Generally Speaking

The term HR Generalist is a misnomer in the business world. This not a jack-of-all-trades but master of none type of job. These professionals are expected to be labor law experts including an alphabet soup of legal acts and a numerical stew of executive orders. They also get the distinct pleasure of being a subject matter expert on recruiting, retaining and motivating talent in a wide range of fields. Also, if this isn't enough, this "generalist" is the go to person to handle performance management, employee discipline and enforcing policy and procedure. They round this out with healthy strengths in training, business presetation, and strategic development. In spite of all of this, management and HR advocacy groups say they also need to be highly proficient in general business and specialize in the business of their current employer. It isn't rocket science, but it isn't a cake walk regardless of the job title.