Career with Hiab

“I will always remember my first project; I was just a trainee when we won the SAP Quality Award competition in the innovation implementation category. It was so cool!”

Emmi works in Hiab’s Human Resources team and a rewards team spanning three business areas; Hiab, Kalmar and MacGregor. All of these business areas are part of Cargotec Corporation. Before starting at Hiab, Emmi joined Cargotec as a summer trainee and continued working part-time while studying Management and Organization at the Turku School of Economics. Emmi is passionate about lean thinking, data and innovating in clean processes – not to mention good food with good friends.

“My HR trainee position completely changed my view of Human Resources. Actually, I never intended to become an HR person. I started out in an HRIS (Human Resources Implementation System) project and was immediately fascinated by the combination of HR and information systems. My summer trainee position was an eye-opener, introducing me to the variety of HR tasks. I also understood the growing role of information and knowledge in HR — and that I want to be part of it.

During my time at Hiab, I have had the opportunity to work on various projects. For my latest project, involving the implementation of new sales intensive models, I worked for two months in the US. I reviewed the salary and compensation structures and helped the local management team to utilize the global benchmark data. I am delighted by our international diversity at Hiab. Other team members come from countries such as the US, China, Finland, Poland, Ireland, and Sweden.   

My favorite days at Hiab involve problem solving – I like to research problems and identify causal connections. In addition, I think it is critical that all employees are treated equally. My mission is to enable objectivity by bringing data and facts to decision making. However, data should never be taken for granted. Data is interesting, but is worthless if it cannot be used. It becomes valuable when it helps us to make better and fair decisions.

I am curious to learn about how digitalization will shape our business, which has so far been very traditional. From my perspective, technology is enabling our company to become more varied – many issues have already changed and are sure to keep changing.”

“MY CUSTOMERS ARE THE BEST PART OF MY JOB”

Alex finds that his versatile group of customers are the best part of his job as a Sales Representative. Alex joined Hiab in 2006, and has worked for the MOFFETT team in Nordhausen since 2016.

“I have been interested in Hiab for a very long time as my father joined the company in 1992. I came to Hiab in 2006 from the hotel industry. My start was quite challenging as this is a pretty technical business. But I learnt fast thanks to my colleagues, and I also had the great opportunity to work at our dealer’s factory for four months. There I got to see and learn in practice how cranes are mounted on trucks. It was an excellent induction.

The move in 2016 to the MOFFETT team brought me back to my home town and gave me a new angle to the business. Earlier, I mostly worked with dealers, while I now sell directly to the end customers.

My customers are the best part of my job. They are a versatile group, from self-employed contractors to purchasers in big companies. They have different needs, and there are interesting challenges to solve every day. I really enjoy working with them.

My job is not just sales; my customers also contact me when they face issues. I like solving problems and get great help from the product experts in the nearby factory. Sales and Services go hand in hand, and in our small team of seven it is easy to help one another.

I also have a great boss. He inspires me every day and has an ear open for any problems I might have. I get all the support I need to succeed in my work. All in all, I work for a very strong company. Hiab has many well-known brands and we get great feedback from our customers.”

“I’M DOING WHAT I LIKE BEST: FIXING THINGS”

Bob comes from a family of mechanics, and now works as a Senior Service Technician at Hiab in the United States. Most of all Bob enjoys solving his customers’ problems and helping others.

“I come from a family of mechanics. My father was a mechanic, so is my uncle, and I am too. I trained as an offset printer technician, but that job was not for me. So now I’m doing what I like best: fixing things. I’ve never woken up thinking that I don’t want to go to work. I do service calls with our customers both in the shop and in the field. I love figuring out what to do in new situations. It’s the best thing when you don’t yet know how to fix a problem – before you find the solution.

Our team is the big thing for me. We are very close-knit and get along really well. We also just get the job done! I know that if I can’t solve a problem by myself, I can go to anybody in the team – another technician, the janitor, or someone higher up – and that person will help me. I also get job satisfaction from helping others. When you have been at this job for 18 years, you have seen a lot of different kinds of machines and come up with a lot of solutions. That experience I want to pass on to people starting their careers.

Our machines are easier to run, easier to get used to – and our customers love them. My focus is always on fixing the customer’s problems so that they can do their job. When I say to a customer ‘it’s ready to work’, I can see that they appreciate it. The better our machines work, the more business we have.”

