Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, incorporated in 1997, is a Maryland corporation. References to “JLL,” “the Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated and include all of its consolidated subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated or the context requires otherwise. Our common stock is listed on The New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") under the symbol “JLL.”
JLL is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. We shape the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $16.6 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of approximately 91,000 as of December 31, 2020. We provide services for a broad range of clients who represent a wide variety of industries and are based in markets throughout the world. Our clients vary greatly in size and include for-profit and not-for-profit entities, public-private partnerships and governmental ("public sector") entities looking to outsource real estate services. Through LaSalle Investment Management, we invest for clients on a global basis in both private assets and publicly traded real estate securities.
We use JLL as our principal trading name. Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated remains our legal name. JLL is a registered trademark in the countries in which we do business, as is our logo. In addition, LaSalle Investment Management, which uses LaSalle as its principal trading name, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. LaSalle is also a registered trademark in the countries in which we conduct business, as is our logo.
We deliver an array of services across four business segments. We manage our Real Estate Services (“RES”) offerings across three geographic segments (i) the Americas, (ii) Europe, Middle East and Africa ("EMEA"), and (iii) Asia Pacific, and we manage our investment management business globally as (iv) LaSalle Investment Management. In our Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific segments, we provide a full range of leasing, capital markets, integrated property and facility management, project management, advisory, consulting, valuations and digital solutions services locally, regionally and globally. LaSalle is one of the world's largest and most diversified real estate investment management companies.
Our global platform and diverse service and product offerings position us to take advantage of the opportunities in a consolidating industry and to successfully navigate the dynamic and challenging markets in which we compete worldwide.
OUR HISTORY
We began to establish our network of services across the globe through the 1999 merger of the Jones Lang Wootton companies ("JLW", founded in England in 1783) with LaSalle Partners Incorporated ("LaSalle Partners", founded in the United States in 1968 and incorporated in 1997). We have grown our business by expanding our client base and the range of our services and products, both organically and through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Our extensive global platform and in-depth knowledge of local real estate markets enable us to serve as a single-source provider of solutions for the full spectrum of our clients' real estate needs. These mergers and acquisitions have given us additional share in key geographical markets, expanded our capabilities in certain service offerings and further broadened the global platform we make available to our clients.
For information on recent acquisitions, refer to Note 4, Business Combinations, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, included in Item 8.
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A timeline of notable milestones in our history is illustrated below.
OUR SERVICES AND BUSINESS SEGMENTS
We are driven to shape the future of real estate for a better world. We do this by addressing the needs of real estate owners, occupiers and investors, leveraging our deep real estate expertise and experience to provide clients with a full range of services on a local, regional and global scale.
We offer our real estate services locally, regionally and globally to real estate owners, occupiers, investors and developers for a variety of property types, including:
• Critical Environments and Data Centers • Hotels and Hospitality Facilities • Office (including Flex Space)
• Cultural Facilities • Industrial and Warehouse • Residential (Individual and Multifamily)
• Educational Facilities • Infrastructure Projects • Retail and Shopping Malls
• Government Facilities • Logistics (Sort & Fulfillment) • Sports Facilities
• Healthcare and Laboratory Facilities • Military Housing • Transportation Centers
We develop and activate technology to make real estate work for the long-term benefit of our people, clients and communities. Across our service lines, we offer and will continue to develop and invest in unique technology products and services that help us and our clients strategize, capture and analyze data, develop and implement workplace technology, and visualize real estate innovations. Refer to the Digital portion of our Strategic Framework section below for additional information about our technology agenda.
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We believe our market reach and depth of service offerings strengthen the long-term value of the enterprise in a number of ways, including (i) reducing the potential impact of episodic volatility or disruption in any specific region, (ii) enhancing the expertise of our people through knowledge sharing among colleagues across the globe, and (iii) allowing us to identify and quickly react to emerging trends, risks and opportunities.
The following reflects our revenue and fee revenue by service line for the year ended December 31, 2020:
To calculate fee revenue, we deduct directly reimbursed expenses from revenue and then exclude (i) net non-cash mortgage servicing rights and mortgage banking derivative activity and (ii) gross contract costs associated with client-dedicated labor, and third-party vendors and subcontractors. Refer to Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for additional discussion of fee revenue, a non-GAAP measure, and reconciliation from the most comparable U.S. GAAP measure, Revenue.
Real Estate Services: Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific
For the year ended December 31, 2020, our RES revenue and fee revenue was:
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In the Americas, our RES revenue for 2020 was $10.0 billion, earned geographically as follows:
In EMEA, our RES revenue for 2020 was $3.1 billion, earned geographically as follows:
In Asia Pacific, our RES revenue for 2020 was $3.1 billion, earned geographically as follows:
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Our five RES service lines, and the services we provide within them, include:
1. Leasing
Agency Leasing executes leasing programs, including marketing, on behalf of property owners (including investors, developers, property-owning companies and public entities) to secure tenants and negotiate leases with terms that reflect our clients' best interests. Between 2018 and 2020, we completed an average 14,300 agency leasing transactions annually representing an average 236 million square feet of space per annum.
Tenant Representation establishes strategic alliances with occupier clients to help them evaluate and execute transactions to meet their occupancy requirements and ongoing real estate needs. We partner with clients to define space requirements, identify suitable alternatives, recommend appropriate occupancy solutions, and negotiate lease and ownership terms with landlords. Our involvement helps our clients reduce real estate costs, minimize occupancy risk, improve occupancy control and flexibility, and create more productive office environments. Between 2018 and 2020, we completed an average 21,900 tenant representation transactions annually representing an average 686 million square feet of space per annum.
Our agency leasing and tenant representation fees are typically based on a percentage of the value of the lease revenue commitment for executed leases, although in some cases they are based on a monetary amount per square foot leased.
2. Capital Markets serves our clients locally, regionally and globally by leveraging extensive knowledge of the commercial and residential real estate markets and our fully-integrated capital markets platform to provide a broad array of advisory services, provided for substantially all real estate asset classes and sectors. Our services primarily include (ordered alphabetically):
● Debt advisory ● Loan sales
● Equity advisory (funds and placement) ● Loan servicing
● Investment sales and acquisitions ● M&A and corporate advisory
In the U.S., we are an approved Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Housing and Urban Development/Ginnie Mae commercial multifamily lender and loan servicer. In addition, we are one of only 23 Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting & Servicing ("DUS") lenders. M&A and corporate advisory include sourcing capital, both equity and debt, and other traditional investment banking services designed to assist investor and corporate clients in maximizing the value of their real estate. To meet client demands for selling and acquiring real estate assets internationally and investing outside of their home markets, our Capital Markets teams combine local market knowledge with our access to global capital sources to provide superior execution in raising capital for real estate transactions. By researching, developing and introducing innovative new financial products and strategies, Capital Markets is integral to the business development efforts of our other businesses.
Most of our revenues are in the form of fees, derived from the value of transactions we complete or securities we place. In certain circumstances, we receive retainer fees for portfolio advisory or consulting services. In addition, we also earn fees from commercial loan servicing activities.
Between 2018 and 2020, we provided capital markets services for an average $208 billion of client transactions per annum.
