EDCO Blog

Sunbelt’s WISE group of female leaders work with companies like EDCO to educate and empower their employees

No matter what industry you choose to serve, having the competence to complete your job with confidence is one way to ensure you’re going to be successful. For women who enter careers in the construction industry, training and mentorships are paramount to that outcome. 

At Sunbelt Rentals, a company with over 20,000 employees nationwide, they recognized the importance of this early and created a program to accelerate knowledge and growth among their female employees. 

In 2022, the company created its first employee resource group (ERG). The goal of this initiative was to empower employees with shared experiences to support one another and grow, both personally and professionally. The female employee-led ERG called WISE: Women. Inspired. Supported. Empowered., was the first ERG of many at Sunbelt, and its impact has been profound. 

“The construction industry has always been mostly male, through the growth of our company we recognized the opportunity to recruit and attract based on individual talent and attributes versus the historical status quo.”

Amber Gobert, Regional Sales Director – Region 6 at Sunbelt Rentals

“By recognizing this opportunity, we first formed a DE&I task force across the organization, and the next step was to add Employee Resource Groups with WISE being our first one to grow.”

When Gobert started at Sunbelt, she relied on her male teammates to learn the equipment and the construction industry. Through her journey with Sunbelt and in the industry, she found the opportunities to share and connect her experiences and learnings with other teammates. Then the opportunity to lead the first ERG that would encourage more women into careers within the company and the industry – she jumped on the chance to help.

“WISE offers a way for members to be heard while helping with the feeling of belonging through networking,” Gobert said. “While the group focuses on women, men are welcome to join, too. In fact, it is imperative for WISE to be able to connect males and all teammates, with the aim of gaining a clearer perspective of how women can grow and thrive within the industry.”

With over 1,300 locations in the U.S., Canada and the UK, the WISE group started out by setting their missions and goals to build connections within the organization. 

Build the Foundation

There were 6 women nominated by Sunbelt Sr. Leadership to act as the WISE Advisory Board, representing all facets of the business. They used a research-based method to discover what Sunbelt’s employees wanted in an ERG and what they did not want in an ERG. They built a solid foundation to what WISE would represent but realized to execute and sustain the first ERG…they needed more teammates to help lead WISE and connect across the company globally through Sunbelt US, Sunbelt Canada, and Sunbelt UK.

In addition to establishing an advisory board of six women from that outreach, the group sought out executive sponsors to support the mission, and selected Amber Gobert as president.

“What I’ve learned through my WISE leadership journey is when women set their minds to something, they put the steps in play to accomplish the vision/mission,” Gobert said. “As we collaborated as a leadership team, we found all of us had so many different talents that contributed to executing the steps needed to obtain our goals and vision. A beautiful team effort!”

Set Vision and Goals

Through further outreach, WISE grew to 20 inaugural members on the WISE leadership team (including the advisory board), with the additional employees serving as committee members and helping to establish the group’s mission and goals. The group unanimously agreed that their mission “is to advance an inclusive culture that empowers women and provides equitable opportunity throughout the Sunbelt Rentals organization and the communities we serve.” The members also set up goals, which the WISE leadership team focuses on to keep the group on track. These goals are to:

• Strengthen relationships with allies who will support and advocate for the WISE mission.
• Provide resources for leaders and team members.
• Create a forum for mentoring and networking.
• Participate in service projects in the community.
• Transform the future of the rental industry.

Members were excited to establish and support this mission and the goals. The spirit of networking, connecting, and developing members is personally and professionally beneficial.

Leverage Committees + Engage Members

Throughout the year, WISE relies on its committees to further the mission through in-person and virtual events. They also regularly conduct surveys to ensure their members are getting the most out of this group. 

All ERGs at Sunbelt to include WISE is made up of four focus areas:

• Culture – Plan events, activities, and guest speakers as well as collaborating with other ERGs.
• Career – Provide professional development resources and encouraging networking & mentoring opportunities.
• Community – Partner with non-profit community organizations to impact the areas we live and work.
• Communications – Promote ERG events across the business to increase membership and engagement.

