Self-storage began in America Essay

The Shurgard concept of self-storage began in America in 1970 when cofounder of the bon ton Chuck Barbo identified a gap in the market for both homeowners and businesses with a requirement for extra space.He came up with the notion of mini-warehouses for bulk with excess belongings and businesses with long forgotten records or documents.Twenty age later Shurgard began to expand into europium and in 1995 the first European parentage opened in Brussels. Four years later the first UK caudex opened in South London and earlier this year the smart set was bought for $5bn by Public Storage, the worlds largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities. The gainsayThe growth and success of Shurgard in Europe meant that increasing demands and expectations were being located on the confederacys operations middle managing directors who were wrestling with a growing emergence of stores, an ever-larger geographic area of responsibility, increased numbers of employees, decentralisa tion of country and panEuropean support centres, greater autonomy and reorganisation of roles.Terry Whitney, European Learning and Development Manager of Shurgard SelfStorage Centers, express The business of self-storage was very various in Europe than it was in the US and there were different points of maturity in the market so there were many challenges to face. Most of our heed was focalizesed on buying property and building new facilities. shortly we realised we had a management police squad that was bright and hard workings more thanover had suffered from a lack of victimisation focus.The best result of our coalition with SHL is that the district managers are now motivated because they know what is expected of them, how they exit be held account equal to(p) and have foc utilize training and development in place. Importantly, they too know what success looks like. Terry Whitney, Shurgard shl.comCase Study Shurgard emblematic of many fast growing companies, Shurg ard realised that it had no concord of think over titles, roles or responsibilities and no standardised pipeline descriptions or job competencies for its staff. In addition there was no formal evaluation, training or development and no succession planning.What Shurgard wanted to create was a consistent horizontal surface of district managers across Europe. Some throng already had this title but their job seemed little different to a market manager, operations manager or area manager.We were promoting great operations pot from store managers to more senior job titles with responsibility for profit and loss accounts for ad hoc districts. We in addition wanted them to lead, inspire and motivate and the more senior roles had a all told different set of skills requirements which we had not measured or trained for, said Whitney.District managers were identified as the operations diminutive layer with which to get cracking work. Shurgard felt that if these people could not under stand and accurately report on key occupancy and rates figures for stores, then shareholders would not have the boldness to invest money for expansion and more storage sites. The solutionThis customer places people development high on its list of organizational priorities. With an agree name for the role, the company pauperizationed to align the title with expectations and competencies that could be used across Europe and which would accommodate future growth of new stores. The people had to more effectively lead and manage an ever larger number of store personnel at a time of reduced modify support. They were also required to operate at a higher managerial level than had previously been demanded.Faced with this challenge, Shurgard partnered with SHL global experts in workplace judgement to conduct a performance assessment of the mid-management team in Europe.The computer programme was designed to Establish a benchmark of current managerial talents begin a gap analysis to d etermine the strengths and limitation of the management team against the new job competencies Recommend how the current managerial team could reach the new expectations for the district manager role Assess the leadership potentiality of the current team Identify the ideal profile of a district manager for use in future recruitment.Supporting more than 10,000 customers every(prenominal) yearOrganisations that understand and maximize their peoples potential accomplish outstanding results. SHL gives you the insights to make better decisions close your people. We call this People Intelligence, vocation Results.With SHLs Universal competency Framework cards, we were able to define the critical behaviours required for the district managers role, comments Whitney This competency model was the hub around which SHL was able to design an appropriate development centre programme.Individuals were invited to a one-day assessment at an SHL diagnostic development centre in order to see how t hey fitted the need and behavioural competencies of the district manager role. The assessment included exercises aligned to specific competencies, psychometric tests in local languages, management scenario role-play and numerical, verbal and abstract ratiocination tests. Each attendee received feedback from a senior SHL assessor who took them by dint of their results and talked about their development needs.The ResultsAs a result of the assessment, Shurgard found that its mid-management team had a wide spectrum of skills and abilities but also specific patterns of managerial strengths and weaknesses. Recognising these areas enabled the company to position the appropriate training and development to address specific competencies and behaviours.Shurgard really learned the critical importance of aligning the district manager job description, job competencies, hiring profile, training activities and performance management processes to create improved need and performance, said Whitn ey.He added that using the competencies created by SHL also changed the recruitment and advancement process. New recruits are now given competency-based interviews focused on true experiences whilst promotions are no longer based on length of redevelopment and performance alone but on potential against the required competencies. For me its the competencies everything ties back to them, said Whitney.And he adds The best result of our partnership with SHL is that the district managers are now motivated because they know what is expected of them, how they will be held accountable and have focused training and development in place. Importantly, they also know what success looks like.Case Study ShurgardShurgards need to focus on developing its managers was being hampered by a lack of consistency in job titles, roles, responsibilities and competencies for its staff. SHL worked with the firm to assess its midmanagement team in Europe and identify the ideal profile for district manager s. Shurgard is now able to target management development and recruit more effectively for improved penury and performance 25 million assessments every year.Organisations that understand and maximize their peoples potential achieve outstanding results. SHL gives you the insights to make better decisions about your people. We call this People Intelligence, Business Results.