Our People

Building a diverse and inclusive workplace is a top priority for us. Our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy is about embedding and continuing the important work we’ve already done to enable all our colleagues to feel confident to bring their full unique selves to work.

We are proud of Safestore’s diverse workforce; in our 2024 IIP survey, over 84% of colleagues agreed that Safestore is committed to diversity and stated that we value and respect individual differences.

In 2024, we published our Diversity Pay Gap Report, which includes ethnicity and gender data. We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace, encouraging, and welcoming diversity with zero tolerance of harassment and discrimination. This approach is supported by our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy, which reflects both current legislation and best practice, and highlights the Group’s commitments to all protected characteristics including race, gender, socioeconomic and disability equality.

Full and fair consideration is given to applications for employment from disabled persons and appropriate training and career development are provided.

Colleague journey

This is about ensuring our culture is friendly and welcoming to all. We want people to be themselves at work, and initiatives such as our Values and Behaviours framework, health and wellbeing support from day one, and improving the accessibility of our learning and development opportunities support our culture.

Colleague data and analytics

We are encouraging more colleagues to disclose their ethnicity. We want to collect more people data to further understand our diverse communities such as the LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse communities, to inform even more beneficial and tangible action. Our ‘Make the Difference’ people forum enables frequent opportunities for us to hear and respond to our colleagues. The forum has helped us to continue our awareness-raising activities and communication through our internal social media platform. The aim is to appreciate our diversity by recognising and celebrating festivals and events, as well as individuals, and to create a safe space for sharing and discussion.

Positive action

This is about recruiting from underrepresented groups, and building campaigns and opportunities for networks to meet, be listened to and feel supported. We believe that every colleague should be heard. Our colleagues describe a real listening and learning culture at Safestore. There are channels in place help to give everyone a voice, such as our ‘Make the Difference’ forum, town hall meetings and leadership visits. Our awareness-raising activity on our internal communications platform, MySafestore, has generated lots of energy and engagement.

Leadership and management

We support our leaders to encourage and welcome diversity. Our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion e-Learning module is part of the induction for all new colleagues joining Safestore. We want Safestore to be a safe space for discussion and curiosity to enable colleagues at all levels to continually learn from each other. In our 2024 IIP survey, over 90% of colleagues were aware of our equality, diversity, and inclusion policies.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion data

"The approach to EDI is The approach to EDI is genuine; we don’t tick boxes for the sake of it."

 

Safestore’s gender and ethnicity split is outlined in the table below.

Our gender data is collected primarily for payroll, tax, and pay gap reporting, as part of our colleague onboarding process, where colleagues are required to supply an answer to the question ‘What is your gender as stated on your birth certificate?’. However, we appreciate that not everyone identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth (that is, the gender written on their first birth certificate). Therefore, in the UK, we have updated our gender data collection forms by adding a supplementary question about gender identity.

The data in the table shown below is at 31 October 2024.

Our ethnicity data is voluntarily self-reported by colleagues, via our payroll self-service portal. The data in the table shown below is at 31 October 2024. The section for voluntary completion is entitled ‘Ethnic Group’ and the options are the ONS ethnicity categories. Colleagues who have not provided data are not included in our calculations. We report on ethnicity as ethnic minority and white; however, we do consider the data at a more specific level internally.

The global landscape for data reporting on ethnicity is complex and, following a review of legal and local considerations, at present we only collect ethnicity data for UK colleagues.

Further analysis can be found in the 2023 Diversity Pay Gap Report on our website. The report also sets out a range of actions we are taking to help close the gap.

Group gender representation at 31 October 2024

	Number of Board members1	Percentage of the Board	Number of senior positions on the Board (CEO, CFO, SID, and Chair)	Number in Executive Committee	Percentage of Executive Committee	Number in Senior Management and Direct Reports	Percentage of Senior Management and Direct Reports	Number of all colleagues (exc. NEDs)	Percentage of all colleagues
Men	4	50%	3	8	89%	32	76%	517	64%
Women	4	50%	1	1	11%	10	24%	287	36%

Ethnicity representation at 31 October 2024²

	Number of Board members1	Percentage of the Board	Number of senior positions on the Board (CEO, CFO, SID, and Chair)	Number in Executive Committee	Percentage of Executive Committee	Number in Senior Management and Direct Reports	Percentage of Senior Management and Direct Reports	Number of all colleagues (exc. NEDs)	Percentage of all colleagues
White British or other White (including minority-white groups)	7	87.5%	4	5	71.4%	18	81.8%	328	66.0%
Mixed/ multiple ethnic groups	1	12.5%	0	-	-	-	-	25	4.5%
Asian/Asian British	-	-	-	1	14.3%	4	18.2%	72	12.9%
Black/ African/ Caribbean/Black British	-	-	-	-		-	-	61	11.0%
Other ethnic group	-	-	-	-		-	-	10	1.8%
Not specified/ prefer not to say	-	-	-	1	14.3%	-	-	61	11.0%
Target for 2027							18.3%

Notes:

¹The Board self-report their data.
²UK only. Where colleagues have voluntarily disclosed this data.

