Millionaires

1. Listen to an interview with a company director. What do you think of the

conditions he describes?
2. Listen again and make notes about the following:
- type of business
- staff
- incentives
- salaries
- atmosphere
- personal involvement
3. What do you think of the ideas introduced at Piranha Recruitment? Would you
like to work for the company? Why/why not?
4. If you were the director of a new company, what ideas would you like to
introduce to help retain your staff?

1. С первого взгляда кажется, что в данной компании созданы очень хорошие

условия работы. Думаю, многих людей они бы устроили.

At first glance, it seems that this company has created very good working
conditions. I think many people would be satisfied with them.

Миллионеры
1. Прослушайте интервью с директором компании. Что вы думаете об
условиях, которые он описывает?
2. Прослушайте еще раз и запишите следующее:
- вид бизнеса
- персонал
- стимулы
- заработная плата
- атмосфера
- личное участие

3. Что вы думаете об идеях, представленных в Piranha Recruitment? Вы

хотели бы работать в компании? Почему/почему нет?

Я правда не очень понимаю в бизнесе. Как я сказала ранее, с первого взгляда

кажется, что попасть в эту компанию – большая удача. С другой стороны,
меня смущают подводные камни таких организаций, например, личные
жертвы сотрудника и не до конца понятные мотивы такого направления
ведения бизнеса. Вообще мне это сильно напомнило одну из серий
мультсериала «Симпсоны», где Гомер попал в очень либеральную компанию,
возглавляемую эксцентричным Хэнком Скорпио – человеком со всех сторон
положительным, энергичным, относящимся серьезно ко всем капризам своих
сотрудников. Инакомыслящий первооткрыватель, не любящий, когда его
называют «боссом». Минус один – он был сумасшедшим.
Поэтому такая безупречная организация вызывает во мне скорее тревогу.

4. Если бы вы были директором новой компании, какие идеи вы хотели бы

представить, чтобы помочь сохранить свой персонал?

Во-первых, сотрудникам должна выплачиваться достойная зарплата. На мой взгляд – это

самое главное, у всех людей есть свои собственные цели, задачи и зоны ответственности,
зависящие от денег. Во-вторых, честность в отношениях с рабочим персоналом. В-
третьих, похвала и поощрения тем, кто добросовестно трудился. В-четвертых, для тех
сотрудников, кому важен карьерный рост, обеспечить места для развития карьеры.

- 98% of staff working at Piranha recruitment say they laugh a lot with their
team. As many as 95% say that they are excited about where the company is
going. So what have they all got to smile about? Last month this small
London based company won a prestigious award for being one of the best
small companies in the UK to work for. With us today is Will Becks – the
company director. Will, first of all, tell us a little bit more about the
company and what you do.
- Good morning! Well, Piranha is more than just a normal recruitment agency.
The difference is that we actually train and then place graduates in sales
jobs. That means we have a lot of young people working for us, so it’s a bit
like a continuation of university, but with a salary. We’re only a small
company, with as few as 60 employees, but there’s a good atmosphere in the
office. There’s a great deal of energy.
- Yes, your employees have said that there is a fun atmosphere with outgoing
like-minded people. You have regular parties, an annual skiing holiday, a
present for the most-appreciated employee of the month and plenty of other
benefits too. I’m not much of an expert on these things. Why such an
emphasis on staff incentives?
- Well, our staff are young and highly qualified. They are good at what they
do, and they believe in it. We have trained sales people going into
companies to try and place graduates. Quite a few of them get offered the
job themselves. If we didn’t look after our staff, they would quickly get
 poached by other companies. So the incentives need to be good to keep
people.
- So how are your salaries?
- Salaries are good and there are monthly, performance-related cash bonuses.
Staff also set their own targets for the coming year and for the most part they
have their say in their incentives too. Our accountant has just got the new
Audi A3. He chose it and he’s delighted.
- And how about the atmosphere in the office. How do you influence that?
- We have a company bar, where we offer free breakfasts and cappuccino all
day long. People spend an awful lot of time in there discussing ideas over
coffee, but it’s very productive.
- The vast majority of your staff say that they admire their managers and feel
that they can actively contribute to the future success of the company. How
do you achieve this?
- Well, one of the things is that we help them with finding somewhere nice to
live. Rent is very expensive in London and as lots of our employees are
fresh out of university with a lot of debts, they don’t have a huge budget for
accommodation. So, we‘ve bought some properties and quite a few staff rent
them from us at reasonable rates. It makes a real difference. It means that
working for the company becomes a lifestyle choice. They are involved
personally. Also, we like to give people a say in the company. We have
monthly meetings to discuss big issues when we all sit around and talk about
things. Initially, only a handful of people would come to the meetings. So,
we decided to offer free food, sandwiches and pizza, so now everyone
comes and everyone has something to say.