“I HAVE WORKED FOR HIAB FOR 10 YEARS AND I HAVE HIAB IN MY BLOOD.”

Chris Powell, Sales Manager for MOFFETT Truck-Mounted Forklift product in the UK & Ireland has already had a long career at Hiab despite his young age: “I have worked for Hiab for 10 years and I have Hiab in my blood.” Hiab has always been a big part of Chris’ life: “My father also works for Hiab and actually joined the company just one month before I was born, so you could say I have been associated with Hiab my whole life.'' Chris himself started his career at Hiab as a summer worker in 2007 and officially joined Hiab in October 2009 straight after graduating from the University of Chester with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.

Chris has worked in his current position for two years now. When Chris applied to the job he worked as a Process Deployment Manager at Cargotec’s deployment team and was looking to return back to the Hiab business line and the UK organisation: “We had just appointed a new Managing Director who had an exciting strategy and was making positive changes that I thought I could help towards. The main part of the role that excited me was working with the MOFFETT product. I must admit that I love the product and working with highly passionate people within the organisation who work with it too.”

Besides working with MOFFETT, Chris is hugely passionate about the Hiab people and customers and for him the job never gets boring: “My daily tasks are varied. I, for example, spend time supporting our sales team with sales, updates, information and service support.” For him the favourite part of his work is to get to see the impact of their products and support on customers: “We would be nowhere without our customers and it is great to see and hear when our hard work has helped them achieve their goals.”

Chris sees Hiab not only as a hugely ambitious, innovative and successful organisation that puts a great emphasis on its customers, but also as an organisation where employees are given opportunities to develop skills and progress through their career: “If you’re looking to develop in a business then Hiab is for you. I have lost count of the number of skills I have learned and developed whilst working for the company. The time and effort Hiab has invested in myself is huge and I am massively grateful. I have not only developed skills at Hiab but have developed as a person.”

During his free time Chris likes to keep himself active. He enjoys running and going to the gym but above all, he is a huge fan of football and likes to play it himself too: “A group of Hiab employees actually play 5-a-side football every 2 weeks and we even entered and won a local rowing competition in 2018.” However, Chris admits that he’s not the best at separating work and freetime but he is convinced that this is only because he enjoys his work so much. This can also be seen in Chris’ passion to help and improve the company: “My initial career dream was to work in a role very closely linked to my degree and having achieved that it changed to wanting to be in a position where I can make the greatest impact on Hiab and it's customers. I have recently joined the Hiab UK senior management team and want to help the organisation grow and improve towards its vision.”

BERNIKE SCHRA, SALES SUPPORT, MEPPEL, NETHERLANDS

“When I cycle to the office in the morning, I might not have a clear structure of the day in my mind. Unexpected moments give me a chance to show my expertise. And that's why it never gets boring here!” Bernike is the Sales Support for the Hiab brands MOFFETT and ZEPRO in our Meppel office in the Netherlands. This position was specifically created to match Bernike’s career interests and to meet her development targets. At the age of 23, Bernike has already had the time to study and work for almost four years at Hiab. The secret of this young professional’s success might be her sunny attitude and her constant desire to develop her skills.

“I studied to be a commercial education and management assistant in the Netherlands. After working for a while at Hiab, I got really inspired by the technology surrounding me. Hiab provided me with a training programme about hydraulics and I got the chance to learn more about the technology in the workshop. In the future, I want to develop my skills further. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be a product specialist.

My days are full of sales activities like offers, making sure the customers get what they requested and I’m also in close contact with different factories. I was recently promoted to my current position and I’m getting more responsibilities. I get to solve more cases, and people from different teams and outside the company have started to remember my name. I really like it and I’m very proud of myself. One of the most memorable moments was closing a deal that I had been working on for quite some time together with my team. Until the end, it was uncertain whether we would get the deal. Looking back, it was great to help the team succeed.

”Outside of her professional work, Bernike enjoys playing the piano, dancing and spending quality time with friends and family. She appreciates the good opportunities that Hiab offers for combining work and leisure time.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I could see all of the beautiful cranes lined up… 

Meet Sandra Chambers, Solution Owner, Service Systems at Hiab (central services). Sandra joined Hiab over 3 years ago when she started as a business analyst. In her current position as a Solution Owner, most of her time is spent on the development and global implementation of Hiab’s new Field Service Management tool: “I work with our development team and solution coordinators from different countries to better define service processes and improve our tools to achieve service excellence for our customers. I also try to be the curator of fun meetings.” 

