 【C4】______if their products have seasonal 【C5】______and troughs. A promotional incentive is a calculated risk that must generate a higher level of orders from customers who don’t usually buy in those quantities. If the only result is to encourage buyers to put a large 【C6】______of discounted products in their warehouse, and reduce the size of the next few orders until they have sold the discounted product, then the promotion has failed to 【C7】______the desired results.
When problems - particularly problems of communication regarding the 【C8】______ of the discount - occur during the 【C9】______ of a promotion, the person who is managing the credit (whether the owner or a designated employee) will be spending too much extra time responding to the oral and written questions of customers. At this point, the credit manager must put on his or her customer relations hat and move into damage 【C10】______before it becomes a more serious problem.
Example:
A launch B declare C install D proclaim
[*]
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Read the article below about collaborating at work.
For each question (31-40), write one word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example:[*]
Successful
collaboration
When colleagues act in ways that seem unproductive, they are likely to (0)______ so for a reason. Few people have the goal of preventing you from getting things done. 【B1】______ is more likely that they are responding rationally to a perceived interest. Someone may be abrupt because he is faced 【B2】______an important deadline and wants to get back to work. Another may disparage an attempt to be creative because she has high standards, and wants to keep looking for an even better idea. 【B3】______there might be more constructive ways for them to pursue such goals, these goals are usually legitimate. Try to imagine 【B4】______ the motivation for their behaviour might be. When you discuss an issue with colleagues, start with the assumption that they would 【B5】______prepared to help.’I know you have been terribly busy and perhaps concerned about cutting costs. Still I would welcome your thinking about an issue that is on 【B6】______mind.’
Knowing that you want to see their point of view will make it easier 【B7】______them to see yours.And it will reassure them that you appreciate their concerns, and that any new proposal will 【B8】______those concerns into account. The degree of successful collaboration in a group is the sum of individual behaviour. Everyone contributes 【B9】______the difficulties. You may not be aware of the extent to 【B10】______you affect the dynamics of the group, but your colleagues almost certainly are.
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Read the text below about the hotel industry.
In most of the lines (41-52) there is one extra word. It is either grammatically incorrect or does not fit in with the meaning of the text. Some lines, however, are correct.
If a line is correct, write CORRECT on your Answer Sheet.
If there is an extra word in the line, write the extra word in CAPITAL LETTERS on your Answer Sheet.
The exercise begins with two examples (0) and (00).
Examples:[*]
Poor support for hotel students
0 Is there anyone in the hotel industry who will, instead of just complaining that they
00 can’t find reliable, qualified staff, not to mention retain them, is actually prepared
【M1】______to help students with continued professional development? At present time I’m an
【M2】______associate member of a professional body in the hotel management. In order to
【M3】______upgrade to full membership, I decided how to undertake the Professional Certificate.
【M4】______As part of the course, I had requirement to complete an assignment on front-office
【M5】______operations. This seemed straightforward, but I couldn’t yet find one establishment
【M6】______that was prepared to allow me to visit and gather the information I required. Some of
【M7】______the 12 hotels I contacted, only two actually had the decency to explain that ’normally
【M8】______it would be OK’, but at the moment they couldn’t spare the time or staff. Just as for
【M9】______the rest, it was simply ’No’. Would someone please tell to me, and all the other
【M10】______dedicated hospitality professionals out there who are trying to further on their career
【M11】______prospects via continued professional development, exactly how we attain the
【M12】______qualifications that the industry requires us, when the industry seems unwilling to help?
