A day in the life of an HR officer
A day in the life of Jonathan Le Brocq, HR Officer at Garenne Group
People professionals who play a key role in creating relationships across the organisation
HR generalists have complete accountability for the full employee lifecycle – from sourcing potential applicants to managing exits from the organisation. Their main aim is to ensure the organisation achieves its goals by creating - and delivering on - people strategy.
HR generalists (sometimes referred to as ‘human resources’ or ‘personnel’) draw from all parts of the specialist areas represented in the people profession (as seen in the CIPD’s Profession Map). Their priorities are shaped by organisation need. If, for example, an organisation experiencing significant growth requires a heavy focus on resourcing and capability building, they'll draw on the broad expertise of an HR generalist to support across the work, perhaps, but not always in addition to more specialist HR skills.
Generalist people professionals are involved in a wide variety of activities which vary from day to day. One day they could be working with leadership teams on organisation design models; the next they could be dealing with specific disciplinary and grievances cases which have escalated.
A key part of being an HR generalist is the relationships you create across the organisation. This helps you understand the wider priorities and create solutions which achieve the best organisational outcomes.
A day in the life of Jonathan Le Brocq, HR Officer at Garenne Group
A day in the life of Gina Keohane, HR Adviser at Ubisoft Leamington
A day in the life of Claire Wishart, HR Manager at Calnex Solutions
A day in the life of Leslie Hayward, VP HR North East & South East Asia for Shell
Here are some of the activities you can expect to be involved in as an HR generalist:
We've barely scraped the surface of human potential, says HR consultant Yetunde Hofmann. It's up to people professionals to seize the initiative and supercharge their organisations.
Here is a shortlist of the types of job titles you might find in general HR. As you can see, HR generalists are at all levels of experience and seniority:
Develop the key competencies needed to function as an effective and valued business partner and support your organisation in achieving its goals.
Gain an understanding of key issues that need to be taken into account on job evaluation, developing pay structures and performance pay
The core knowledge areas enshrined in the Profession Map are relevant to all people professionals - both generalist and specialist.
Explore the twelve career areas within the people profession, and the typical activities you may find yourself doing
Information and guidance to help you excel in your role, transition into the profession, and manage a career break