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It's time to embrace neurodiversity

November 7, 2019

If you ask anyone teaching in a mainstream school in the UK about neurodiversity, they will not only be able to explain each condition to you, but could also pinpoint the students that have them and the measures they take to ensure that they can learn. They are required to differentiate their lessons, catering to multiple learning and working styles within one classroom. Yet, in the workplace, unseen disabilities and hidden impairments tend to go unnoticed and can be a barrier to the career success of neurodiverse individuals.

In much the same way that teachers adapt their teaching and classroom styles to embrace neurodiversity and help their students achieve, so have companies such as Microsoft, Google, Ford and Amazon. By recognising that 10% of the population lives with some kind of neurodiversity, they have been able to change their working practices to embrace the benefits of employing a neurodiverse workforce. Accommodating and understanding that diversity isn’t just skin deep can have a dramatically positive impact on team performance and productivity.

Roll out neurodiversity training to all your teams

When someone has a physical or visual disability it can be relatively easy to make reasonable adjustments to their workplace to ensure that they are comfortable and accommodated. Whether that is installing a lift, changing a chair or providing disabled facilities, these physical changes to the workplace are obvious to colleagues.

Initiating neurodiversity training provides the opportunity for staff to learn about the barriers faced by people living with neuro-conditions. Learning that people on the autism spectrum find it hard to understand jargon, or that dyslexics find it hard to read messy spreadsheets, can not only create a stronger team bond and better working practices, but can also help your customer facing team deal with clients.

A story that a friend published on Facebook comes to mind. She has twin daughters, one is deaf with cochlea implants and the other is on the autistic spectrum. On their yearly school shoe outing to Clarks, her autistic daughter completely lost her cool because the shoes she wanted weren’t available in her size. Not the best moment for any parent, but on your own with twins, even worse. What made the experience different from other meltdowns was that the staff member serving them understood her daughter’s autism, helped to calm her and found her some even cooler shoes (with butterflies on). The friend in question now not only always shops at Clarks, but published a glowing review and told all her school mum friends. That’s what any business wants.

Create a structured working environment

Workers with autism and dyspraxia need order and routine, in fairness most of us do, so creating a working environment that is structured and controlled means that everyone has the potential to work to the best of their abilities. Introducing time management can help people with dyspraxia, who find it difficult to manage tasks effectively, as can introducing desk trays for work.

Having calm and quiet areas can also help people with autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia to concentrate on the tasks in hand (again, I think many neurotypical people would also agree with that).

Creating structure also means that your business may become less frenetic and more orderly, reducing that amount of ‘last minute’ deadlines and tasks and enabling you to organise your workforce more effectively.

Create teams based on skillsets

Sports teams are built on difference and different skill sets and larger employers are now embracing ‘diversity of thought’ when creating their workforces. They’ve discovered that building neurodiverse teams can bring greater creativity and innovation to projects. It’s no secret for example that a large number of successful entrepreneurs are dyslexic. This includes Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. One of the reasons for this is that they have a ‘big picture view’, so, in other words, they can see the wood for the trees, making them excellent at spotting patterns.

People with autism work through information from the bottom up and are very data driven, whilst those diagnosed with ADHD are risk takers and can multitask well. Combining these skillsets can therefore create a successful and winning team.

Adapt your recruitment processes

The National Autistic Society has recently published that only 16% of autistic adults work full time. Many others living with other neurodiverse conditions have told researchers that they find conventional interviews don’t cater for their unseen disabilities.

Adapting job descriptions to remove jargon and abstract language, and making them available in audio forms, can make your business far more attractive for top talent. Additionally, changing the interview process removes the need to recall information or sit in an awkward social situation. Some employers now opt for task-based interviewing or ‘apprentice trial days’.

Get advice

There are loads of resources available to help any employers looking to support neurodiversity in their businesses, from Government guidelines and factsheets to National Dyslexia Association guidelines on how to create a dyslexia friendly workplace.

Alternatively, the team at Dakota Blue have lots of experience on advising on all aspects of diversity.