Our contribution to society in unprecedented times

The health and wellbeing of our people remains our number one priority. We closed all our UK corporate offices in March, and this will remain the case for the foreseeable future.  To aid our people’s wellbeing, we have developed a suite of online resources to support mental health and stay connected.   For those who are still operating essential buildings, the physical wellbeing of our staff is paramount, and we have substantially enhanced safety measures in place.

We recognise the additional pressure that our working parents and those caring for others are under, and we are encouraging our colleagues to prioritise their parent or carer responsibilities providing them with extra flexibility in the new working environment. 

For those working remotely, our existing ‘Work well, anywhere’ policy and technology infrastructure means that we have been able to keep thousands of our colleagues connected to each other and part of virtual teams.

We are committed to helping our investor and corporate clients respond to the current crisis, recover and reimagine the future.  

In addition, we support our clients in operating responsibly today as well as helping them to plan for a sustainable recovery post crisis.  COVID-19 has shown both the fragility and the resilience of society and the ecosystem.  Now more than ever, it is our aspiration to support our clients in reimagining a more sustainable, equitable world. 

Our focus is also on helping our clients with essential services to maintain business continuity, be resilient and keep their workforces healthy and safe.  For example, at one pharmaceutical research park, we have implemented new operating procedures for coach travel to and from the park, enabling staff to maintain social distancing and hygiene.

At JLL and Integral, we have been providing real estate and support services to the healthcare, emergency and social care sectors.  During the COVID-19 crisis, this continues apace. Many of our colleagues are working tirelessly to keep essential services open throughout the UK, including more than 2,500 pharmacies, many community shopping centres and food stores, delivery and logistics centres, council buildings and police and fire service operations.

We are now operating a JLL emergency response taskforce, connecting NHS, charity and community needs with clients who have available space or resources, including accommodation, warehouses, parking and personal protective equipment (PPE). Given our national presence in 17 cities and major towns across the UK, we can support in multiple locations. We are matching resources with needs as they come in, have contacted over 20 NHS trusts we work with to provide support, developed a database of available assets to map to NHS needs, and we are offering charity hubs in local shopping centres.

Beyond this, we are leveraging our UK network to support in hotspots. Our teams are playing pivotal roles in the delivery of the emergency Nightingale hospitals.  In cities including London and Bristol, we have sourced car-parking, providing NHS staff with free spaces close to their work.

We are fully committed to our long-term charity partners – Crisis, LandAid, Groundwork, ELBA, and Skills Builder - during these challenging times.   Our flagship partner Crisis has rapidly adapted its services and established an emergency grants fund to support local groups who are meeting the needs of those experiencing homelessness.  We have agreed with Crisis that they can use the funds we raise for them to refocus their services and respond to critical need.  

Many of our people are keen to contribute personally and we’re facilitating this through our volunteering programme.   We are working with our partners on initiatives such as helping older people in isolation, assisting community organisations with financial, HR and IT support, mentoring students, and more. We are also supporting our people to volunteer for the NHS, responding to the Government’s call to action. 

We have established a Sourcing & Procurement Emergency Response Team focused on maintaining continuity of critical product supply and services to our clients. This, in turn, enables us to protect the health and well-being of our people, our suppliers’ people and our clients, and ensures that there are contingency plans to respond to changing requirements.  We’re also working with those who supply goods and services to our own offices as we continue to meet our commitments to them in full.