Nurturing a Community-Centered Workplace in Remote Alaska

isolved empowers Hames Corporation to attract, retain and motivate employees while fostering a strong sense of community in a competitive market.

Hames Corporation’s President Roger Hames and HR Director Jaylene Owen share how isolved enables the organization to overcome the challenges of recruiting and retaining talent on a remote island by improving employee motivation and streamlining HR processes.

When you work for a corporation and you're just a body and you're just a number, it's hard to sometimes feel like you're a part of something bigger. And when I moved here, even though it's a small remote island in the middle of rural Alaska, I found home.

You have to be involved in the community. You can't just run a store and think you're through with it for the day.

But it's it's difficult in a small town.

My folks first started a business, and, my dad always thought he wanted to sell groceries.

Well, he was a little over his head when he got into the fall.

One day my grandfather and grandmother came to my parents and they put a bag of money on the table and the keys and they said, we're done. You're gonna you're gonna buy this place and we're gonna go travel for the rest of our lives. So then became Hames Corporation in nineteen sixty nine and it's been Hames Corporation ever since.

That is the heart and soul of your town. When you're feeding people, providing groceries, it's really important.

So taking care of the people who we depend on and count on, first and foremost, is most important to us.

It's a unique environment that with Sitka, you just never know what the challenge might be.

When we have heavy cruise ship days and there's six or eight or ten thousand people in town, your cell cell service slows way down, your Internet slows way down. Mhmm. It's, it's a significant issue. If you have a, Internet outage, it's everything comes to a screeching halt for the most part.

So we're vulnerable. It really you know, you don't have the luxuries of, everything that necessarily is, you know, right down at the fingertips of everybody in the lower forty eight states.

And you have to depend on the ship to get your stuff to your store, and that didn't always happen because of tides or different things. One time, my husband ordered watermelons. He thought he'd be real smart and have them delivered by plane.

Not a good idea.

They all burst in plane.

So we didn't have watermelons for for the fourth of July.

Here in Sitka, a a population of eighty three hundred people, everything is elevated. What are you offering them in the way of wage? What are you offering them in the way of something extra, a signing bonus or anything else?

It's a challenge when it comes to things like, the benefits, being able to provide things that will service the employees here locally, but at the same time, be competitive enough to attract them.

We're all in the same boat when it comes to people. We we hire each other's people. There's no other way around it.

So it's kinda like the employee, has a choice of, well, you know, who am I gonna go work for?

Who's gonna be the best or the highest bidder?

We have a few large employers here in town, and we all compete for the same bodies.

There is no industry that we don't compete compete against.

In a community like Seca, where we are so, tight knit to where we're all friends and neighbors, going to C Mart is a, social experience. You can't, go there without seeing someone you know. Everywhere you look around the store, there are people chatting with each other.

Right now, one of the biggest focuses that we have is employee motivation. A lot of darkness has been, clouding people's days. To have people show up every day with that smile to know that they can still give that hundred percent customer service like there's not that dark cloud that they've been dealing with is a lot. ISolved is the solution that gives it to them. So employ motivation, share and perform, tools that I can reach into like a a tool belt to bring out and and tackle these problems is absolutely phenomenal for me.

Jaylene, our human resources manager, predicted this, is that it's a mental capacity and a mental challenge to our employees that survived the pandemic.

There are significant mental health issues out there that are alarming, that are real, and that have to be dealt with. You can't just say, okay, well, sorry, you know, you didn't make it work. You're pretty much joined at the hip with employees that work for you and work with you, and you gotta treat them right, and you have to you have to look out for their interest as well.

Very, very important, especially for those employers to recognize and see and understand, that it's not just an employee that you can throw away because they're no longer serving you, but these employees to us, they're our family members. They they're important. I've had severe mental health, situations that have rose up that I didn't even know how to deal with, but we all did it together because we had to.

Sometimes it's been frustrating because new ideas and new ways of thinking about the way we used to do things is hard. Change is hard.

I'm not a tech savvy person, and it comes it's very difficult

for me. And it seems like whatever happens that I try to do something, I mess it up, or I can't get there.

I have a wonderful teacher who's sitting right beside me here. It's not that I don't believe in them. It just doesn't come very easy for me. I don't gravitate to that.

I don't say, okay. The latest and greatest is what we need to do. So I really take the lead from other people that say, I think this is something we should look seriously at. We should, we should look at doing this.

I will listen to that. I'm game.

Here, things can kind of run a little behind in times, and so, it really required a lot of challenging, moments to make decisions to pull out of that technology.

Then that's when I came along. A few years later, I was able to then take that step forward again and try to take on the modernization step by step.

Danley's really good at convincing people that things are good, that things are gonna work out.

A lot of it has been kind of a rinse, wash, repeat.

I kinda say take one step forward, take a step back.

But a lot of it is is trying to figure out what works for everybody.

A lot of the processes that I've tried to, put into place were through the recommendations of my employees.

I spoke about an advocate not just for in on defense and on behalf of the company as to protect the company, but also the employees. They have to have an advocate too, and they have to have someone that they can at least listen to or interact with or go to so that they can be heard.

The technology that came brought benefits that I didn't realize were going to be beneficial to this community.

Having the ability to have a downloadable app to a cell phone, many people didn't think that that would be possible. They looked at me like I had three heads, and I said, it's possible with social media.

