West Monroe Partners plan to grow Chicago office to 1,200 consultants
Frequently named among the best places to work in Chicago, consultancy West Monroe Partners should have little trouble attracting top talent for its expanding headquarters. The firm has expanded its Chicago office space by 35,000 square feet and plans to almost double the headcount to 1,200 people.
West Monroe Partners is the exclusive occupier of the 11th floor of The Franklin in downtown Chicago. With rising revenues and an expanding portfolio of clients, the consulting firm has opened a huge new place on the 10th floor to house its award-winning Performance Service practice.
The firm first set up shop in The Franklin in 2012, ten years after WMP was founded in the city by four former Arthur Andersen consultants – Dean Fischer, Susan Stelter, Matt Rager, and Kevin McCarty. Today there are around 700 Chicago-based consultants and several hundred more representing the firm in nine other national offices, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle.
A management consultancy with a cross-industry client base, WMP has expertise in financial services, healthcare, energy, utilities, and consumer products. Its expanding Performance Services practice provides IT infrastructure, security management and data support. Through the practice, WMP has been recognized as one of the nation’s top Managed Services Providers.
Revenue generated by the Chicago office alone has swollen by 60% in two years. Technology experts will make up around 40% of the planned additions to the team, with around 500 new jobs in the Windy City expected to be occupied by 2022.
“Becoming a multi-floor office is an exciting milestone for our Chicago team, but also an essential step for meeting our goal to expand our local workforce beyond 1,200 people by 2022,” said Doug Armstrong, senior managing director and Chicago office leader.
“Collaboration and camaraderie are core to the way we work, and the need for that is amplified the larger we become. We have very intentionally built an office environment in which we can blend our talents, create exceptional solutions, and build the next generation of leaders.”
“We wanted to create a seamless and consistent experience regardless of where people are working within our office,” added Caryn Alavi, senior manager of real estate and project lead for the expansion. “While consultants spend much of their time in the field working with clients, our office remains the heart of our distinctive culture of collaboration and cross-functional teamwork. We have put great attention into preserving that, even as our people work between floors.”
A dedication to ensuring its people work in a constructive and collaborative environment is one reason WMP has been ranked one of the Chicago Tribune’s ‘Top Workplaces’ for eight years running. It was ranked No.1 on a list of the Best Small and Medium Workplaces in Chicago and on Crain’s Chicago Business’ Best Places to Work.
The consulting firm recently set up a new network and resource group for LGBT employees named WMPride. Employees also volunteer in their local community regularly through the WMP Day of Change initiative.
