Published January 2002

Work-force council selects new president

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

The Workforce Development Council of Snohomish County has a new leader with the recent hiring of June Sekera as President.

Sekera, who replaces Interim President Janet Mandell, took the position in late November.

“Work-force development and economic development have been the two main focuses of my career,” said Sekera, previously the Vice President for Performance Management and Program Development for the Commonwealth Corp., an organization that administers work-force development programs for the state of Massachusetts.

Sekera, who holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard and a bachelor’s in sociology from California State University, said the job opening appealed to her desire to work at the local level.

“I wanted to get closer to where the rubber hits the road,” said Sekera, who also has worked for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. “It seemed like it would be interesting, and I could do some things that it’s much more difficult to do when you are further removed at the state or federal level.”

As president of the council, Sekera heads an agency responsible for all local planning under the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which consolidated 70 different federal employment and training programs into a single work-force development system. With a board composed of representatives of local business, labor, education, and public and nonprofit agencies, as well as elected officials, the council is responsible for designing a work-force development plan for the county, certifying and setting standards for work-force training providers and overseeing the operation of county WorkSource centers.

With her bags barely unpacked at her Mukilteo residence, Sekera already has outlined a few of the council’s goals, which take into account an economy in recession.

They are:

n Continue to provide service for employers that have skill shortages. And there are shortages, Sekera said, particularly in health care and the information technology industry. It’s the council’s job to “be aware where skill shortages are and help fill them,” she said.

n Help employers and employees during this economic downturn, whether that means retraining, added training or directing employers to government programs that can provide assistance.

One program that has caught her attention is the state’s Shared Work Program. The program, which is designed to help employers keep their skilled workers during periods of temporary business slowdowns, enables the employer to reduce the hours of affected workers by an agreed-upon percentage without laying anyone off, according to the state. The affected workers are then paid a percentage of their Unemployment Insurance benefits that corresponds to the percentage of the reduction of their work hours.

“It’s a really great opportunity,” Sekera said, noting that the program helps employers to save money and time by not having to recruit, hire and train new employees when the economy turns around. About 300 active employers in the state are using the program, she said, but a lot more could benefit from it.

And she’d like to get the word out, she said, and would be happy to organize an informational meeting for interested area businesses.

For more information on the Shared Work Program, call the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council at 425-921-3423 or visit The Employment Security Department’s Web site, www.wa.gov/esd, and click on the Employer Information button.

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