HR specialisation boosts career prospects...

Richard Letcher, MD for Profile Search & Selection, explores how a specialist role can give your generalist HR career a major boost.

As a specialist in recruiting HR professionals in Asia, I am often surprised at how many HR generalists I meet who have always been HR generalists, and how few have had stints in HR specialist roles.

Feelings that their career may be stunted or they might get pigeon-holed might be a reason, or simply a lack of interest in performing a compensation & benefits, recruitment or learning & development role. With over 50% of all HR jobs being of a generalist nature, the proliferation of generalist roles might point to practical reasons too. The less time, relatively speaking, employees in Asia spend with organisations may also be a factor, but there is a strong argument for spending some time as part of one¡¦s career really getting to know one or two areas within HR intimately.

Theresa Lui, the HR Director for Hong Kong and China at Knight Frank, is one of the fortunate HR professionals who, earlier on in her career, worked for an organisation which was proactive in moving strong performers between different roles to add to their learning experience. This organisation was Colgate, where Ms Lui worked for 7 years up to 2007, and, sandwiched in the middle of two generalist roles, was a 2 year stint as the Senior Compensation and Benefits (C&B) Manager for Greater China. This gave her an invaluable knowledge base in one of the most technically demanding areas within HR. For Ms Lui, a naturally analytical mind and a pre-existing attention to detail helped but what it gave her was strong technical expertise, which has assisted her enormously in her generalist HR work subsequently. ¡§It is easy as a generalist to waste time on C&B issues as you need time to find out the answer to an issue. As a generalist the line demands that things are done then and there.¡¨ Now she understands the issues and probable solutions to problems and if she needs to approach a C&B specialist she finds she is now speaking the same language.

Leslie Glass, HR Director at JP Morgan based in Singapore, had a similar experience earlier in his career when he worked for Citigroup, the first organisation he worked for upon graduating. Eighteen months in an expatriate management role and 3 years in a C&B role have stayed with him throughout his career. He has since moved on to work in investment banking. ¡§As a generalist supporting a sales and trading population, a quick response is essential and a key success factor is turnaround time. In a front-line generalist role you need to provide quick solutions and the depth I gained in my specialist roles has helped me tremendously.¡¨ Mr Glass added that there is a risk, if you are a generalist, of being a ¡§jack of all trades and master of none¡¨ where it can be a constant uphill battle to find solutions to the barrage of problems one¡¦s internal clientele throws at you on a daily basis. With the four and a half years working in specialist roles, Mr Glass shared that, ¡§It helps to respond immediately to an issue and to be able to speak with confidence.¡¨

Often within an HR department there can be a push and pull between the front-facing generalists and the specialists. Ms Lui¡¦s Colgate experience has given her an insight into this and helped her ¡§see the different perspective of generalists and specialists.¡¨ As an example Ms Lui mentioned that, ¡§C&B is more aligned to the company¡¦s bottom line but generalists are closer to employee interests, so I had to learn how to strike a balance.¡¨ This has helped Ms Lui in subsequent roles where there can be similar issues faced.

Mr Glass added that his experiences have, ¡§sometimes helped me give direction to specialists¡¨ as he is able to see the business and line objectives but also read from the same page when working with specialists, to get to a particular solution.

Both Ms Lui and Mr Glass found their specialist roles a little more removed from line. As Mr Glass put it, ¡§You can be more remote from the business as a specialist, and often your client is in fact a eneralist.¡¨ Sometimes, as a result, the generalist ends up getting more of the credit and limelight. Although as Ms Lui points out, working in a C&B role gave her a very good understanding of how salary costs (a large expense for any organisation) are managed from a top down, strategic perspective.

A plus point both found was that specialist roles were less reactive compared to generalist roles which can involve, according to Mr Glass ¡§fire fighting constantly.¡¨ More time to think, and to plan and manage one¡¦s time was refreshing. Ms Lui said, ¡§C&B is definitely more project based. I could close my door and do some long term strategy work more easily than in a generalist role.¡¨ She added that she felt, ¡§It was far easier to KPI a C&B job, so it was more rewarding in a way, as your performance could be measured.¡¨

If your goal is to return to a generalist role, staying too long in a specialist role can be risky as you might start to be pigeon-holed as a training person or a recruiter. A strong track record as a generalist before going into a specialist role can ensure that this doesn¡¦t happen as well as a boss or mentor who can make sure that you are looked after in terms of your next generalist posting.

There is a chance of course that you find your calling in life through doing a specialist role and your desire to return to a generalist role quickly disappears, which is a win-win situation for the organisation you work for and yourself.

The bottom line is that it isn¡¦t easy to find an organisation which makes a move to a specialist role and back easy ¡V this tends to come from working for a large organisation and to stick with that organisation. It is tough to move organisation and change to a specialist role at the same time. With the ongoing growth of organisations in Asia, which will result in the creation of more opportunities internally, and the need to retain high performing HR staff these invaluable and enriching learning experiences will hopefully become more common.