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4 APRIL 2016 FOGHORN Human Resources Department Check While completing a recent insurance renewal application one of the questions asked of our company made me pause. Does the Applicant have a Human Resources or Personnel Department Being a small business my initial response was no. However after further reflection I checked the yes box. As a small business in the ferry transportation industry we operators wear many hats. Most of our op- erations do not draw lines between departments. Our company for the most part consists of three depart- ments The dock the boat and the office departments. Within these areas or depart- ments we accomplish many tasks. We operate without a great deal of compart- mentalization which means we must all strive to become experts in many areas which is close to impossible or reach out to other experts outside of our business for support and advice. I have found great value in networking with other ferry boat operators I have met at PVA meetings. Recently I had discussions comparing wage benefits and other infor- mation with multiple managers with operations very similar to ours. I am constantly amazed at how alike our concerns are. It is vital we stick together and share our successes and our lessons learned with our industry peers. We are fortunate to have the technology resources we have today. How different it was even 20 years ago without todays Internet resulting in the availability of high-speed information. Thankfully there are many webinars online classes and various associations out there to help us. These modes of education and training provide our management and employees many devel- opment opportunities. On the downside of technology is the inability to remove ourselves from it. Some call this the big blur of being online all the time logged into technol- ogy. There is a blur between work and home. No gen- eration has ever been this connected indeed it can argued that some employees are never disconnected from work. Besides the distraction factor this brings to mind the concern of the work-life balance and wage and hour laws. New to the Human Resource challenge is a three- generational difference between the Millennials Gen X and their Baby Boomer parents. Employers are dealing with helping three generations of workers cohesively work as a team to serve their customers. With the economic downturn the situation has become worse with so many Baby Boomers unable to retire and now being supervised by Gen X employees and Millennials. Managing this new generation alongside the older genera- tion is a skill employers need to develop. This decade has seen the rise of technology-based training employee development pod casts telese- minars online learning screen capture and recording software to name a few. These advances in technology allow our employees to learn and be trained without traveling long distances. In remote locations such as Beaver Island where many of our employees live 32 miles out in the middle of Lake Michigan this saves our company a great deal in travel expenses. Our ferry operation has been fortunate to have long-term employees with a great deal of knowledge developed over their tenures. We are working at mentoring young employees to fill future positions. We must prepare the next generation of employees for the future and develop these young talented employees strengths and abilities to contrib- ute. Our managers wear many hats. Together with the support of outside resources we stay in compliance adapt to new regulations and laws hire and train employees maintain our vessels and the ferry keeps running. So does our company have a Human Resource Department I like to think of our company as a team of humans with resources. So yes I guess we do. Very respectfullyVery respectfully Margo Marks President n LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Margo Marks New to the Human Resource challenge is a three-generational difference between the Millennials Gen X and their Baby Boomer parents.