Civil Works, Special Features

Premier Cranes cracking the code with #TeamLifting

 Premier Cranes is constantly evolving its approach to business.
Premier Cranes is constantly evolving its approach to business.

With an understanding for what makes a successful business, Premier Cranes & Rigging knows that to best serve its clients, it has to begin with its people.

Built around a #TeamLifting strategy, Premier Cranes’ company culture focuses on decision making at all levels of the organisation and improving how each member within the team views their contribution in the quest for client satisfaction.

At the forefront of every decision is the question: “How will this benefit the client and how will it contribute to their satisfaction?”

Lifting the team to lift the Client

Started 11 years ago by Steve Warton and Matt Clark, today Premier Cranes prides itself in its progressive approach with a decentralised management structure that empowers its employees.

“We are continually evolving our approach to the business and examining the way we do things,” says Warton.

“It’s an old cliché, but Matt and I realised some time ago that our team will only be as strong as our weakest player, and this is the reason we place so much emphasis on #TeamLifting.”

The goal of this strategy is to drive consistent levels of high customer service through empowering team members with a decentralised management structure.

“With #TeamLifting there is an expectation that individuals evolve with the job and accept the responsibility of representing Premier Cranes every minute of every day,” says Clark. “It’s about how we encourage each individual to help others step up.”

Part of this #TeamLifting system of empowerment comes with individual development to ensure consistent high standards are met.

Premier Cranes ensures its people receive extensive coaching and leadership. “For example,” says Warton, “our engineers work and learn from senior engineers as part of #TeamLifting movement to ensure consistent solutions are offered and quality is assured for every element of the construction process.”

With each individual receiving feedback and training that focuses on how to create value for clients, Clark believes Premier Cranes’ people can then apply this approach to everything they do, so clients experience what #TeamLifting really means.

“We want everything Premier delivers to be of a consistently high standard,” says Warton.

Empowering the people 

With Premier Cranes having crews spread across Melbourne and greater Victoria, Warton understands having a simple command-and-control approach won’t work.

“Part of #TeamLifting is empowering our people to execute planned lifts on our behalf,” says Warton. “Now with the #TeamLifting system in place, once a plan is agreed with the client, we’re able to hand it over to our crews, wherever they are, and if there’s any adjustments or changes, they have the confidence to work closely with the client to get the required result.”

And this all ties in with Premier Cranes’ ‘Cracking the Code’ strategy: consistently examining and improving ways to deliver on clients’ expectations and the value they are looking for, beyond just a price point.

According to Warton, this strategy is about looking for ways to add value for clients while maintaining a consistent service. And while this might sound simple, it is a value not found in every provider.

“With our approach, we’re not just working under instruction, turning up on the day and lifting stuff,” says Warton.“For us, it’s partnering up and actually working hard to propose solutions. Because we’ve empowered our people, if they see something that can be improved, they can go out and do it.”

To Warton, this is a very different approach to traditional methods. And this #TeamLifting approach flows through on all levels.

At the first touch point, the Premier Cranes team introduces the client to their strategy, ensuring they understand what the team will achieve for them.

“We understand and articulate back to the client what they are trying to achieve to ensure we connect the right cranes and people with the right task,” says Warton. “So, from that first meeting point through to planning and into execution, we make a promise so that when it gets to the operational stage, we can give our clients the best possible outcome.”

But service doesn’t end at the site.

“We also discuss the post purchase experience where we loop back around and discuss the experience from the client’s perspective,” explains Warton.

“We understand the lessons learned and, wherever possible, ensure what we promised at the front end, we deliver in the back end.”

With the #TeamLifting strategy impacting every aspect of Premier Cranes’ operation, it’s clear that people: the workers and clients are at the heart of it all.

Lifting standards

With the construction industry traditionally being rigid, Warton understands how some companies are reluctant to embrace new ideas and approaches.

“In our experience, clients are responding very positively to the way we are approaching our business,” says Warton.

“They understand that our approach to #TeamLifting equally applies to our team and our clients,” he concludes.

“By continually lifting our own standard with our #TeamLifting approach internally, we’re also raising the quality of our service to our clients and ultimately the client wins, which effectively is how our approach translates.”

This article originally appeared in the June edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.


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