Staff central to WesTrac vision

WESTRAC’S doors were thrown open last week as managing director Jim Walker led a media group on a guided tour of the heavy equipment business.

After decades behind closed doors as the flagship private company of Kerry Stokes, WesTrac has been thrown into the spotlight as the prize being offered to Seven Network shareholders in Mr Stokes’ proposed $3.4 billion merger of his media and mining services assets.

Mr Stokes has described WesTrac, which has exclusive Caterpillar dealership rights in WA, NSW, the ACT and north-eastern China, as his “pride and joy for the last 20 years”.

Little wonder. Put the two businesses together, plus the earnings from its 66 per cent owned National Hire Group, and WesTrac is projected to turnover $2.73 billion in 2011 for group earnings of $192 million.

While the numbers are impressive, Mr Walker made it clear that the real strength of WesTrac was its people.

“This is a people business. We just happen to sell tractors”, he said.

That passion was clear on the walk-through of the WesTrac floor, as Mr Walker chatted with staff about their lives outside of work.

Mr Walker’s approach to team building is aided by his prodigious recall of details about his employees that he has committed to memory. No mean feat when your head count is pushing 1,600.

This dedication has not been without reward. Staff retention, particularly in the salary-competitive space WesTrac operates in, is typically a perennial issue.

But WesTrac’s ‘people focus’ is clearly appreciated by staff, whose loyalty to the company can apparently span generations. It is not uncommon for husbands, wives and children to work alongside each.

Mr Walker explained that this commitment to staff and career development was formed in the early days of WesTrac.

“Kerry’s vision”, he said, involved a strong focus on people development and training. Registered as a training organisation since 1996, WesTrac has clearly delivered on that vision.

The WesTrac Institute now trains hundreds of internal apprentices in addition to apprentices for clients such as Macmahon Holdings, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

On the cusp of another boom, the WesTrac army will rapidly need to swell to meet demand. The training side of the business is therefore now key for WesTrac, and is building momentum.

In order to provide the staff and training that industry in WA will require in short order, Mr Walker said the WesTrac Institute had developed an innovative approach to traineeships that could produce specialised apprentices in just 18 months.

By “training for need, not for sake”, Mr Walker said WesTrac hoped to assist industry to meet the skilled labour demand the boom would bring.