From there, WISE continues its mission with quarterly events, both virtually and in person. In their signature month, March, with keynote speakers and panels to connect the dots and engage the group in a different way. 

During WISE’s visit at EDCO, the two groups partnered together to pack 200 period for poverty bags with feminine hygiene products; which were donated to local Frederick, MD charities.

Events Help Further Education

WISE has held many successful events since its launch. First, there was a fireside chat on human leadership with Kristen Hadeed, author of ‘Permission to Screw Up’ and Kelye Gwaltney, director of talent and acquisition at Sunbelt Rentals. The second event was hosted by Sunbelt Rentals Territory Trainer Jacqueline Hayman, along with the company’s Crystal Bastedo (district manager), Sydney Sieber, and Samantha Anise (both regional financial managers for Sunbelt Rentals). It was focused on financing and budgets. In the first live and virtual WISE event, Debi Hemmeter of Leanin.org provided important messaging about inclusive workplaces. To date, more than 1325 Sunbelt Rental team members are connected to WISE in the U.S. and Canada and have access to these and future events.

The WISE group also holds several regional events that help women in specific areas get further training. This Fall, Region 6 hosted an event with EDCO to help bring members together while also providing training opportunities. 

Sunbelt has relied on partners like EDCO for years in order to better educate their employees.

“EDCO has been an excellent partner building an entire training program around the education of how to use their tools. That allows us to confidently get them to the end user for the right application for their job,” Daphne Manning, Director of Customer Excellence at Sunbelt said. “They have been very open with their facility, consistently welcoming our team members and actively soliciting our input on how they can improve their equipment offerings.

Each year I bring a group to their facility for a tour, followed by a presentation where they showcase the products being introduced to the field, along with training and education provided to our teams. We then offer constructive feedback. Through this collaborative relationship, we have developed a strong partnership, one that has been instrumental in enhancing our rental knowledge and education. This enables us to effectively equip our employees with the resources they need to better serve our customers.

Hand-On Empowerment

For many in the industry, especially women, the tooling can seem very challenging and intimidating. EDCO wanted to help change that perception.

I can recall the early days of my career with Sunbelt Rentals as a new team member, I would commonly receive calls from our customers asking for concrete grinding equipment. I would often feel uncertain about how to navigate the situation, as I wasn’t always sure what questions I should be asking. We wanted to provide our employee with the opportunity to not only use the tool effectively, but also to develop the ability to ask the right questions with confidence. EDCO does an excellent job of guiding us through the various surface preparation stages, it helps create that ‘aha’ moment and significantly builds confidence.  When you are confident on concrete grinding equipment it makes our other diverse products in our fleet easier to use and understand.

The in-person meeting will not only further the WISE mission, but also give the hands-on learning opportunities needed for the group to operate the machines themselves and get a feel for what they are trying to sell.

“When we thought of this idea, we were trying to find something that would help women feel more comfortable and competent in what they do every day and knew EDCO was the right place for that,” Manning said. “ EDCO does an excellent job with hands-on training at their facility in a very controlled safe environment where their team focuses on building confidence and competency.

“I remember my first visit, I felt so empowered after using those tools and being with the EDCO team,” Manning continues. “They made it feel comfortable and safe. It was very educational. It was very easy to be with the team, and it was so much fun. I felt so empowered after, and it made everything click for me. We wanted to provide that same feeling for other women. We decided to plan the event in the fall of 2024.”

Sunbelt plans to create more opportunities like this for their employees because they know the value of this training for the success of their people – and the confidence of the end rental user because of their expertise. 

“We are incredibly grateful to EDCO for their ongoing partnership,” Gobert said. “Having the ability to ask the questions and operate the equipment in a supportive environment is invaluable. Early in my career, I didn’t feel comfortable asking questions, and I assumed I was expected to know everything, which led me to try to figure things out on my own. It was a difficult and time-consuming process. This opportunity is truly priceless for women who are eager to learn and excel in their roles, and ultimately, it’s an investment that will benefit our customers.