By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – It’s been a little over 3 years since the McKinley Paper mill reopened, and today they are operating at full steam. They’ve grown from 24 employees to over 200 employees today. We spoke with Human Resources Director Peter Johnson on Friday.
“For the past six months we’ve been making profits. And it’s been a team effort, and everyone has worked together, working some long hours to make this a viable operation, both part of the team and our local support network, including the college.”
By “college”, of course, he means Peninsula College in Port Angeles. Johnson says a couple of major grants provided by the non-profit Impact Washington were instrumental in training those 24 original employees and in up-skilling his workforce along the way for advancement within the company.
He has Peninsula College’s Associate Dean for Workforce Programs, Brian Kneidl, to thank for procuring those grants. The latest grant to come in is a $200,000 Job Skills Program Grant which will allow the mill to reduce the time needed to train entry-level employees and decrease turnover rates. Kneidl says the program, when it’s done right, creates a kind of snowball effect that is beneficial to the whole community.
“What the JSP Grant is doing, is providing them some space to create good onboarding processes, and help upskill their current employees to make room for new employees to move in. So, somebody that’s been working at the mill for a few years can get some training and move on up to another position. And that makes room for incoming employees, and helps out the whole community.”
Peter Johnson says the mill is doing great but they are still looking for the right people to join the team.
“Well, we definitely need more people. And if there’s anyone in your audience who wants a great career with outstanding benefits and pay, have them report to our office.”
And Kneidl says the funding and training program is not meant to benefit just the mill. He says there is plenty of room for other businesses to partner with the college and become the next success story.
“I would love to hear from other employers. I’m hoping somebody else will hear this story about what we’ve done with McKinley and reach out to us. This JSP Grant, it’s an ongoing grant that runs throughout the year, and there’s different rounds that we can apply for. So if employers have a training need that they want to see met, I’m hoping that they can contact us and we can definitely apply for these. I enjoy doing these, and I would really love to get ahold of a few other employers that might be interested in doing this kind of work with the college.
Contact Brian Kneidl at bkneidl@pencol.edu, or call (360) 417-6263