Two free resources for HR teams hiring international talent
Bilingual, plug-and-play, no email required. Made by Rahel Modrach for HR business partners working with cross-border hires.
Audit Vocabulary Cheatsheet
30 pages — HGB & IFRS-DE, IDW PS, working-paper drafting, pushback drills, client-meeting register. Bilingual EN/DE.
↓ Download (PDF, 6 MB)Onboarding Template-Pack for HR
5 templates spanning the first 90 days of an international hire — pre-boarding, day-1 welcome, day-30 check-in, day-60 sprint review, day-90 sponsor letter.
↓ Download (PDF, 7 MB)Pillars and Playbooks for HR
Six pillars for HR
ROI of Business German
A defensible four-channel framework for HR and Finance, with the numbers that hold up in front of a CFO.
Read the playbook →02HR Onboarding Playbook
The 30-60-90-day backbone for international hires, with the early signals that predict month-4 retention.
Read the playbook →03Business German for Auditors
Why Big-4 firms list C1 explicitly. The four sub-languages of audit German and how to sequence them.
Read the playbook →04Decision Matrix for HR
Six dimensions that separate a contract that delivers from one that quietly underperforms.
Read the playbook →05CEFR Levels by Business Role
What B2 actually means for a software engineer, an auditor, a controller. Anchored to deliverables, not exam scores.
Read the playbook →06Business German by Industry
Energy, audit, engineering, manufacturing: where the role-specific corpora actually diverge.
Read the playbook →This is the editorial hub for HR Business Partners and L&D leads who buy or run language programs for international teams in Germany. Four pillars cover the conversation we have with HR most often: ROI, onboarding, audit-specific German, and how to choose a provider. Underneath each pillar, focused articles answer the questions that come up after the first round of discovery calls.
Everything on this hub is written for buyers, not for learners. The voice is direct, the numbers are anchored where possible, and the recommendations are independent of any single provider, including us.
Six pillars, six cluster articles
The pillar pages above are the durable backbone of this hub. The six cluster articles, listed in the next section, answer the most common HR follow-up questions: which CEFR level is enough for an engineer, what does the 6-month audit playbook actually look like, how do you compare a Babbel-style app to a 1:1 coaching contract, what is the TCO of in-house vs. outsourced. Each cluster article is independent: read whichever one matches the conversation you are about to have.
Cluster articles
Each pillar above sits at the center of a cluster. The articles below answer the most common follow-up questions HR raises after the discovery call — specific industries, specific role types, and the budget conversations that come up in week three.
A 6-Month Playbook for Big-4 Audit Teams
Phase-by-phase: how to take an international audit hire from B1 baseline to client-facing C1 in 26 weeks.
Read →Realistic CEFR Levels per Engineering Role
What ICs, leads, and managers actually need on each CEFR rung — calibrated to engineering reality.
Read →Provider Matrix: 8 Categories Compared
Mass-market schools, apps, freelancers, in-house — eight provider types scored on the dimensions that matter to HR.
Read →TCO of Corporate German: Build vs Buy
The hidden cost of in-house vs. outsourced language coaching, broken down per learner-month.
Read →Business German for the Energy Sector
BNetzA filings, Netzentgelte, Bilanzkreis: the energy-specific German that breaks generic providers.
Read →A 90-Day Plan for Foreign Hires
Three workstreams in parallel — role, integration, language — with concrete CEFR milestones at Day 30, 60, 90.
Read →Reading paths by situation
If you don’t know where to start, pick the situation that matches yours best. Each path is three or four pages — the minimum we’d recommend reading before a real budget conversation.
Your CFO has asked: what's the ROI?
- Step 1: ROI of Business German (pillar)
- Step 2: TCO: Build vs Buy (cluster)
- Step 3: 90-Day Plan with milestones (cluster)
You're onboarding international hires this quarter
- Step 1: HR Onboarding Playbook (pillar)
- Step 2: 90-Day Plan (cluster)
- Step 3: CEFR by Role (pillar)
You're comparing providers for a tender
You hire auditors, engineers, or energy specialists
- Step 1: Industry-specific German (pillar)
- Step 2: Audit Playbook (cluster)
- Step 3: Realistic CEFR for Engineers (cluster)
Frequently asked by HR
What is a pillar, and what is a cluster article?
Why not just send people to Goethe-Institut?
What does coaching with us cost?
How long does a typical program run?
Do you have experience in our industry?
Want a single 12-page playbook to bring it all together?
Language Needs Check for HR — the worksheet, budget calculator, board KPIs and 30-day rollout plan that complement these pillars. Free, by email.