Q&A Roundtable: How Employee Resource Groups create a sense of community and belonging for West Monroe employees

Jasmine Davis, Eric Chi and Tanya Sukhu all came to West Monroe from different career paths and backgrounds. But all three have found the same thing here: a sense of community. 

Jasmine, Eric, and Tanya have been at West Monroe for different lengths of time—3 years, 15 years, and 2 years, respectively. Although each work in different areas of the business, from technology consulting to talent acquisition, and have had diverse experiences at work, they all agree that one of their favorite aspects about working here is the culture and the people. Those two elements are most evident in the firm’s employee resource groups (ERGs), employee-led organizations that focus on under-represented identities and shared interests.  

Jasmine, Eric and Tanya talk to us about the benefits of these ERGs and how these resources make for a supportive and inclusive work environment. 

What is the purpose of an Employee Resource Group (ERG)? 

Jasmine: Our ERGs are what make you feel safe as an employee. We didn’t have them at the consulting firm I was at before this, and just knowing that West Monroe puts a considerable amount of time, resources and support into ERGs really changes your experience at a company. It’s creating a place for our employees to be their full selves, but also educating those who don’t necessarily belong to this group.

Tell us about your ERG involvement.  

Tanya: I’m involved in the Women’s Leadership Network group. There’s a growing effort in that ERG tied to helping support working moms and parents through that life journey while understanding that folks have different needs at different stages in their personal life but also in their career and figuring out how to guide people through that. 

I’m also part of PAN, which is the Pan Asian ERG. I have just really been helping to share my stories and experiences as an Asian American woman in the corporate world. 

Eric: I’m involved in both the Black Employee Network and the Pan Asian Network. For me, it was important to not join one that represented myself, the Pan Asian Network, but also one that represented a different group of people that I really care about as well. I wanted to come from a place of understanding the trials and tribulations that they’ve gone through that have been different from mine. It’s been really amazing to hear their stories.

Jasmine: When I first started at West Monroe, I was asked to help get the Black Employee Network started as an ERG. Seeing that someone like myself who had just started at a company could contribute and help make West Monroe a better place for Black employees was really impactful to my time at West Monroe.

How have ERGs contributed to your time at West Monroe? 

Tanya: Although it’s called the Women’s Leadership Network, it’s not just for women. It’s there to help women understand essential things they might need to succeed in their careers, and help allies understand how they can support the women in their networks. The ERG also provides programming like deep dive career panels that happen every month where speakers come and talk through a lot of the key things that women in corporate America might struggle with. 

Jasmine: I’m a young Black woman in tech and we don’t see a lot of representation in that. ERGs make me feel comfortable enough to bring my full self to work, speak my mind, make connections, and have confidence in myself. 

Knowing that I can have a mentor through the Women’s Leadership Network and knowing that I can trust my boss and my team makes me feel safe and supported at work. I know that if I’m having a bad day or if I am behind that I can fail safely. 

So inclusion and diversity comes into play for me personally when I think about bringing my whole self to work whether it’s with my locks, or my nails, or who I am as Jasmine. But it also comes into play with what I bring to West Monroe, and I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to blend my background in talent in inclusion and diversity.

How have ERGs allowed you to develop your leadership skills? 

Tanya: I am a mentor. Specifically within the healthcare practice, I’m working closely with women who are thinking about becoming mothers and providing guidance on how to navigate that while in your career.

Eric: On the Pan Asian Network I serve as a mentor for any young Pan Asian community members within our firm. We have monthly mentorship sessions where we talk through different scenarios of how to manage up, how to build your brand, and then also how to tackle stereotypes that may be damaging to the Pan Asian community and how to address those issues.

West Monroe’s ERGs include WMPride for LGBTQ+ employees, SOMOS for Latin American and Hispanic employees, and Interfaith for employees of varying faith traditions, as well as the Women’s Leadership Network, Black Employee Network, and the PAN-Asian Network.