Safestore

Their challenge

Safestore is the UK’s largest and Europe’s second largest provider of self storage solutions. On joining as CEO in March 2011 Peter Gowers asked all Safestore colleagues what they particularly liked or disliked about the business for which they worked. Overwhelmingly the current bonus scheme was subject to much criticism. Innecto Reward Consulting were commissioned to assist in the production of new variable pay arrangements. These would be key in supporting the achievement of current and future business objectives.

Our solution

Firstly, Innecto undertook a detailed review of the issues involved through individual interviews with the Executive Team, analysis of employee blog comments, and the completion of online surveys. Subsequent face to face workshops with a cross-section of employees and a decision-making Steering Group allowed Innecto to make some initial recommendations on the most appropriate design for Safestore’s current and future needs. Based on analysis of this information and our knowledge and experience of what has worked well elsewhere, we trialled a number of potential options with each of the groups involved and defined key metrics for success. 

Project meetings (which involved representatives from Finance, HR and Operations as well as the Executive Team), moved on to refine details further – for example, looking into the most appropriate weightings for each area, competitive levels of bonus opportunity offered (including benchmarking where required), the extent to which team versus individual achievement should be recognised and most appropriate timings to be reflected. Having refined these, we undertook detailed series costings, as well as risk analysis, ensuring that all possible outcomes of scheme implementation would prove both affordable by the business under any circumstance and aligned with what the business wanted to achieve as well as realistic and credible by employees.  

The outcome

The chosen model was detailed yet user-friendly and linked into all relevant internal metrics to ensure ease of administration and flexibility of the scheme in a ‘future-proofed’ fashion. The model also allowed a broad range of potential scenarios to be explored and adjustments made to various parts of the scheme accordingly whilst keeping in mind overall implications. 

This considerably enhanced the perceived value from bonus spend whilst containing costs, only increasing from historical budgets where additional financial success warranted it. Alongside this modelling, we reviewed current performance management arrangements and aligned them with the new bonus scheme.

The entire scheme was then ‘brought to life’ using Innecto’s Communications Consultant, who had been involved from the early stages of the Project. They ensured that all forms of communication were most appropriate for each particular audience to achieve maximum impact. This involved a combination of media such as booklets, pocket scorecards, store whiteboards, manager cascade guidelines and intranet based individual calculator tools, all of which revolved around one common brand.   

A pivotal requirement of this Project was to work with the 4 Strategic Priorities identified and introduced by Mr Gowers to ensure that each individual within the business knew clearly how they could personally contribute to each of these new business initiatives and what their reward would be for doing so. Also key was that individual progress against these could be easily assessed on a regular basis, thus influencing work choices they made during each month. On scheme launch at the annual company conference, 98% of employees felt this objective had been achieved.