The role, the job description, Jaylene is filled far beyond what the job description was. I think it's most other duties as assigned now. But, but but it it it happened at the right place at the right time and, for our company and set us in a very good position to, I think, weather the pandemic and then and then even follow-up after the pandemic to make it happen.

Trust and loyalty, I think showing up every day and, being committed because people here, they understand, action. They understand when you are there for them and you're actually assisting them. Because we all have to depend upon each other and one another, that's a vital thing. And when you show up and you're present every day, those employees see it and they recognize it. And to them, that is worth more than the words that you can speak.

It just is a lovely, safe little place to be. And it has grown on me, and I can't imagine living anywhere else.

The community feeling here, the community spirit here is very strong, and I just, love being a part of this community. And it's kind of comforting to me now that I can't get on a freeway. And you just get to know that you're you're home, and every everything that we need is here. We have everything we need here.

You never know what someone's going through just coming through your lane.

And I think you need to keep that in mind whenever you're interacting with anyone at any time is that they could have a hard day. And if you just are polite and are kind, maybe ask them, do you need a handout?

That can just make their day. Just getting the job done and adding a little bit of sugar to it, I think that helps.

It's a it's a privilege, to be a part of, and I look forward to, you know, the future and, going on, in the same supportive way for the town and, in new ways as well.

We set the bar to be, let's be the leader in the community. Let's be the example. Let's, let's do what's right for us, which is right for not only the company, but the employees as well. Let's let's take this to another level, a level we've never been at before.

We're on an island, so we all like to call it a boat. We're all on this boat together, all on this rock together. And to survive it, it's gonna take some teamwork. And right now, my focus for isolved is to work continuously as a team to be able to provide those services to my employees.

Ready for HR Transformation

Hames Corporation operates in Sitka, Alaska, a remote island community with a population of 8,300. The company is a cornerstone of the local economy, providing groceries and essential goods to residents.

Constrained workforce options, outdated policies and infrastructure challenges meant the organization was ripe for transformation possibilities. So, when Jaylene Owen became the human resources (HR) director in December 2016, she knew change was needed.

The Hames Corporation faced several significant challenges. They were still relying on paper-based processes for payroll and record-keeping (including employee records dating back over seven decades). These processes were time-consuming and prone to errors. Without a centralized system for employee data, managing information was inefficient, and outdated policies—especially around attendance and payroll—were dragging down employee morale. Sitka’s secluded location added to these issues, making it harder to find and keep the right employees.

“Hames had been in business for a long time, supporting the local community with jobs and investment for decades,” says Owen. “But it was time to really overhaul how they approached HR as a function in the business. There wasn’t much in place when I got here.”

A Single Solution

Modernizing HR was key to addressing these challenges. Owen partnered with isolved to implement isolved People Cloud™, a human capital management (HCM) platform that simplifies HR tasks by connecting talent management, HR, payroll, workforce management and employee engagement. This solution helped the Hames Corporation streamline HR operations so that Owen could balance the needs of the company’s owners with the needs of the workforce, creating experiences that matter for both parties.

To start, the focus was on moving all current employee records to People Cloud, creating a single, reliable source for HR information. Owen also updated outdated policies to better fit Sitka’s needs and introduced self-service tools that empowered employees to manage their own information. Now, employees can easily check policies, book vacation days and manage their own information anytime, anywhere. By automating payroll, compliance reporting and other HR processes, Owen was able to free up time to focus on strategic initiatives—helping Hames become an employer of choice.

“What used to take me days and days of work piecing together paper records, and reconciling time sheets could be done in a few hours. It made a huge difference because not only did I have more time in my day to focus on more strategic initiatives, but the automation meant things were done right the first time.”

— Jaylene Owen, HR Director

Where People Heroes Grow™

The changes Jaylene implemented have made a big difference at the Hames Corporation. By focusing on HR campaigns that built a strong sense of community and encouraged a positive work environment, the company has seen real improvements in productivity, customer service and profits. These efforts have also helped people in the Sitka community see HR in a new light—not just as a department that enforces rules, but as one that genuinely cares about employees and their career growth.

Jaylene also simplified hiring and onboarding, making it easier to bring in new talent or re-onboard former employees (often the case on the small island of Sitka). At the same time, her focus on keeping current employees engaged and happy has reduced turnover and kept the team motivated. With more time to address bigger challenges, Jaylene improved how the company supports employee mental health, recognizing the importance of well-being at work.

"To have people show up every day with that smile, to know that they can still give that 100% customer service — like there’s not that dark cloud that they’ve been dealing with—is a lot. And isolved is the solution that gives it to them."

— Jaylene Owen, HR Director

In addition to supporting the growth of Hames Corporation’s HR maturity, isolved has supported Owen’s growth professionally. Working with isolved, her story of employee experience, HR modernization and innovation has been shared widely, leading to speaking opportunities and earning her recognition as one of Constellation Research’s most influential leaders—which was also celebrated at the strategic advisory firm’s 2025 Experience Summit.

Owen’s work has created a rich workplace culture that values community, teamwork and exceptional service, helping it stand out in the local market through:

Better employee motivation and morale with targeted, employee-focused tools.
Clear visibility into performance and progress with engagement and performance tools, enabling employees to feel valued and recognized.
Enhanced employee engagement through initiatives that improve satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

“We set the bar to be: let’s be the leader in the community,” explains President Roger Hames. “Let’s be the example. Let’s do what’s right for us, which is right for not only the company but the employees as well. Let’s take this to another level we’ve never been at before.”

Dive deeper into the details of Hames Corporation’s HR Transformation.

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