At the time I’m writing this, I’ve served as editor of Rental magazine for about a month. While I still have much to learn, I’ve started to get a feel on the pulse of the rental industry.
I’ve had the pleasure of talking with several key players in the industry and learning more about what makes a good rental company. I’ve also come to understand more about the challenges plaguing the industry—namely, labor woes and supply chain issues.
Coming from a background in the landscaping and golf course industries, I’m no stranger to reporting on these topics, as those segments also dealt with finding the right people and parts to keep their operations running smoothly, too, especially during the pandemic.
What’s interesting to me are the various solutions companies have come up with to combat these challenges: educational incentives for employees, diversity and inclusion initiatives, new employee referral bonuses and employee recognition programs, to name a few.
This month, for an episode of Rental’s “The Bottom Line” podcast, I spoke with the American Rental Association on what it’s doing to promote the rental industry as a viable career path. As one of its approaches, the association is encouraging rental companies around the country to educate high schoolers and their families on the many opportunities the industry has to offer. Be sure to check out that latest episode at forconstructionpros.com/podcast.
What types of initiatives have proven successful for your company? Please don’t hesitate to share them so that your counterparts can also find success by emulating those programs, in turn, bringing the rental industry up a notch or two.
Turning to this month’s issue, we have included a lot of noteworthy content. For one, industry experts weigh in on the aerial lift industry and a few of the major players impacting the game and what it will look like moving forward (page 14). We also have a feature on how GPS technology can save rental customers the headaches that come with stolen equipment and asset recover (page 20), a roundup of the latest accessories and attachments hitting the market (page 30) and, as always, the Eye on Rental column from Dick Detmer, who describes what rental companies can do to execute a smooth succession, whether that’s through the sale of the company or the passing down of the company from one generation to the next (page 35).
I’m eager to find out what more I’ll have to report on by next issue’s column writing, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, please feel free to continue reaching out with your ideas, questions and more via email at [email protected] or via LinkedIn at sarah-webb-1ba8b2109.