3. Property & Facility Management
Property Management provides on-site management services to real estate owners for office, industrial, retail, multifamily residential and specialty properties. We seek to leverage our market share and buying power to deliver superior service and value to our clients. Our extended delivery team includes our own personnel as well as third-party vendors and subcontractors, striving to maintain high levels of occupancy and tenant satisfaction while partnering with clients to reduce property operating costs. As of December 31, 2020, we provided on-site property management services for properties totaling approximately 3.8 billion square feet.
We typically provide property management services through an on-site general manager and staff. Our general managers are responsible for day-to-day property management activities, client satisfaction and financial results. We support them with regional supervisory teams and central resources in such areas as training, technical and environmental services, accounting, marketing, and human resources.
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We are generally compensated based upon a percentage of cash collections we make on behalf of our clients or square footage managed; in some cases, management agreements provide for incentive compensation relating to operating expense reductions, gross revenue or occupancy objectives, or tenant satisfaction levels. Consistent with industry custom, management contract terms typically range from one to three years, although some contracts can be terminated at will at any time following a short notice period, usually 30 to 120 days, as is typical in the industry.
Integrated Facilities Management ("IFM") provides comprehensive facility management services to corporations and institutions that outsource the management of the real estate they occupy, typically those with large portfolios (usually over one million square feet) that offer significant opportunities to reduce costs, meet sustainability targets, improve service delivery and enhance end-user experience. Our IFM offering blends human, digital and experiential elements to help clients achieve optimal financial and operational results from their facilities, while also enhancing the experience and productivity of the end-user. Our extended delivery team includes our own personnel as well as third-party vendors and subcontractors who can meet clients' needs by providing consistent service delivery worldwide and a single point of contact from their real estate service providers.
Solutions include:
• Full-service IFM outsourcing : Day-to-day operations management of client site locations, delivered through a globally integrated platform with standardized processes. Facilities under management cover all real estate asset classes, including corporate headquarters, distribution facilities, hospitals, research & development facilities, data centers and industrial complexes. As of December 31, 2020, IFM managed approximately 1.6 billion square feet of real estate for our clients.
• Technology-enabled IFM solutions : Technology is the backbone of our IFM offering. Facilities teams leverage advanced products to enhance the experience of end users as well as make faster and more informed decisions, manage compliance, and improve efficiency through automation, accountability, assets, and analytics. One example is Corrigo, which enables facilities managers to easily manage work orders, centralizing repair, maintenance, and analytics as well as automating tasks. We also provide technology-enabled predictive maintenance strategies and smart building technologies which can help extend the lifespan of costly equipment while preventing system failures.
• Mobile engineering services : We provide mobile engineering services to clients with large portfolios of sites or where we have multiple clients in proximity to each other. This model reduces clients' operating costs by offering a single point of contact for services, bundling on-site services, leveraging resources across multiple accounts, and reducing travel time between sites.
IFM contracts are typically structured to include reimbursement for costs of client-dedicated personnel and third-party vendors and subcontractors in addition to a base fee and performance-based fees. Performance-based fees result from achieving quantitative performance measures and/or target scores on recurring client satisfaction surveys. IFM agreements are typically three to seven years in duration, although most contracts can be terminated at will by the client upon a short notice period, usually 30 to 60 days, as is typical in the industry.
4. Project & Development Services provides consulting, design, management and build services to tenants of leased space, owners in self-occupied buildings and owners of real estate investments, leveraging technology to drive outstanding service delivery. We bring a "life cycle" perspective to our clients, from consulting and capital management through design, construction and occupancy. In addition, we provide these services to public-sector clients, particularly to military and government entities, as well as educational institutions, primarily in the U.S. and to a growing extent in other countries. Predominantly in Europe, we provide design, fit-out and refurbishment services under the Tétris brand.
Our Project & Development Services business is generally compensated on the basis of negotiated fees as well as reimbursement of costs when we are principal to a contract (or client). Individual projects are generally completed in less than one year, but client contracts may extend multiple years in duration and govern a number of discrete projects.
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5. Advisory, Consulting and Other
Advisory and Consulting provides clients with specialized, value-added real estate consulting services in such areas as technology implementation and optimization, mergers and acquisitions, asset management, occupier portfolio strategy, workplace solutions, location advisory, industry research, financial optimization strategies, organizational strategy and Six Sigma process solutions. Our professionals focus on translating global best practices into local real estate solutions, creating optimal financial and operational results for our clients across asset classes.
We typically negotiate compensation for Advisory and Consulting based on developed work plans that vary based on the scope and complexity of projects.
Valuations Advisory delivers customized solutions to enable clients to take the fastest, best informed decisions for their investment interests throughout the life cycle. The services include valuation, secured lending advisory, transaction support, data & analytics, development advisory, asset and infrastructure advisory, financial reporting, business valuation, property tax advisory, restructuring and complex litigation. We are a sector based organization and have strong expertise in retail, alternatives & special use, infrastructure, public sector, office, residential, hotels & hospitality, agribusiness, healthcare, senior living, and industrial and logistics.
We usually negotiate compensation for Valuation Advisory services based on the scale and complexity of each assignment, and our fees typically relate in part to the value of the underlying assets.
Energy and Sustainability Services help occupiers and investors realize the positive impact of sustainability on their brand, workforce, financial statements and the environment. Like JLL, our clients are increasingly recognizing that there are both potential risks and opportunities associated with addressing the impacts of climate change, and are turning to partners like us for guidance and assistance. Our accredited energy and sustainability specialists worldwide assist clients with technologies and strategic solutions to deliver measurable improvements that yield clear environmental and societal benefits, as well as operational and cost efficiencies. This includes managing energy consumption and carbon footprint through sustainable construction and operations; providing green building assessments; leading green retrofits/upgrades; advising on occupier experience and engagement, socio-economic impacts and site locations; and creating corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports. The breadth of sustainability expertise positions us as the best choice to partner with clients, regardless of their focus, from leasing to capital markets transactions, and projects to facility management.
Refer to our latest Global Sustainability Report, available on our website, for metrics on documented energy savings, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the work of our sustainability teams.
We have a variety of compensation models for Energy and Sustainability Services including those based on shared savings as well as a fee for service, depending on the scale and complexity of the project.
Corporate Solutions
As a strategic partner of clients with a global footprint, Corporate Solutions brings together services across four of the five JLL RES service lines described above (Capital Markets services fall outside of the Corporate Solutions remit). Our global delivery platform enables consistent outcomes on both a local and global scale, and places us in a small cohort of competitors who can deliver on clients’ multi-service, multi-geography needs.
Rapid and complex change, including digitization, increasing regulation, globalization and evolving workforce demographics, have transformed the world of work. Organizations are realizing the potential for workplaces and real estate portfolios to help address broader business objectives, such as talent attraction, customer experience, employee well-being and productivity, financial performance and environmental sustainability (See Growth of Corporate Outsourcing in the Industry Trends section below). As clients buy with an increasingly global and/or multi-service mindset, they are looking to simplify and consolidate their supply chain with more integrated solutions. This puts Corporate Solutions in a unique position to help clients bring together their real estate ecosystem, simplify decision making and maximize value of their real estate investments.
While each client is unique, they are consistent in looking for real estate to enable business transformation around three key value levers: (1) making informed, data-driven decisions and digital transformation, (2) achieving operational excellence through improved productivity and financial performance, and (3) attracting and retaining key talent through an enhanced user experience.
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Our offering addresses the entire life cycle, which we consider to include portfolio, capital and operations functions.
