UK staff at Jones Lang LaSalle will get “significantly more” in bonuses next spring following the introduction of an incentive scheme that pays out around 40% of gross profits earned above an agreed level.
Trading in the England business, headed by Alastair Hughes, has been buoyant in the year to date. The new bonus scheme covers trading in the 12 months to December 2004, with payout in April 2005.
Many of the 720 eligible staff will earn “significantly more bonus than in recent years thanks to the new scheme,” said Hughes.
“We are enjoying a very strong performance so far this year. The capital markets team are on course for a record year and our auctions team, under Richard Auterac, has held the biggest one-day auction ever.”
On Wednesday the auctions team – nearly poached last year by FPDSavills- sold 80 lots for £98m, a 92% success rate.
The new bonus scheme replaces the largely discretionary scheme. Each of the five business divisions – management services, retail agency, professional services, capital markets and office agency – have set profit targets with agreed bonus levels.
The new element is that a fixed percentage of gross profits above these levels is now paid into the team pool for distribution by managers. JLL is reluctant to discuss the percentage agreed by each division, but it is understood to average 40%.
A JLL employee said: “They’ve just set the targets for March so most people will now start to know what profit they will be getting. The team gets a percentage and then the team leader splits up the amount between the team.
“It’s still not 100% clear. But at least we now know that, if the team is profitable, we will get the benefits.
“The system benefits the more market-oriented teams such as the investment, agency and auctions teams. But it’s not so good for management and professional teams. They will be likely to get the same types of bonus every year.”
Hughes said that since the introduction of the new scheme staff turnover has fallen 20%. “It’s a good system – and it’s working.”
References: EGi News 25/10/04
