HR generalist vs HR specialist: different perspectives
To avoid any ambiguity, first let's define the difference with a quick breakdown of the two roles.
What is a HR generalist?
A HR generalist covers all HR operations for the business. Covering every employee-related matter, which can include everything from administration of policies and procedures to recruitment and learning programmes for employees.
What is a HR specialist?
A HR specialist has chosen a specific area of HR to specialise in and often HR departments in large organisations will have several specialists. Common areas of HR specialism include:
- Employment and recruitment
- Employee attrition and loyalty schemes
- Company benefits and compensation
- Staff training and development
- HR data analyst
- Employee engagement and motivation
The highs and lows of being a HR generalist
Back in 2011, Helen Giles, HR director at the charity Broadway Homelessness and Support, felt that being a generalist enabled people to keep their options open and turn their hand to those opportunities that come up; as good generalists are hard to find:
“Getting good HR people in generalist roles is incredibly difficult. There are a lot of people in HR but not many can take up a joined-up approach to business, so excellent generalists are very much in demand.”
The key benefits of being a HR generalist are the broader opportunities to explore different areas of human resources and a wider pool of job opportunities. However, HR generalists are also more likely to struggle to get buy-in from finance and IT departments, because they often are less able to leverage business-wide people data in the same way as a specialist. HR’s struggle with leveraging big data is no secret and has been a hot topic for some time now. Unfortunately, this also means that being a ‘generalist’ has become synonymous with this issue and offers no reassurance to senior stakeholders that want a more data-driven approach across the business.
As a general trend this is why many large corporations are more likely to have a diverse team of HR specialists. Whereas, HR generalists are more likely to remain a popular choice for SMEs because they are able to deal with a broad set of duties across the business.
What are the benefits of being a HR specialist?
President and Founder of Bersin & Associates Josh Bersin believes that the key to remaining competitive and adapting to this change is to employ HR specialists and remodel to ‘high-impact HR’. In a CIPD report on the modern HR operating model, he said:
“The core of high-impact HR today is creating more specialists and locating them closer to the business, where they can drive the most value.”
In summary, high-impact HR is about leveraging people data to make a more significant impact on core HR objectives, which requires a specialist approach. It is this need to grasp and master evolving HR technology that is, in Bersin’s opinion, the main reason HR specialists are becoming more sought after in the industry. In addition, HR specialists in employee relations are at a particular advantage according to Gary Miles, Director of Programmes at Management Institute Roffey Park. On the subject of HR generalist vs specialist he said:
“It’s very hard to find good employee relations people. And with the austerity measures hitting now and the Government enforcing public sector cuts, I think there will be more and more emphasis on employee relations, as companies will need strong HR people to deal with disputes.”
In the same article, HR operations training and development manager at The Evergreen Group, Allison Multby, said:
“Since the UK has been obliged to comply with European legislation, it has been harder for people and organisations to keep up with what is required. There is a strong need for employment law specialists to ensure organisations are doing the right things at the right time in the right way.”
How will evolving HR tech impact the HR profession?
Research from Oxford University’s Martin School revealed that 24% of HR roles are susceptible to being taken over by robots by 2035.
The good news is that experts aren’t convinced that this is likely. HR director and Master of the Guild of Human Resource Professionals, Robert Potter said:
“Where jobs require such skills as talent management, leadership development, succession planning and managing culture, one struggles to see how those sorts of roles will change or disappear.”
Ultimately though, as businesses face digital transformation to improve customer experience, HR are also under pressure to keep up and stay ahead of the curve. They need to embrace technology to impact decisions on leadership development, working processes, employee development and employee engagement. Consultant Neil Perkin highlighted some of the changes necessary within HR departments. The first is the growing role of data. A key finding was that data has the potential to radically shift HR practice and processes, demonstrating a need for HR professionals to improve digital literacy and skills in order to maximise the possibilities created by new technologies and adapt to the rapidly shifting organisational context that surrounds them.
What effect has this change had on HR professionals?
Many HR professionals are feeling the pressure to remain competitive and secure their jobs in uncertain times. CIPD revealed that:
- Only 30% of HR professionals believe they have a ‘reputation for sound business decisions’
- Only 22% feel confident they are ‘adapting to the changing needs of their employees’
- Only 20% are convinced they’re ‘adequately planning for the company’s future needs’
In our recent Reality of HR report, HR professionals viewed technology as important to their jobs but had little confidence in current tech and only 4% had confidence in their people data. In the first issue of Collaboration Magazine, HR technology specialist Damian Oldham highlighted these findings and added:
“But even though around 60% of those polled see technology as integral to their people strategies, almost half say they have little or no faith in their current systems to achieve this.”
However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the HR profession. As senior writer at Econsultancy, Ben Davids points out if HR professionals embrace the use of evolving technology, they can play a fundamental role in fostering agile thinking and cultivate multidisciplinary teams. In a Marketing Week article, he wrote:
“These teams can be an effective way of tackling smaller projects in companies where large hierarchies have reduced the network side of the business where new ideas can flourish.”
Deloitte’s Vice Chair and London Senior Partner Angus Knowles-Cutler believes that an increasing demand for HR specialists that harness HR tech should increase their value. “Over time this is going to get more interesting and be more important to the corporate agenda.” In this HR Magazine article he explains that in an economy increasingly moving towards routine work for robots and skilled work for humans, HR will become ever more critical: “In a high-skill economy you need talent coming in and to train, retain and develop talent… so the HR function will be vital going forward.”
SMEs love generalists, but HR specialists are key to digital transformation
According to the 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report, we’re witnessing a sea of change in the way a company’s success is measured. Traditional businesses are being replaced with ‘social enterprises’ that align commercial growth with the needs of all their stakeholders, including employees, customers and the wider community. Digital technology is one of the driving forces behind this transformation, giving businesses data on what their teams want and value, and creating platforms for teams to collaborate.
There will always be a place for HR generalists, especially for SMEs who can’t afford to create multidisciplinary teams. However, larger corporations undergoing significant digital transformation will be keen to hire HR specialists able to leverage the latest technology and deliver high-impact results for the business. Josh Bersin believes that well-designed self-service systems that let people manage their own HR ‘transactions’ combined with HR specialists will create high-impact results for businesses.
Learn about our HR software and discover the current HR trends and challenges in our latest edition of Collaboration Magazine.