Portfolio. Through the nexus of services our Corporate Solutions business provides to clients, we gain deep knowledge and extensive data about their corporate real estate footprints, business strategies and organizational priorities. Combining this with the expertise we draw from JLL's integrated global platform, we advise clients on how to optimize their workplace strategies and occupancy planning efforts to improve utilization and ultimately enhance the productivity and well-being of those who use the space. More broadly, this advice may extend to our clients’ portfolio strategies, including location advisory, technology implementation and optimization, and options to add and integrate flexible space solutions. When evolution of strategies dictates change, our Corporate Solutions business partners work with other professionals throughout our organization to help clients execute leasing, acquisition and disposition strategies.
Capital. Viewing workplaces as living environments that can help individuals, organizations and communities innovate and thrive, Corporate Solutions advises clients about how and when to make critical capital decisions to maximize the human and financial returns on portfolio investments. Our design & build professionals work alongside clients to capture and advance their organization’s brand identity, purpose and sustainability commitments through the design of space they occupy, including owned, leased, static and flexible environments. We then manage, and in some cases are responsible for, the successful completion of the fit-out activities to achieve their vision. Helping our clients manage the costs they incur to realize their space and location objectives is essential to that strategy. When capital decisions involve a change in location, our relocation management professionals facilitate smooth transitions.
Operations. IFM is our largest Corporate Solutions service offering. Composed of integrated, digitally-enabled and flexible services that blend human, digital and experiential elements, this offering helps clients drive enhanced value from their facilities by improving operational performance and the experience of employees and other users of the space. Most frequently, new client relationships are formed through IFM business wins, which we accomplish through transitions from other service providers or conversions from insourced real estate management models. In addition to maximizing efficiency and quality of service delivery, our digitally-enabled platform also provides clients with opportunities to tailor the balance of services we provide versus what they self-perform.
Business Intelligence, Data Management and Technology . Data and technology are core to all clients’ workplace and business transformation agendas. Our comprehensive data and technology platform underpins all of our offerings, helping clients make fast, informed decisions that enhance the performance of their workplaces, portfolios and people. Experts in our JLL Technologies group guide clients’ selection, implementation and management of real estate-related software and applications. The Corrigo ecosystem opens new client segments by revolutionizing end-to-end facility repair and maintenance service delivery, and helping clients find the best service providers.
LaSalle
Complementing our real estate services capabilities, our global real estate investment management business, LaSalle, is one of the world's largest managers of institutional and individual capital invested in real estate assets and securities. We seek to establish and maintain relationships of trust with sophisticated investors who value our global platform and extensive local market knowledge. Our three strategic priorities:
• Deliver superior risk-adjusted investment returns to our clients
• Develop and execute investment strategies that meet the specific investment objectives of our clients
• Deliver uniformly high levels of client service globally
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LaSalle provides clients with a broad range of real estate investment products and services in private and public capital markets. We design these products and services to meet the differing strategic, asset allocation, risk/return and liquidity requirements of our clients. The range of investment solutions includes private and public equity investments in multiple real estate property types, including traditional sectors such as office, retail, industrial, and multifamily residential, as well as emerging or specialized sectors such as healthcare, life sciences, self-storage and data centers. We also have established commercial debt investment vehicles in Europe and North America that diversify our capital stack exposure. We act either through commingled investment funds or single client account relationships ("separate accounts"). We also offer global indirect investments, primarily in private equity funds, joint ventures and co-investments, as well as publicly traded real estate investment trusts ("REITs") and other real estate equities. Where consistent with client requirements and market terms and conditions, LaSalle retains JLL to provide services to assets in LaSalle funds in the ordinary course of business.
We believe LaSalle's success is the product of our strong investment performance, research capabilities, experienced investment professionals, innovative investment strategies, global presence and coordinated platform, local market knowledge and steadfast client focus.
LaSalle launched its first institutional investment fund in 1979, making us one of the most experienced real estate focused investment managers in the industry. We have invested, on behalf of clients, in real estate assets in 26 countries around the globe, as well as in public real estate companies traded on all major stock exchanges. LaSalle's assets under management ("AUM") of $68.9 billion, as of December 31, 2020, by geographic distribution and fund type is detailed in the following graphics ($ in billions).
In serving our investment management clients, LaSalle is responsible for the acquisition, financing, leasing, management and divestiture of real estate investments across a broad range of real estate property types.
Some investors prefer to partner with investment managers who are willing to co-invest their own funds to more closely align the interests of the investor and the investment manager. We believe our ability to co-invest alongside our clients' funds will continue to be an important factor in maintaining and improving our competitive position. As of December 31, 2020, we had a total of $300.8 million of co-investments, alongside our clients, in real estate ventures included in total AUM.
LaSalle is generally compensated for investment management services for private equity investments based on capital committed, invested and managed (advisory fees), with additional fees (incentive fees) tied to investment performance above specific hurdles. In some cases, LaSalle also receives fees tied to acquisitions, financings and dispositions (transaction fees). Separate account advisory agreements generally have specific terms with "at will" termination provisions, and include fee arrangements linked to the market value of the AUM, plus incentive fees in some cases.
Our investment funds have various life spans, typically ranging between five and nine years, but in some cases are open ended. In 2020, our open-ended funds grew nearly 25% and represented approximately 30% AUM as of December 31, 2020.
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ORGANIZATIONAL PURPOSE
JLL’s organizational purpose is to shape the future of real estate for a better world. Staying true to this purpose in all that we do enables us to fully align with the best interests and ambitions of our clients and all our stakeholders. It exemplifies our commitment to the highest standards of environmental, social and corporate governance ("ESG") , and to a more sustainable, diverse and inclusive future.
We shape the future of real estate for a better world
This core organizational purpose is fully aligned with, and supported by, our corporate values of teamwork, ethics and excellence. Ultimate responsibility for promoting awareness and ensuring adherence to our values and purpose across the enterprise is held by the JLL Global Executive Board ("GEB") and is endorsed by our Board of Directors. Our purpose guides our strategic growth vision and informs our response to the macro trends prevalent in the real estate industry. These trends and our strategic framework are summarized below.
INDUSTRY TRENDS
Informing our long-term growth strategy, we have identified five macro trends we see as major guiding influences on the continued growth and evolution of the real estate sector. Each of these trends has a multi-year lifespan, and while the COVID-19 pandemic (the "pandemic") has slowed some and accelerated others, we expect all five trends to maintain their long-term trajectory and relevance in the post-pandemic era. These macro trends are:
Rising investment allocations and globalization of capital flows to real estate
During the past decade, real estate has grown out of its previous 'alternative investment' classification to become a major defined asset class of its own, attracting a sustained long-term trend of rising investment allocations. In 2020, while the initial impacts of the pandemic slowed all transactional markets, this trend has reasserted as economic activity resumed. Indications from pension companies and other institutional investors and capital sources suggest it will further strengthen as we move into post-pandemic recovery, with real estate continuing to offer attractive returns.
Complementing this, we see long-term sustained strong transaction volumes and increasing capital flows across borders and between continents, creating new opportunities for advisors and investment managers equipped to source and facilitate these capital flows and execute cross-border transactions. Our real estate investment expertise, linking seamlessly across the world's major markets, is ideally placed to support our clients' investment ambitions.
