“Overall, a good company, but I felt kinda like a red-headed stepchild.” The droll opinion of JLL by a manager in the firm’s Los Angeles office. One who felt unloved enough last month to post the crack on Glassdoor, a TripAdvisor-like platform that allows staff to critique employers anonymously.
Glassdoor has grown up a little since 2011. Then the web start-up mainly attracted the disaffected, as noted here on 18 June that year. Knight Frank provided jobs “for the old school tie brigade”. Savills “looked down on back-office staff”. At DTZ “a thick skin” was advantageous.
Three years ago comments were sparse. They still are today for the trio above. But US-centric CBRE, JLL and Cushman & Wakefield have attracted just about enough respondents, on both sides of the pond, to make them as moderately useful to job applicants as TripAdvisor is for holiday planners.
The latest data puts JLL on top. The firm gets a 3.6-star rating from 506 respondents. Boss Colin Dyer gets a 90% approval rating. “Strong ethical culture,” says a London-based employee. “Fewest number (nearly zero) of arseholes you’ll ever come across in such a big company.”
A view balanced by the same respondent, who says JLL is “still somewhat old-fashioned and traditional. Managers rise because they make money; therefore, it needs more enlightened leadership in many areas. Silo structures lead to myopia and inefficiency.”
CBRE gets 3.4 stars from 513 reviews, which give boss Robert Sulentic an 85% approval rating. Big emphasis placed on the opportunities of working at the global number one. “Great place to work, friendly and professional staff with the best people from the industry, lots of great projects.”
The cons? This one from former London employee: “An us-and-them feel between fee-earners and non-fee-earners. Lack of responsibility, micro management, lack of flexibility with working from home, very long hours in the office. No sense of a work-life balance.”
C&W gets 3.3 stars from 190 reviews. The consensus rating is: “Great work-life balance and generous support from management. HR policies designed to take care of employees. Motivating work environment.” Boss Edward Forst gains a 69% approval.
The bad news? “A lot of processes are rather ad hoc, with very little standardisation. No real sense of direction. Strategic hires of high-level personnel, but little concern for lower-down, I often felt like a cog in the machine,” said a now departed member of the London team.
On that note, cue the chorus from Django Django anthem Default: “Take one for the team, You’re a cog in the machine/you thought you’d made the grade/Knew that it would fall apart/gather up once again.” But not before posting on Glassdoor.
Conflicts of interest latest
Brokers are not the only agents in the firm who face conflicts of interest. So says Andrew Waller of consultant Remit, writing in response to last month’s column covering the issue. “We have found that in property management tenders, the question that sorts things out is: ‘How do you identify that a conflict might exist?’ I don’t think that any management department lets sensitive data out into their agency teams – but it has been mentioned as a fear by clients. Agents mutter about RICS guidelines. Very few have an answer that reassures. Everyone knows the rules – it’s the understanding of what the client might think is a conflict that is the problem.”
Lodha’s brave ambition
Indian developer Lhoda has unwisely disclosed an ambition to take on Berkeley and Barratt. “We want to be among the top two developers in London in the next five years,” says Abhishek Lodha, son of the founder of the Mumbai-based developer, which paid £306m for the former Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square last year. A scheme stalled while discussions over affordable housing contributions continue with Westminster council. Welcome to London, a city that makes Mumbai look uncomplicated.
