What is wrong with the current approach to hiring for neurodiverse

Did you know??

A study by Gartner suggests that By 2027, 25% of Fortune 500 companies will actively recruit neurodivergent talent across conditions such as autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia to improve business performance.”?

Currently?

There are international organisations that are specifically recruiting for Autism, for example, as they have discovered the huge productivity potential and positive business outcomes that can occur when you hire for strengths—in all their diversity.?

However, the approach some organisations use in order to hire “for Autism” is what I call “exploitation of skills”.??

They actively recruit for an “Autistic person” to do analyst work.?Then, they train the manager to “manage autistic people.”. Then, the autistic analysts sit together in their pod with other autistic people, and if they do well, “they get to go mainstream?!!”?

This is NOT diversity, equity, and inclusion, and it does not create belonging!??

This is “special needs at work!”?

Instead, what organsiations need to do is start looking at things differently, taking an innovative approach to building organisations that are neuro-diverse, equitable, and inclusive, building “true” psychological safety and creating belonging and reflecting and supporting the communities they work in. ??

How can an organisation do it right???

The way we look at neurodiversity is this:??

1. There are 8 billion brains in the world, and every single one is different.????
2. Neurodiversity with a big N are all those who have traits strong enough that they could get a diagnosis if they chose to.??

Therefore, the little n for neurodiversity puts everyone on the same page – this is why we created this model.?

Now that is how we build neuro-diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisations or neuro-inclusive organisations” as we refer to them.???

These essentially are people-centric organisations, like Kahl Betham, CEO of Gallagher, has described. He also shares that this is why Gallagher is one of the biggest privately owned tech companies in NZ!???

Kahl gets it because Kahl is Neurodiverse himself.??

Kahl describes Neurodiversity as his “unfair competitive advantage!” and a key contributor to his success.??

Why is it an unfair competitive advantage you may be thinking??

Because this is one label that cannot be bought!? Yes, we are special!? But not special needs, thank you!? Yes, I am ADHD with dyslexic traits, so I have this label too!?

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How can DivergenThinking help your organisation become truly neuroinclusive and benefit from all its advantages???

We look at individuals' brain wiring, strengths, challenges, and triggers.??

We help individuals work out their own brain wiring and not just what but why and how they work, from a very simplistic perspective.??

That way, we can all learn and understand how to maximise our strengths, and how to manage or mitigate our challenges and triggers.?

By understanding ourselves first, we can then start to more consciously manage the way we engage and move through life and hopefully go from barely surviving to thriving.?

Ultimately creating their own unfair advantage!?

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Want to experience what we’re all about yourself??

Next week, Monday 20th May, is the annual nationwide TechWeek, and we are super lucky to be supported in this event by @TechStep.??

?We will be hosting our signature Introduction to Neurodiversity session including an introduction to our very own nQBrainwiring card deck.??

If this is of interest and you want to learn more about yourself and the people around you, come along next Wednesday to our introduction session, which is fantastic at engaging hearts and minds, to learn how we can help you and your organisation take a strengths-based approach to Neurodiversity which also improves mental wellbeing.?

?The session will be on 22nd of May, 9.30am - 11.30am at Smales Farm, Takapuna; free of charge.??

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