JLL L.A. Launches Women's Initiative Network

JLL Los Angeles has launched a women's initiative network. With a mission statement to "connect women, talent and opportunity, the goal of the network is to inspire brokers and clients and drive gender diversity at JLL. The group kicked off with their first event this summer. "Women in brokerage are in a small minority, however at JLL we have many  strong female leaders, boasting well above the industry norm," Nicole Mihalka, managing director at JLL and the leader of the company's Women's Initiative Network, tells GlobeSt.com. "Our new talent benefits from having good role models and representation that differ from the status quo." JLL Los Angeles is already a leader in gender diversity. The office has 30% female brokers, twice the industry average of 15%. The firm believes that an increase in female brokers improves client service and better brokerage collaboration. "Women like working with other women.  Instead of competing with each other, we tend to elevate and celebrate each other's accomplishments," says Mihalka. "As the C-suite continues to diversify, it is critical that we diversify as service providers.  Our clients prefer diverse teams and quite frankly, women make fabulous brokers." JLL Los Angeles has managed to create such strong diversity for this very reason. It understands that increased female representation equals better company performance. "Representation matters. People tend to hire and be hired by those that they can relate to and emulate," says Mihalka. "So if there are more powerful female leaders within a business, more women will appreciate and seek such a culture." Women are already responding to the women's network at the Los Angeles office. "There has been a tremendous response," says Mihalka. "We have a 100% participation rate from our female brokers in L.A. where we started our initiative." Photos from the most recent event are in the slideshow above.