#NDVoices: Neurodiversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

Author: Sebastiano Stichter ?

In the latest in our #NDVoices series, Neurodiversity in Business (NiB) volunteer Sebastiano Stichter looks at actionable steps organisations can take on their neurodiversity journey. He breaks down the latest thinking on including and empowering neurodivergent employees and leveraging the power of neurodiversity.?

Is it possible to create a better and more inclusive work environment within organisations? Is it possible to provide employees with a sense of belonging and let them feel not only accepted but valued for their differences???

Yes, in theory. But in practice, it can be more difficult that one might think. Recruitment processes often lack flexibility for change and awareness for innovation. These processes may perpetuate non-inclusive approaches which, in turn, can solidify challenges for neurodivergent individuals to feeling comfortable and accepted.??

Promoting a sense of belonging is the first step to let their potential grow and be a powerful resource for the organisation.?

The power of neurodiversity?

In her book “Joined-Up Thinking ”, the PhD and bestselling author Hannah Critchlow stresses the importance for organisations of creating an inclusive environment where different and divergent minds – thinking simultaneously – can express and trigger each other’s potential, improve cooperation and achieve results and solutions to problems that would have not been possible otherwise.?

In a 2022 Deloitte article , the authors Mahto, Hogan, Hatfield and Sniderman stress the need for organisations to not only recruit and retain neurodivergent individuals, but also to inspire, support and nurture them. Companies that can implement such a change in their organisational culture are more likely to gain a competitive advantage thanks to the amplified spectrum of skills and capacities, perspectives and way of thinking that can be applied to problem-solving and decision-making. Yet despite this, neurodiversity is a competitive advantage that many organisations still don’t seem to be leveraging.??

A lack of awareness?

In recent years, many companies had a shift towards a more diverse, equal and inclusive workplace culture. This change has positively affected and empowered the discourse of diversity and inclusion, and consequently improved HR processes, such as hiring and providing different opportunities for employees.??

Despite this, there is still a huge lack of awareness with respect to neurodivergent individuals and the ways of not just including, but truly leveraging them in the workplace. This absence becomes even more evident when reading about the many experiences of high performing professionals and analysts, data scientists, mathematicians and software development heroes who for several years have been unemployed because of their “weird” behaviour and ways of interacting or speaking – in short, because of their cognitive differences.??

What really strikes me, however, is the fact that these individuals are not being discarded due to a lack of skills or because they don’t fit the job description. Instead, the problem lies in the perception that “non-divergent” people have of difference. It is well known that human beings fear what they don’t know, the unusual. This issue also emerges in job interviews. In some extreme cases, the reason why neurodivergent professionals get rejected is because the interviewer feels uncomfortable in the face of something that they do not fully understand. ?

Given this situation, how can we then bring change? How can we move past such ignorant attitudes, prevent discrimination and create inclusive workplaces for neurodivergent people? In the next sections I will provide an overview of the competitive advantage that neurodiversity can bring to an organisation as well as the actionable solutions that are being implemented by some cutting-edge companies.??

Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage??

Data from the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, reported in Austin and Pisano’s 2017 publication “Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage ”, shows that 30% of the US population presents some kind of neurodivergence. Moreover, these individuals, are often characterised by higher-than-average competencies in highly valuable domains and that certain conditions may lead to outstanding mathematical, memory or analytical abilities. Although awareness regarding these factors is growing, there are still many barriers that neurodivergent individuals have to face in the working environment.??

What are then the benefits that a neurodivergent employee can bring to an organisation? According to EARN, the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion , all types of organisations can benefit from attracting and retaining neurodivergent professionals. The skills and talent that such pool of employees can bring to the table includes, among others:??

• The ability to excel at critical, detailed-oriented, repetitive or routine work, which can be highly challenging and unmotivating for most neurotypical individuals?
• Great abilities in graphic design, creative tasks and technical skills such as organisation and project management??
• Innovative and highly lateral thinking, resulting in extraordinary creative problem-solving abilities?
• High levels of sustained concentration, which neurotypicals often lack – a trait that is exponentially increasing due to constant overstimulation from notifications, screens and noises – and that can favour high accuracy and error detection when performing tasks?
• High memorising skills, which can result in great abilities to recall information, details and knowledge that is often lost because of information and cognitive overload of neurotypical employees?
• Higher than average reliability and perseverance, honed through a lifetime facing challenges and barriers not faced by neurotypical individuals??

All these factors, and many others not mentioned, have the potential to greatly improve a company’s workforce and should be taken into consideration by employers not yet including or proactively leveraging neurodivergent individuals as they constitute untapped source of competitive advantage.??

https://celebratingneurodiversity365.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Neurodiversity-Is-a-Competitive-Advantage-article-in-Harvard-Biz-Review.pdf ?

The path to inclusion: Empowering neurodivergent employees??

The neurodivergent population still suffers from a rate of unemployment as high as 80% according to Austin and Pisano, 2017. So, what can companies do, in practice, to improve their inclusivity policies and allow neurodivergent talents to thrive within the organisation? ?

The example of Deloitte, one of the leading organisations in the movement of neuroinclusion, is appropriate to answer this question. In a 2022 publication tapping into insights deriving from case studies and market observations, the authors suggest a framework that can serve as guidance for all those organisations that aim at increasing their pool of neurodivergent employees through better hiring strategies and screening and become more inclusive by retaining and empowering these employees.??

