Recently there has been some discussion in social media as to the future of the HR Generalist role and is this type of position needed today?
Organizations
are constantly reviewing whether to centralize their HR professionals or
decentralize the Human Resources function.
There are typically three approaches regarding the structure of HR.
Decentralized: If you have
talented individuals that are resourceful, knowledgeable and are skilled in the
process of explaining the HR programs and policies then the closer they are to
support the business the better it is for the company. Decentralization is the optimum approach with
respect to building a partnership between HR and the business. It is also the costliest from a budget
perspective.
Blended: If the HR
staff lack the depth of experience then the goal is to train these individuals and
hire “specialists” that can share their knowledge with the newer
employees. While these employees remain
close to the business their lack of skill can often be an impediment to their
success. This structure also takes time
to build and commitment from the leadership team is critical to maintaining
this type of organizational platform
Centralized: A centralized
structure is a skilled and talented staff that are pro-active, reach out to the
business units and provide sound advice from a call-center or centralized
corporate office. This approach is being
used by an increasing number of companies that have 500 employees or more. With employees becoming familiar with the
self-service approach to obtain information about pay, benefits, promotions and
career paths the need to have an intermediary is becoming less necessary
Today,
organizations are looking for cost effective talent to support and partner with
the business. With budgets being scrutinized
and HR metrics becoming an even more important part of the performance process
the future of the HR Generalist, particularly in larger organizations, is very
uncertain.
The
future of the HR Generalist in larger companies (employers with 500 employees
or more) will ultimately go away and be replaced with experts in a call center
or corporate office. The business units
will only have an HR Generalist if they are willing to pay for this
personalized support. In our opinion,
the business leader will determine that the HR Generalist is redundant and
unnecessary. Furthermore, the laws are
changing rapidly at the state and federal level and with many companies having
a global reach the need for “specialists” is even more important in today’s
work environment. The HR Generalist role
is often one of sharing information that is provided by the corporate HR
function anyway. The timely sharing of
information is critical to meeting the needs of the business and any follow-up
action is often delayed as the skills of the HR Generalist are at times not as
strong as the specialist. This requires
that the HR Generalist reach out repeatedly to the skilled expert in the
corporate office to obtain clarification.
This takes time and costs the organization additional expense.
The
future of the HR Generalist in smaller companies (employers with 499 employees
or less) is a very different story.
These skilled professionals will continue to be relied upon, typically
report to the CEO or COO and have significant influence on the
organization. They will also have
between 3 and 5 subordinates who provide specialized services to the company. Further career opportunities in this area
will continue to grow and expand.
To
learn more about what is best for your company Human Resource departments are often
conducting employee surveys to evaluate department performance, establish year-over-year
metrics, review the success or failure of the established programs and policies
and finally how to best meet the needs of the organization and staff. Consider conducting an employee survey to
discover what your employees are thinking.