A Day in an HR-Generalist’s life

Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.- Author Unknown

Life as an HR generalist is different every moment. Even though the pattern may seem
repetitive the uniqueness lies in every situation. A day begins with the communication through
emails and meetings on HR processes. Ideally it would take an account of few escalations which
have been received as of date and needs to be resolved on a priority basis. The trouble shooting
begins with detecting the bottleneck and strike a solution to it. The risk mitigation is done for
the future processes and avoid every collateral damages that might have happened in the
meantime. For e.g.: During the performance appraisal an employee was explained the future
goals but did not understand it, hence asked no questions. After the letters are distributed the
employee expects a greater hike and a promotion. The employee is willing to resign if these
requests are not considered. Hence, the discussion in the meeting held earlier, needs to be
referred to make sure that the employee was made aware of the role which would be offered
in the letter. Hence the training program was discussed along with the goal and career path in
the horizontal shift was shared. Tradeoff needs to be shaped to ensure the engagement level
through the performance measures. The employee needs to agree to the conditions mentioned
and find the benefits in them, accordingly. Such escalations once managed needs to be
followed up with counselling to ensure no damages have happened to the engagement level of
both the manager and the reportee. This communication would be recorded in the employee
file.

The day would further unfurl into managing other escalation due any disciplinary breach or any
non-adherence. Once the escalation has been managed for the day, certain HR initiatives and
organizational developmental program would be focussed. Incase any program needs to be
initiated, prepare towards it and implement as planned. For e.g.: If a new banding and grading
structure is supposed to be implemented within next quarter, tasks including collecting data
and preparing for the broad banding exercise. Discussions with the business leaders and
coordinating focus group meetings with the employees would be scheduled. The expectation of
the employees and requirement from the management team would be drafted accurately. This
would further require several communications to be shared across every level in the
continuum. The mapping of the new grades and the salary structure needs to be explained to
every employee through town halls and mass mailer. This would build confidence among the
employees and ensure seamless implementation. Every day, the HR would require finishing the
task scheduled on a daily basis, for this project.

This would then be followed by employee one-on-one. The employees would need to speak to
the HR. They may have email id and telephone- helpdesk, yet the human interface would be
required at certain cases. The employee interaction would further roll to solution oriented
tasks. It may get closed the same day or roll into the next working days. For e.g.: If an employee
has a difference in understanding of any organization policy such as benefits or success
program. They may raise a request to meet their respective HR and discuss it. Escalation such as
open door to HR necessitates to be attended on a priority basis. Any email communication
would follow the same grid.

Apart from these inter-vertical interactions, any training or coaching requirement within the HR
team would be dealt with. If the team members require any information and understanding on
any area of HR, including the strategic, operational and technical user interface, they would be
endowed with class-room based and on-the–job training sessions. The team may further have
queries on HR functions to be delivered, hence they would need leadership to guide them to
the right source of knowledge.

Finally conduct meetings with the business leaders to plan any future programs for their
specific teams. Troubleshoot any escalation due to a glitch in an existing program which is being
managed by the members under the leader’s guidance. Cul-de-sacs would be redirected to
ensure continuity in the processes.  There would be certain days were organizational
development activities would dominate other areas.  These may include orientation programs,
town halls, employee engagement based events such as Idea Platform, process improvement,
audits and etc. The day would end meaningfully with the fact that the best effort was put to
find the right solution and add more value than what was a created yesterday. In the words of
Steve Maraboli, “Today, many will break through the barriers of the past by looking at the
blessings of the present. Why not you?”