General manager: Kevin Grant

Dealership group: Lithia Motors

Full-time employees: 58

Grant on learning how to be a better employer from managing through the pandemic: “One of Lithia’s core values is ‘have fun,’ and we take having fun very seriously. We’re together more than we’re with our families, so it needs to be an environment everyone wants to be in.”

General Sales Manager Robert Lowry on long-term changes in hiring or employment practices because of the pandemic: “We started to hire people outside of the industry. There’s a lot of good human beings out there right now looking for a new career path. We’ve had a lot of success with waiters and waitresses, actors and a lot of people from the hospitality industry.”

Grant on offering employees a career path: “We believe in training all of our employees because our company is growing so fast that you never know who might be called to take on another role next.”