Colleague engagement

We believe that engaged colleagues, who feel valued by our business, are the foundation of our customer-focused culture.

Our ‘Make the Difference’ people forum, launched in 2018, is a formal workforce advisory panel, which enables frequent opportunities for us to hear and respond to our colleagues.

Our network of ‘People Champions’ across the Group collate questions and feedback from colleagues across all countries and put them to members of the Executive Committee.

Our people forum provides a listening culture, enabling high levels of consultation. Innovation and ideas continue to come from every level.

We drive change and continuous improvement in responding to the feedback we receive, via our internal communication channels and back through our network of People Champions.

Our new communications app, MySafestore, formally Yapster, allows us to communicate with all colleagues across the business. It has inbuilt translation so everyone can access content in their preferred language.

Our People Champions help us to continue raising awareness through a selection of a broad range of topics for discussion on our MySafestore app. The aim is to appreciate our diversity, by recognising and celebrating festivals and events, as well as individuals, and to create a safe space for sharing and discussion. In addition, we use MySafestore to highlight local successes and recognition between stores and regions with strong links made to Safestore’s alignment to the SDGs.

"People described a real listening and learning culture in the Company. There are channels in place to help give everyone a voice."

Health and safety

At Safestore, we uphold a ‘safety-first’ culture as a core value across all aspects of our business. The health, safety and wellbeing of our colleagues, customers and contractors are our top priorities, and we are unwavering in our commitment to fostering a safe, supportive environment for everyone.

We take pride in setting high safety standards that consistently exceed local and regional regulations. Regardless of the country or territory, we hold ourselves to rigorous benchmarks that ensure consistent safety practices across the Group.

Our approach emphasises sharing best practice and standardising policies to create seamless, robust safety processes throughout our operations. We are dedicated to preventing injuries and advancing our industry-leading safety performance through continuous improvement.

Our progress includes:

• Continuous engagement with our colleagues in developing practical solutions to self-improve working environments.
• Heightened focus on new colleague safety induction training and mentorship, as well as risk management.
• Introduction of a new digital health and safety system, providing key safety support functions simultaneously across all territories, informing colleagues’ safety focus with facts, analytics and data.
• Group implementation of recording Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (“LTIFR”) to assess our safety performance and gauge effectiveness of Company safety management and culture.

We are continually strengthening our safety-focused culture by actively engaging our colleagues in partnership with our leaders. This collaborative approach empowers colleagues to contribute to the development of safety solutions, initiatives, and feedback processes, fostering shared responsibility in identifying and solving safety challenges. In doing so, we aspire to prevent all injuries by creating a zero-incident culture and setting a new goal of zero RIDDOR¹/Reportable² Injuries for 2024/25.

Group health and safety statistics

Injuries

The observed increase in the number of reported accidents in 2024 is attributed to the implementation of our new digital health and safety system, Quentic, that simplifies and encourages the reporting process, rather than an actual rise in accidents.

With the implementation of Quentic analytics in 2024, the Group has enhanced its ability to track LTIFR with greater precision. The Group's LTIFR for 2024 was 8.31. Monitoring LTIFR provides valuable insights into the factors that contribute to lost productivity and supports the identification of effective injury prevention strategies.
 
RIDDOR/Reportable Injuries

Customer, Contractor, and Visitor (“CCV”) injuries resulting in RIDDOR include a laceration to an elbow and a fractured finger. Both required customers to attend hospital for further treatment.

RIDDOR/Reportable injuries of colleagues include a fractured wrist, solvent intoxication, and abrasions to a foot, all of which incurred over seven days of lost time, deeming them reportable incidents.
 
Construction
We are committed to creating the safest possible workplaces and fostering a culture of safety across all our construction projects. In every territory, we challenge our colleagues and partners to go beyond minimum standards and embrace our high safety expectations. During 2024, the number of reportable incidents on our construction sites was zero.

Colleague health and safety

Summary:

• 27 minor injuries were recorded over the past year.
• 3 reportable accidents/incidents were reported for this period.

Year ended 31 October	2021	2022	2023	2024
Number of colleagues	648	751	753	804
Number of minor injuries	19	26	13	27
Number of reportable injuries (RIDDOR/Reportable)	1	0	0	3
LTIFR per 1,000,000 working hours (Group)	-	-	-	8.31

 

Notes:

¹RIDDOR = Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (UK only)
²Recordable = any work-related injury or illness that results in loss of consciousness, days away from work, restricted work, or transfer to another job. Any work-related injury or illness requiring medical treatment beyond first aid (European countries only).

