EMPLOYEES FUEL THE COMPANY’S SUCCESS

The best and only way to get these results is through quality employees. New West invests in finding the best people for the positions, training them thoroughly and then giving them the experience, opportunity and even formal education to climb the ranks. Employees are treated like family and while they work hard and are serious about what they do, they have a lot of fun too. NWTC experiences little turnover, and the team is proud to be an industry leader and the employer of choice across the region.

“We interviewed some people about what’s important at New West and why they’d want to work here, and we came up with three things: our employees are treated well, trained well and paid well. That’s what a new person looking for a job or looking to move companies is looking for, and we’re able to offer that,” says Bronaugh Curley.

As the company grows, New West is always looking to find smart, enthusiastic, ambitious newcomers to join the team. The company has strong relationships with trade schools and supports their programming and student body through scholarships and work placements. Every year, NWTC offers summer student programs along with co-op and practicum opportunities for business students in the office with HR, sales and marketing and for trades and supply chain students looking for experience in the shop and warehouse. Many of these students return to New West after graduation to launch their careers.

“We have relationships with basically every trade school in every market area, but the relationship specifically with SAIT is very strong. We hire up to 20 per cent of their graduating class each year,” says Sidhu.

The company won the 2023 award for Canada’s Best Employers for Recent Graduates and was nominated as a top company for women in transportation in 2022 and 2023. One female up-and-comer is Greg Stahl’s wife and rock, Ashleigh, who is completing the dealership management program at SAIT to learn the business so she can help her husband grow the company. She will be in good company. About 16 per cent of New West’s team are women, and the executive leadership team is committed to not only getting more women into the industry as the company grows but to promoting more women into well-deserved managerial and leaderships positions. It is a diverse group of employees, and they all bring different skillsets that keep New West ready for future growth.

Committed To Community

That growth will only come if the industry stays strong. To ensure the industry thrives, members of the leadership team remain active on industry boards and committees. Manny Sidhu has been on the advisory committee of SAIT’s school of transportation for almost a decade and chaired it for three years, and Greg Stahl is the first vice chair of the Motor Dealer Association (MDA) to come out of the heavy-duty truck industry.

This involvement allows them to stay abreast of changes and innovations in technology, government regulations and environmental initiatives. New West is staying on the cutting edge of the technology, especially as it explores cleaner energy options. The company supplied chassis to Alberta Zero Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration (AZETEC), which is testing the long-range fuel cells operating in two hydrogen-powered trucks. As the industry leans into the adoption of electric trucks, NWTC is committing to electrification as they procure new equipment starting with its first electric forklift in the Balzac location.

The company is also operating as greenly as possible in the office. Solar panels take up about half of the roof at the head office to help generate their own electricity and they are installing smart thermostats throughout the organization to reduce energy waste and limit the company’s carbon footprint.

“We’ve just drafted our first environmental sustainability policy so there will be a lot more to come on that,” says Sidhu.

New West cares about the environment and the people in it, and it’s important that the company gives back to the community that has supported them over the years. The company supports a variety of philanthropic causes that are important to the team including donations and toy drives for the Alberta Children’s Hospital, support for the service animals at Dogs with Wings, donations and a truck to the food bank and fundraising along with a van for Janus Academy to help enrich the lives of autistic children.

New West has also been a sponsor for the Calgary Flames and the Calgary Stampeders, and Stahl is an ambassador for the Stampeders Foundation to ensure all kids have the chance to play sports. This spirit of philanthropy goes beyond corporate responsibility; Greg Stahl leads by example personally, too. When he won a sizable 50/50 prize at a Stampeders game, he donated it back to the Calgary Colts and Calgary Bantam Football organizations so more kids could fall in love with the game like he did.

Looking Ahead

As a former college football player, Greg Stahl’s philosophy is drawn from Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, and everyone lives those tenets every day at New West: “Ability is what you’re capable of doing, motivation determines what you do, and attitude determines how well you do it.” And as ability meets motivation and attitude, there will be no stopping the New West Truck Centres team.