Spotlight: Dale Peinecke

Snohomish County Workforce Development Council Chair

President and CEO, Giddens Industries

Dale Peinecke, President of Giddens Industries, was recently elected to Chair the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council (WDC). Dale is replacing Deborah Knutson, President of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, who served as Interim Chair since early this summer. I sat down with Dale in his office at Giddens Industries to talk about his background and his goals and vision for the Council over his two year term.

Heather Villars: Tell me a bit about Giddens Industries.

Dale Peinecke: When you think Giddens you think aircraft fuselage. Giddens' manufacturing focus is large, complex machined and sheet metal parts and subassemblies. The predominant part of our work is in fuselages, as opposed to wings or tails.

HV: Is Giddens experiencing the workforce shortages currently seen in the aerospace industry locally?

DP: We have been short about ten or twelve people for the last year. We need machinists, sheet metal workers, bench people, and assemblers.

HV: I know that you began serving on the Workforce Development Council this past summer. How did you hear about the Council? Who recruited you to join?

DP: For a number of months and in a number of different public venues I've talked about workforce shortages, training shortages, and disconnects among education and training programs.

Giddens is the third company I've run in this area, and in ten years the biggest limiting factor to growth has been a trained and available workforce. I've talked publicly about this a number of times.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon was looking for additional appointees to the Workforce Development Council and, given my presence in the aerospace community and my views on workforce development, I probably seemed like a natural addition to the Council.

HV: Tell me about the transition from being a new Council member to being chosen to serve as Chair.

DP: I joined the Council three months ago. If I'm going to participate in something I like to see results. I don't just like to come to meetings. So over the course of the first couple months I was on the Council, I started talking to people involved about my feelings that the Council needed to be reenergized and needed to get moving in a new direction. Through these conversations, I became interested in taking a leadership position to become part of this positive change.

HV: As the new Council Chair, what are your main priorities?

DP: First priority is developing an overall strategy. Second priority is governance.

HV: What does governance mean to you?

DP: Governance is ensuring that the company is, in effect, following the strategy outlined by the Board, and providing guidance and recommendations on how better to operate the company. Governance takes place when Board Committees become active in overseeing what the company is doing and providing guidance and input to help improve the company's performance.

HV: Do you believe in running a non-profit company like a for-profit company?

DP: Yes. I believe in running a non-profit like a for-profit because I think the principles of getting things done are the same. The product is different, the accounting is a little different, the constituencies are a little different, but at the end of the day, people want to be successful in their jobs whether they're working at a for-profit or a non-profit company. To be successful in their jobs people need clear leadership and clear direction.

HV: What do you see as the WDC's greatest challenge?

DP: The WDC needs to recreate or reinvent itself. It can do valuable things for Snohomish County. Its reputation is maybe a little sullied, I don't know. If I look to the community, if I look to the Board, if I look to what people say about the WDC right now it's: “Who are they?” or “What do they do?” They don't even get to the question of “Are they good at what they do?”

So that takes me back to the first priorit: developing an overall strategy. We need to get strategy and direction. We need to get staff of the company reengaged in doing what we do, and doing it well.

HV: What do you see as the WDC's greatest strength?

DP: The WDC's greatest strength is that there is in fact a genuine need for the product and services provided by the WDC. The WDC is constructed of a diverse group of people and there is a lot of power that can come out of the synergy of that diverse group of people to accomplish the end goals. So that's the exciting thing. Given all that, the WDC can be a success.

HV: If money and time were no option, what would your perfect WDC look like? What would its role be in the business community and in the greater community?

DP: WDC is much bigger and broader than unemployment. I recently looked at the strategy outlined by the Snohomish County Economic Development Council (EDC).  They have a goal to create 5,000 jobs, 75% of which will be created within targeted markets at family wages over the next number of years.

If there are going to be 5,000 new jobs in Snohomish County—if the EDC is going to bring businesses in targeted industries to our county that have 5,000 new, high-paying jobs requiring specific skills— then Workforce Development strategy ultimately ought to be: How are we, over a number of years, creating the kind of workforce that's going to support the goals of Economic Development in terms of business growth? I'm thinking we need shared vision, shared strategy, and a shared action plan.

If I think about a vision for the WDC beyond getting a strategy in place and starting to get recognition for the good things WDC does in the community again, I think the question we really need to answer is: Over the next decade, how are we going to create the workforce piece of the engine that powers economic growth in Snohomish County?

HV: Yes, and my bigger question is how do we get people to see that we're looking to the future, so it's not just that we're getting people jobs today, but how do we become the people in the public's mind who are looking toward the future with economic development to prepare a new workforce. I often hear that WorkSource is still seen as the old unemployment line, as a reactive entity instead of a proactive entity working to ensure our county is a good place to do business and a good place to live. I don't think we're seen as a forward-thinking agency.

DP: Exactly and to build on that—I talked about this at the last Council meeting. Right now I'd challenge any of the Board members to be able to describe in 15 seconds or 50 words, “What is WDC? What's it all about? And why should you pay attention to it?”

So, first we need to know who we are, and secondly, we need to start communicating that message effectively. Then, we need to follow the message up with really positive measurable actions. People will then see the value of what the WDC does in our county, and they'll feel that Snohomish County is a great place to live and work because of the dynamic and effective partnership between workforce and economic development.