We focus on offering simple, practical wellbeing initiatives, to support our colleagues to lead healthier and happier lives. We recognise that it is more important than ever for our colleagues to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Our health cash plan, provided by Medicash, provides colleagues with everyday reassurance on their health and wellbeing from top to toe, inside and out, from GP appointments to skin health checks and physiotherapy to counselling services. It remains a popular benefit with our colleagues.

• Our Employee Assistance Programme (“EAP”) and other external support organisations, such as Mind and Mental Health UK, provide our colleagues with expert guidance and support on everyday matters whenever they need it.
• Medicash’s new online support platform, Your Care, gives our colleagues access to 24/7 support and counselling along with personal, emotional and wellbeing tools for a happier and healthier life.
• We continue to work closely with our occupational health provider, including the provision of private counselling for colleagues in crisis requiring additional support.
• In Spain, we offer annual medical check-ups for all colleagues.
• Our Cycle to Work scheme remains popular.
• We continue to support new ways of working and this year, we have increased our part-time and flexible working arrangements.

Learning and development

We have a strong focus on learning and development for all colleagues, with a genuine commitment to building a culture of developing talent. We use innovative methods of learning as well as traditional routes, with lots of support from our managers at all levels. The survey revealed that 84% of respondents knew how Safestore invests in learning and development. In 2024, we delivered over 30,000 hours of training.

Across the Group, colleagues are given extra responsibilities and opportunities to put skills and knowledge into practice. We are proud to offer comprehensive language courses for some colleagues, enhancing communication and collaboration across our global teams.

Our leaders understand the importance of succession planning. Talent management is sophisticated and transparent, with performance management channelled through our Values and Behaviours framework, to identify and support high potential individuals.

In the UK, both our Sales Consultant and Store Manager Development programmes continue to grow and upskill our colleagues. Everyone can discuss and agree their learning and development pathways with their line manager, and this is executed effectively. In our latest IIP survey, 84% of respondents stated that they have opportunities to learn at work.

Our Store Manager Development programme, now in its eighth year, is funded by the Apprenticeship Levy. This programme provides the opportunity to complete a Level 3 Management and Leadership apprenticeship, with the additional opportunity to complete an Institute of Leadership and Management (“ILM”) qualification.

We also support ongoing professional development by application of our professional qualifications policy, supporting colleagues to gain formally recognised qualifications in their chosen field. This commitment is maintained by Safestore covering the cost of membership of any relevant professional body such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (“CIPD”), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (“ACCA”) or the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (“RICS”).

"There is a strong focus on colleague wellbeing with a true culture of wellness having been achieved."

Financial wellbeing

As part of our wider wellbeing strategy, we are committed to doing what we can to ensure the financial wellbeing of our colleagues.

79% of our colleagues are members of our pension scheme, provided by Aviva.

In August, we opened entry into our 2024 Sharesave scheme, and are delighted that 33% of our colleagues now share in our success by being a member of at least one of our Sharesave schemes. This is further evidence of high levels of colleague engagement across the business.

"Safestore gives people access to high quality learning and everyone confirmed they have the training they need to do their jobs and grow their careers. Internal mobility is good at Safestore."

Leadership

Our leaders bring out the best in our colleagues, motivating them to work together to achieve our shared goals and objectives.

We achieve this by keeping colleague-to-manager ratios low, enabling our leaders to invest time in encouraging and engaging our colleagues, forming genuine connections with their teams.

Keeping our colleagues connected to the business and to each other so that they feel supported has remained a focus and we have introduced new programmes for our new colleagues and line managers, to help to build knowledge and confidence across our teams.

"Leaders take accountability for colleague engagement, they want to get to know their people well and do the right thing for them. This leaves people feeling listened to, understood and respected."

Values and behaviours

Our values are authentic, having been created by our colleagues. They are core to the employment life cycle and bring consistency to our culture.

We are empowered to do the right thing, not necessarily the easiest. This enables us to feel comfortable challenging behaviours that are not in line with our values.

• We love customers – we deliver much more than storage; we provide solutions that exceed our customers’ expectations, and we expect our people to show appreciation of our customers and their businesses.
• We lead the way – we want people who talk with pride about Safestore, set themselves high standards and demonstrate passion for what they do.
• We have great people – everyone has a key role to play within Safestore and we need people who show respect for everyone, no matter their position. Our people drive their own performance and are keen to learn from others.
• We dare to be different – we want people that adapt to change and are willing to try new things. Part of daring to be different involves actively seeking feedback in order to develop new and existing skills.
• We get it – we want people to be clear on our vision and goals and, in turn, know what part they play in achieving them. 'We get it' is also about communicating in a clear, open and honest way to enable sound decision-making.