JLL Greens Up Internal Training with Trees

The JLLOne Team plants OneSeed trees to boost employee sustainability awareness and engagement as part of internal training.

JLL, a Fortune 200 global commercial real estate services company, specializes in real estate leasing, facilities management, PropTech and investment management. Being a sustainability leader is fundamental to JLL's purpose to "shape the future of real estate for a better world," and JLL is fully committed to embracing sustainability at every level.

How does JLL ensure their commitment to sustainability reaches down through every department to every employee in a way that engages them in the sustainability journey?

Ross Parsons, Director of Pursuits at Hong Kong JLL, saw an opportunity to marry sustainability with engagement for his own Leasing Team at a recent broker training.

Planting trees to inspire employee engagement in the sustainability journey

Post-Training Feedback

Email sent to each participant inviting them to share training feedback and receive congratulatory gift of a planted tree

Claim Tree

Participants gifted a unique tree they can visit virtually to see geolocation, photo, carbon captured. Results export.

Tree Total & CO2 Capture

Shareable company metrics with total number of trees planted and running total CO2 captured

Results

2X increase - typical employee survey response rate is 30-40% (Forbes)

Predicted 20-year total based on the species planted and total number of trees

Ross Parsons

Director of Pursuits at Hong Kong JLL

The offering from OneSeed is practical, meaningful, and innovative. It was very easy to work with the team at OneSeed, who provided a range of options for what I was looking to achieve, which was increased engagement and feedback on a training initiative. The JLL group were very impressed by the tree planting, which is really brought to life and made real by being able to track the progress of your tree. Whether it’s for internal initiatives to improve employee engagement or external client engagements, there are so many ways we can work with OneSeed again, and we definitely will be.

Reference

Why Employee Engagement Matters

The concept of employee engagement, first introduced in 1990, was a business breakthrough. Different from employee satisfaction, which focuses on superficial perks and benefits, employee engagement occurs when a person expresses their “preferred self” in their work setting, and is a hallmark of employee performance, and therefore, the organization’s performance.

Trust in the organization’s leadership is the top driver, not the physical environment, and the top steps toward engendering trust in leadership are:

Regular opportunities to provide feedback
Management access to their team's feedback
Feedback taken seriously through action

Organizations with highly engaged employees who feel valued and supported tend to be in better financial health, have a more productive workforce, and have higher employee retention, among other benefits. It is not the free snacks in the breakroom; it is the opportunities for meaningful conversations that create outcomes.

Why Sustainability Matters for Employee Engagement

From their own research, JLL understands the significant role corporate sustainability plays in office environment, talent retention, and employee engagement.

Talent favors organizations with strong sustainability agenda