Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Employable, not just employed: West Monroe's people bet
Transcript
- Beyond the Paycheck - Tanya Moore Recorded 2026-09-28 Kelsey Willock: Welcome, Tanya Moore, Chief People Officer at West Monroe. I'm so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you for joining us. To kick us off, I'd love for you to share with our audience a little bit more about yourself, your current role and background, and where you're calling in from today. Tanya Moore: Thanks, Kelsey. Appreciate you having me. So again, Tanya Moore, Chief People Officer with West Monroe. I'm calling from Reston, Virginia, so outside of Washington, DC. I had a 20-year-plus career with IBM, which I'm grateful for right now because it taught me a lot about technology, which goodness knows I need these days. And I served as a consultant for years and grew up through the consulting ranks and then went into HR. And then took this turn to Chief People Officer, where I had a first Chief People Officer role and then came here. I just have always loved the connection of how people power business. Kelsey Willock: Love that, and I'm so excited to hear a little bit more about how you specifically help power people in business. But before we get there, my favorite question to ask is: can you tell me a little bit about your first job and, if you recall, what you spent your first paycheck on? Tanya Moore: My first job was for a company called Litton Industries. It was as a congressional researcher, which my father helped me network to get. The funny part about that job was when I got there, it was a bunch of people that didn't really love their job. And I thought to myself, goodness, is this what work's going to be like the rest of my life? And so it's actually what led me to do what I do today. I ended up doing a very rudimentary survey about what was going on, put some basic things in place to fix it, and then ultimately went to get my MBA, where I learned that you could do this for a living. And so unfortunately, I don't have a really funny or fun answer to what I did with my money. I saved it for two years while I lived at home to help pay for that MBA. Kelsey Willock: You're talking to someone that deeply cares and nerds out on financial health, so the fact that you saved it makes me very happy. I think it's fun and cool. How do you think your early money story and this early part of your career has influenced how you think about supporting your people and how you lead? Tanya Moore: So when I think about people and people coming to work, we're all just people that have a whole life, right? And I remember one of my first clients, I was in Columbus, Ohio, and she had a bunch of young consultants working on the project. And she taught us to work to live, don't live to work. Which is a funny thing for a client to teach you. You'd think the client would want you to just work all the time. But I really appreciated that wisdom. And with that wisdom, especially as I have gotten more mature in my life and my career, life isn't a straight line. There's a lot that goes on, and so much of that we bring to work. It's just who we are. You bring your good day, your bad day, your happy, your sad, and the environment in which we work, I think, is just really, really important to the type of work we can do. Kelsey Willock: Couldn't agree more, and it's a very, I would argue, Australian mindset of, let's figure out how to work to live. And ironically, it often ends up leading to happier people at organizations that do better work. So I think that's a really fabulous segue into what I'm really interested in digging a bit deeper into, which is supporting the whole person at work. Right now we're seeing a major trend of companies supporting the whole person. The nuances that they bring, our daily lives are much more complex than just the work that we do. Can you tell me a little bit about a program or things that you're doing to support the whole person, whether it's physical, it's mental, it's financial, you name it, that you're particularly proud of? Tanya Moore: So this is such an important topic to us. In our annual engagement survey, we have a question that says, can you bring your genuine self to work? Do you feel like you can? And I'm so proud that we have an 85% positive score for that. And that's just hugely, it's way above standard score. So one, we make it a priority. We ask people about it, we action it. And there are a variety of ways that we really focus on it. And the interesting part of this specific topic, and then I'll get back to some specifics of how we do it that I'm proud of: this is a topic where, when I talk to my fellow CHROs, I hear a lot of times, "I'm not doing that anymore. I don't want people to bring their whole self to work. I'm tired of dealing with everyone's stuff, and I want them to just come to work and work." And we're just big believers that it's hard to divorce those two. And it doesn't mean that you have to make all of work surrounded by people's individual preferences. You can still have people that show up and do really good work while also making sure that you care that they can do so in a way where they feel valued, where they feel heard, they feel listened to, they feel safe. But it's been an interesting conversation with some of my peers. So, a couple of things that we do. One, we make it a priority to make sure that people understand, as part of our values, that we really try to take a human-centric approach to work. Now, that doesn't mean that everything we do, people are going to like. It means we're still going to have to make hard decisions sometimes, but we do it with empathy. We do it with transparency. So that's something that's really important to me. It's sometimes not easy, but I'm very proud of it. We also are pretty open. When people come and say, "Hey, I'm struggling right now. I'm struggling with stress, I'm struggling with overload. This project is really taxing, and it's kind of impacting my mental health," we do listen and try to understand, and sometimes take different approaches. Sometimes a person needs a leave of absence. Sometimes they need a little surge help on the project. Sometimes they don't have the right skills. So people really know that they can go to their manager, who frequently does an excellent job dealing with this, or to the HR team, and actually get help, not just be unheard. And then we have different programs. We have everything from a program that helps women and men