Talking about Company departments...

Department is a division of a business specializing in a particular product or service. Commonly used expressions containing the word ‘department’:  Human Resources (HR) - personnel department, department which manages the administrative aspects of the employees  Catering Services – a department which provides foods and services  Waste Management –a department involved in the management of the collection, recovery and disposal of wastes, including options for waste reduction  Occupational Health and Safety – a department which creates a safe environment for employees, contractors, customers and visitors to company facilities; as well as encouraging a healthy lifestyle and promoting public health amongst the people that the company affects  Plant Security – a department responsible for the security of the institutions property and workers  Fire Department - a department whose purpose is preventing and putting out fires  Mailroom or Mail Services - a room in which ingoing and outgoing mail is handled for a company or other organization  Works Council - a department representing employer and employees of a plant or business to discuss working conditions etc; also a committee representing the workers elected to negotiate with management about grievances and wages etc.  Production Department - a department which is responsible for the actual construction and preparation of products to be sold to other businesses or individuals  Dispatch Department - a department of a company which is responsible for the delivery of orders that are placed with a company  Purchasing Department - a department which is responsible for sourcing and then arranging the details for the actual purchase of any items that are required  Car Pool - fleet of cars  Accounts Department - a department which monitors the clients’ accounts and the accounts that the company has with businesses supplying either goods or services  Payroll - a division responsible for the financial record of employees' salaries, wages, bonuses, net pay, and deductions  Customer Service – a department whose primary activity is associated with after-sale support to enhance or to maintain the value of the product or service  Legal Department - a department which provides legal advice to other departments in the company  Marketing Department – a department which is involved in promoting, selling and distributing products or services of its company  Supply Chain Management or SCM - the oversight of materials, information and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer, to wholesaler, to retailer, to consumer  Facility Management - the management of buildings and services. These services are sometimes considered to be divided into hard services and 'soft services'; hard services includes such things as ensuring that a building's air conditioning is operating efficiently, reliably, safely and legally; soft services includes such things as ensuring that the building is cleaned properly and regularly or monitoring the performance of contractors (for example builders and electricians).  Research and Development or R&D - a department discovering new knowledge about products, processes and services; then applying that knowledge to create new and improved products, processes and services that fill market needs  Medical Services - services covered by a managed-care plan provided by a physician or other authorized medical professionals  Management - persons running an organization  Quality Management - a system of organisational structures, procedures, responsibilities and evaluation mechanisms which ensures that the organisation is capable of delivering its product to specified standards Now we put new vocabulary into context, so you can see how you might use these terms yourself. The expressions are in boldface in the text.  The products or services that are bought by the purchasing division can be anything from the stationery that the office needs to large pieces of machinery to be used in the factory.  Not all companies need a production department, however in some companies the production department is the major part of the company.  Companies are nowadays spending more money on customer service and less on research and development to ensure the profitability of a company.  The role of the advertising department within a company is to develop advertising campaigns.  The sales department will usually provide the dispatch department with the necessary orders that need to be sent on a particular day.  The accounts department monitors the payment for each company account as well as the status of each account.  In modern times the former ‘Personnel Department’ is known as the ‘Human Resources’ department, abbreviated simply to H.R.