Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
It was this time last year that we won a Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For accolade. Guess what? We’ve just won again, but this year we placed even higher! We’re now sitting pretty at number 25, up 43 spots from 68. Even though the economic downturn has created a knock on effect on the self storage industry, our company culture of involving our staff at all levels and rewarding them has contributed to better results and continued growth.
For those who don’t know, the Best Companies organisation was formed with the purpose of making the world a better workplace and has established its reputation through an authoritative and highly rigorous methodology. Each year its media partner, The Sunday Times, publishes the top 100 scoring companies. Their site inspections and workforce survey identifies workplace performance and best practice according to eight key factors. These factors are particularly significant as they are defined through survey results from employees – straight from the horse’s mouth if you like!
Leadership
How employees feel about the head of the organisation, senior managers, and the organisations values and principles
My Manager
How employees feel about and communicate with their direct manager
Personal Growth
What employees feel about training and their future prospects
Wellbeing
How employees feel about stress, pressure at work, and work life balance
My Team
Employees feelings towards their immediate colleagues and how well they work together
Giving Something Back
The extent to which employees feel their organisation has a positive impact on society
My Company
The level of engagement employees have for their job and organisation
Fair Deal
How happy employees are with their pay and benefits
To see how we ranked against the other 99 and what our staff members had to say visit The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For online here.
Many thanks goes out to our Head of Human Resources, Cheryl Hathaway and our brilliant staff members – without whom this wouldn’t be possible.
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
As you will have seen on TV, the BBC’s Sport Relief campaign is well underway, and we here at Big Yellow Self Storage have been getting involved too by giving England rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio and his friends a home for their bikes before their awe-inspiring 2,888km cycle ride across Europe to raise £1m for Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation. We crammed 200+ bikes into our Twickenham store before Dallaglio and his team set off on their epic challenge which will see them cycling through all of the Six Nations countries, taking in each of the international rugby stadia along the way. The ride will end with team Dallaglio arriving in Murrayfield in time to watch England and Scotland fight it out for the Calcutta Cup on 13 March. See below for a picture of Lawrence at our Twickenham branch.
The aim is to raise £1m which will be split equally between Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation, whose beneficiaries include Cancer Research, DebRA, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Help for Heroes and the RPA Benevolent Fund. Along the way, Lawrence will be joined by sports stars past and present, including Ashes heroes Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan, Rugby World Cup winner Josh Lewsey and ex-England footballers Lee Dixon and Less Ferdinand. To keep track of the team’s progress and to make a donation click here.
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Tags: big yellow, Big Yellow Self Storage, boxes, business storage, Dallaglio, de-clutter, declutter, fine wine storage, furniture storage, lawrence, personal storage, self storage, self storage blog, Self Stroage, sport relief, storage, storage solution, student storage, twickenham, UK storage, wine storage
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Monday, March 1st, 2010
…making it safer than any other form of preservation? That’s why it’s an excellent way of storing everything from vegetables to meat and fish.
Foods today are ‘quick frozen’. This process, which freezes water in the food into smaller ice crystals, minimises cell structure damage. Quick-freezing foods and then storing them at temperatures of -18°C or lower slows the natural degradation process practically to zero. If you get this process right, food retains its colour, texture, nutritional value and taste.
You can’t store food or perishables in Big Yellow’s self storage facilities, but you can hire climate-controlled storage to keep your best wine at the perfect temperature!
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Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Parcels4Troops organise small ‘home comfort’ parcels for soldiers to be sent out to them in the field. The scheme was set up a few years ago by ex-RCT (Royal Corps of Transport) Corporal Alasdair Sutherland to help a couple of his work colleagues who were in the Territorial Army and deployed in Iraq. The parcels were received extremely well and the word spread, resulting in many more parcels being sent out to the unit.
We’ve offered Parcels4Troops unlimited use of 100 square feet of self storage at our Edinburgh branch to help the donation drive. If you’re in the area, then donations from the following categories would be greatly appreciated:
Small packets of sweets (no chocolate or toffee – not very good in the heat)
Glucose sweets
Anti-bacterial hand gel
Packets of dried noodles
Cup-a-soups
Sachets of drinking chocolate
Chewing gum
Breakfast oat bars
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Moist wipes
If you’d like to get involved, you can drop off donations for troops during opening hours. Visit Big Yellow Edinburgh online for details. Alternatively contact Parcel4Troops via their website to find out how you can help.
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Tags: big yellow, Big Yellow Self Storage, boxes, business storage, clutter, de-clutter, declutter, edinburgh, edinburgh self storage, fine wine storage, furniture storage, music storage, parcels4troops, personal storage, self storage, self storage blog, Self Stroage, storage, storage solution, student storage, UK storage, wine storage
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Monday, February 15th, 2010
We cherish the three Rs here at Big Yellow Self Storage. Yes, that’s Reduce, Reuse & Recycle! We’ve built this ethos into the way we operate our facilities. In fact, we’re investing over £1 million in renewable energy technologies at Barking, Balham, Fulham and Kennington, as well as working with a full time environmental manager to increase the pace of change within the company.
This investment forms a key part of a detailed study into the actual buildings themselves, to quantify the energy, waste usage and benefits of these new technologies. We’re also looking at which improvements can be introduced to existing and new stores alike.
