Nickle Electrical president looks to future of skilled labor
For more than 30 years, Steve Dignan, president and chief executive officer of Nickle Electrical Cos., has been in the construction field. But Dignan is focused only on the next 30 years.
The United States' skilled labor workforce has been on the decline for years now, and Delaware follows the national trend. The state lost nearly 400 construction jobs between July 2014 and July 2015, according to a 2015 Manufacturers' News Inc. survey.
"It's not new to us, but the effects of it are really being felt right now," said Dignan, whose Newark-based full-service electrical contracting company serves five states.
To tackle the skilled labor shortage, Dignan has been reaching out to his alma mater, Hodgson Vocational Technical High School, recruiting and encouraging apprentices to master their trade, whatever that trade may be.
In June, the Delaware Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education honored the company with the Outstanding Service Award for providing "exemplary contributions" to the field. Nickle hires co-op students at the beginning of each school year to work with experienced electricians.
His efforts earned him The News Journal's award for leadership in its Top Workplaces survey of mid-sized companies.
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The company also hires apprentices to guide and mentor co-ops on their path to becoming journeymen. More than 50 of Dignan's employees – about 34 percent of the workforce – started as co-ops or apprentices.
Aside from the skills he has acquired throughout his career, Dignan said the construction industry is fun, with something different on the agenda every day.
"I think a lot of people, at the end of the day, when they take their kids and go, 'Hey, I worked on that building,' there's a lot of pride and ownership in that," Dignan said.
Dignan entered the skilled labor force more than 30 years ago as an apprentice, working his way up to the title of project manager. He eventually bought the company in 1991 after its founder, Paul A. Nickle, was killed in an accident.
At that time, Nickle Electrical had five employees. Now, there are 154.
The number of laborers might have spiked, but the company's mission remains the same.
"We try to look out for one another," Dignan said.
The company president can usually be found immersed in a project, whether it is the $4 million Wilmington Courthouse or the $1.7 million Delaware City Department of Motor Vehicles. He joked that sometimes his employees think he gets too involved, but he said he enjoys helping as much as he can.
Most of Dignan's employees describe his leadership style in three words: tough, but fair.
"He's got high expectations because of who we are because that's what we built the company on," said Jeromy Newton, Nickle's vice president of operations. "If you want to be a part of it, you have to be able to meet those expectations."
Mark Benson, the company's chief estimator, said Dignan is an effective leader because he can relate to all of his employees, from the field workers to the office managers.
"He's not somebody from the top who's never done this before," Benson said. "He's lived it."
Regardless of what his industry's future holds, Dignan said he will continue to uphold Nickle's motto.
"The path is always doing what's right – for the customer, the employee, the vendor – whoever it is," he said.
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Contact Caitie Burkes at cburkes@delawareonline.com, (985) 640-2526 or on Twitter @caitie1221.