Growth in corporate outsourcing
While corporate outsourcing of real estate services still represents a relatively small proportion of the total commercial-built real estate worldwide, the steady long-term trend towards outsourcing which began in the early 1990s, originally with U.S.-based corporations, is now a global trend. By focusing their own resources on core competencies and partnering with dedicated service providers like JLL to manage real estate strategy and activities, organizations are better positioned to advance their goals of financial and operational performance, talent attraction, customer experience, employee productivity and environmental sustainability.
In corporate boardrooms around the world, the global onset of the pandemic in 2020 rapidly accelerated the growing focus on reimagining workplaces and concepts for the future of work. These are areas in which JLL holds deep expertise and sector-leading specialist experience and resources. Across different industries we are positioned to provide highly adaptive and relevant solutions that promote organizational culture and prioritize health and well-being, flexible working models and digital enablement. In the post-pandemic era, we predict further growth in the strong and sustained trend for organizations to outsource real estate services while increasingly seeking strategic advice on reimagining their workspaces and workstyles to reinforce culture, attract talent and drive performance.
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Urbanization
While the world of urban living and working was thrown into temporary flux in 2020 by the pandemic, we believe its foundations are deep and secure, and a dynamic future is already taking discernible shape. With the successful rollout of vaccination programs, the concentrations of culture, diversity, opportunity, facilities and creative expression in the world’s major cities will continue to attract strong inflows of ambitious and aspirational people. In the post-pandemic era, cities will again thrive, characterized by vibrant and reimagined office, cultural, retail and residential profiles.
Growth in major urban populations around the world will continue to be a prevalent trend, and with it comes increasing demand for all forms of real estate services and advice. JLL has a well-established global research series - the City Momentum Index - exploring this and associated trends in more depth, including related dynamics in the way the world’s 130 emerging and established markets are growing, adapting and evolving.
Fourth Industrial Revolution
The World Economic Forum defines the Fourth Industrial Revolution as the wave of change being driven through advances in technology, data and artificial intelligence. The real estate industry is affected in many ways, a few examples include: (1) the transition to flexible and hybrid office working models, (2) new data-driven understanding of how all forms of real estate can be more efficient, sustainable and productive, (3) the rise of experiential and online retail, (4) new asset management technologies, and (5) the growth of the logistics sector.
While there is currently no single technology disruptor positioned to dominate the real estate industry, there are thousands of start-ups, applications and concepts vying to transform the marketplace, collectively known as proptech. The challenge to innovate and maximize the current and future benefits of proptech is constant. At the heart of our Beyond strategy (discussed below), supported by major ongoing investments and innovations, we continue to accelerate progress toward our goal of becoming the widely-recognized leading user of technology and data in real estate.
Sustainability
Addressing and managing climate change and the finite nature of global resources are defining issues for our time. According to the International Energy Agency, real estate and the built environment account for nearly 40% of total global direct and indirect CO₂ emissions. At the same time, stakeholders are demanding greater focus on ESG from businesses and organizations in all areas of society. These and other factors, including heightened awareness of the importance of promoting health and well-being, coalesce into strong rising demand for sustainability services and advice across the real estate industry. JLL has identified meeting this demand as a major growth opportunity and priority, aligning with our purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world. Refer to our annual Global Sustainability Report for information on JLL’s commitment to net zero carbon operations for our leased offices and updates on progress toward achieving our science-based target, which was approved by the Science Based Target initiative in 2020.
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STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
Our GEB has set out the Beyond strategic vision and framework to deliver long-term sustainable and profitable global growth. This framework comprises broad strategic priorities grouped into five pillars – Clients, Brand, Digital, People and Values – which collectively support and drive our ambitious long-term growth trajectory.
Beyond: Our Strategic Vision for Long-Term Sustainable and Profitable Growth
Clients
As a major step on our Beyond journey, during 2020 we completed a two-year leadership transformation initiative to move all parts of our business to global organizational structures. Reorienting from the previous locally-based structures means we are now even better positioned to provide seamless and highly consistent services to our clients across the world, as well as smoothly and rapidly deploy innovations, best practice and new technologies.
We continue to enhance our comprehensive service offering to create real value for our clients. Guided by our Beyond strategy, we are making significant ongoing investments in advanced client relationship management processes and tools, ensuring we can quickly assemble the best multidisciplinary teams and expertise tailored to meet each client’s requirements.
Brand
During 2020, JLL’s status as trusted adviser and partner to our clients was readily apparent. Clients turned to us for solutions and insights to adapt their real estate strategies and operations to weather a year of unprecedented challenges, and to plan ahead for the post-pandemic world. Our major research-led global focus on reimagining real estate ensured our brand and services were positioned in the vanguard of the industry’s response.
We continue to strengthen and expand awareness of our brand beyond the traditional real estate sector, with a focused goal in our Beyond strategic vision to reach more CEOs and other senior decision makers. Supporting this goal, we are an active strategic partner of the World Economic Forum and regular participant in its annual meeting in Davos and at other events, and our President and CEO, Christian Ulbrich, is a member of the Forum’s International Business Council and Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders. Further, in January 2021, Fortune magazine again named JLL as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies (refer to the Distinguishing Attributes and Competitive Differentiators section below for additional awards and recognition during the past year).
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Digital
The events of 2020 highlighted how technology is changing the way we work and where we do it more than ever before. JLL is embracing technology to meet the needs of clients today and anticipate the opportunities of tomorrow. Leading this transformation is core to our growth strategy and reflected in our significant investments. Our JLL Technologies group is a global leader in proptech – expanding and refining our technology capabilities to deliver significant competitive advantage and value for our clients and our company. This includes our $100 million commitment to JLL Spark Global Venture funds which incubate and drive proptech innovation as well as our recently launched workplace experience app, JLL Jet. Visit our website at www.jll.com to see the full portfolio of technology offerings.
Within our own operations, the substantial platform technology investments we made in the early phases of our Beyond journey are bearing significant fruit. Despite the impact of the pandemic, the ready availability and consistency of information in our Finance and HR systems enabled us to drive record cash flow from operating activities in 2020.
People
People are at the heart of our business. We are dedicated to helping our people achieve their ambitions by enabling them to explore new opportunities, build expertise, create long-term careers, and draw inspiration through working with talented colleagues and clients. We are committed to promoting and achieving true diversity and inclusion, as exemplified by the composition of our highly talented and experienced Board of Directors.
Values
All of our people are committed to the core values of teamwork, ethics and excellence. These values are the foundation of our organization. Clients, employees, business partners and potential recruits are strongly attracted to these values and to our commitments to a strong ESG, including ambitious goals and regular transparent reporting.
In April 2020, the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) confirmed its approval of our target of a 68% reduction in our total carbon emissions by 2030. In September 2020, we signed the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, pledging to achieve net zero carbon emissions from JLL-occupied buildings by 2030. In November 2020, we announced the appointment of Guy Grainger – previously CEO of our EMEA segment – in a newly created senior role as Global Head of Sustainability Services and ESG, reflecting our core strategic focus in this area.
We have earned repeated recognition from organizations such as the Ethisphere Institute, which in 2020 named JLL as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for the 13th consecutive year.
Growth
Our Beyond priorities for clients, people, values, digital and brand combine to provide an integrated strategic vision and platform for growth. This vision is supported by our commitment to enhance productivity, optimize sustainable and profitable long-term growth, and create value for all of our stakeholders. Our Beyond strategic vision and priorities for growth are built on our closely integrated platform, which combines deep local market knowledge with seamless advice and services tailored to each client’s specific needs.