8 actionable steps employers can take to start leveraging neurodiverse talent:?

1. Restructure the hiring processes by reevaluating screening criteria, changing interview formats and expanding the range of available roles?
2. Create a work environment that enables neurodiverse individuals to flourish by respecting individual differences and providing guidance (which can take the form of mentors)?
3. Redefine the culture of the organisation by encouraging flexibility (e.g., restructuring working policy and allowing for remote, working and flexible working hours) – many companies are moving back to a "butts in seats"/pre-pandemic model, and those that have remote/flexible working (either or both) will be more neuroinclusive and gain a competitive advantage and accepting inflexibility (e.g., understanding the needs of those employees who need defined structures and routines to thrive within the organisation)??
4. Provide new and restructure existing career journeys that speak to the needs of a specific individual and that are tailored to their unique skills and characteristics, allowing for personalised and untraditional career development paths?
5. Actively create space and opportunities to tap into the potential of neurodivergent employees by aligning opportunities to their talents which can benefit both the individuals and the organisation??
6. Provide a support system and network for neurodiverse employees that equip them to face persistent organisational and societal challenges that might occur?
7. Frame policies that support neurodiversity (e.g., condemning discriminatory behaviours and documenting implicit rules of conduct), and disrupt the predefined concept of what success and progress should look like (e.g., do not impose a standardised definition of success, career goals and career development such as “climbing the ladder” as for some individuals, success can simply mean enjoying the work they are doing). The "success" reframe means that you can thrive as an employee or a leader without having to follow the same standards and rules?
8. Respect, support and value individual differences by creating a sense of belonging and a culture of acceptance?

Additionally, as suggested by Hope Gillette in her 2022 article on the platform Psychcentral , other ways of promoting a supporting workspace for neurodivergent workers is to include flexible working hours and location, to provide quite spaces where neurodivergent employees can feel comfortable and tap into their potential. Allow for the use of headphones to prevent distraction and/or overstimulation, offer the opportunity to accommodate different learning, reading and communication styles while making sure that understanding happens in all occasions.??

As proposed by Texthelp , a cutting-edge organisation that promote tools and support for neurodivergent employees, other factors to be taken into consideration include the possibility to allow for breaks during meetings, provide extra equipment, offer assistive software to support ay-to-day tasks and offer the opportunity for one-on-one conversations to offer a high degree of support at all times. Finally, organisations should make an effort to encourage collaboration and joined-up thinking.??

For organisation to improve their inclusivity, EARN offers a tool (in the form of a checklist ) for companies to evaluate their degree of neurodiversity inclusion. Finally, as suggested by Ed Thomson, founder and CEO of Uptimize , companies must avoid falling into misconceptions about neurodiversity.??

The most common misconceptions are:?

• The belief that the organisation doesn’t have neurodiverse employees?
• The assumption that the starting point of an organisation regarding neurodiversity inclusion is neutral or passable – this means that organisations might erroneously believe that no actions points are needed to improve the inclusivity culture, that they can only have future improvements without reassessing and restructuring their pre-existing culture?
• The belief that neurodivergent individuals will feel comfortable disclosing their status and seeking support?
• The expectation that one-size-fits-all solutions can be successfully applied in every situation?
• The belief that raising awareness is enough and consequent lack of effort in trying to find new and alternatives ways to address diversity and tpromote inclusion?
• The misconception that only HR representatives need training or that they must take charge of addressing and promoting inclusiveness for neurodivergent people?

Embrace neurodiversity as source of competitive advantage?

Businesses that moving towards building a staff of talented individuals with different technical skills, viewpoints and cognitive structure can gain an edge over the competition. Thanks to this variety, the benefits that that can arise for both organisations and employees are potentially limitless.??

Organisations must understand, integrate and implement the power of change, thanks to which they will be able to tap in to a various pool of diverse potentials. The positive impact that this integration can have on problem-solving and culture transformation has to be considered as an advantage for organisations.??

This underestimated pool of unconventional abilities that can stem from the simultaneous cooperation of diverse (and divergent) brains working on the same task is certainly an added value that companies and recruiters must implement during their process of leveraging diversity. It is true that when compared to neurotypical individuals, neurodiverse people oftentimes require special settings or accommodation in order to work and make best use of their abilities. This phenomenon requires companies to adapt the work space so that neurodivergent employees can feel comfortable and perform at the top of their capacities. In general, such accommodations are often minor issues for a company or employer as they entail re-organising spaces, providing equipment or allowing for a certain degree of flexibility. However, there are more structural changes that companies may find hard to implement.??

To make full use of the benefits that a neurodivergent employee could provide, a company has to make “sacrifices” in other spheres. For instance, companies need to undergo a radical change in the recruitment and selection process, screening, skills assessment, and training. They need to make an extra effort to include in their plan the development of strategies and policies on career advancement that can promote and support the idea of a broader definition of talent. The process of inclusion must take place at every level of the organisation, starting from the CEO all the way down to the recruitment specialists. By integrating the changes mentioned above and involving all members of an organisation, the path towards a more neuroinclusive workplace can be defined and the goal achieved.?