HR Generalists and Specialists

The success of any organization today is largely dependent on employees; this is due to the vital role they play in meeting organization’s goals. The above discovery has shifted many firms’ objectives toward treating the employees as their greatest asset. The structure of human capital can readily differentiate a focused firm from unfocused, since this can be a direct determinant of the system’s success. In the twenty-first century, the field of Human Resources has come up distinctively to incorporate other fields in an attempt to create a better working combination (Ivancevich & Glueck, 1986). Some of the fields that have been brought together in this unification include the activities and the processes done by Human Resource Management, Organizational Development and Human Resource Development. These fields have evolved together to an area of almost merging unless it is no longer easy to draw the boundary between them.

Generalization is the opposite of specialization, while specialization involves the employee getting in-depth knowledge of one field of the production process. On the other hand, generalization involves a person getting knowledge about the various stages or fields of a production process. Specialists and generalists of Human Resources carry out similar activities for the organization, but with varying approach as it has been abovementioned. Some of the responsibilities of Human Resources Team in an organization include modeling the work culture of an organization, hiring as well as firing of workers, managing the communication of the employees, settling disputes among employees, creating remuneration programs, for example, retirement benefits, navigations relating to the government policy, dealing with other issues, for example, the legal issues and many others. A Human Resource generalist will be able to do several, or even all of the previously mentioned responsibilities, while a specialist will have in-depth knowledge and skills to do only one of them.

Human Resource does not involve a clear line of activities but a group of closely interrelated operations all aiming at enhancing the employees’ productivity. Human Resource is nowadays seen as taking a more supportive responsibility than it did before. Progressive, tactical managers have come to the realization that workers can be a source of comparative advantage. A company such as Nokia has been able to demonstrate that HR practices form an encouraging environment for workers, as well as a strong business lifestyle, which leads to excellent performance and higher profits.

Globalization is presenting new challenges as it has led to more diverse employment and development of new tasks, such as carrying out business online, e-learning, use of automatic payrolls and HR managerial tasks (Watson & Earnshaw, 1992).

Researchers have found out several specialties that are particularly crucial for success of an organization. A small firm may have only one generalist or a human resource manager carrying out all the work of human resource. On the other hand, large firms have the work of human resource divided into various specialties such as; employment and replacement, labor relations, compensation and benefits, recruitment among others. Researches have found competences that can be very useful to any employee in human resource field. For instance, a recruitment manager can greatly increase his or her output by learning these specialties and practicing them in his or her daily activities.  The most crucial competence that recruitment managers should have is the ability to communicate and interact with their colleagues. They should be able to communicate verbally, in writing or in any other way in a manner that ensures clarity and timeliness in message delivery. The second competence is the customer service; recruitment manager should be able and willing to create an atmosphere of excellence towards the customer, especially during service delivery. Great managers advice people that expertise or continuous learning should be another competence that recruitment managers should have; they should be zealous to further their skills in each and every day and this can a great effect in the firm in that he would have more knowledge on how to recruit competent workforce. The fourth competence lies in the fact that recruitment manager should also be ready and capable of assisting in day-to-day activities in order to produce goods and services of high quality. If he spend some time every day in assisting and empowering his juniors, the juniors can be able to improve their performance and hence the firm’s production.                                                                

Finally recruitment manager is expected to show a high level of accountability. Accountable recruitment manager will recruit responsible workforce that can be relied on, and would work under minimum supervision, and hence save supervisors time. He should be responsible for starting as well as completing tasks. In addition, he is expected to help his colleagues in their work, as well as, at any other possible levels in order to attain success.  Recruitment manager with all the above competences would inspire all other worker and raise their performance (Tyson, 1995).