One of the most innovative steps we’ve taken is to use products that are more sustainable. As well as selecting materials responsibly with low embodied energy, easy reuse and from sustainable sources. We’re trying to encourage and improve bio diversity by replacing previously lost habitats with green walls/green roofs as well as reintroducing landscaping.
To help you on the way to reaching your green goals, we’re offering one lucky Big Yellow Self Storage fan a chance to win a brand new Eco HD TV. This Eco Panel TV will save you money off your electricity bill, saving you up to 45% of your TV’s energy consumption, compared to a conventional LCD TV, and on top of that, it looks fantastic!
To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, head over to the Big Yellow Self Storage Facebook Page and answer our question:
What’s the Big Yellow Self Storage strap line?
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Tags: big yellow, Big Yellow Self Storage, boxes, business storage, clutter, de-clutter, declutter, eco, fine wine storage, furniture storage, hd, lcd, music storage, personal storage, prizes, self storage, self storage blog, Self Stroage, storage, storage solution, student storage, tv, UK storage, water storage, win, wine storage
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
United Haitians in the United Kingdom (UHUK) is seeking out donations of shoes, candles, tents, electrical lanterns, sleeping bags, tablets for clean drinking water, school and medical supplies to send to the many affected Haitian areas. We’ve set up donation drop off points at several Big Yellow Self Storage locations to support the donation drive. All donations from the above categories will be gratefully received at the locations below:
Big Yellow Self Storage Donation Drop Off Points:
North London: Big Yellow Self Storage Finchley East
South West London: Big Yellow Self Storage Hounslow
South East London: Big Yellow Self Storage Kennington
Reading: Big Yellow Self Storage Reading
Birmingham: Big Yellow Self Storage Birmingham
If you’d like to make a monetary contribution you can do so through the UHUK website. All donations received will go directly to UHUK’s Earthquake Relief fund. Financial donations can be done securely online via their PayPal account.
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Tags: appeal, big yellow, Big Yellow Self Storage, boxes, business storage, de-clutter, declutter, donate, earth, fine wine storage, furniture storage, haiti, News, personal storage, quake, self storage, self storage blog, Self Stroage, storage, storage solution, student storage, wine storage
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Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Think New Year’s resolutions were made to be broken? Think again. What’s your resolution? Become a domestic overlord? De-stress? De-clutter? Get your butt in gear and shape up? If you haven’t guessed it already, we’re dedicating January to helping you get organised and sustaining your New Year’s resolutions.
To celebrate we’re offering one lucky Big Yellow Self Storage fan a chance to win a brand new Wii Fit Plus Bundle which features a Wii Console with Wii Sports Resort, Wii Motion Plus, Wii Fit Plus and the Wii Fit balance board to help you get your blood pumping and ready to tackle the Christmas clutter that seems to have built up in everyone’s home.
To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, head over to the Big Yellow Self Storage Facebook Page and answer our skill testing question:
What’s our main free phone number?
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Tags: big yellow, Big Yellow Self Storage, boxes, business storage, furniture storage, personal storage, prizes, self storage, self storage blog, student storage, UK storage, wine storage
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Friday, December 11th, 2009
Big Yellow Self Storage, in association with the Wave 105 Cash for Kids Toy Appeal, would like to call out to YOU (yes you!) to donate any new and unwrapped toys for our appeal to support disadvantaged children.
We had a very successful launch with an outstanding response of donated toys at Sunnyfields & Marchwood on the 15th of November, so let’s do our bit together and make a child smile this Christmas!
Fill up this form & bring your toys to:
Big Yellow Self Storage
2 Nuffield Road
Poole, BH17 0RB
Tel: 01202 846600
Big Yellow Self Storage
Rodney Road
Southsea
Portsmouth, PO4 8BF
Tel: 02392 865333
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Thursday, December 10th, 2009
In the spirit of Christmas, 102 people volunteered to give up their warm beds and replace them with Armadillo storage boxes!
Armadillo donated 130 boxes as ‘homes’ to the charitable people of Burton and South Derbyshire, who went from ‘riches to rags’ for a night, living out of a ‘cardboard city’ to raise funds and awareness for the ‘Mail’s Home’ shelter.
In conjunction with YMCA the volunteers, including East Staffordshire’s Mayor Geoff Morrison, Borough councilors, students from Burton College, town centre managers and two reporters – raised a total of £15,000.
Meanwhile, Orbit Heart of England’s district office in Burton has successfully secured two bids from its community investment fund to be used for the work it does with the YMCA.
The housing association has bagged £3,000 which will be used towards furnishing the IT suite of Reconnect@ situated in the YMCA’s James Court initiative. A further £2,999.99 has also been secured by the Burton team to start up a voucher system enabling their residents who have no furniture to help get them kitted out from the Happy Homes shop.
To raise further funds the YMCA also sold limited edition Life Change Bears when the Burton Christmas lights were switched on in November.
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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Here at Big Yellow Self Storage we are proud to announce that we have been included in this year’s ‘Britain’s Most Admired Companies’!
The annual list is put together on 9 different criteria such as quality of goods and service, and community and environmental responsibility. As you know, we are actively involved in lots of different causes and are always looking at new ways to provide a better service to our customers so this has put a smile on all our faces. Other companies listed include Cadbury and Tesco.
This is the first time that we have been included in this particular list so it’s great news for the end of the year!
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Tags: 2009, accenture, best company, best company in UK, big yellow, Big Yellow Self Storage, byss, UK storage
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