Human Resources Generalist, Operations & Benefits

Position Title: HR Generalist, Operations & Benefits

Reports to: Senior Director, Human Resources

Location: Washington, D.C. | Hybrid (in-office Tue,Wed,Thur)

Role Type: Full-time, hands-on individual contributor

BACKGROUND

The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) is the union for professional football players in the National Football League, formed in 1956. The union allows players to stand together to protect their health, rights, and families. The current CBA brought new gains to our members, including an increased share in revenue, expanded roster sizes, a sizable bump in minimum salaries, health & safety advances, rookie contract bonuses, and more. The NFLPA works from the bottom-up. All power and authority to do anything in the NFLPA comes from the Board of Reps who are elected by the player members.

SUMMARY

The HR Generalist, Operations & Benefits provides hands-on operational continuity for a three-person HR function supporting approximately 150 employees. The role personally completes and controls high-volume HR operations; responds to employees and managers; maintains accurate, timely records across HRIS, payroll, benefits, vendors, and personnel files; and provides reliable backup when another HR team member is absent. The role identifies aging work, reconciles discrepancies, documents procedures, and escalates exceptions before service or compliance failures occur.

This is a peer operating role with the Senior HR Manager, with no assumed supervisory authority. The role executes approved policy and routine transactions and promptly escalates exceptions, legal interpretation, sensitive employee relations, security matters, and material pay decisions. The working title may be adjusted, but the required capability is an experienced HR operations generalist—not an entry-level coordinator.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Benefits & retirement operations (20%; advanced): Process enrollments and qualifying-life events; validate evidence and carrier confirmation; resolve employee and vendor issues; reconcile eligibility, deductions, invoices, and plan records; coordinate notices and education.

• Leave & accommodation coordination (15%; advanced): Open, track, and close leave cases; manage notices, certifications, payroll coding, benefit continuation, return-to-work actions, and routine accommodation workflow; escalate legal or judgment-intensive matters.
• HRIS, data & records (15%; advanced): Maintain employee data, workflows, interfaces, release testing, issue logs, personnel records, access evidence, retention schedules, and data integrity; produce auditable transaction support.
• Payroll inputs & reconciliations (10%; advanced): Validate employee setup and approved changes; prepare and reconcile payroll inputs, deductions, benefit feeds, adjustments, and exception reports; coordinate corrections and retain evidence.
• Employee & manager service (15%; intermediate–advanced): Own assigned intake requests; answer routine policy and service questions; communicate status and deadlines; triage sensitive issues; document handoffs and close the loop with employees and managers.
• Vendor administration (10%; advanced): Manage contacts, onboarding, service levels, invoices, data feeds, renewals, issue escalation, and performance follow-up for assigned HR vendors.
• Compliance & policy follow-up (10%; intermediate–advanced): Maintain calendars and evidence; compile, validate, file, and retain assigned reports; track acknowledgments and training; monitor overdue actions; support policy and procedure implementation.
• Continuity, controls & improvement (5%; advanced): Maintain desk procedures and cross-training; provide absence and peak-cycle coverage; reconcile systems; support independent review; track workload, aging, errors, root causes, and corrective actions.

NON-NEGOTIABLE CONTINUITY EXPECTATIONS

• Maintain current desk procedures, calendars, access instructions, contact lists, and backup checklists for assigned processes.

• Serve as trained primary or backup owner for every assigned critical process; assume routine benefits, leave, HRIS, reconciliation, vendor, and employee-service work during unexpected absences and peak cycles.
• Review the HR intake queue and deadline calendar each business day; assign an owner, prioritize, and escalate overdue or sensitive items.
• Reconcile material employee and deduction changes across HRIS, payroll, benefits, and personnel records; preserve evidence for review.
• Escalate exceptions immediately—never silently improvise on legal interpretation, privacy/security, payroll fraud indicators, employee relations, or material pay decisions.
• Cross-train reciprocally with the Senior HR Manager and conduct periodic backup-readiness tests before peak cycles and planned leave.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Five or more years of progressive, hands-on HR operations/generalist experience.

• Demonstrated ownership of benefits and leave administration, HRIS transactions, reconciliations, employee service, and vendor follow-up.
• Experience working across payroll, benefits, and HRIS data with strong attention to accuracy, deadlines, confidentiality, and evidence retention.
• Ability to interpret established policies, explain routine requirements, recognize exceptions, and escalate appropriately.
• Strong case, queue, calendar, and workload management; able to maintain service during absences and peak cycles.
• Clear written and verbal communication with employees, managers, vendors, Finance, Payroll, Legal, and IT.
• Proficiency with HRIS, payroll/benefits platforms, spreadsheets, reporting, and secure document management.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience preferred.
• SHRM-CP, PHR, CEBS, leave, benefits, payroll, or related credential preferred.
• Multi-state benefits, leave, payroll, or employment-compliance experience preferred.
• Experience with ADP or comparable HRIS/payroll platforms, carrier feeds, system testing, and implementation preferred.
• Experience documenting procedures, building service metrics, performing reconciliations, and supporting audits preferred.
• Experience in a small HR team where roles require broad ownership and reciprocal backup preferred.
• Exposure to retirement-plan administration, accommodations, policy rollout, and employee education preferred.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Operational ownership: Personally drives work to completion; does not rely on senior leaders for routine follow-up.

• Accuracy & control discipline: Validates source documents, reconciles systems, retains evidence, and surfaces discrepancies.
• Service orientation: Responds promptly, communicates status, and provides clear, respectful employee support.
• Judgment & escalation: Distinguishes routine execution from exceptions requiring senior, Legal, Finance, Payroll, IT, or specialist authority.
• Continuity mindset: Documents work, cross-trains, shares knowledge, and can provide reliable backup without avoidable disruption.
• Prioritization & resilience: Manages competing deadlines, peak cycles, absences, and urgent requests without losing control of routine obligations.

FIRST-YEAR SUCCESS MEASURES

• Critical-process backup coverage: 100% of assigned critical processes have a trained backup, current procedure, deadline calendar, and secure continuity-access plan.
• Employee-service responsiveness: New requests acknowledged within one (1) business day; priority and owner recorded; aging reviewed weekly.
• Transaction timeliness: At least 95% of assigned benefits, leave, payroll-input, HRIS, and vendor actions completed by the applicable deadline.
• Reconciliation and data quality: Monthly reconciliations completed on schedule; material discrepancies documented, escalated, corrected, and closed.
• Compliance follow-up: 100% of assigned required filings, notices, acknowledgments, and evidence packages completed by deadline or escalated before due date.
• Procedure maturity: All assigned core workflows documented and tested within 90 days; reviewed at least annually and after material change.
• Continuity performance: Routine service continues during planned and unplanned absences without missed critical deadlines attributable to undocumented ownership or inaccessible information.