Extra Space Storage Chooses EXTRAordinary Winners for Q4 2021

At Extra Space Storage, we believe our greatest asset is our employees. From the people who work in our National Sales Center to the managers operating our self storage facilities across the nation, the team behind Extra Space Storage is what makes our company better every single day.

Each quarter, we give out the EXTRAordinary Employee of the Quarter award. These aren’t given to people who just do their jobs. They’re awarded to those who go above and beyond in demonstrating our core values, and the nominations are submitted anonymously by other employees, team leaders, or entire departments.

Below are the EXTRAordinary winners from Q4 2021, featuring the nomination statements from their peers!

Nicole Hunt – District Manager, Davis Division

“Nicole is extraordinary in many ways, but the most telling is that she was nominated by multiple team members. The common thread in a couple of the nominations is that Nicole is the face of Extra Space Storage. That speaks volumes to Nicole’s leadership and sense of ownership in her team, her district, and the company! Here is what her team had to say: ‘Nicole is the face of Extra Space Storage. She’s an amazing District Manager and goes above and beyond for her colleagues. We know we can trust Nicole and that she’s always just a call away. She’s simply awesome!’ and ‘Nicole is a very positive person and always ready to teach us something new. She Motivates me to be better at my job, gives great feedback, and is a great example to the team. I love how excited she is to show off her fabulous team. She’s all about finding solutions and making Extra Space Storage a great place to work.’ Thank you, Nicole, for making Extra Space Storage a great place to work!”

Virginia Lawson – District Manager, Hammer Division

“As a District Manager in Training, Virginia helped supervise the Minneapolis district while their District Manager was out for several months on a leave of absence. This particular market has been frequently challenged with staffing, and many days there was no choice but to close down sites. Virginia took on this market with the highest sense of ownership and treated it as if it was her own. She eagerly traveled twice a month from Dallas to Minneapolis to conduct property visits and skill checks. Driving employee engagement and attracting top talent was her number-one focus. She even conducted a very successful virtual hiring event where over ten job offers were made and accepted. From there she helped assemble a team of top-notch District Team Leads to assist with new hire training. Even during some very tough and daunting days, she always maintained a wonderful attitude and positive outlook. She has since been promoted to a District Manager in Austin. Congratulations! So well deserved! Thank you, Virginia, for your highest level of commitment and wonderful leadership!”

Justin Lackey – District Manager, Pierce Division

“I’ve worked in two divisions with Justin and he has been an incredible asset for each team. Justin has spear-headed important programs for the business that either optimize or add square footage, ensuring we get the most efficient use out of existing properties. He supports our District Managers and District Vice Presidents in getting these initiatives penciled and placed. He has a very humble approach and has been great about providing help to any District Manager that needs it to complete the process. He definitely deserves recognition for it!”

Jason Kass – Learning Manager, National Sales Center

“Jason has been an integral part of the National Sales Center (NSC), supporting many recent growth initiatives. Jason joined Extra Space Storage as part of the Learning and Development team right when we had just transitioned much of our workforce to work from home. We changed how the NSC conducted training with this transition, going from in-person lecture training to e-learning courses and zoom classes. Jason was able to develop content through a new training platform so that agents could take classes remotely. In addition to the new hire training curriculum, Jason also created courses for our agents to learn leasing procedures. These courses allowed our agents to complete the lease over the phone with customers, which was a major initiative, supporting the one-contact resolution. Jason also onboarded two new team members while supporting ongoing training for new hires and tenured agents. These accomplishments came with long hours and Jason was also always willing to shuffle things around to meet deadlines. During Q4, Jason was also able to integrate the Mentor team within the Training team, giving additional support for new hires. It is easy to see Jason’s passion in showing others how great it is to be part of #TeamExtraSpace. This passion is visible in Jason’s interactions with our new hire classes and his interactions with the Learning and Development team, and the groups they support.”

Mike Beutler – Digital Content Marketing Specialist, Store Support Center

“Mike is extremely collaborative and has stepped in to rescue projects regularly. He’s creative and efficient. He shares any tools or knowledge at his disposal. A great example of someone who lifts the entire team (no matter the department). For example, on the Diversity and Inclusion roundtables in 2021, whenever the Learning and Development team was not available to edit videos due to their work schedule, Mike would take on the extra work to edit the videos. Since they additionally run on the blog, he treated it as part of his project to get done. He could have easily just let the project stall since he wasn’t the project owner, but he always stepped up. And he did an excellent job! Half of those roundtables would not have happened in 2021 without Mike going above and beyond.”

Lani Dieterich – Facilities Operations Project Manager, Store Support Center

“Lani has gone above and beyond with every aspect of her work. She is responsible for rolling out kiosks, Bluetooth gates, and Bluetooth units in the field. She is constantly acting as a liaison between vendors and stores and is passionate about making sure our stores have a good experience. As grueling as that job is, tack on the responsibility of pseudo construction and office manager for the 5th-floor build-out of the Store Support Center. I don’t know how she manages to get everything done! She works out the most precise details and does it all with exceptional service. Lani is highly deserving of this award!”

Karla Mills – Senior IT Business Intelligence Manager, Store Support Center

“Karla managed the migration of our data warehouse from an on-premise server to the cloud. She led a team that brought on new engineers throughout the year, and also managed the planning and collaboration with a team of consultants. This was a huge project as so many different teams throughout the company rely on accurate and timely data for reporting and revenue management. While it was being migrated, the on-premise data warehouse needed to keep running in parallel with the cloud data warehouse, with development continuing on each version to keep them in sync. Karla was able to identify processes that could be improved, allowing for greater efficiency across multiple teams, greater value to the business, and a better product. The project was successfully completed ahead of schedule in Q4, with no downtime of data to the business. She also began using her expertise and experience to help with the migration of Microsoft AX to D365, and is always looking for new opportunities for her team to help the business. Karla is a great motivator and an excellent collaborator and data expert throughout the business.”

Nominations for EXTRAordinary Employee of the Quarter for Q1 2022 have recently closed, and the winners will be announced soon. Check back for more from Extra Space Storage!

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