West Monroe Introduces Comprehensive ‘Work 4D’ Solution to Address Companies’ Long-Term Talent Challenges

Firm is saving clients up to 40% by optimizing their work across four siloed areas of talent—employees, contractors, outsourcers, and automation

CHICAGO—February 14, 2022

West Monroe, one of the fastest-growing digital services firms, today announced a comprehensive solution that helps companies improve workforce flexibility and resilience in the face of unprecedented labor and economic challenges. 

An increase in employee costs coupled with billions in lost revenue from an inability to fill open roles has made solving the talent issue a top priority for executives. Company boards are also rethinking their long-term talent workforce strategies as they seek resilience in the face of future challenges and crises. 

In response to market needs, West Monroe has launched Strategic Workforce Optimization with Work 4D. The multidisciplinary solution combines core West Monroe disciplines to solve talent issues by analyzing work across the organization and aligning the work with the talent type best suited to deliver it: employees, contractors, outsourcers, or automation. Companies that align work to optimal talent type typically achieve 30% to 40% lower costs, while driving higher revenue, greater scalability, and improved employee satisfaction. West Monroe has delivered components of the solution dozens of times in the last 18 months, specializing in Fortune 500 clients.  

Here are just some of the major workforce challenges companies face:

• A global shortage of talent: Today, there are approximately 4.6 million more job openings in the U.S. than workers available to fill them.¹ It is projected that by 2030, the world will have 85 million open roles.²
• An exodus of talent: 33% of companies are seeing higher-than-expected turnover in employees with valued digital skills.³
• A skills gap: 98% of companies report significant skill gaps. HR and risk managers alike rank skills obsolescence as a top-10 risk.⁴
• Unrealized revenue: By 2030, the inability to fill open roles will cost global firms over $8.5 billion in potential revenue.⁵ 

“The need for greater workforce flexibility and resiliency has reached a tipping point as companies have navigated the pandemic, remote and hybrid work, inflation, and layoffs. But it’s not just companies that seek more stability—employees want it, too,” said Casey Foss, West Monroe’s chief commercial officer. 

Strategic Workforce Optimization with Work 4D demonstrates to executives how there is a better, more effective way to get work done at their organizations that increases scalability, optimizes cost, and improves the employee experience. 

Results with West Monroe clients include:

• $600M of estimated savings over 5 years 
• $35M in savings achieved in the first year 
• $100M+ in savings per year through rate reductions
• Increased employee satisfaction, engagement, productivity, and retention 
• Elimination of critical skill gaps that slow down your speed to market 

The Work 4D approach analyzes the nature of work across an organization using West Monroe’s proprietary talent analytics and benchmarks with people and org design, operational productivity, technology, and outsourcing expertise to recommend ways to optimally align the four types of talent to the work. West Monroe then tailors the solution to each client and facilitates the transition to the new model, employing specialized expertise in areas such as contingent labor and outsourcing vendor selection and negotiation, contract optimization, process improvement, automation, and change management. The firm also includes industry experts to ensure the outcomes are contextualized to a client’s specific industry.

“When we introduce executives to the idea that there are four types of talent to deploy, and to the value they can unlock by aligning work activity to the talent type that will optimally perform it, they instantly understand the transformative potential of the approach,” said Steven Kirz, senior partner who oversees the Strategic Workforce Optimization offering. “We bring leaders of the different talent types together in the same room, often for the first time, and equip them with a data-driven framework for rethinking how, by whom, and where work is best performed.”

While the offering applies to companies in every industry, West Monroe has seen particularly strong interest from clients in sectors that have been most affected by demand volatility and evolving economics, including high-tech/software and manufacturing.

West Monroe’s August 2022 Be Digital research identified “organizations and people” as the area where business leaders need the most support and direction on the digital journey. Strategic Workforce Optimization with Work 4D and other West Monroe offerings are designed to create agile, resilient workforces that help companies increase their digital agility and success. 

¹U.S. Labor Dept. 
²Korn Ferry
³Mercer
⁴Mercer
⁵Korn Ferry

About West Monroe
West Monroe is a digital services firm that was born in technology but built for business—partnering with companies in transformative industries to deliver quantifiable financial value. We believe that digital is a mindset—not a project, a team, or a destination—and it’s something companies become, not something they do. That’s why we work in diverse, multidisciplinary teams that blend management consulting, digital design, and product engineering to move companies from traditional ways of working to digital operating models—and create experiences that transcend the digital and physical worlds. Connected by the 13 founding values that drive our culture, our 2,200 employees work collaboratively across the firm with the belief that our clients’ success is our success. Visit WestMonroe.com to learn more.

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