Neurodiversity Week

This week is neurodiversity week so having done my research I felt it would be a good idea to share some of my ideas on neurodiversity and how it applies to employment.

Recruitment and Selection of Autistic Employees

Why do employers insist on a traditional recruitment process involving CV‘s, interviews and selection criteria? Why not scrap CV’s, interviews and selection criteria in favour of holding a session whereby employees can program robots to complete clever tasks? People with autism have different skills and barriers to people not on the spectrum. It is important to establish groups to try and remove some of those barriers. For instance I myself know that I am a very loyal person, trustworthy, analytical, productive and am on my way to becoming an expert in my field of work.

Understanding of autism in the workplace is undeniably very limited - even if employers claim to be disability friendly - since to establish a genuine autism friendly recruitment process is likely to take 6 months to seven years to set up. Employers would need to spend a lot of time around process design examining how participants interact within the group. Oh and by the way be careful not to over engineer it.

Because I’ve been unemployed so much, I’m actually really worried about being unemployed again. This is because so few employers have an established mentoring programme. A successful mentoring programme has participants matched with mentors based on their interest level and areas of interest. However the perception from employers is that this is likely to be difficult to set up, very challenging to pull off and be that entry point into the recruitment cycle.

As well as completing policies on health and safety assessments and fire evacuation procedures, assessments should be completed for noise, light, the windows, surroundings, the desk height etc. I sometimes have an issue with light so need to sit away from windows. I sometimes have an issue with noise so noise cancelling headphones are nice to have and to be allowed to use. I would like to work for companies that have individual policies for each individual employee. I would like for companies to have in place at least one staff member for a whole day at least once a week allowing participants to talk about a lot of things including adjustments that need to be made, workflows, and anything personal that is happening that could affect the work place. This kind of ongoing support is really beneficial and is critical for our ongoing success. From experience some people make jokes or feel resentful about the use of earphones, or requests for individual policies. I don’t always have the energy for a full 7.5 hours of work so taking time off in the afternoon can be a great way to get energy levels back up.

Autistic and Asperger people possess many desired skills, including desired technical skills, which makes them great employees for tech companies. They are also very loyal employees which can save companies thousands each year. HMRC should employ taxable benefits to encourage employers to hire autistic employees. Other benefits to hiring autistic employees is that it adds to the general diversity of the company, which contributes meeting customer needs, creativity, innovation and accessibility of products. Furthermore, it enhances the companies brand as an inclusive employer and therefore attracts top talent. People want to work in a workplace that is open to everyone. Managers of autistic people become better managers for neurotypical colleagues as well. They are more inclusive, give better feedback and set clearer expectations. Those autistic employees who kept their diagnosis private and confidential will also be happier. Finally, by having a more diverse group of employees, this means more diverse customers which also means more income.

More information on possible recruitment and selection strategies.