Creating a healthy buzz

Steve Coombs runs a downtown Spokane car dealership.

Many of his employees have children. And many of those kids play in Hoopfest.

So, when it came time for the annual three-on-three basketball tournament last summer, Coombs got some electric scooters. That way, salespeople and others who had to work that weekend could zip down for their child’s game and zoom back up to the dealership.

“We just covered for each other,” says Coombs, co-owner of Downtown Honda.

The Hoopfest scooters are just one example of a larger workplace culture at Downtown Honda that’s not only creating happy workers but is helping drive sales to record levels.

And in a couple of weeks, the Washington State Psychological Association will name Downtown Honda one of the most psychologically healthy workplaces in the state. Dishman Dodge in the Spokane Valley won the state award a couple of years ago.

“We’ve got an investment in creating healthy workplaces for individuals because that creates healthier individuals,” says Laura Asbell, a Spokane psychologist and organizational consultant who is on the award’s selection committee.

A psychologically healthy office will see less absenteeism, fewer injuries, less turn-over and greater productivity, Asbell says.

“When there’s a healthy environment, good people stay,” she says. “When it’s unhealthy, good people leave and the people who stay are those without other options.”

A healthy and happy workplace means more than just perks now and then. A company barbecue or Christmas party once a year won’t repair institutional ills, experts say. A truly functional work environment starts with changing the culture of the place.

“You want to look at what you’re doing and how you’re doing it,” says Lunell Haught, a Spokane management consultant.

At Downtown Honda, for example, that meant letting go of some of the dealership’s top sellers when Coombs took over about five years ago.

“There are no prima donnas,” he says. “We actually let them go … No one person’s more important than any one on the team.”

Changing a corporate climate can be such a huge job that it often make sense to bring in a fresh set of eyes. There are psychologists and management consultants who work specifically with business to get them performing at peak levels.

“A lot of times we can’t see what we’re doing,” Asbell says. “It’s a lot like having spinach in one’s teeth. It may drive everyone else crazy, but we can’t see it.”

Coombs called in consultant Tom Agnew of Liberty Lake, who specializes in teaching quality-management techniques.

Agnew has helped shape a happier place for the dealership’s 52 employees to work, which in turn leads to more satisfied customers, he says.

“Even if you’re the most crass, profit-driven unrelenting owner in the world, you would at least pretend you like to do all these things because, in the end, it will create a stellar organization for you in every way, including profitability,” Agnew says.Just look at Downtown Honda. When Coombs took over, they were selling about 23 cars a month, he says. Now, 125 to 160 Hondas fly off the lot each month, even with the same number of employees, he says.

They’ve won a Honda award for excellence three years in a row.

In a psychologically healthy workplace such as Downtown Honda, bullying and backbiting simply aren’t tolerated. Conflicts, which still happen even in the happiest workplace, are faced head-on instead of being dismissed or leading to public flare-ups. Employees feel free and safe to admit mistakes.

Workers are given a sense of purpose.

“It’s not just that you’re serving hamburgers,” Haught says. “You’re allowing a family to have a stress-free meal.”

And employers make an effort to actually connect with their workers, to know what’s going on in their lives. Haught works with a CEO who oversees 63 employees and knows the names of all of their children.

“If she knows somebody was going to go camping over the weekend, she asks about it,” she says.

Coombs wants his employees to be relaxed when they come home at the end of the day, not in need of a therapy session with their spouse.

“My job is to create an environment where there’s no stress or fear,” he says. “Their job is to collect a paycheck with a dollar amount in it. My job is to give them an emotional paycheck.”

Jo Schirr has worked at Downtown Honda for 11 years. She doesn’t hold any malice towards the previous management, but says this regime “does inspire more loyalty.”

“We feel more valued by the company as a whole,” Schirr says. “I’m not getting rich by any means, but I like coming into work everyday.”