Organizational Psychologist & Gender Researcher
Empowered Works LLC uses cutting-edge academic research to provide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") consulting services to professional institutions in the tech and finance industries. Sonya leverages her quantitative and qualitative research skills to diagnose issues around diversity and inclusion, and then constructs tailor-made solutions incorporating behavioral and structural changes with the aim of helping teams capitalize on the benefits of diversity. Services include but are not limited to multi-day workshops, leadership trainings, diversity audits, recruiting consultations, executive sponsor development, and DEI facilitation.
how it works
Diagnosis
Qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys are administered and analyzed to determine areas for focus and improvement. This customizes the content of the workshops to ensure the solutions are unique to your organization's DEI issues.
Awareness
The results of the diagnosis are shared with the entire team. This helps employees gain awareness of the unique DEI issues manifesting in their workplace, turning unconscious bias into conscious bias.
Treatment
Through customized live workshops, leadership training, and structural solution implementation, your team learns exactly what they can do to increase diversity and promote a more inclusive culture.
Progress
Using quantitative surveys and pre-post statistical analysis, your team's culture is measured and tracked to gauge progress. Through quarterly or semi-annual follow-ups, your team is able to stay on a path to a more inclusive and equitable culture.
what people think
Sonya facilitated an excellent set of Diversity and Inclusion workshops for our engineering organization. She provided compelling content, supported with data, and drew upon the lived experiences of our group to target specific information and actions that would be most relevant. Sonya met us where we are on our journey and helped to move us forward. Sonya also did a fantastic job of encouraging interaction and sharing amongst the group, such that our participants left the workshops feeling heard.
Mary, Senior Data & Applied Scientist, Microsoft
The DEI workshop that Sonya conducted for our org was one of the best that we have had. Sonya did a wealth of pre-work with the team to customize the workshops in a way that was directly applicable to our needs. Her data-driven approach brought insights that were actionable. Our leadership team was able to understand specific issues with diversity and inclusion and through the sessions, work collaboratively with the entire team to brainstorm on targeted improvements. The conversations that these sessions drove both during and after the workshop brought us closer together and gave us a forum to do the critical work of uncovering our biases and assumptions in a non-threatening way that everyone could participate in. The investment in the team was so worth it and I’m thankful that we were able to find Sonya and bring her in to work with the team!
Kevin,
Manager, Microsoft
I hired Sonya to do a DEI workshop with my team. Sonya’s special sauce as compared to others I interviewed for the work was the way she based her workshop on data. She created an engaging seminar by mixing survey data that spoke to “what my team is saying” with “what the research says” which led to a compelling set of content and discussions within our team. I have suggested to other teams both inside and outside my organization that they use Sonya for similar workshops. We will work with Sonya again.
Ayron,
Integration Engineer, Microsoft
Sonya’s training was very informative in learning the data about state of diversity in today’s workplace as well as insightful on why practicing diversity and inclusion is so important. I thought that her sessions gave an opportunity for my team to discuss openly, but respectfully, our perspectives when we would not have otherwise and brought the team closer together through understanding different backgrounds.
Courtney, Principal Group Program Manager, Microsoft
Does it work?
88%
88% of past clients' employees have personally taken steps to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization
82%
Clients experienced an 82% improvement in empathy towards colleagues from underrepresented demographic groups
75%
Clients experienced a 75% improvement in their understanding of tools to address their biases