JLL India breaking silos with its L&D programme and promoting employee safety

Jone Lang LaSalle (JLL), the global real-estate services company, which started its operations in India around two decades back, now has a strength of over 11,000 employees in the country. With its workforce in the country expected to grow to more than 13000 by 2020, JLL India has introduced some new reforms in the last two years.

From the learning and development of its employees to ensuring employee safety and wellness, the Company is trying to build a rich culture.

Discussing some of the unique HR interventions brought in by the Company, Tanvi Choksi, head-HR, JLL India talks to HRKatha about JLL’s new HR initiatives. These initiatives not only align with its diverse business but also help JLL serve its clients.

Celebrating its rich culture, JLL also released a video which talks about the benefits@JLL.

Enhancing the learning and development programmes in the organisation, JLL has introduced some mentoring sessions for the employees, by some very senior leaders and business heads in the Company.

Elevate

The agenda behind starting this programme was not just to guide employees. The interesting part of the programme is that it brings together employees and leaders of different regions and verticals to break the silos in the organisation.

“Being a very diverse company with many businesses and a large workforce, people at JLL are restricted to their teams and departments. ‘Elevate’ is a platform where leaders from different businesses guide employees from different regions and verticals on ways to handle their professional problems,” says Choksi.

The programme takes place every six months and promotes cross-functional interaction and guidance. How does that work? How will an employee working in sales be guided by an interior designer?

This is the uniqueness the programme brings to the table. Choksi shares an interesting story, of how a project leader heading a team of interior designers guided a person in sales and helped him enhance property sales.

“The designer knew the benefits of the spaces and designs in the building structure and how they can be beneficial for clients. That’s what he explained to the sales guy, which in turn helped the latter present explanations to his clients in a better way,” shares Choksi.

By a feedback mechanism, all the problems faced by the employees are listed. Then, very strategically, pairs are made of mentors and mentees for a one-on-one session.

JLL also introduced a programme called ILC 20, where senior leadership committed at least 20 hours of mentoring to the employees.

Hiring right

Hiring right is an initiative that aims to train hiring managers in different verticals of the company. “We have different businesses, which require different types of talent. That is why, we felt the need to train our hiring managers so that they can convey the goals and expectations of the Company to the candidates,” opines Choksi.

“At JLL, we believe in creating a culture of caring, learning and inclusion”

The initiative also aims to train the hiring managers on the tools and technology that the Company uses to hire, such as applicant tracking software (ATS) platforms.

Techathon

The diverse business of JLL has also introduced some technological products, such as MapIT, which helps the clients find the perfect location for their offices and construction. For that, the Company needed people with technology skills to develop the right software. In this programme, people were given a challenge and expected to submit videos showing how they completed the challenge. The selected candidates were given training in technological skills.

According to Choksi, “The aim of this programme was to target older employees who have been working with us for decades and equip them with relevant technological skills.”

Global safety week

The Company organises a safety week every year to promote safety at work as well as on the roads and at home.

It is a week-long programme, where the first two days are dedicated to office safety and programmes are run at the sites.

Videos are shown on safety, and mentoring sessions are held by senior leaders. Employees also participate in quizzes and storytelling sessions where safety is promoted.

“We do not see service companies talking about safety at work. We are also a service company and we also have some employees working on construction sites as well, so their safety is a big concern,” elaborates Choksi.

The next two days are dedicated to road safety because the employees commute via city roads to travel to work.

The last day of the week is dedicated to promoting safety at home.

The above initiatives clearly prove that JLL is not just building cities, it is also building a culture.

“At JLL, we believe in creating a culture of caring, learning and inclusion,” concludes Choksi.