Neurodiversity is an umbrella-term which covers individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and Asperger’s, although a broader list includes other conditions such as bipolar disorder, OCD and more. Employers who maintain a rigid approach to recruitment and ongoing management of staff could be missing talent from the neurodiverse community, whose insight and contribution is invaluable.
There are a number of industries I work in with a high percentage of neurodiverse employees; digital and tech agencies and architecture practices are my most neurodiverse clients. From my experience of clients, this awareness usually comes from a key member of leadership also being from the neurodiverse community and recognising the value of adaptations to enable staff to flourish and be themselves within the workplace.
Then there are other companies who really, truly, want to do better. Starting from the position of knowing they have neurodiverse staff in their teams, they come to me for guidance on how best to accommodate and embrace the requirements of these staff so that their business is a welcoming place for those with additional requirements, and a place they want to stay.
Many of the managers I work with have very little, or no understanding of working with the neurodiverse. That’s where I come in; my role is to help train leadership teams to see their unconscious bias and tweak employment policies and practices to ensure that the neurodiverse aren’t excluded from the business, and instead the environment is adapted to foster their requirements to really bring the best out of them.
The (sobering) facts
According to the National Autistic Society, only 16% of adults with autism are employed full-time in the UK. In comparison with 47% of disabled people and 80% of non-disabled people, this stat is shocking at first, but dig a little deeper into recruitment and ongoing management practices within the workplace and suddenly it all makes sense.
Traditional methods of recruiting encourage a multi-stage process; usually a group exercise and then a presentation and a panel-based interview. But how do the neurodiverse fare in these situations? Taking Autism as the example, these stages can present challenges the neurotypical wouldn’t even know to be a problem. If you judge the neurodiverse candidate by how well they communicate within a group or strangers, and then require them to present to a panel in a room with unfamiliar equipment and fluorescent lighting, then be interviewed by multiple people once, this can be exceptionally challenging and exhausting for them. Is it any wonder that the neurodiverse are so under-represented in the workforce of today? They don’t fare well in this process because the process itself “downgrades” them because of our unconscious bias towards what a “good” candidate, or employee, looks like.
Where do I come in?
To be a workplace where the neurodiverse perform well and contribute, the very beginning is assessing your recruitment practices. Do you make statements about your commitment to the community and welcoming those who require adjustments? Do you tweak your recruitment process to get the most from candidates, rather than adopting a rigid approach to interviews?
The second stage is assessing the full employee lifecycle; how does it feel to be employed within your business? What are the values of your company? Are staff measured on their embodiment of these values and are they recruited simply because of their qualifications or because their values and behaviours match those of your company?
Are your policies and procedures neurodiversity-aware? Does your management and leadership-style enable people to be themselves; performing desk audits for new recruits to reduce sensory overload, allowing staff to wear earphones to help concentration or face a wall if this helps them to focus? The ongoing support of a HR Consultant is key to steering businesses into neurodiverse practices and to engaging those from the community into long-term positions. We review the full employee lifecycle in your business through the “Neurodiverse Lens”, and then together we plot through the biggest challenges and barriers and work through them systematically until the point where we see real organisational change.
If you’re committed to the staff you have, and attracting talent from the neurodiverse community, send me a message. Simple steps can make all the difference, and together we can transform the employee experience within your business.
