IELTS Writing Task 2: Bài mẫu “work” essay

Đọc bài mẫu band 9 và học những vocab cực hay của chủ đề nhé các em.

Những cụm từ cực kì hay giúp các bạn linh hoạt biến chuyển trong bài thi viết của mình. Cô đã tổng hợp kèm theo ví dụ để các bạn có thể học hiệu quả hơn! Hãy sử dụng nó ngay để không còn phải lúng túng khi viết bài nhé. Và tất nhiên, với độ đa dạng mang đầy tính học thuật của các cụm, bạn cũng sẽ nâng band điểm rõ rệt nhé!

Đề ví dụ:

Some employers offer their employees subsidised membership of gyms and sports clubs, believing that this will make their staff healthier and thus more effective at work. Other employers see no benefit in doing so. Consider the arguments from both aspects of this possible debate, and reach a conclusion.

Bài mẫu band 9:

Employers are always seeking ways to enhance their employees’ productivity, and subsidising healthy pursuits may be one way of achieving this. There are arguments on both sides; however, which we will discuss here.

On the one hand, it might be said that if workers are fitter and less stressed, their working time will be more efficient, leading to higher levels of output and service. Furthermore, the work/life balance of the staff will hopefully be improved, because their leisure time will be more fulfilling. This may even be more motivating than pay increments, perks, or financial rewards such as bonuses or incentives which may be hard to attain. Finally, feeling healthier may lead to better job satisfaction which is in itself a motivating factor.

Conversely, the problem with such leisure-based subsidies is that their efficacy is virtually impossible to quantify. For example, with target-related payments, employers can at least see whether the objectives are reached or not. It might also be said that, if this budget was spent on (for instance) on the job training or day release programmes, the employees would achieve better career progression and have better job prospects. These matters are all easier to measure, especially in performance reviews and appraisals, and may even help to reduce the risk of redundancy if the company restructures, downsizes or outsources its workforce.

Overall, it seems that, while health-related subsidies are superficially attractive, the lack of measurability is a substantial drawback. Spending funds on ongoing training would appear to be a better use of company or Human Resources budgets.

(259 words)

Vocabulary:

1. Productivity (n): the ability of people to produce useful results at work (hiệu suất làm việc).
   Ex: Many organisations limit their productivity improvement efforts to the acquisition of skills only.
2. to subsidise (v): to pay part of the cost of something, usually in order to help people (trợ cấp, phụ cấp)
   Ex: In India, most higher institutions are publicly financed and subsidised.
   What happens here is that the little investors are subsidising the fortune-making of larger shareholders on the inside who had bought their shares at rock bottom prices initially.
3. output (n): the amount of work or goods produced (sản phẩm, sản lượng, đầu ra)
   Ex: In Europe, industrial output has decreased, maybe because of the competition from producers in other continents.
4. work/life balance = the ability to work hard but also enjoy a good quality family and social life (cân bằng giữa cuộc sống và công việc)
   Ex: People are working long hours these days, and so their work/life balance is affected, leading to stress.
5. to motivate people: to give them positive reasons for working hard (tăng động lực cho người khác)
   Ex: If employees are given regular feedback, they will probably be well motivated and committed.
6. pay increments: pay rises/increases (tăng lương)
   Ex: In my country, pay increments have been very low because of the financial crisis.
7. Perks (n): reward from an employer which are not financial (eg free lunches, a car etc) (phúc lợi)
   Ex: Many agencies are helping to keep personnel at their jobs by providing perks.
8. financial rewards: any form of money payment (salary, commission, pension etc) (khen thưởng về mặt tài chính (lương, tiền hoa hồng, tiền cấp dưỡng, v.v…)
   Ex: Being a primary teacher may be satisfying, but the financial rewards are not high
9. bonuses (n): money given in addition to salary, usually in return for achieving targets ( tiền thưởng)
   Ex: Apparently some investment bankers can earn millions of dollars in bonuses.
10. Incentives (n): any reward that makes people work harder (khuyến khích)
    Ex: Some employers offer vacations or parties as incentives if the team hits its sales targets.
11. job satisfaction: enjoyment of a job for non-financial reasons (độ hài lòng với công việc)
    Ex: Job satisfaction is the most widely investigated job attitude as well as one of the most extensively researched subjects in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
12. target-related (adj): dependent on hitting a target (dựa vào hạn mức)
    Ex: In 2011, employees received target-related bonuses amounting to €223 million.
13. on the job training: training while working, not by leaving work to go to college (vừa làm vừa tham gia huấn luyện)
    Ex: On-the-job training, sometimes called direct instruction, is one of the earliest forms of training (observational learning is probably the earliest).
14. ongoing training: training throughout your time in a job, not just at the start (huấn luyện luên tục)
    Ex: Ongoing training has become the key to staying employed and beating the competition to jobs in a working environment that’s continually in flux with layoffs, increasing short-term contracts and constantly changing technology, legislation and economies.
15. day release programmes: programmes of training or education when employees can spend entire days out of work (chương trình huấn luyện mà nhân viên được nghỉ 1 ngày để tham gia)
    Ex: Many local businesses are encouraging their staff to study with the University of Derby through its range of part-time day release programmes.
16. career progression: the ability to advance your career (thăng tiến trong sự nghiệp)
    Ex: The problem with being a freelance photographer is that there is no real career progression unless one becomes extremely famous.
17. job prospects: the possibility of promotion or higher level work in future (triển vọng trong công việc)
    Ex: Job prospects for various Human Resources positions vary by position but they range from growing as fast as the average of other occupations to grow faster than average.
18. to measure (v): to assess the dimensions of something (đo lương)
    Ex: The movement of the pillar is measured in millimetres.
19. superficial (adj): not addressing deep or important issues (hơi hợt, không sâu sắc)
    Ex: The connection between the two is not external and superficial, but deeply internal and causal.
20. performance reviews/appraisals: meeting at which an employer gives feedback to a worker on their work over a fixed period ( đánh giá hiệu suất biểu hiện trong công việc)
    Ex: Annual performance reviews are a key component of employee development.
21. redundancy (n): a situation where a worker loses their job because of changes in the company (not because of personal mistakes) (tình trạng thừa nhân viên nên công ty xa thải bớt người)
    To make redundant
    Ex: The council claimed its ambition to support the results of the scheme financially could not be achieved unless more than 120 employees were made redundant.
22. to restructure (v): to change the organisation of a company, usually in order to make it more effective or to save money. (cơ cấu lại)
    Ex: It is believed that the company’s bankers have insisted that it urgently restructure its debt as a condition for securing their continuing support.
23. to downsize(v): to make an organisation smaller and employ fewer people (thu nhỏ, thu hẹp (quy mô của công ty))
    Ex: Given the growing number of failing establishments that were downsizing their labor forces, the timing was not right to shove a wage increase (even if a small one) down the throat of business.
24. to outsource(v): to stop doing work inside the company and send it to other companies or other countries, usually to save money (thuê ngoài)
    Ex: Many American companies have outsourced their IT operations to Asian countries, where productivity is similar and salaries are lower.
25. the workforce (n): the total number of people working in an organisation, company or country (nhân công, lực lượng lao động)
    Ex: The workforce in Northern Europe is skilled, but it is also inflexible and much older than in other parts of the world.
26. Human Resources (or HR): the department in a company which manages recruitment, employment and training (phòng nhân sự)
    Ex: As a Human Resources professional, it is known that the keys to success in this challenging field are: keeping current on HR issues, trends and skills; developing a strong support network; and contributing to the organization’s success.

Trần Tố Linh.