Thursday, February 14, 2008

HR generalist is first point of communication

HR generalist seldom does any design and development of HR processes and systems. That is the job of the specialists in HR, like Compensation, Recruitment, Training & Learning and Systems.

Because the HR generalist is first point of communication with the employees and business unit leaders they are the people who get to know the "bugs" in the various processes. In fact, the difference in the specialists and generalists is usually the focus. The specialists focus on the universality of people needs across business units and locations. The generalists tend to focus on the specifics of the business they look after and the exceptions.

Yes the head of HR role is a generalist role too. So if you aspire to be a VP of HR then you would be spending a large part of your career as a generalist :-)

The definition varies depending on the industry and organization

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