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| Judy Smith, far right, leads the Human Resources staff of Steven Alvey, Angie Thompson, Leslie Morris, Diane Shumate, Allyson Hummel, Caroline Davis and Tracy Schneider. |
For the first time since 2010, the City of Gastonia has a full-time Human Resources director. Judy Smith was promoted in August from assistant director to the top job. Deputy City Manager Todd Carpenter had also acted as Human Resources director during several years of organizational change and transition. Carpenter says the hiring of a full-time HR director is good for employees and the City as a whole. “A department head fully dedicated to all things HR means total focus on continuous improvement in our service delivery and engagement of our employees,” he says.
HR will continue to handle employee-related issues like compensation, health insurance, retirement benefits and safety. In addition, Smith says HR will now be responsible for employee training and development. Her department is already creating a program focused on developing leaders. “This will be for employees who are interested in moving up through the ranks,” Smith says. Specifics are still being determined, but the leadership program might be offered twice a year.
Smith says other types of training and development are still being explored, ranging from Microsoft Excel courses for interested employees to classes for supervisors covering City employment policies, the disciplinary process or conducting interviews.
Steven Alvey was promoted to assistant director of HR and will oversee the training and development initiatives while continuing to perform risk-management responsibilities.
Smith says HR also plans to do more recruiting. “We want to go into the schools, especially for less-technical jobs that don’t require degrees, so we can get those people before they go into the workplace,” Smith says. Tracy Schneider will lead the recruiting and onboarding efforts.
“Our goal is to be a resource for employees,” Smith says. “Health insurance, day-to-day questions about payroll, the Wellness program, we’ll keep doing the core stuff. But HR is expanding and that’s exciting.”
Smith says human resources in municipal government is different than HR in many businesses, in part because the City provides a range of services and requires employees with an extraordinarily wide variety of skills. “It’s like running numerous different companies under one umbrella,” she says. “That’s what makes it so intriguing and exciting.”
Carpenter agrees. “HR, in some way, touches every City employee and plays a strategic role in managing people and our workplace culture and objectives,” he says, adding that Smith is a great choice for HR director because she’s worked in that City department for 29 years. “Judy’s knowledge of all aspects of HR is unmatched in the City,” he says. “She has proven herself as a leader with passion for the City, her employees and her department.”