Notre culture

A passion for people.

As our company grows, so does the need to ensure that we attract and retain a talented team that we welcome new talent to the United Rentals family and provide a world-class workplace. Our capacity to engage and inspire our people is the cornerstone of our ability to exceed our customers’ expectations and fulfill our mission. We are also dedicated to supporting the communities where we live and work, amplifying the positive impact our company and team can bring.

Since the first branch opened in 1997, United Rentals has been a leader in the rental industry. Every project and program we promote upholds our commitment to build a better and stronger future through safety, service, respect, diversity, and integrity.

The way we treat others is at the heart of our 1UR ™ culture. We prioritize safety, wellness, inclusivity and service by equipping and empowering our team with the resources they need to succeed. This philosophy extends beyond our walls. We are dedicated to supporting the communities where we live and work, amplifying the positive impact our company and team can bring and to help our customers do the same.

Health & Safety

The safety of our people, customers and jobsites is our foremost priority and we show up for each other by leading a "safety first, and always" culture.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Our purpose is not just to build a better future, but to build a better future together. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at United Rentals means that a wide range of cultures, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives come together to make us stronger.

Employee & Community Support

United Rentals’ culture of caring extends beyond physical safety. We support the holistic well-being of our employees – including their physical, mental and emotional wellness. It also means being a good neighbor and outstanding corporate citizen.

We manage the health and safety of our business through an integrated occupational health and safety (OHS) program, and we build safety awareness through regular trainings, protocols and guidelines that meet evolving customer and employee needs.

UNITED4SAFETY

Our safety culture is organized under the banner of United4Safety, which provides a way of thinking about safety in every aspect of our lives, at work and at home. United4Safety has four tenets: think safe, work safe, drive safe and live safe. We expect safety to be the primary consideration of each of our employees, and we facilitate this through innovation, leadership development, continuous learning and personal well-being. Our OHS program is a companywide approach to detailing guidelines on the safe operation of equipment, tools and conduct. Our activities and protocols meet local, state and federal occupational health and safety laws and regulations, and our OHS program meets or exceeds minimum standards. With integrated incident prevention and management plans like our Injury Illness Prevention Plan, Leadership Injury Management Guide and Life Safety Rules, our program has best-in-class status among our peers.

Empowering Employees to Act Safely

We support our employees to act safely through our Hazard 360° Awareness risk-assessment program. This program is designed to help employees identify and manage potential safety risks during work activities. We also provide all employees with stop work authority to stop a job if they observe safety risks, or if there is a lack of clear and established work procedures to protect team members from risk. Our teams begin each day with a safety huddle focused on a select safety topic. In 2022, we dedicated one huddle to the completion of a safety commitment letter that all employees sign annually. This letter represents a commitment for all team members to conduct themselves safely and to model safe behavior to others. To recognize and respond to evolving employee safety needs, we’re continuously creating new training courses. In 2022, we developed a Slip, Trip and Fall Incident Prevention course for employees in order to address one of our most common injury occurrences.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at United Rentals means that a wide range of cultures, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives come together to make us stronger. Each member of Team United benefits from access to opportunities and resources and is empowered to use their differences to drive results.

We implement our strategy through our companywide DEI program. In 2022, our program initiatives included:

DEI Gap Analysis - We consulted an independent third party in 2021 to help identify and prioritize opportunities to improve our DEI strategy. Since then we took action to address the opportunities identified, including expanding the number of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and setting more targeted goals to build our diverse pipeline. We continue to conduct pay equity analyses on an annual basis and use the findings to create a more equitable workplace among our diverse populations.
Diversity Momentum Index – We increased diverse representation in sales and management positions by using our Diversity Momentum Index tool. To build on our learnings, we asked leadership to review new hires and terminations on a monthly basis, to meet with the Director of DEI to identify any patterns or issues and to then collaborate with HR, Recruiting and the relevant business units/ regions to resolve them.
Education – We educated leadership on DEI during a variety of roundtable discussions and learning events so that leaders of all backgrounds are equipped with tools necessary to create an inclusive culture.
Expanding Equity Program – We joined the Expanding Equity program, created by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to help us advance racial equity. In 2022, we rolled out a Leading with Empathy course to all employees enrolled in our future leaders program.
Partnership with ABC – We sponsored the American Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) 2023 Inclusion, Diversity and Equity summit concerned with bridging diversity gaps in the construction industry.

DEI Beyond Our Walls

Our DEI strategy extends beyond our workplace and into the communities where we live and work. In 2022, our team donated more than 65,000 volunteer hours, including volunteering with organizations that support diverse or underserved communities. We partnered with our ERGs to create company-wide virtual and in-person, community-focused events that focused on health, development and awareness.

In 2022, we hired more than 6,000 new employees – the highest volume of new hires in our company’s history - and brought over 2,000 additional employees through acquisitions. Together, we are 1UR, a unified team regardless of background or location. One of our key differentiators is our empathetic and collaborative culture, which enables us to remain both flexible and resilient. We utilize communication and technology tools like our internal social media site, Workplace, and our digital apps to connect our global network, streamline work processes and facilitate dialogue. We solicit feedback from our employees annually through our Employee Experience survey. Overall, our 2022 survey results place us “Best in Class” in the top 10% of our benchmark.

EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

We maintain regular two-way communication with employees to receive feedback and share news. We use our intranet and internal social media sites for day-to-day updates and regular town halls, quarterly all-employee conference calls and our annual management meeting to share more strategic updates. We conduct an Employee Experience survey on an annual basis to gauge employee job satisfaction and retention. In 2022, we brought on a new survey partner that allows us to benchmark our performance against global and benchmark group-specific data and gain more insights about strengths, opportunities and gaps in our employee engagement. In 2022, more than 80% of our employees responded to our survey. United Rentals scored in the top 10% of our benchmark group across engagement, diversity and inclusion and health and wellbeing. Scores in all categories for women-identified employees and employees of color were equal to or higher than the company average, underscoring the impacts of our commitment to fostering equity and inclusivity in our work environment.