The Psychologically Healthy Workplace 

If you drop in on Tuesday evenings, bring your yoga gear because the showroom at Office Pavilion is transformed. Office Pavilion, Hawaii’s Herman Miller dealer, is a company of 80-plus employees. It has grown from a small family owned business to a multi-million dollar enterprise, doubling in sales this year and anticipating the doubling again in the next year.

Examples of best practice standards followed by Office Pavilion are many, here’s a few.

Along with yoga, they have corporate health club benefits and they’ll even pay for Weight Watchers! The ‘healthy snack’ refrigerators feature fresh fruit, yogurt and low-fat goodies.

Employees start with a 90 day performance review and set goals for the coming year together in the form of joint appraisals with management. They also encourage the employees to guide the company by soliciting Personal Audit comments that help establish new policies and acquire new benefits.

Each quarter, every employee casts his or her vote for an employee of the quarter that results in recognition and a Cash award! Employees who are acknowledged quarterly by their colleagues are given the Award of Excellence and along with ten paid holidays a year, after one year of employment, every 6 months employees are credited with 64 hours of Paid Time Off. They have Work-From-Home employees and build additional support for professional improvement through industry related computer based training and formal education tuition reimbursement programs that often lead to earned degrees and professional advancement.

Proactive support of and reimbursement for programs designed to improve physical and mental health are also in place. Healthcare insurance covers counseling, I mentioned the regular yoga sessions and this attention paid to the needs of the employees has been reflected in the interest paid to the needs of their clients and has served as the basis for their tremendous growth.

The owner of Office Pavilion, Gerri Hayes, and her management team sit on numerous community boards and they have group participation is The Great Aloha Run, Blood Bank of Hawaii, Aloha United Way, Alana Dung Research Foundation, American Diabetes Assn, Children’s Justice Center, Diamond Head Theatre, Gregory House, Hawaii Public Radio, Junior League, Kapiolani Women’s and Children’s Center, Muscular Dystrophy, Pilot Foundation, Sex abuse Treatment Center and Special Olympics, to name a few! This is a local company with local ties and sustained success.