Sr. Human Resource Generalist

Sr. Human Resource Generalist

Become part of an inclusive organization with over 40,000 teammates, whose mission is to improve the health and well-being of the unique communities we serve.

Human Resources at UNC Health Lenoir is a vibrant hub of energy, encouragement, and possibility. We show up each day with intention—celebrating the wins and creating uplifting experiences for every candidate and team member we encounter. Our work sparks confidence, strengthens teams, and helps keep caregivers focused on delivering exceptional patient care without exception. At the heart of our mission is a deep commitment to fostering a culture built on respect, diversity, inclusion, and growth.

We strive to ensure every individual feels valued, supported, and empowered to become who they aspire to be. With enthusiasm as our signature and compassion as our compass, we nurture greatness, honor every voice, and help create a workplace where people feel inspired to bring their best every single.

Summary: Provides Human Resources support, partnering with leaders and employees to strengthen engagement, drive culture shift initiatives, and ensure consistent employee relations practices across departments and shifts. Serves as a trusted advisor to frontline leaders, conducts complex investigations, coordinates HRIS program development and administration, transactions, data reporting & analysis, and provides support for off-shift workforce needs. This position also plays a key role in development and retention of key talents including a variety of activities related to onboarding, welcoming, engaging, developing, and overall candidate and employee experience. Serves as a local resource to employees, supervisors, and managers to ensure compliance with employment law and regulatory compliance.

Responsibilities:

• Employee relations, engagement, culture shift & retention: Serve as a trusted employee relations partner dedicated to enhancing workplace culture, improving engagement, and supporting retention. Conduct intentional employee rounding, stay interviews, and pulse checks to gather meaningful feedback, identify themes, assess areas of risk or opportunity, and recommend practical actions that strengthen connection, improve the employee experience, and support retention of talent.
• Investigations and complex employee relations matters: Lead timely, objective, and well-documented investigations involving policy concerns, workplace conduct, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, patient-safety-related conduct issues, disruptive behavior, and other sensitive employee relations matters. Gather and evaluate relevant information, interview involved parties, assess credibility and severity, identify policy or practice implications, maintain confidentiality, and partner with leadership to determine appropriate, fair, and consistent action.
• Collaboration and stakeholder partnership: Work closely with leaders to resolve issues and deliver consistent service.
• HRIS & data stewardship: Enter, audit, and approve HRIS transactions, maintain data integrity; generate and interpret HR metrics and determine actions needed for improvement, support system testing, upgrades, and end-user troubleshooting.
• Policy and practice implementation: Support rollout and adherence to HR and operational policies; develop job aids and manager resources; participate in audits and process improvement initiatives.
• Training and coaching: Deliver or facilitate leader and employee education on core HR topics (respectful workplace, documentation, interviews-both candidate and investigations, coaching conversations, progressive discipline, engagement and culture practices).
• Licensure, certification, and compliance tracking: Verify the validity of licenses and certifications, coordinating with relevant licensing bodies as needed; conduct periodic audits to ensure credentials remain current and compliant; partner with leaders to implement suspension of duties for teammates out of compliance and remove suspensions when licenses are updated and compliance is restored; ensure timely documentation and communication.
• Employee recognition, engagement programs, and events: Spearhead employee recognition and engagement committees; plan and manage volunteer opportunities and engagement/recognition events (including scheduling to maximize participation for non-traditional hours); coordinate food trucks and other vendors; manage distribution and purchasing of engagement-related goods
• Talent acquisition & onboarding: Provide end-to-end talent acquisition support for employee and contract roles as applicable, including sourcing/candidate outreach, screening, interview coordination, selection support, pre-employment screening coordination, credential/eligibility verification, and candidate communication/follow-up to ensure timely, compliant hires. Manage end-to-end onboarding logistics for new hires ie. scheduling, notifications, onboarding presentations/materials, agenda, etc.
• Off-shift support & coverage: Provide HR presence and responsive support for evenings/nights/weekends and other non-traditional schedules assigned.; support urgent employee relations matters, staffing escalations, and leadership requests; coordinate handoffs to ensure continuity across shifts.
• Benefits, leave administration, and retirement plan administration: Serve as the primary HR resource for designated benefits and leave functions, including continuous communication with employees before, during, and after leave; guide employees and leaders through FMLA, ADA interactive process coordination, medical restrictions, return-to-work planning, leave extensions, and leave exhaustion processes; ensure timely documentation, escalation, and compliance with applicable policies, laws, and procedures. Administer and coordinate retirement benefit processes including 401(k), 457(b), deferrals, loans, retirement-related employee inquiries, plan audits, Form 5500 support, annual compliance activities, vendor coordination, and accurate recordkeeping.
• Additional HR support as needed: Provide flexible support across Human Resources and hospital operations as needs arise, general departmental coverage, special projects, program coordination, and front office coverage to ensure continuity of service.

Other information: EDUCATION

Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Healthcare Administration, or related field required; equivalent combination of education and directly related Human Resources experience may be considered, ie. directly related experience and advanced HR, benefits, or leave administration coursework and/or certification.

EXPERIENCE

Minimum of five years of progressively responsible Human Resources experience required, with strong demonstrated experience in employee relations, workplace investigations, policy interpretation, coaching leaders, documentation, culture and engagement strategies, retention-focused practices, leave administration, ADA interactive process support, and benefits or retirement plan administration. Healthcare HR experience and experience supporting leaders in a complex, highly regulated environment are strongly preferred.

LICENSURE/REGISTRATION/CERTIFICATION

Professional certification such as SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, CEBS, or other relevant HR/benefits certification preferred.

OTHER SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Advanced written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex employee relations, HR, leave, ADA, and retirement benefit matters clearly and compassionately to employees and leaders. Strong investigation, interviewing, documentation, critical thinking, discretion, judgment, follow-through, conflict resolution, data analysis, employee rounding, pulse check facilitation, action planning, customer service, and project management skills required. Proficiency with Microsoft Office, HRIS platforms, benefits systems, reporting tools, audits, compliance tracking, and process improvement practices expected.