Sandra sees Hiab as a fascinating company which is global, yet local and this was one of the main reasons she applied to Hiab in the first place. She still remembers her first day at the office and how everything was exciting: “We have the best on-road load handling equipment in the world. When I pulled into the parking lot, I could see all of the beautiful cranes lined up. In each office hung framed pictures of impressive Hiab equipment at work. But equally as important as the equipment... everyone was happy. I was excited to be a part of this team!”

When describing her daily work the word “fun” comes up many times. Sandra enjoys the opportunity to meet colleagues from all over the world and she feels lucky to travel to different places while doing her part to improve Hiab through their systems: “One day, I joined a technician on a customer site repair job. We chatted for hours. The most overwhelming theme stemming from all of our conversation was that this technician had pride in his job and wanted to service all customers to the absolute best of his ability. That was a fun day.”

When working with people it’s important to develop your communication skills. Since joining Hiab Sandra has worked hard to refine her teambuilding, leadership and project management skills and she feels like these skills have improved during her time in the company. She underlines the power of teamwork: “Above all else, teamwork is the most important attribute to success. When we work together, and build each other up, driving our initiatives to success is fun and keeps a smile on everyone's face.”

And last, when asking what is the best about Sandra’s work her answer is clear: “Every project, every strategy session and every critical decision Hiab makes is a result of our colleagues participation. We make an impact at Hiab. I love being asked for my or my team's participation in these critical items. It gives me great job satisfaction that significantly outweighs the hours, the stress and hard work. They are all part of my life, but the payoff is having an impact on my company that I can "own". Our people are simply fun to work with, and our leadership team is smart and driven. We are all on this journey together.”

“Together we all have the same ambition which is to develop our people and grow the business, but most of all, there is no better feeling than hearing from Customers how our products and services suit their business needs.” 

Meet Barry McGrane Hiab’s Vice President of North America. Barry has been in the company for 18 years and has worked in a variety of positions during these years. His career story at Hiab started in December 2001 when he joined the team in Engineering and R&D in the Truck Mounted Forklift business line in Dundalk, Ireland: “From there I moved into sales having responsibility for TMFL global sales and then in May of last year I got presented the opportunity to run the US business which was a great step for me, both professionally and personally.” 

Barry has a history with Hiab’s business line Moffett from when he was younger and Moffett was a small family owned business. The transition to his role at Hiab was natural as he already knew most of the team in Dundalk and the products: “At that time, the Moffett business was acquired by Cargotec. The new owner and leadership provided a great future for the business, so it was an easy decision to become part of that.”

It can be said that over the years Barry has learned a lot of Hiab’s business and products but he still thinks that the most important part of his job is to spend time with customers and employees as there’s always something to learn and improve on. Overall, Barry himself sees his role as to support the team to provide the best customer service that they can and he thinks the best way to support is to get involved as much as possible: “I try to spend time with customers when I can, as they give me first hand knowledge on what we do well and more importantly what we can improve on. My current role also entails quite an amount of travel, and I take as much time as I can to sit with all levels of the business to hear what our front line employees need from me to help make their jobs easier.” 

Barry thinks that it is essential in this business to have a passion for our products and people. He believes that having a happy and an engaged workforce will in itself provide first class customer satisfaction: “You need to invest time and get into the details of both of these aspects and combine this with drive and ambition to make the business successful.” This is something that works well in Barry’s current team:

 “In my US role, I am now in the fortunate position of being surrounded by some of the best people in the business and can see the positive impact this is making right now. Together we all have the same ambition which is to develop our people and grow the business, but most of all, there is no better feeling than hearing from Customers how our products and services to suit their business needs.

“It has been quite a ride but it has suited me well!”

