What is "Vermittlung" (finding two parties, one needs something one offers something) in English?

Question

I am looking for a verb which is called "vermitteln" in German. According to dict.leo.org did not give good results. An example sentence would be:

German: Die Firma vermittelt Jobs.

English by Google Translate: The company provides jobs.

However, "provide" seems to be the wrong word. It is not the company itself where people work, but the company finds people who want to get a job and have some abilities, as well as other companies which need those abilities. (So a recruiter who has his/her own company.)

How is this verb called in English?

Answer 1

My ex-wife used to work as a head-hunter. She would liaise with client companies and search out people with particular talents to fulfill specific job needs, but that usually involves "stealing" employees away from other firms.

A word used in the movie and sports industry is talent-scout.

from the question...(So a recruiter who has his/her own company.)

These terms would seem to describe the above part of the requirement, but not completely the first asking for an interpretation with a verb.

Answer 2

My limited German vocabulary relies on me internally using literal translations to understand why a word translates like it does -- German's nice like that. For me, I'd translate it as a "go between" or "middle man" since they're fairly literal. Other translations (cherry-picked from http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/vermitteln.html): to mediate / to broker / to liaise [arbitrate] / to arbitrate / to go between / to act as intermediary / to act as a broker / to facilitate

Answer 3

As has been said in comments, the nearest equivalent in general appears to be "broker" (can be a verb or a noun - the agent, or "middle-man" involved - while the noun-form of the activity itself is "brokerage"). This doesn't fit will in all English contexts however, you would normally "broker a deal" between two parties but wouldn't normally use it in an employment context because more appropriate words exist for that particular purpose - "The company brokers jobs" is not quite idiomatic.

In regard to the specific example regarding jobs - correct me if I'm wrong, but from the sentence structure, it appears the intent is to describe the company rather than the specific action. If that's the case, then idiomatically, appropriate phrases could include:

• The company is a recruiting agency.

• The company is a job agency.

Despite what I said before, you could also say:

• The company is an employment-broker

Agents and brokers, are those who act on behalf of another party, so an "agency" is a collection of "middle-men". "Recruit" is the normal verb that is generally used in these situations, but it does have a directional perspective - you could say that the job agency recruits applicants for an employer; but you wouldn't normally say that an agency recruits employers for applicants. Instead, in the world of recruitment, you are likely to find the jargon of "job-matching" used for this purpose. And while this may be the closest equivalent to "vermittelt Jobs", because it still has a jargony taint, it may not be quite idiomatic to use it just by itself

• The company job-matches

Will probably be quite clear to your average English speaker, but there will likely be a compulsion to add additional context - for instance:

• The company job-matches applicants with positions

or

• The company matches job-seekers with appropriate positions

So in summary, "brokers" may be an acceptable translation of "vermitteln" for many contexts, but in at least some other contexts (another example would be dating agencies) words such as "matches" may be more appropriate.