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SUSTAINING OUR ENTERPRISE: A BUSINESS MODEL THAT COMBINES DIFFERENT CAPITAL TO CREATE STAKEHOLDER VALUE
As referenced above, the built environment is estimated to account for over one-third of global final energy consumption and nearly 40% of total direct and indirect CO 2 emissions, meaning JLL can have a significant impact through the work we do with our clients as well as in our workplaces and communities.
Building a Better Tomorrow - our global sustainability strategy. Our purpose, we shape the future of real estate for a better world, has strong and deep roots in our identity and history. We bring our purpose to life by partnering with our stakeholders to drive disruptive, impactful and sustainable change. We do this by embedding sustainability into everything we do through the four Pillars of Building a Better Tomorrow : Clients, People, Workplaces and Communities. These pillars are underpinned by three foundations: (1) our commitment to the highest standards of corporate governance, (2) our efforts to develop and drive sustainability thought leadership and (3) our commitment to deploying innovative, forward thinking solutions for ourselves and our clients. Building a Better Tomorrow is integral to our business and supports our long-term strategic vision, Beyond .
To ensure that JLL’s sustainability strategy and targets home in on the key impacts of our business and what matters most to our stakeholders, we engage in a regular assessment of our material issues. In 2020, in large part due to the pandemic, we conducted a deep dive materiality review. Through our process of market evaluation and direct stakeholder input, we identified the top five current environmental and social issues, which are detailed below.
Environmental Issues Social Issues
1. Energy and climate
1. Diversity and Inclusion
2. Sustainable buildings 2. Corporate culture & reputation
3. Adaptation and resilience
3. Ethics and compliance
4. Healthy buildings
4. Innovation and technology
5. Responsible supply chain 5. Employee well-being
These results will inform our evaluation of additional opportunities for impact beyond our already ambitious science-based target and net zero commitments. All targets will be covered in detail in the next annual Global Sustainability Report, due for publication in the second quarter of 2021 and available on our website.
Generating sustainable value for our clients. Through industry-leading strategies, tools and technologies, we help our clients achieve their sustainability goals. Increasingly, our clients require innovative and consistent sustainability solutions across all regions in which they operate. In response to this demand, we have expanded our focus on energy and sustainability capabilities with the intent of providing a broader complement of globally scalable, consistent and profitable services.
We have a designated team of energy and sustainability product management professionals, who are responsible for developing industry-leading energy and sustainability products that create differentiated value for our clients, deliver accelerated revenue growth and margin expansion to JLL, and help us shape the future of real estate for a better world. This group, working in conjunction with our business lines, geographical leaders and operations teams, works collaboratively to develop and enhance our client offerings and is responsible for scaling up our services in the sustainability space, driving global consistency and best practices and bringing forward new offerings ahead of future client needs.
Our expertise addresses the entire life cycle of a building - from its design and planning, through construction, occupation, management, refurbishment and sale. Our professionals offer advice on how sustainability considerations can be embedded at each of these stages to maximize value for our clients. Our Property & Facility Management professionals, for example, embed sustainability criteria into our supply chain via contractor selection and the monitoring of sustainability performance against key performance indicators. We also support our clients’ data management and reporting requirements whether it be for frameworks such as 'GRESB', 'WELL' and 'LEED' or waste, water and utility information.
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Our commitment to technological innovation extends to our sustainability service offering for our clients. We utilize a number of technology platforms, both in-house and externally sourced, to help deliver our clients’ sustainability objectives. Our OneView Energy and Sustainability Analytics (OVESA) platform is used to manage the ever-increasing volumes of complex sustainability data on behalf of our clients. This system, along with our other platforms such as the Portfolio Energy and Environment Reporting System (PEERS) and the Energy and Sustainability Platform (ESP), reflects our commitment to investing in digital, data and information management platforms. By deploying flexible technology solutions, we were able to measure, manage and improve environmental impacts for thousands of buildings included on these platforms in 2020. In 2021, JLL will see further investments to simplify, streamline and enhance our digital capabilities.
Creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders
We have designed our business model to (i) create value for our clients, shareholders and employees, (ii) establish high-quality relationships with the suppliers we engage and the communities in which we operate, and (iii) respond to macroeconomic trends impacting the real estate sector. Based on our intimate knowledge of local real estate and capital markets worldwide, as well as our investments in thought leadership and technology, we create value for clients by addressing their real estate needs as well as their broader business, strategic, operating and longer-term sustainability goals.
We strive to create a healthy and dynamic balance between activities that will produce short-term value and returns for our stakeholders through effective management of current transactions and business activities, and investments in people (such as new hires), acquisitions, technologies and systems designed to produce sustainable returns over the long term.
"Thinking Beyond" our value creation model (illustrated on the next page) summarizes how we create value for our shareholders and our broader stakeholders. It starts with the capital resources - or inputs - we need to do business. We use these resources in the context of our mission and vision to deliver services - or outputs - for our clients through the business activities we manage.
We apply our business model to the resources and capitals we employ to provide services. We provide these services through our own employees and, where necessary or appropriate in the case of property and facility management and project and development services, through the management of third-party contractors. The revenue and profits we earn from those efforts are allocated among further investments in our business, employee compensation and returns to our shareholders. We are increasingly focused on linking our business and sustainability strategies to promote the goal of creating long-term value for our shareholders, clients, employees and the global community of which JLL is a part. These efforts help our clients manage their real estate more effectively and efficiently, promote employment globally and create wealth for our shareholders and employees. In turn, they allow us to be an increasingly impactful member of, and positive force within, the communities in which we operate.
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COMPETITION
We operate across a wide variety of highly competitive business lines within the commercial real estate industry globally. Our significant growth over the last decade, and our ability to take advantage of the substantial consolidation which has taken place in our industry, have made us one of the largest commercial real estate services and investment management providers on a global basis.
Since we provide a broad range of commercial real estate and investment management services across many geographies, we face significant competition at international, regional and local levels. We also face competition from companies who may not traditionally be thought of as real estate service providers, including institutional lenders, insurance companies, investment banking firms, investment managers, accounting firms, technology firms, software-as-a-service companies, firms providing co-working space, firms providing outsourcing services of various types (including technology, food service and building products), and companies that self-perform their real estate services with in-house capabilities.
DISTINGUISHING ATTRIBUTES AND COMPETITIVE DIFFERENTIATORS
We deliver exceptional strategic, fully-integrated services, best practices and innovative solutions for real estate owners, occupiers, investors and developers worldwide through an integrated wholly-owned global platform. These characteristics among others distinguish us from our competitors, drive service excellence and customer loyalty, and demonstrate our commitment to a sustainable future. While we face formidable competition in individual markets, the following are key attributes differentiating JLL for clients seeking real estate and investment management services across the globe.
• Our focus on client relationship management to provide superior client service on a highly coordinated basis
• Our globally-integrated business model with local market knowledge, including a highly diverse set of service offerings, enabling our ability to deliver expertise wherever our clients need it
• Leadership in leveraging technology to enhance the services we provide our clients and the way we operate
• The strength of our brand , including our reputation as an ethical organization
• The strength of our financial position
• Our sustainability leadership , with a sustainability strategy that addresses long-term financial, environmental, and social risks and opportunities for ourselves and our clients
• The quality and worldwide reach of our industry-leading research function, enhanced by our ability to leverage granular data at a global scale through technology and our ability to synthesize complex information into practical advice for clients
• Our employee engagement as well as our employee value proposition - Achieve your ambitions - which articulates what differentiates JLL as an employer
• The quality of our internal governance and enterprise risk management , which clients can rely on over the long term
The following is a detailed discussion of these distinguishing attributes and competitive differentiators.
