HR Operations Generalist — Mission-Driven Nonprofit

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc.; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 55,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. in Buffalo, NY seeks a Human Resources Generalist to serve as the primary HR operations owner across the employee lifecycle.

This is a true Generalist role for someone who is ready to manage core HR workflows with independence after ramp-up, including leave administration, recruitment administration, onboarding and offboarding coordination, HRIS/ADP maintenance, standard reporting, routine benefits/vendor support, payroll coordination, and employee

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in human resources, business, organizational development, public administration, or a related field required.
• Minimum of two years of full-time Human Resources experience required, preferably in HR generalist, HR operations, benefits, recruitment, payroll coordination, HRIS, leave administration, or employee lifecycle work.
• Hands-on experience with lifecycle recruitment administration and employee orientation/onboarding processes.
• Hands-on experience with leave administration, benefits/vendor coordination, HR reporting, recruitment administration, onboarding/offboarding, or payroll coordination.
• Experience using, maintaining, and reviewing HRIS/payroll or employee-record systems; ADP experience preferred.
• Working knowledge of federal and New York State employment and leave concepts, including FMLA, New York Paid Family Leave, New York disability benefits, wage/hour concepts, employee records, and confidentiality requirements.
• Ability to independently calculate leave-related time, pay impacts, PTO offsets/differentials, benefit-premium impacts, and other routine HR/payroll coordination items after training on NLS-specific procedures.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft clear, professional employee and candidate communications.
• Demonstrated organization, attention to detail, critical thinking, analytical ability, and ability to manage multiple assignments and deadlines.
• Ability to interpret and apply policies, checklists, benefit/vendor guidance, CBA provisions, and HR procedures to routine matters, while recognizing when escalation is required.
• Comfort using Microsoft Office, Excel, Outlook, Teams, shared-document platforms, and HRIS/reporting tools.
• Commitment to fairness, respect, cultural humility, public service, and access to justice.

Responsibilities

• Employee support: Serve as a primary HR point of contact for employee and supervisor questions related to benefits, leave, ADP/timekeeping, time off, onboarding, employment processes, and general HR procedures.
• HR inbox and follow-through: Monitor the HR inbox, identify urgency, respond within approved guidance, route items when needed, and track follow-up through completion.
• Leave administration: Manage routine leave administration after ramp-up, including leave intake, date tracking, documentation, vendor/payroll/benefits coordination, and employee follow-up.
• Leave/pay calculations: Calculate leave-related time and compensation, including PTO usage, paid/unpaid leave periods, pay differentials, benefit premium impacts, and payroll-log updates.
• Benefits and vendor support: Respond to routine benefits questions and assist with vendor-access issues such as HRA/FSA, medical, dental, vision, enrollment, and related troubleshooting. Assist with open enrollment coordination.
• Recruitment and hiring: Coordinate the recruitment and hiring lifecycle, including job postings, external vendor posting, candidate communications, interview scheduling, reference checks, job-fair participation as assigned, offer letters, hiring documentation, and handoff to onboarding.
• Onboarding and employee lifecycle coordination: Coordinate operational onboarding steps, new hire paperwork, HR onboarding components, IT/system access notices, payroll/ADP steps, benefit enrollment information, and supervisor communications.
• Offboarding administration: Coordinate routine separation/offboarding steps, including separation paperwork , benefits/COBRA-related forms, ADP status updates, payroll coordination, IT offboarding notices, and supervisor checklists.
• ADP/HRIS and reporting : Serve as the primary HR-side user for routine ADP/HRIS employee data, records, reports, and updates; run and review standard HR reports; validate employee lists, finance/grant data, ACA-related information, census reports, and other recurring HR data requests.
• Process reliability: Use checklists, templates, SOPs, and source documents to ensure accuracy, consistency, confidentiality, andtimelyfollow-through, while helping identify process gaps.
• Escalation and judgment: Independently handle routine matters and elevate unusual, high-risk, legally complex, or policy-sensitive issues to HR leadership when appropriate.

Skills

HR operations

Recruitment administration

Onboarding/offboarding

Benefits/vendor coordination

Payroll coordination

HR reporting

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR or related field

Tools

ADP

HRIS

Job description

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. in Buffalo, NY seeks a Human Resources Generalist to serve as the primary HR operations owner across the employee lifecycle.

This is a true Generalist role for someone who is ready to manage core HR workflows with independence after ramp-up, including leave administration, recruitment administration, onboarding and offboarding coordination, HRIS/ADP maintenance, standard reporting, routine benefits/vendor support, payroll coordination, and employee