10 Must-Have Skills For Every HR Generalist

Modern HR is equally challenging and empowering compared to clerical HR from

yesteryears. 

For instance, HRs have greater expectations today to encourage their valuable employees to
engage actively. Therefore, another skill HR generalists have to add to their portfolio is to be
able to communicate with their teams effectively. 

Beyond that, there are top 10 HR generalist skills every firm must know before
implementing or developing the same. 

These 10 Must-Have Skills For Every HR Generalist Are:

Multitasking

HRs have to learn to manage multiple tasks at once. For that, they have to honour a calm
and composed mindset. Otherwise, they take help from an intuitive and automated HRMS
tool, uKnowva. 

With this tool, their multitasking speeds up. Mundane tasks are no longer time-consuming.
Rather, these are completed on time. 

Effective communication

HR generalist key skills basket is incomplete without effective communication. After all, HRs
are deemed the first point of contact for candidates and employees to bridge the gap
between the management. 

Thus, they have to learn the core seven principles of communication like clarity,
conciseness, completeness, etc. Effective communication ensures to hire, develop, manage,
and engage employees proactively in the organisation. 

Technology buffs

New-age HRs must learn to be tech-savvy or get instant inspiration from new-gen HRMS like
uKnowva. This SaaS helps sharpen HR generalist abilities to become more tech-savvy than
before. 

That is possible because the tool is easy, configurable, personalised, and guarantees an
unexpected server uptime rate. 

Coaching habit

Must-have skills for every HR generalist must include the ability to coach, mentor, and
guide their employees. This nature of HRs in a company smoothens new employees'
transition in the company. 

Besides that, employees trust such HRs more. They know they can talk about their work-
related issues with an HR person who helps them find solutions. In addition, such quality in
an HR generalist improves the internal branding and image in front of different teams and
super seniors. 
Therefore, coaching employees should be an integral part of HR activities and skills. This
way, employees know that they have one mentor to count onto whenever they’re stuck in
the firm.

Coaching can improve employee retention, engagement, and reskilling rates for a company.
That’s because persuasion and clarity in thought are two important factors that make a
coaching attitude effective and goal-oriented. 

Leadership qualities:

Employers and employees seek advice and guidance from HRs often. It is mostly related to
managing their data and how to perform certain admin tasks in the HRMS. Then, employees
come up to HRs to solve internal conflicts with teams and their seniors. 

At this rate, HRs need to embrace a mindset that is not condescending. Rather, HR
generalist skills should be close to being a true leader. The one who motivates, actively
listens to their workforce, and finds solutions headed to a particular action in tandem with
company policy. 

When HRs lead their workforce to growth, welcoming an entrepreneurial mindset in

everyone, the company internally strengthens. 

Employees work dutifully because they know what is expected from them in a given week or
month. Plus, HR leaders are there to back them up to charge their motivational levels when
in need. 

Planning:

Must-have skills for every HR generalist also include a productive planning skillset. HRs
have to plan for the future hiring schedule, improvement in employee engagement, and
retention rates. 

They also plan to introduce eLMS programs in the company. Using those modules,
employees get to upgrade themselves without having to shift. 

Besides that, HRs continue to plan how to manage their staff so that they feel connected
and important throughout their tenure. This planning is incomplete without regular surveys,
feedback forums, discussions, and team-building activities. 

Again, those tasks fall under HR activities ensuring that the chosen company is fun to work
at for new and existing hires. Only then can employees realise that they have a unique value
in the company and C-level management recognises it on time. 

Coordination

HR generalist abilities must also include how HRs interact, express, and coordinate with
departments and employees of a firm. 

After all, HR generalists are the bridges between management and the staff. The latter could
be from any department or functional unit of the company. 
So, HRs have to learn to maintain a rapport with every employee, despite their designation
or location of work. Then, with continuous and smooth coordination, HRs can assist the
company in removing roadblocks. 

These include the reduction of misunderstanding and ambiguity between teams and
departments. If that is successful, teams achieve their goals fast and more productively –
despite their assigned departments. 

Additionally, empowering coordination between departments nurtured by HRs helps build a

harmonised company culture. 

Employees would look forward to working in such a culture where teams:

● Respect each other, 

● Are good listeners, and 

● Take required actions to complete deliverables on time. 

Negotiation capabilities

Negotiation and persuasion capabilities come under ten must-have skills for every HR
generalist. There is a strong reason for that. 

HR generalists deal with multiple employees and other company stakeholders daily. 

That means there is a higher scope of coming across conflicts – external or internal to the
firm. In that case, HRs have to act smart and find feasible solutions in the purview of the
company’s budget and policy. 

They must know when to say “No” or “Yes” to certain actions, suggestions, ideas, or
discussions offered to them. 

Additionally, they must have a witty, intellectual, and creative mind to ease the tensions
between two employees or more. That’s especially when conflicts arise without an
immediate solution in their minds. 

However, with their negotiation and persuasion skills, HRs can bring more synergy and
harmony between teams or overall organisation. 

Moreover, they could turn around even the worst situations like increased
absenteeism/attrition rate. But, they must know what would make a top-performer stay – if
their cost is what the company can still afford. 

Empathy:

HRs are expected to understand everyone’s perspective in the organisation as the first point
of contact for hires. That’s why must-have skills for every HR generalist include being an
intellectual empath. 

With that skill, HRs know what actions or suggestions can cause trouble between
management and employees. They honour the skill to actively and proactively listen to C-
level executives and the employees they hire or manage. 
Afterwards, they have to use their other skills like effective communication, technological
front, persuasion, and negotiation. Because only then can they direct and convince one
employee or team toward a particular goal to resolve conflicts and queries on time. 

And being an empath makes HRs more favourable to their employees and organisations.
Because then they know how to come up with solutions that foster a feeling of being
valued, listened to, and respected. 

Again, this notion sets a stronger company culture and internal brand value in motion that
improves retention rate over a period.

Learning capabilities

Modern HR generalist skills should also include a learning mindset. Because in a growing
company, trends keep changing. There will be new demands for skill set, talent, and
technologies now and then. 

Amidst that, HRs need to be agile and adaptive to learning new ways to acquire, manage,
engage, and develop their workforce. 

Because with that attitude, they won’t feel stuck at a bottleneck. Rather, HRs with a learning
mindset often find ideal solutions that help resolve altercations on time without costing the
company its available resources.

Conclusion:

Modern HR skill set never stops at a list. It keeps growing. But with ten must-have skills for
every HR generalist listed in this blog, you get a fair estimation. From there on, you can
empower your HR professionals to set benchmarks and achieve their targets regularly.