Meet Annika Männikkö, Hiab’s Director of Strategy & PMO who’s responsible for Hiab Services strategy including running a program management office to make sure that the company achieves its strategic targets. Annika started in her current position a few months ago - however, this is not her first position in the company. Her career at Hiab started already 8 years ago and during this time she has worked in 7 different positions including taking one year off on maternity leave:

“It has been quite a ride but it has suited me well! I have worked in almost all thinkable areas in our global Services organisation ranging from operative customer facing positions to pure strategic ones”

Before joining Hiab Annika was studying Economics and Business Administration at Åbo Akademi University and worked in a small consulting & research company for 4 years. There she got acquainted with companies similar to Hiab/Cargotec and got intrigued by this type of business and industry. What specifically interested Annika in Hiab was its different possibilities:

”I believe that we have a tremendous amount of opportunities within the after sales business of Hiab, not only growing the core business but also truly new opportunities along with digitalized solutions and connectivity. Tapping those opportunities gets me excited and motivated. As a person I am very much driven by learning and being part of creating something new, so I believe that this company and position is a good fit for me.”

When asking Annika what is best about Hiab and her work she underlines the opportunities to learn and develop, in addition to the people she gets to work with and the variety of her tasks. She really enjoys workshops and meetings whether these are with customers, suppliers or internal where she can create something new or solve problems. This is when she gets to interact with others and learn at the same time. As Annika has spent the majority of her career at Hiab she feels like all of her professional skills have developed during this time - communication skills being one of the most important ones to succeed in her work:

“To me the most crucial skills are communication and cooperation skills. It’s about the fact that you do not need to possess all the necessary skills and knowledge yourself, such as technical ones in my case, but you need to be able to work and interact well with the people who have those. You need to convince people that they want to work and share their knowledge with you.”

A lot has happened during the past 8 years and Annika has collected many memorable moments in the company, but some of the times have been more special than others: “One memorable period was when I moved to Malmö, Sweden to work at our head office in 2014-2015. This period could be described as a game changer both from career and personal life perspective: I even got married there in Copenhagen City Hall!”

“I love my job. I love getting the best out of this company and our people to give the best impact to our customers.”

Meet Rogier van der Linde, Hiab’s Senior Vice President of Truck Mounted Forklifts. Rogier’s task is to lead Hiab’s business line being responsible for the growth and development of the Moffett and Princenton products with R&D and manufacturing based in Ireland and sales all over the globe. However, this is not Rogiers first position at Cargotec or even at Hiab. How did he end up here then? “Well, this will be a long story because Cargotec is still the first company I have ever worked for.”

Rogier’s career at Cargotec started in 2007 when he got a trainee position at Kalmar after finishing his Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Ever since Rogier has been in the company either at Kalmar, MacGregor or Hiab: “Six years ago I got the chance to join Hiab, I have had the great opportunity to see all the three business areas in Cargotec.” Work at Hiab has taken Rogier to different positions and countries, first to Sweden, then to the UK with a short stop back in The Netherlands, where he is originally from, and then Rogier and his family moved to Ireland at the end of 2019.

It can be said that Rogier’s work at Cargotec and Hiab has affected and shaped his life in many ways and there are lots of memories along the way: “There are so many memorable moments of my time at Hiab. For example; negotiating M&A deals in US, China, Brazil, Italy, getting a call from Mika Vehviläinen (CEO of Cargotec) to get the profit acceleration job, rescheduling my flight to get home just in time to see my mom passing away, winning awards at the round table, getting my master degree, doubling the business in the UK, moving to Copenhagen with my family and then to the UK and many more.”

International positions, tasks and contacts have taught a lot along the way and Rogier thinks that his time abroad has been one of the best things about his job: “I learned a lot in the UK and have had the opportunity to share those experiences in other countries as well in my previous role being responsible for South & West Europe.” Rogier also thinks that the company’s culture and atmosphere suits him well and is one of the reasons he is still in the company: “I am result oriented and I really like to win. And winning in “this game” is a team sport. So, I love to work with these motivated and passionate people who want to get the job done and win. There are many opportunities in this business and we have so many great people in the company that we can all learn from.” This especially comes to play in his latest challenge to lead the TMFL business line.

Overall, Rogier thinks that we should never stop learning: “I don’t only like to support others to get better every day, but I also continuously try to work on myself to get better every day.” Rogier feels that Hiab as a company offers you different ways to develop yourself: “At Hiab there are tons of opportunities and there are smart and passionate people who can guide you to your dream job and you can also have fun while doing it.”

From a school study with Cargotec to the Director of Sales and Product Business Management at Multilift Hiab. 

