oming from a commercial fishing family in Bristol Bay, Sara Erickson believed that fisheries were throwing away a huge resource that could be making money. Namely, the skins left over from seafood processing.

Her solution was to create AlaSkins, a company in Kenai that uses the skins of commercially caught halibut, cod, and salmon to make dog treats. She had reason to think it would work, based on results from an Arctic fisheries development agency.

“The Iceland Ocean Cluster had already shown how to increase export value from using cod skins—now they’re making more from that than they’re getting from fillets,” she says.

hile many people were trying to find ways to stay busy during the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick Simpson, owner of PKS Consulting, was studying ways to save the environment. He was investigating the issue of marine debris—and plastic in particular—when he decided to see if he could find a solution to help keep Alaska’s coastline clean.

“I spent my time combing through Google Scholar articles and searching scientific journals and peer-reviewed science publications to figure out how to put my arms around the problem,” he recalls. “When looking at the state of current technology, I discovered three themes: assessment, collection, and utilization of plastic ocean waste.”

he economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented. The federal government has invested heavily in its efforts to keep businesses afloat and stimulate the economy through various avenues. According to figures from USASpending.gov, forty-three federal agencies are responsible for $4.5 trillion in pandemic-related obligations and have outlaid $4.2 trillion of those. It’s a lot of money, and where such funds are found, fraud naturally follows.

In 1992 Stan Corp hung his barber pole up in Bethel. Some of his first customers are now bringing in their grandchildren for a trim or buzzcut. In a town lacking a sit-down coffee shop, where restaurants come and go, Stan’s barbershop has been a community gathering point in the region for decades.

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overnment is not a business, but it is an employer. In Alaska, government is the largest employer. Monthly employment estimates kept by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 78,600 government workers at the end of 2022. By combining all local, state, and federal employees—even without education workers and uniformed military—the government industry sector dwarfs all others, more than healthcare and retail combined.

Of the 309,600 total jobs in Alaska in December 2022, government supplied more than one quarter of them. The 25.5 percent share is the highest of any state, just ahead of Wyoming, New Mexico, West Virginia, and Hawaii. Pennsylvania and Nevada get away with half as many government employees per capita.

eople from all over the world come to Denali National Park and Preserve to glimpse North America’s tallest mountain and its wild setting. Not only are international travelers among the half-million or so visitors in a typical year, but the hospitality workers serving them at the park’s hotels and restaurants are often from other countries, too.

Foreign nationals working at Denali National Park and Preserve for the summer tourist season are likely in the United States with a J-1 exchange visitor visa. That program is just one of the authorization categories that international workers can use to legally hold jobs, and the visa programs are also tools for employers to fill their labor needs.

ntil AI takes over every job, humans will have a role in the workplace. Unfortunately, humans are, in fact, human and subject to the inherent challenges of humanity, such as mental funk that impedes productivity. A recent Gallup report titled “Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures” found that 76 percent of employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, and 28 percent say they are burned out “very often” or “always” at work. Further, mental health affected job performance for nearly half the US workforce, says the 12th annual Aflac Workforces Report.

“There are many factors that contribute to employee burnout,” says Noël Gabler, vice president for corporate relations at Global Credit Union (formerly Alaska USA). “Increased workload due to high turnover or employee roles and jobs not being defined. This leads to longer hours and challenges maintaining a work/life balance.”

y now, you’ve seen the initialism DEI, and you know that the letter “D” stands for diversity, the letter “E” stands for equity, and the letter “I” stands for inclusion. But in recent years, the term has become DEIB, with the letter “B” for belonging. What is belonging, and why did DEI become DEIB?

Before explaining the B, let’s review the meaning of each component of DEI.

Diversity can be described as the unique characteristics possessed by individuals within a group. Your workplace diversity initiative may include programs or actions to invite diverse individuals to your organization.

ith positive predictions on the horizon for the state of Alaska, hiring is going to be a big priority. The Alaska Economic Trends forecast for 2023 predicts the state will add approximately 5,300 jobs this year due in part to the federal infrastructure bill that was approved by Congress in 2022. The bill will provide billions of dollars to the state over the next several years for engineering-related projects and is expected to boost professional services such as architectural, engineering, environmental, and other consulting services. This is expected to represent more than half of the new jobs.