Client Relationship Management . Our clients are the center of our business model, and we enable superior service delivery through ongoing investments in the people, processes and tools that support client relationship management. As an example, CapForce , our sophisticated CRM tool, links all our capital markets business lines and activities around the world. Our goal is to provide a seamless understanding of our clients' needs across our global capital markets platform, to drive a customized experience and accountability for all the activities we undertake for the client. We achieve superior client service through best practices in client relationship management, seeking and acting on regular client feedback, and recognizing each client's own specific definition of excellence. We also invest in developing the highest caliber talent dedicated to managing our client relationships through an employee compensation and evaluation system aligned with our global career framework and designed to reward client relationship building, teamwork and quality performance.
Our client-driven focus enables us to develop, sustain and grow long-term client relationships that generate repeat business and create recurring revenue opportunities. In many cases, we establish strategic alliances with clients whose ongoing service needs align with our ability to deliver fully integrated real estate services across multiple business units and locations.
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Globally-Integrated Business Model . Through the combination of a wide range of high-quality, complementary services we deliver at consistently high service levels globally, we develop and implement real estate strategies that meet the increasingly complex and far-reaching needs of our clients. With operations spanning the globe, we have in-depth knowledge of local and regional markets and can provide services which address the entire life cycle of real estate around the world. This geographic coverage, combined with the ability and connectivity of our people, positions us to serve the needs of our multinational clients and manage the flow of investment capital on a global basis. This model enables cross-selling opportunities across geographies and service lines that we expect will continue to develop new revenue sources and growth.
Technology Leadership . Our globally-coordinated investments in research, technology, data and analytics, people, quality control and innovation provide a foundation for us to develop, share and continually evaluate best practices across our global organization. In recent years, we launched a new global people information system, upgraded our digitally integrated finance system, and scaled the use of CRM tools globally to drive consistency across our organization. In addition, we have been heavily focused on acquiring and/or developing technology-enabled expertise, products and services to better serve our employees and clients. For example, in 2020, we launched the Investor Center, our global capital markets listings platform. This online marketplace helps our clients find their next investment opportunity across asset types and facilitates the due diligence process.
We will continue to develop and deploy technology to support our marketing and client development activities and to make our products and services increasingly accessible.
Brand . The combined strength of our JLL and LaSalle brands represents a significant advantage when we pursue new business opportunities and is also a major motivator for talented people to join our global brand. Large corporations, institutional investors and occupiers of real estate recognize our ability to create value reliably in changing market conditions, based on (i) evidence provided by brand perception surveys we have commissioned, (ii) extensive coverage we receive in top-tier business publications, (iii) awards we receive in real estate, sustainability, innovation, data/technology and ethics, as well as (iv) our significant, long-standing client relationships. Our reputation derives from our deep industry knowledge, excellence in service delivery, integrity and our global provision of high-quality, professional real estate and investment management services.
We believe in uncompromising integrity and the highest ethical conduct, where our Board of Directors and senior management lead by example. We are proud of the global reputation we have earned and are determined to protect and enhance it. The integrity our brand represents is one of our most valuable assets and a strong differentiator for JLL.
The JLL name is our primary trading name; Jones Lang LaSalle remains our legal name. Using the shorter JLL name facilitates its adaptation to different communication styles in different countries, languages and channels and especially to the use of digital and online channels for marketing and communications.
Financial Strength . Our broad geographic reach and the range of our global service offerings diversify the sources of our revenue, reducing overall volatility in operating a real estate services business. This further differentiates JLL from firms with more limited service offerings or that are only local/regional and must rely on fewer markets or services.
Confidence in the financial strength of long-term service providers is important to our clients, who require financial strength when they select real estate service providers. We focus on maintaining financial performance metrics, particularly our leverage and debt service coverage ratios, that support investment-grade financial ratings. We continue our long history of investment grade credit ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. ("Moody’s") and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services ("S&P"). Our issuer and senior unsecured ratings as of December 31, 2020 are Baa1 from Moody’s and BBB+ from S&P. Accordingly, our ability to present a superior financial condition distinguishes us as we compete for business.
We have ample capacity to fund our business. A key source of liquidity is our unsecured credit facility (the "Facility") provided by an international syndicate of banks, which as of December 31, 2020 had a maximum borrowing capacity of $2.75 billion and a maturity date in May, 2023.
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Sustainability Leadership. Leading on sustainability is fundamental to both our purpose and our future long-term growth strategy because it’s about creating a positive impact not only today, but also in the future. Being a responsible corporate citizen is the right thing to do and is what our clients and employees expect from us.
To that end, and in alignment with the recommendations from the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure ("TCFD"), we undertook an evaluation of the potential risks and opportunities to our business resulting from climate change. Specifically, we analyzed the impacts of two climate scenarios, (1) an aggressive mitigation resulting in <2° C warming and (2) an intermediate mitigation resulting in 2° - 3.7° C warming. Our findings were published in JLL’s first TCFD report included within our Global Sustainability Report published in 2020. With both scenarios, we anticipate significantly more climate-related opportunities than risks as our business model is not carbon-intensive and mitigation measures are already in place for many risks. Additionally, our existing investments in property technology, green building solutions and our climate change consulting provide significant and scalable avenues to realize the identified climate-related opportunities.
There is a strong and direct correlation between our ESG performance and the long-term health and success of our business. We address this by putting into action our sustainability strategy, Building a Better Tomorrow , which delivers transformative changes for our business, people, clients, communities and planet.
Our market position enables us to take actions that contribute to a better world. In so doing, it identifies us as a responsible organization, brings our purpose to life, adds value to our brand, and helps us attract and retain talent.
Industry-Leading Research Capabilities . We invest in and rely on comprehensive research to support and guide the development of real estate and investment strategy for our clients. With approximately 480 research professionals who gather data and cover market and economic conditions around the world, we are an authority on the economics and market dynamics of commercial real estate. Research plays a key role in keeping colleagues throughout the organization attuned to important trends and changing conditions in world markets. We continue to devise and invest in new approaches through data science techniques and other technology to make our research, services and property offerings more readily available to our people and clients.
We believe our investments in research, technology, data science and analytics, people and thought leadership position JLL as a leading innovator in our industry. Our research initiatives investigate emerging trends to help us anticipate future conditions and shape new services to benefit our clients, which in turn help us secure and maintain profitable long-term relationships with the clients we target: the world's leading real estate owners, occupiers, investors and developers.
Employee Engagement . Based on input from our employees about our culture and what makes us stand out as an employer, we developed the employee value proposition - Achieve your ambitions - a shared framework to inspire talent to join us, engage our employees and celebrate the values and culture of JLL around the world. An integral part of our brand, it is our promise to our people - employees and candidates alike - and centers on five unique pillars, depicted in the following graphic.
Our goal-setting framework uses three categories of goals (clients, growth and people) that align our people’s efforts with enterprise-wide strategy throughout all levels of the organization and build focus and attention on our priorities. Ongoing employee feedback is important to the continued improvement of our organization and to harness this valuable feedback, we complete an employee survey three times each year.
