Human Resources Generalist

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. | Buffalo, NY

Quick Facts

Item

Details

Department

Human Resources

Reports To

Director of Staff Enrichment & Organizational Culture

Location

In-person | Buffalo, NY; supports NLS offices and staff across the service area

Schedule

$55,000-$70,000, depending on experience

About NLS

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. (NLS) is a nonprofit public interest law firm that provides free civil legal services to low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and others facing barriers to stability, safety, and access to justice. Through advocacy, legal advice, representation, and community education, NLS helps clients address urgent civil legal needs involving housing, public benefits, family, disability, and related matters.

With more than 120 staff working across offices in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lockport, and Batavia, NLS is one of the largest providers of civil legal services in Western New York. Our work is carried out by attorneys, paralegals, advocates, support staff, managers, and administrative professionals who share a commitment to fairness, dignity, and meaningful access to justice

For an HR professional, joining NLS means supporting the people who deliver critical civil legal services across Western New York. HR at NLS is not just paperwork; it is part of the infrastructure that helps employees do difficult, mission-centered work with reliable systems, clear communication, and a workplace grounded in fairness, dignity, and respect.

The Opportunity

NLS is seeking a Human Resources Generalist to serve as a 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 communications.

The ideal candidate is organized, detail-oriented, service-minded, and comfortable balancing employee support with compliance, confidentiality, deadlines, and accurate documentation. This role is a strong fit for someone who enjoys practical HR operations and wants meaningful responsibility in a mission-driven nonprofit environment.

What You Will Do

• 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…