JLL’s Commitment to DEI

I’ve found it helpful to work with an executive coach, who can give me objective advice and operates as a sounding board. This relationship has proved to be very beneficial, as the role of a CHRO can be lonely at times.

The HR Digest: The LGBTQ+ initiative that was taken by JLL was admirable. How difficult was it to create change and celebrate them?

Laura Addams: JLL’s commitment to DEI is core to our culture and our purpose of shaping the future of real estate for a better world. We’ve been on our DEI journey for years and remain committed to creating an inclusive environment where our people feel they belong, are accepted, and valued. To that end, we believe that active listening and driving conversations are the keys to meaningful change within our organization. It’s not always easy to hear divergent points of view, but it’s important to let people express their opinions and tell their personal stories. We have nine employee-led Business Resource Groups (BRGs) in the U.S. that provide a platform for diverse perspectives and recognition of events focused on areas such as ability, gender, ethnicity, race, generation and sexual orientation. Cultural events such as Pride Month and National Coming Out Day, which are supported by our Building Pride BRG, give us an opportunity to support and celebrate our people. I’m proud that JLL uses its platform to elevate our diverse employees and their stories, so we can all continue learning and growing. It’s an important part of our continuous journey toward acceptance and belonging in the workplace.

What was the first step you took as a CHRO that you believe was really important to take?

As I transitioned into the role, I invested the time to reflect on several things – how I wanted to show up in this role, what the business needs from HR to drive its success, and the team I needed in place. I’ve found it helpful to work with an executive coach, who can give me objective advice and operates as a sounding board. This relationship has proved to be very beneficial, as the role of a CHRO can be lonely at times. We started with rigorous leadership assessments, including a 360 review to solicit feedback from my stakeholders and team. We often find that 360-degree feedback is helpful in looking at strengths and development opportunities; however, that was only part of the equation. We also used this opportunity to gather input on how I should, and needed to, operate differently as the global CHRO. These insights helped me begin to shape our priorities and areas of focus. They also compelled me to be very thoughtful about our HR leadership team. I was fortunate to inherit an incredibly strong group of individuals. These colleagues were previously my peers; therefore, as their leader, I needed to view their strengths and opportunities differently to ensure we leverage them to complement one another and apply our specific areas of expertise to focus on our collective priorities.

As you are a passionate advocate of DE&I, how do you prioritize social events that all employees can take part in?

I am definitely an advocate of DEI both personally and professionally—a passion I carry out in the way I live and the way I work. I find that surrounding myself with diverse colleagues and friends is a huge advantage. Social events fall into two categories—employee events and client events—both of which should be seen through an inclusive lens. I think the key is to align social events with a business purpose. Our BRGs play a critical role in our employee social events, making sure they are inclusive and purposeful. They often combine training or discussions about meaningful topics with the social aspect of networking—and they are open to all, even if someone is not a member of the BRG. They also involve listening, especially about social issues that are important to our people and our communities. I try to attend as many of these events as possible, prioritizing where I can add value. Social events, including client entertaining, have come a long way from the days when we needed to make our people aware of the importance of being inclusive. It’s now embedded in our DNA to ask the right questions and take the right approach to make sure everyone can feel comfortable and welcome.

What was one of your most successful people’s program according to you?

One of the programs I’m most proud of that our team implemented a couple years ago, and continues to benefit our organization, was our streamlined talent review process. By combining external research and internal interviews of our top leaders, we created leadership capabilities unique to our organization. We incorporated assessing these six capabilities into the evaluation process, combining that with three simple questions around potential. We also simplified the standard 9-cell to 5 categories of performers that helped defined the actions we should take by category. This enabled us to have a more streamlined and focused approach to our talent discussions and became a meaningful input into our succession planning process.

What approach do you take, when an employee is not meeting up to the company’s standard?

Our approach depends on the issue – if it’s a cultural misalignment, we will be quick to address; however, if it is performance-based we try to understand the root cause. For instance, for employees in new roles or stretch assignments, we may find that the role is the issue so we work to see if training and coaching can address the challenge; if it’s beyond that, we put effort into finding other roles in the organization where the employee can be successful. We also use our incentives to address driving higher performance. For our large sales force, compensation is commission-based, they don’t get paid if they don’t perform.  For our remaining employees we use annual merit increases and bonuses to reward and drive high performance.

Laura Adams,

Chief Human Resources Officer of JLL

Laura Adams is the Chief Human Resources Officer of JLL, a leading professional services firm specializing in real estate and investment management. She has extensive experience aligning people programs to business strategy and driving large-scale business transformations and is a member of JLL’s Global Executive Board. Prior to JLL, Laura worked in HR roles at Washington Mutual Bank and Diamond Technology Partners. She holds a degree in sociology from Eastern Michigan University and an M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Photo: JLL  

This profile was published in the January 2023 issue of The HR Digest.

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