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Governance and Enterprise Risk Management. The Chairman of our Board of Directors is an independent Director and is separate from our CEO, who also serves as a Director. This structure together with our transparent senior management promotes an environment of best practices in corporate governance and controls. We believe these attributes allow us to infuse a culture of internal communication and connectivity throughout the organization.
Successful management of any organization's enterprise risks is critical to its long-term viability. We seek to promote, operate and continually improve a globally-integrated enterprise risk management model that optimizes our overall risk/reward profile through the coordinated and sophisticated interaction of business and corporate staff functions.
Awards. We won numerous awards and recognitions through January 2021 that reflect the quality of the services we provide to our clients, the integrity of our people and our desirability as a place to work. As examples, we were named:
• A member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, for the second consecutive year
• A member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, for the fifth consecutive year
• One of America's 100 Most Sustainable Companies by Barron's
• An Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award recipient, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for the ninth consecutive year
• One of America's Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek , for the second consecutive year
• One of the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, for the 13th consecutive year
• One of the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune Magazine , for the fourth consecutive year
• To the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index, a benchmarking survey on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality, with a perfect score, for the seventh consecutive year
• One of America's Best Employers for Diversity by Forbes , for the second consecutive year
• One of America's Best Employers for Women by Forbes
• One of the Top Companies for Executive Women by Working Mother , for the fifth consecutive year
• One of Working Mother's Best Companies for Dad
INTEGRATED REPORTING
JLL was one of the first U.S. listed companies to participate in the International Integrated Reporting Council ("IIRC"), and we continue to support the general principles set forth by the IIRC, which are designed to promote communications and integrated thinking about how an organization's strategy, governance and financial and non-financial performance lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term.
Components of Our Integrated Report . This Annual Report on Form 10-K focuses on our business strategy and our financial performance, including an attempt to illustrate how being a sustainable enterprise is integral to our success. Our citizenship and sustainability efforts for ourselves and our clients are reflected primarily in our annual Global Sustainability Report, available on our website. Our governance and remuneration practices are reported primarily in the Proxy Statement for our Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The mechanisms we use to make our clients comfortable with respect to our transparency and fair dealing are summarized in our Transparency Report. The behaviors and standards we expect of our employees and of the suppliers we engage for our own company and on behalf of clients are presented in our Code of Business Ethics and our Vendor Code of Conduct. Our Corporate Facts document is intended to provide an overall summary of the information we believe will be of primary interest to our different stakeholders.
Responsibility for Integrated Reporting. Our Finance and Legal functions are primarily responsible for the integrity of our integrated reporting efforts, collaborating in the preparation and presentation of this report and engaging our organization's leadership.
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SEASONALITY
Historically, our quarterly revenue and profits have tended to increase from quarter to quarter as the year progresses. This is a result of a general focus in the real estate industry on completing or documenting transactions by calendar year end and the fact that certain expenses are constant throughout the year. Historically, we have reported a relatively smaller profit in the first quarter and then increasingly larger profits during each of the following three quarters, excluding the recognition of investment-generated performance fees and realized and unrealized co-investment equity earnings and losses (each of which can be unpredictable). Generally, we recognize incentives fees when assets are sold, the timing of which is geared toward the benefit of our clients. In addition, co-investment equity gains and losses are primarily dependent on underlying valuations, the direction and magnitude of changes to such valuations are not predictable. Non-variable operating expenses, which we treat as expenses when incurred during the year, are relatively constant on a quarterly basis. In 2020, macroeconomic conditions influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the historical seasonality of our revenue and profits and may continue to do so in 2021.
HUMAN CAPITAL
The following table details our global headcount for reimbursable and non-reimbursable employees.
(in thousands) December 31, 2020 December 31, 2019
Professional non-reimbursable employees 49.7 51.6
Directly reimbursable employees 41.1 41.8
Total employees 90.8 93.4
Directly reimbursable employees have costs which are fully reimbursed by clients, primarily in our Corporate Solutions business. Specifically, reimbursable employees include our property and facility management professionals, including our building maintenance employees.
Our employees do not report being members of any labor unions, with the exception of approximately 2,600 property maintenance employees in the United States, 75% of whom are reimbursable. As of both December 31, 2020, and 2019, approximately 70% of our employees were based in countries other than the United States.
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are strategic imperatives for the way we do business. Engaging in diverse and inclusive practices leads to better productivity, higher performing teams and business growth. At JLL, we succeed through inclusion and celebrate the characteristics that make us unique. A few recent examples are detailed below.
• A significant portion of our employee base participates in one or more of our Business Resources Groups. Noteworthy in 2020, we launched our Parent and Caregiver Experience group to provide additional support and resources in response to pandemic-related increased pressures on parents and caregivers.
• In 2020, we appointed female CEOs for three of our largest country businesses - the UK, Germany and India.
• We launched our first Black Excellence Summit in 2020 and kicked off a reverse mentoring program with our senior leaders across the globe.
• In January 2021, we appointed our first dedicated global head of Diversity & Inclusion. This role reports to our Chief Human Resources Officer, a member of the GEB, and will directly engage with leadership across the organization.
In addition, we regularly measure our inclusion index though our employee engagement survey, and have launched a Belonging@JLL program focusing on driving inclusive behaviors worldwide, including “Diversity Moments that Matter.”
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Training and Development
Using extensive internal and external research, we have a set of core capabilities that define our leadership behaviors to drive our near and long-term success. Those capabilities are the foundation for our employee talent assessments, succession planning and other talent processes. Our employees can self-assess and be assessed against these capabilities to participate in our award-winning development platform, Real Leadership. The platform provides specific programs to help our employees and leaders grow, develop their career, and become better leaders using in-person training, virtual programming, various assessments and coaching.
Just as our business needs to constantly evolve, so too does the Real Leadership platform -for example in 2020, we launched an online learning platform to accelerate the skills of employees’ working virtually. Over 25,000 employees were able to learn, in seven different languages, through our virtual on-demand offerings this year. Since we launched Real Leadership, we have had over 40,000 leaders and employees participate, through both virtual and instructor-led classes.
Well-being
In 2020, we launched a well-being framework consisting of four pillars: physical, mental, financial, and inclusion. We provided resources on our well-being site in 15 languages including online courses, webinars and resources for caregivers. This site has had more than 50,000 visits with over 12,000 employees attending webinars.
Health and Safety
Health and safety is at the forefront of JLL's operations. With over 450 health and safety professionals, we are committed to creating an environment that unequivocally protects our employees, clients and supply partners.
To effectively manage health and safety, our program is aligned to the principles of the internationally recognized health and safety management standard ISO 45001. We implement global health and safety standards that ensure we apply a consistent approach to harm prevention and operate assurance programs to ensure legal compliance.
We recognize that successful health and safety programs are built on proactive individual and collective safe behaviors. Through our health and safety vision, ‘One team S.A.F.E.R together’, we create a stronger culture of health and safety, underpinned by our S.A.F.E.R. behaviors: S – Speak about safety; A – Act safely; F – Focus on safety standards; E – Engage in safety initiatives; R – Recognize safe performance.
To monitor the strength of our safety culture, in 2020 we benchmarked our organization against data from 130 other companies using the UK Health and Safety Laboratory’s Safety Climate Survey Tool. Our global survey received 12,500 responses and showed our culture to be in the 95th percentile when compared against the all-industry scores. While this score sets a high internal benchmark, our goal is to improve our culture and improve our scores year on year.
