‘Customer friendly' Gloria Blake takes charge as city's newest HR director

As the newest Human Resources director for the Kinston city government, Gloria Blake is working to make her department much more “customer-friendly” for municipal employees.

“I want to always be (in) that customer-friendly group of faces (at City Hall),” she said Friday.

She said she wanted to shake the reputation that the field of human resources is only about disciplining employees, and focus the mission of the city’s HR department on meeting the needs of its customers — current and former employees, retirees and prospective employees.

Blake is a native of Martin County who has worked for the city for 24 years. She was hired in 1986 as a safety and training officer with the HR department.

She eventually became the risk manager, in charge of the city’s major vehicle, property and other insurance policies. Blake held that position until early August, when she was promoted to HR director.

“We’ve known her for a long time,” City Manager Scott Stevens said. “She certainly has been around a lot of what goes on in Human Resources; she knows our employees, she’s very loyal to the city and tries to make sure we’re doing the best we can for our employees and trying to follow the laws related to employment.”

Blake said she was at a point in her career where she was ready to make a transition and applied for the job this summer in the wake of former director Tony Jordan’s departure.

“I think I was ready for the move, not that I was dissatisfied in what I had been doing,” she explained.

Blake has spent the past few weeks working with her staff to revise old city employee policies to where they are more “customer-friendly,” plus supervising further staff training and working to develop an online system in which new employees can register for benefits.

“When you’re used to dealing with one aspect of human resources, adding in the parts that deal with current employees, retirees, your past employees and prospective employees, that’s a new realm, and you have to switch gears,” she said.

Blake and her husband Chuck — who she met while studying for her bachelor’s in political science at ECU — live in Lenoir County with their two children, Robert, age 13 and Bailey, age 10.

“She’s just a very pleasant person to work with, and take on new tasks and challenges,” Stevens said.

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.

Meet Me Monday:

Gloria Blake:

• New Kinston HR director
• Worked for city 24 years
• Native of Martin County
• Education: B.A., political science, ECU, 1984; some Master’s in Public Administration coursework
• Family: Husband Chuck; son Robert, daughter Bailey