Day 3 Part 1

ITE West College

Made a few friends from DHRMP/O1. 

The desserts they catered for the buffet was darnnn gooodddd

I decided to invest 2 hours of my time to research more about Human Resource Management and see if it is really my area of interest *Deep thoughts mode* once again.

So in HR. There is two path, the Generalist and Specialist. 

Generalist have a broad spectrum of responsibilities: staffing the organization, training and developing employees at all levels, managing a diverse workforce, maintaining a fair and equitable compensation program, developing personnel policies and procedures, planning ways to meet the human resource needs of the future, and ensuring that internal policies and programs conform to all laws that affect the workplace.

Specialist has 5 most common areas of specialistation

1. Workforce Planning and Employment

The work includes implementing the organization’s recruiting strategy, interviewing applicants, administering pre-employment tests, assisting with conducting background investigations, and processing transfers, promotions and terminations.

2. HR Development

The work consists of conducting training sessions, administering on-the-job training programs, evaluating training programs and maintaining necessary records of employee participation in all training and development programs. Such training responsibilities may involve specific fields such as sales techniques or safety programs. Career planning and counseling are becoming increasingly important activities in this field, as are responsibilities for human resource planning and organizational development. 

3. Total Rewards

Responsibilities in compensation include analyzing job duties, writing job descriptions, performing job evaluations and job analysis, and conducting and analyzing compensation surveys. Benefits professionals may develop detailed data analysis of benefits programs, administer benefits plans and monitor benefits costs. They may be responsible for oversight of vendors or partners to whom these functions have been outsourced.

4. Employee and Labor Relations

In union environments, these positions involve interpreting union contracts, helping to negotiate collective bargaining agreements, resolving grievances and advising supervisors on union contract interpretation. In non-union environments, employee relations specialists perform a variety of generalist duties and may also deal with employee grievances, employee involvement or engagement programs and other employee relations work. 

5. Risk Management

Safety specialists’ responsibilities include developing and administering health and safety programs, conducting safety inspections, maintaining accident records, and preparing government reports in order to maintain compliance obligations under the law. Security specialists are responsible for maintaining a secure work facility to protect the organization’s confidential information and property, and the well-being of all employees. Employee assistance program counselors and medical program administrators also work within this function. 

So the question for myself now is, do I want to be a generalist or specialist?

I conclude that I am more into specialist because unpredictability  which occurs more often in generalist makes me very upset. However specialist's market value tend to be more volatile compared to a generalist. sighpie.
To rank my interest of the 5 areas of specialist ( from the most interested to least) , it would be
HR development, Employee and Labor Relations,Workforce Planning and Employment, Total Rewards and Risk Management

Credits, http://www.shrm.org/Communities/StudentPrograms/Pages/careersinHRM.aspx

http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/company-industry-research/pursue-hr-generalist-or-specialist/article.aspx