On top of the federal stimulus, Alaska’s capital budget of $2.7 billion for fiscal year 2023 is more than three times higher than the previous fiscal year. An added advantage is that more employable workers have moved to the state as the number of military personnel and their families has doubled since 2019.

ecruiting the right talent can be challenging for employers—even in a loose labor market with ample job candidates. In today’s tight labor market, companies have a tougher time finding qualified applicants for hourly, entry-level, and managerial positions.

The labor shortage is causing organizations in Alaska and elsewhere to be more resourceful when pursuing prospective employees. Take, for example, Providence Alaska Medical Center (PAMC) in Anchorage. PAMC is part of Providence Alaska and the Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) system. With approximately 5,000 employees throughout Alaska, Providence Alaska is the state’s largest private employer.

urvival training sounds ominous for workers who simply want to ply their trade in Alaska.

Which is why Learn to Return owner Brian Horner no longer refers to his service as survival training and has rebranded his company as LTR Training Systems.

The term “occupational training” better describes the specialized scenarios developed for each industry he works with, Horner says, as defined by US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. Lessons include scenarios with uncontrollable variables that students will face while on the job, like bad weather, aggressive wildlife, an emotional fellow employee having a bad day, or someone else making an unsafe decision.

ourism in Denali is on the rise. According to the National Park Service, 364,000 travelers made their pilgrimage to the continent’s tallest mountain in 2000. By 2019, those numbers jumped to 601,152 annual visitors to Denali National Park and Preserve.

Since 2000, options have proliferated for meals outside of hotel restaurants. New eateries have joined the old-time establishments, and some have changed owners and rebranded, offering visitors diverse and sophisticated dining options. And, like all the roadside businesses clustered near the park entrance, they specialize in serving busloads of customers at a time.

ockey season in Alaska wraps up in early April. The Kenai River Brown Bears, Fairbanks Ice Dogs, and Anchorage Wolverines of the North American Hockey League hang up their skates until September. On the other side of the globe, their semi-pro counterparts in the Australian Ice Hockey League are just starting their season, including the Adelaide Adrenaline, hometown team in the state capital of South Australia.

Adelaide is also the headquarters Santos, which operates oil and gas fields in Australia’s northern neighbor, Papua New Guinea, and beyond. In 2020, it acquired more than $1 billion worth of ConocoPhillips’ assets in the region. The following year, it came into possession of an Alaska project, making Santos and ConocoPhillips neighbors on the North Slope.

he Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 authorized the US Secretary of Labor to set “mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to businesses affecting interstate commerce, and by creating an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for carrying out adjudicatory functions under the Act.” This act, also known as the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act, gave the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sweeping powers to create minimum safety standards, interpret these standards, and enforce these standards through administrative procedure.

’ve been hearing a lot about the increasing need for employee engagement in an increasingly hybrid world. Gallup recently compiled research pointing to drops in engagement the past few years and noted that it’s a hot topic at leadership tables in 2023.

If we want more engagement, we need to focus on connection first. Connection fuels us. It provides us passion and meaning. Consider how a great conversation can inspire the whole day. Or reflect on the best teams you have been lucky enough to be part of: high-performing, driven, innovative, fun to the point of uproarious laughter at times—those are the best. Both of these have something in common: meaningful connection.

orking actors in Alaska could all fit on a very small stage. When Frank Delaney tried to make a living at his chosen craft, he had to move from Anchorage to Cincinnati.

“At the time when that was my primary source of income, I was choosing to live a very extremely modest life. I was fortunate that the company I was working for provided my housing,” he recalls.

Acting is a contractual obligation in Delaney’s current position as managing director of Perseverance Theatre. He appeared recently in The Great Leap at the UAA Mainstage Theatre, where he previously trod the boards as a student in the ‘90s.