In 2004 Henri Janhonen was sitting in a lecture hall at the Helsinki University of Technology, listening to a visiting lecturer from Cargotec. This was part of a course called Design of Product Systems which also included a practical assignment in an organization. Henri’s team got an assignment from Hiab but little did he know where this would lead:  “I found working with the assignment very interesting, and it acted as a spark to apply for a summer trainee position in the coming year. The assignment we got as students was a real case. Also the communication and support from our Hiab contacts was fantastic and I really enjoyed the work in the machinery sector.”

As a result of the assignment, Henri applied to a summer trainee position the following spring, and started at Hiab in May 2005. During his first summer he got to work with a variety of different topics such as deliveries of equipment, service business and sourcing. From the very beginning Henri felt like he was not only working with interesting topics but also with great people in a great atmosphere. 

Now after 14 years Henri is working as a Director of Sales and Product Business Management at Multilift Hiab. He is leading a department which is responsible for supporting and training Hiab’s distribution partner network. He works with customers, partners and with sales organisation of Hiab and the Multilift team. What makes his job interesting is the versatility of it: “There is not really a “typical day” when working in this position. There are common themes in my work but you never know which customer will contact you next and what they will need assistance with. When working in a business line sales role you can definitely benefit from a good network in the company, experience different tasks and have an active approach to work.”

This is something that Henri really enjoys in his work. Besides his variety of tasks he thinks the best about Hiab and his job are nice colleagues, engaged teams and our products and solutions in which the decades of innovation can be seen. With great products it is also great to work with our distribution and satisfied customers:

“Meeting customers has always been something that I enjoy. I have such good memories of meetings together with customers and coming to an agreement together with them. Overall working with people in international settings has developed my communication skills a lot. This is something which you learn by doing, as well as by support of trainings that Hiab has provided. Also, my work tasks have put the university education into good use, so I am glad about the choices when it comes to my job and my education.”

Even though the journey from the lecture hall to where Henri is now in the company has been long and successful, he thinks that: “There are still many opportunities out there to develop myself in this company as Hiab itself is always developing and going forward.”

“I never imagined I would have the opportunity to both teach and turn wrenches. It is truly a blessing.”

Meet Richard Musgrove, Training Manager who’s responsible for the development and implementation of training for HIAB’s technicians. The way Richard ended up at HIAB and his current position, has been an interesting path throughout the organization. His career at Cargotec started back in 2012 when he went to work for Kalmar as a Service Technician in a small intermodal yard in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was promoted to be a Maintenance foreman and moved to Cincinnati to manage Kalmar's operations there: 

“I worked there until the intermodal division was sold at which point I was recruited by HIAB to be a Field Service Technician. Then I was asked to join the HIAB USA Tech Support team where I would provide support to our Service Technicians across the US.”

During his time in Tech Support Richard realized that Hiab needed to do a better job providing training for the Technicians. He began to push for better training and at the same time, it was clear HIAB was beginning to come to the same conclusion: “Eventually, I was given the opportunity to do something about it. Since then we have developed a multi-tiered training program. It is my hope that in the future we will be able to offer a library of e-learnings and video tutorials to enhance our current learning program.”

Growing up Richard always thought he would end up teaching history classes in some form or another but life had other plans for him. After his four year military service in the United States Marine Corps he was presented with the opportunity to work as a heavy equipment mechanic:

“Good pay, no stress why not? - I thought. Boy was I wrong. It is amazing how you realize just how much you don’t know the more you know. Once I started turning wrenches and learning how much there was to learn I became truly fascinated. I never imagined I would have the opportunity to both teach and turn wrenches. It is truly a blessing.”

Richard’s work is mainly around training but the tasks vary depending on the day. One day he spends time preparing and ensuring that they have everything they need for a successful event, the other day he has a training class to train. Usually after the training class comes recovering and cleaning up from the week’s class. Other times he spends time working on training materials and other special projects.

“Sometimes when you are up there leading a class everything just falls into place and you can tell you’re not just teaching a class anymore, instead, we are learning from one another, together. I enjoy helping people and being in a position where I reach so many. It’s very satisfying. If I can help make one person’s job just a little easier, it's a good day.” Says Richard.

Richard attributes most of the success he has seen to the mentors he has had through the years, both before his career at Cargotec and during it. They have helped him through difficult times and made him realize that anything is possible if you are willing to dedicate the time and effort to make it so: “Always try to do more than you can with what you have.” he says.

“I can only speak from my personal experiences. But at least for me, if you are willing to work hard and dedicate yourself to success, the sky is the limit at HIAB.”