who have just had children, to people who are dealing with menopause, men and women, and how all that looks, to financial health, to all of our different programs that we have. But I think the thing that I'm most proud of is we don't just talk about it, we actually live it. Kelsey Willock: What does West Monroe do? And why do you think taking this human-centric approach matters to the company? Tanya Moore: So we are a business and technology consulting firm. We're about 2,000 people. And our people are out there every day working with clients, who, by the way, are also people. And we are just firm believers that if you have employees that feel supported, that feel like they're growing, that feel like they have purpose, that can do their best work, those are the people that are going to put in the extra effort to make your clients really, really happy. And it shows up in our client satisfaction scores. Our client satisfaction scores are so far through the roof that I thought we were calculating them wrong when I first got here. So it seems to be working. Kelsey Willock: I love that. You mentioned the point, though, that not all companies are doing this right now. And where it really seems to be the case is, as we shift into being so fixated and focused on talking about AI, it often removes the conversation centering around humans. So it's great to hear the company is focused on a human-centric business, as the business is doing business between people. And it's clearly showing up in the numbers, not just in employee satisfaction scores, but also in how happy your customers are. Tanya Moore: And we're very much focused on AI too. So I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. But that's something that we talk about a lot. And that human in the loop is so important. So we really are trying to figure out how it all coexists together. Kelsey Willock: I'm curious. Can you say a little bit more about that? In this world of AI, as well as supporting the human, how are you balancing the two? Tanya Moore: So we're doing a couple of things. One, we're a very transparent organization. So really talking about, hey, what's coming? What are the guardrails? What's safe? What's not safe? What do we have confidence in that we can use? We're actively teaching people how to use it, and we're teaching people by their role, so that we're not just saying top down, you have to do these things. We're not approaching this as a mandate. We're really trying to help people see how AI can help them in their work, not just make it faster, but make their work better. Make it so they feel like they're adding value. We really believe, and I very much believe, that part of my job as a CHRO is to make sure our people aren't just employed, but, I call it, employable. So our people have the right skills, they're learning, they're growing, they can always land on their feet, whether they're with us or someplace else. So those are some of the things we're focusing on, as well as how important the human is with all of this technology. Kelsey Willock: You've kind of hinted at it, especially in talking a little bit about the quantitative impact of investing in these programs. But I want to dig a little bit deeper into how you build the case for investment in these programs when the spreadsheet might not so obviously support it. How do you build that case and get capital allocated to supporting the whole person? Tanya Moore: So sometimes the data is there, right? If you look at mental health claims, for example, you can frequently look at your mental health claims and see, especially after COVID, I don't know a company whose mental health claims did not go up. And some of that was the additional stress. Some of that is, I think, we got better about talking more openly about mental health, which is a good thing. But we put things in place where you can see now that mental health claims are starting to come down. It took some time, but it shows that that's working. There are other areas, like the AI example, where we can't, in some cases, see a 100% ROI or a solid ROI in some of the work we're doing. But we know it's the right thing. So there are sometimes where you have to skate to where the puck is, even though you don't know if it's going to work, while always testing and learning and adjusting. Kelsey Willock: So speaking of skating toward where the puck's going to go, can you tell me about an experiment that you perhaps ran in a benefit strategy that didn't go the way you expected, and what you learned from it? Tanya Moore: So one thing that we did, some of it went the way we expected, some didn't, so I'll give you two sides of the coin. One of the things that we did was we scrapped our traditional EAP. Like many of them do, unfortunately, it was getting very low use. So we moved to a platform that has a variety of help available. It's everything from MD help that someone might need, if you need a psychiatrist or a psychologist or something like that, to meditation, to training programs, to other things like that. It also has 10 coaching sessions per year that you can use, and they reset every year. And the coaching sessions can be about anything. It can be about managing your time well. It can be about a relationship you're struggling with at home. It doesn't all have to be about work, and it's available for all of the family members. The positive side was that the people that used it, and it was like 25% of our employees that are using it, just rave about how wonderful it is. On the flip side, we're surprised by how many people don't use it, based on the great feedback we've gotten. So it was an experiment in that, if we tried something new, would it get better uptake? Would people start using it? And the answer was yes, but we still haven't cracked that nut: this is a fabulous service that literally everyone that uses it just raves about. Why can't we get more people to use it? So that's the part that we're still working on. Kelsey Willock: So, I've interviewed, gosh, perhaps 200 CHROs and chief people officers in the past two years. Engagement with existing services is one of the most common topics that we speak about. And it's highly nuanced, right? You might crack the code in 2026, and the code to be cracked the following year is very different, because humans are complicated and marketing is complicated and always evolving. But I think it's a topic that I continue to love following and seeing what's working. How do you stay current on what's working? Are there