Women Business Owners Join Forces to Help Hold Companies Accountable on Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives

Washington, D.C., May 16, 2019 – Shaara Roman, workplace culture expert and founder of The Silverene Group, a management consultancy in Arlington, Va., today announced a new partnership with OurOffice, the first integrated technology platform for managing diversity, inclusion, and belonging. OurOffice, led by former NASA engineer, co-founder and CEO Sonya Sepahban, provides an integrated software solution to The Silverene
Group’s clients to help them assess and track progress of their diversity and inclusion initiatives and get better results faster.

Roman has counseled leaders on management best practices throughout her career. Now through The Silverene Group she helps create inclusive workplace cultures, the number one factor in employee engagement and productivity. The objective findings and resources of the OurOffice platform will allow organization-specific solutions to foster inclusive workplaces of any size and industry.

“Inclusive workplaces produce better business results because employees are engaged, and as an advisor to business leaders this is our ultimate goal.” said Roman. “Being able to definitively show the state of an organization’s diversity, inclusion, and belonging will give us a better starting point for setting workplaces up for success.”

Roman uses her years of experience as a human resources executive to help clients understand the importance of happy and engaged employees to long term success. She aims to enable creative environments in which employees and leaders alike will thrive; however, the first step is often helping clients understand why diversity and inclusion is critical to producing these environments.

“As a software platform, we provide companies with the data needed to incentivize key stakeholders to prioritize diversity and inclusion,” said Sepahban. “By working with The Silverene Group, we can go beyond the numbers to offer the unique expertise to measure what matters and put the right programs in place.”

As women business leaders, the issue of diversity and inclusion is personal to Roman and Sepahban. They both experienced the challenges of male-dominated workplaces and the roadblocks to women and under-represented groups in business, while simultaneously knowing the benefits of inherently inclusive environments.

“I was born in Nigeria, raised in India, and educated in the UK at an all girl’s school, all before moving to the U.S. as an adult,” Roman said. “Having all female role models, school leaders, and classmates gave me an innate understanding of our capabilities as women, while my entire life being surrounded by people of all different backgrounds instilled in me a curiosity and empathy for others.

I believe that if our workplaces looked and behaved in the same way I was raised, we would have much happier employees and much more successful workers and businesses.”

“As a female engineer, I was a change agent and an innovator, and experienced the benefits of having a different perspective first hand. But later I struggled to improve diversity and inclusion at scale, when I was responsible for large global teams that spanned many borders and ethnicities,” said Sepahban. “I was inspired to use my unique experience and skillset to create an infrastructure tool that impacts the employee-focused side of a business. It’s also what made me want to bring the idea of belonging into the diversity and inclusion arena.”

To learn more about how to build and measure your inclusive culture with the OurOffice platform, please reach out to Shaara Roman at shaara@silverenegroup.com.

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About OurOffice

Ouroffice is a high growth software company, transforming the workplace with the first business platform for managing Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (D&I). OurOffice empowers leaders with everything they need to get better results faster, with Planning, Analytics, Toolkit, and Stories modules. OurOffice is featured in Mercer’s “Diversity and Inclusion Technology” report about this emerging product category. 

About The Silverene Group

A boutique management consultancy based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, The Silverene Group helps organizations align people programs with business goals. They help CEOs, CHROs, and other business leaders create positive, safe, and productive workplaces to successfully engage and retain talent in order to produce results. Founded by managing director Shaara Roman in 2016, The Silverene Group was named for her family’s home in India and continues the family legacy of purpose, grit, passion, and building a sense of community.