Oka uniquely addresses gender equality by combining organizational psychology with a personalized, data-driven approach. It goes beyond traditional methods by offering tailored mentorship and allyship guidance factoring in psychological insights and social dynamics. This enables more effective mentorship and allyship by matching mentors and mentees based on deeper criteria, such as personality and values, using a data-driven approach refined by psychological research.

Oka encourages inclusive participation, empowering not just mentors but also allies, thereby fostering a supportive community. Its use of technology for behavior change and its ability to measure the impact of DEI initiatives offer organizations a clear, effective way to enhance workplace inclusivity. This holistic approach democratizes access to expert resources, making Oka a distinctive and comprehensive solution for realizing DEI goals.

Oka can support existing mentoring schemes and / or supplement them depending on your organisation’s needs. We work with our clients to adapt Oka’s use in a way that supports what is already working while helping to improve metrics relating to factors such as gender equality (including retention, employee engagement), performance and wellbeing.

Oka does not take the place of existing DEI initiatives rather works to support and / or supplement them depending on your organisation’s needs. We work with our clients to adapt Oka’s use in a way that supports what is already working while helping to improve metrics relating to factors such as gender equality (including retention, employee engagement). We can also adapt Oka to support other under-represented populations within your organisation.

No, the platform allows matching between organisations if that’s something that you choose to pursue.

There are three factors that can help you to work with a smaller pool of mentors:

1. The AI mentor myOka plays the role of mentor without the need for a ‘human mentor.’

2. Peer mentoring can be used as an option that opens up the number of possible matches within an organisation.

3. Mentees can be matched with someone from outside of the organisation.

No, a mentor doesn't have to be a woman; men can be great mentors as well. However, having a female mentor who understands the specific challenges women face, because she's experienced them herself, can be incredibly helpful. This shared experience fosters trust and encourages mentees. Female mentors also act as role models, inspiring their mentees by demonstrating what can be achieved, expanding their ambitions, and guiding them on how to reach higher goals.

No, the Oka platform offers guidance to allies, whether they're men or women. For instance, if a woman is dealing with a challenge like returning to work after a miscarriage and struggling to regain her confidence, Oka helps the ally understand how to support her. This includes understanding the person through their psychological profile, the specific challenge such as returning to work after a miscarriage, and the hurdles they face, like rebuilding confidence.

Our AI mentor, myOka has been trained on mentoring capabilities grounded in psychological principles and underpinned by an extensive body of evidence. MyOka also has access to an extensive range of concepts, tools, and frameworks which it uses as and when helpful to convey information, provide guidance and facilitate learning. In addition each user’s myOka is trained to respond specifically to their personal and psychological preferences.

We have developed myOka to be empathic, adaptive and focussed on the mentee’s growth, not just on the delivery of information. In fact, research has shown that some users feel more comfortable disclosing sensitive information to a chatbot rather than a human, especially at the of their personal and professional development journey.

When it comes to scaling the Oka scheme, myOka allows personalized guidance to become more accessible to a larger audience across a broader geography, overcoming the constraints of traditional, solely human-led mentorship initiatives.

Our AI mentor myOka has also been built with an awareness of ethical considerations in AI-supported mentoring, such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the balance between human and machine interaction. Our models include the ability to continuously learn, adapt, and improve based on feedback and the latest developments in the field. We maintain a pro-active approach to checking what myOka suggests and also clearly position the suggestions made by myOka as having potential for errors that should be checked.

The Oka platform can help tackle a range of behavioural issues that are typically very difficult to address such as mitigating affinity bias, increasing diversity in management roles, creating more proactive and positive support for mentees on an ongoing basis. But for optimal results we recommend that Oka’s use is thoughtfully designed and implemented as part of your more holistic DEI approach. This will allow you to drive truly meaningful change and impact.

Training can be beneficial, but it might not always be necessary, especially if you carefully choose your mentors based on their existing skills. Key skills for effective mentoring include excellent listening, strong communication, the ability to give and receive feedback, facilitating connections, and high emotional intelligence. If line managers or HR personnel can identify individuals who are already proficient in these areas, these people can form powerful mentoring relationships with Oka's guidance. Additionally, Oka provides ongoing, tailored support for mentors to address any specific challenges, questions, or needs. Nonetheless, providing training can help guarantee that all mentors possess the essential skills to truly make a meaningful impact.

Being an ally is somewhat simpler than being a mentor, and Oka offers allies clear, research-based steps to become effective supporters. However, extra training can be beneficial. It can turn employees who see themselves as allies into those who actively take significant steps to support others.

Oka does need to be integrated into existing IT systems or HR platforms. The Oka platform has been built as standalone for a number of reasons:

1. Being standalone allows Oka to connect people with mentors, mentees and allies who are outside of the organisation which we have found to be extremely helpful in certain situations.

2. Being standalone allows Oka to provide employees with confidence that their personal information is private and remains theirs and not the organisations. This allows people to be build more trust in the processes, to be more open and therefore get more from the experience.

3. Employees can retain their personal data and move it with them from one organisation to another. This allows them to feel a sense of ownership and also serves to build trust leading to more positive outcomes.

4. Psychological data needs to be handled using certain codes of conduct and ethics (e.g. as for psychometric data). At Oka we understand and uphold these levels of privacy and ensure security of individuals’ data in line with this.