specific conferences, newsletters, communities of folks in similar roles to you where you're really able to get on the pulse and learn from, whether it's a peer network, a startup community, et cetera, that you recommend? Tanya Moore: I do have various CHRO communities that I attend, but I will tell you, I cannot take the credit for this one. I have a total rewards team that is wonderful. We have an HR operations team that is wonderful, and they are always out there just scanning for what's happening, what's working. We were looking at just the prices of COBRA, and people leaving us having to pay COBRA. And there's a wonderful solution out there that I had no idea existed. The team found it, where they can look at the various options afforded to that person and provide them lower-cost options that are better for them and better for the company. But they're always just out there scanning. They do attend conferences, they talk to their peers, they attend webinars. We talk to our brokers, but they're also doing their own research too, based on different communities they're a part of. Kelsey Willock: Fabulous, and I'm sure lots of people would be interested, and some might be reaching out to you to learn about what that program is, especially as we all very well know that healthcare inflation itself is becoming such a hot topic. Tanya Moore: Yeah, absolutely. Kelsey Willock: I want to talk a little bit about financial wellbeing. You hinted at it a little bit when we broached the topic of the whole person. How important is supporting the financial health of employees to the company, and why? Tanya Moore: So when we think of just overall wellbeing, there are various pillars, and financial is a big pillar. If you don't have the confidence that you are financially well, it creates stress. So again, we definitely provide that support. We do it in a variety of ways. With our broker, we do webinars that we'll bring to people. There are different online tools you can use. And the thing about financial wellness is it doesn't often show up as easily. It doesn't come out and announce itself as well as someone that you might see struggling with stress or something else. Sometimes you can read that in people a little more. So we really do just help people understand, have a conversation: "Hey, what's going on?" And you never know, if someone's distracted or if they're delayed getting work done, what's going on. And sometimes it will be financial, for whatever reason. They're saddled with student loans. They have a sick parent. All sorts of things. And then, other than just education, we try to make sure we can sit with a person and see what we can do to support. Kelsey Willock: One thing, Tanya, that's so abundantly clear to me in our conversation is that the company is very clearly quantitatively focused, with a high level of empathy and listening. So it's this combination of: data is important, but it might not tell the full picture, so make sure to have conversations to really get the pulse and understand where things are. So I appreciate you sharing that. What is a shift in compensation and benefits that you see coming that most HR leaders are not ready for? Tanya Moore: I think for that one, it is compensation based on skills. So the past, I don't know, eight to ten years, there's been a ton of conversation about moving organizations to a skills-based organization. And to do that, there's a lot of work that goes into it. And so many companies are behind because it's hard. Many companies don't know where to start. It's a big lift. It's a little complex if you've never done it before. And when you think about compensation, a lot of companies and managers, candidly, like for compensation to be neat and fit into certain bands, and be able to tell people, you're getting paid this much either because HR told me that's what you get or because you fit into this nice band, which, by the way, are all horrible things to say. So I think when we think about compensation, that shift to paying for skills, one, requires you to have skills data. Two, it requires managers to talk about performance in a different way. Managers are more comfortable talking about performance, but then you also have to teach them to talk about the value of skills in the market, which is a whole other skill set for managers to have. And by the way, you also then have to be willing and able to have a conversation to really explain to people why their compensation might be different. Those things are very doable, but it's not how a lot of companies train their managers to have those conversations. So you need the data, and you've got to be able to have the conversations. Sometimes it's just easier to have everything fit into that box. But unfortunately, our world is moving so fast that roles and levels still matter, but the skills people have, how fungible those skills are, and how in demand those skills are, I don't know that everybody's ready for that. But gosh, it's really needed in this very competitive market. Kelsey Willock: And on the flip side of all that, I imagine the workforce itself, the potential hires, et cetera, might not know how valuable that information is to employers, nor understand how to effectively communicate said skills as we shift into that world. So absolutely a space to be following, and one that will continue to move at a very rapid pace. Tanya Moore: Absolutely. Kelsey Willock: What is the last thing that you'd love to leave our audience with? Is there anything in particular that's lighting you up, or any last words you'd like to leave us with? Tanya Moore: As I look back on my career, the things that stick with me the most are the people that I've impacted, whether personally or professionally. And so when I think about supporting people, developing people, the role we all have to support each other, this concept of trying to help people have the surroundings, have the environment to do their best work, is something that I just think is critical for all of us, regardless of our roles, to think about. Not only does it make work better for people and make work better for the company, but in the end, I think you can support people on a much deeper level that really has an impact for folks years later. Kelsey Willock: I love that. Well, thank you so much, Tanya, for lending 30 minutes of your time. Deeply appreciative of your wisdom, your candor, and all of the great things that you had to share with our audience today. So thank you again. Tanya Moore: Thanks for your time.