Through our safety vision and our awareness and education programs, like Global Safety Week, the strength of our program is realized in the low accident rates for the year 2020, compared with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") industry average accident rates for our industry (NAICS Code 531: Real Estate).
• Lost Time Incident Rat e was 0.10 (OSHA industry average was 0.70): 12-month average of OSHA recordable illness and injuries per 100 JLL employees that resulted in days away from work.
• Total Recordable Incident Rate was 0.27 (OSHA industry average was 2.10): 12-month average of OSHA recordable illness and injuries per 100 JLL employees.
• Days Away, Restricted Duty and Transfer was 0.12 (OSHA industry average was 1.00): 12-month average of OSHA recordable illness and injuries per 100 full-time employees that resulted in days away from work or restricted duties.
• There were zero JLL employee workplace fatalities reported in 2020.
In addition, we closed, cleaned and reopened more than 350 corporate offices in the months following the onset of the pandemic, focusing on both employee safety and their office experience while complying with local regulations, incorporating proper social distancing practices and enhancing sanitation efforts.
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We regard our technology and other intellectual property, including our brands, as a critical part of our business.
We hold various trademarks, trade dress and trade names and rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, service mark and trade secret laws, as well as contractual restrictions to establish and protect our proprietary rights. We own numerous domain names, have registered numerous trademarks, and have filed applications for the registration of a number of our other trademarks and service marks in the United States and in foreign countries. We hold the "Jones Lang LaSalle," "JLL" and "LaSalle Investment Management" trademarks and the related logos to conduct the material aspects of our business globally. We own the rights to use the ".jll" and ".lasalle" top level domain names.
Although we believe our intellectual property plays a role in maintaining our competitive position in a number of the markets we serve, we do not believe we would be materially adversely affected by the expiration or termination of our trademarks or trade names or the loss of any of our other intellectual property rights other than the “JLL,” "Jones Lang LaSalle," “LaSalle,” and "LaSalle Investment Management" names, and our Design (Three Circles) mark that is also trademarked. Our trademark registrations have to be renewed every ten years, which we expect to continue to renew, as necessary. Based on our most recent trademark registrations, the JLL mark would expire in 2024, while the Jones Lang LaSalle name would expire in 2022 and the Design (Three Circles) mark would expire in 2021. Our LaSalle and LaSalle Investment Management marks will expire in 2026.
In addition to our trademarks and trade names, we also have proprietary technologies for the provision of complex services and analysis. We also have a number of pending patent applications in the U.S. to further enable us to provide high levels of client service and operational excellence. We will continue to file additional patent applications on new inventions, as appropriate, demonstrating our commitment to technology and innovation.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE; CODE OF BUSINESS ETHICS; CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND RELATED MATTERS
We are committed to the values of effective corporate governance, operating our business to the highest ethical standards and conducting ourselves in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. We believe these values promote the best long-term performance of JLL for the benefit of our shareholders, clients, staff and other constituencies.
Corporate Governance . We believe our policies and practices reflect corporate governance initiatives that comply with the listing requirements of the NYSE, the corporate governance requirements of the Sarbanes‑Oxley Act of 2002, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") regulations, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the General Corporation Law of the State of Maryland, where we are incorporated.
Our Board of Directors ("the Board") regularly reviews corporate governance developments and modifies our Bylaws, Guidelines and Committee Charters accordingly. As a result, we have adopted the following corporate governance policies and approaches considered to be best practices in corporate governance.
• Annual elections of all members of our Board
• Annual "say on pay" votes by shareholders with respect to executive compensation
• Right of shareholders owning 30% of the outstanding shares of our Common stock to call a special meeting of shareholders for any purpose
• Majority voting in Director elections
• Separation of Chairman and CEO roles, with the Chairman serving as Lead Independent Director
• Required approval by the Nominating and Governance Committee of any related-party transactions
• Executive session among the Non-Executive Directors at each in-person meeting
• Annual self-assessment by the Board and each of its Committees
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Code of Business Ethics . The ethics principles that guide our operations globally are embodied in our Code of Business Ethics, which applies to all employees of JLL and the members of our Board. The Code of Business Ethics is the cornerstone of our Ethics Everywhere Program, by which we establish, communicate and monitor the overall elements of our efforts. We are proud of, and are determined to protect and enhance, the global reputation we have established. As we operate in a service industry, the integrity our brand represents is one of our most valuable assets. For a number of years we have applied for and received Ethics Inside™ certification from NYSE Governance Services, a leading organization dedicated to best practices in ethics, compliance, corporate governance and citizenship. We believe it is the only available independent verification of a company's ethics program. As previously noted, we were named to Ethisphere Institute’s list of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the thirteenth consecutive time in 2020. We also were recertified under the Ethics Inside program by the Ethisphere Institute.
We support the principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investing and, given our clients include a number of the major companies within the electronic industry, the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct. We are also a member of the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative sponsored by the World Economic Forum.
Vendor Code of Conduct . We expect each of our vendors, meaning any firm or individual providing a product or service to us, or indirectly to our clients as a contractor or subcontractor, will share and embrace the letter and spirit of our commitment to integrity. While vendors are independent entities, their business practices may significantly reflect upon us, our reputation and our brand. Accordingly, we expect all vendors to adhere to the JLL Vendor Code of Conduct, which we publish in multiple languages on our website. We continue to evaluate and implement new ways to monitor the quality and integrity of our supply chain. This includes developing means to efficiently survey and compare responses about the ethical environment and riskiness of current and potential suppliers we engage both for our own company and on behalf of clients.
Professional Standards Guide. Our guide to professional standards seeks to establish principles under which our people will perform services for clients. It is published on our website.
Corporate Sustainability. We encourage and promote the principles of sustainability everywhere we operate, seeking to improve the communities and environment in which our people work and live. We design our corporate policies to reflect the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency, and we hold ourselves responsible for our social, environmental and economic performance. We seek to incorporate sustainability practices and principles into our client investments and asset management. These priorities guide the interactions we have with our shareholders, clients, employees, regulators and vendors, as well as with all others with whom we come into contact. We recognize both the risks and opportunities presented by climate change and seek to address these impacts both in and beyond our business.
We also work to foster an environment which values the richness of our differences and reflects the diverse world in which we live and work. By cultivating a dynamic mix of people and ideas, we enrich our performance, the communities in which we operate, and the lives of our employees. We seek to recruit a diverse workforce, develop and promote exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds, and embrace the varied experiences of all our employees.
Corporate Political Activities . Our general approach is to not take positions as an organization on social or political issues or on political campaigns. Accordingly, our use of corporate funds or other resources for political activities has been negligible. From time to time, we may comment on proposed legislation or regulations that directly affect our business interests and therefore the interests of our shareholders. We may also belong to industry trade associations that do become involved in attempts to influence legislation in the interests of the industry generally.
COMPANY WEBSITE AND AVAILABLE INFORMATION
JLL's website address is www.jll.com . We use our website as a channel of distribution for company, financial and other information. Our website also includes information about our corporate governance. We intend to post on our website any amendment or waiver of the Code of Business Ethics with respect to a member of our Board or any of the executive officers named in our proxy statement.
On the Investor Relations page on our website, we make available our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Proxy Statement on Schedule14A, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). The SEC maintains www.sec.gov , containing annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information we file electronically with the SEC.
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