How accommodating is your workplace of neurodiversity?
/The word neurodiversity has gone mainstream and modern workplace culture seems to be developing a greater awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity. However and despite progress in promoting workplace diversity, prejudices keep the employment prospects for neurodiverse individuals shockingly low. I wonder how accommodating in practice are workplaces to the individual with cognitive differences? How often do workplaces show a willingness to change their practices in order to accommodate needs and differences?
NEURODIVERSITY AND NEURODIVERGENCE: SOME DEFINITIONS
Diversity and variation is an undeniable fact of nature. While a group of people can be neurodiverse, meaning that the group contains variations in cognition and thinking, an individual is neurodivergent, meaning that the person’s cognitive thinking differs from established norms. Examples of neurodiversity are autism, ADHD, dyspraxia and dyslexia. This blog post focuses primarily on workplace accommodations for an autistic employee.
THE WORLD NEEDS NEURODIVERSITY
Neurodiversity adds so much value to life and work. People with cognitive differences can have strengths and specialisms, insight and innovations that are important to a workplace, as this graphic by Dr Nancy Doyle so effectively shows.
The Overlapping Strengths of Neurodiversity. DR NANCY DOYLE
Important interviews such as this one with an employee at a majority-autistic company place the experience of the individual at the centre of workplace accommodations. It is time to rethink how we adapt workplaces to neurodivergent needs.
A WORKPLACE SCORE CARD
In my work, I have observed that a neurodivergent person can internalise chronic stress and anxiety in a workplace without fully appreciating that the fault is not theirs but rather that the workplace is not creating the right conditions for them to thrive. By changing the focus from the individual to the workplace, a person can gain insight into the fact that workplace conditions are not adequately supporting their neurodiversity.
I have developed a scorecard that supports neurodiverse people to highlight areas where their workplace may be under-supporting them. This may be an imperfect tool but I would hope that in some way it makes the case that workplaces need to be willing to make changes to accommodate neurominorities in their workforce.
Remember it is not just the individual but also the changemakers at work that need to consider how accommodating their workplace is of neurological differences.
Examples of changes to the workplace may include:
· the nature or quality of tasks expected of the person
· the degree of regularly scheduled support, job coaching or mentoring a person is offered
· the environmental conditions of a person’s workspace
· whether the workplace is the right balance of cultural fit for a person
· whether a person feels accommodated or validated in everyday workplace decisions
HOW DOES A NEURODIVERGENT PERSON EXPERIENCE YOUR WORKPLACE
Here are some headings under which a workplace could consider making accommodations for neurodiversity on their staff.
QUALITY OF WORK TASKS
An accommodating workplace should have a focus on work that suits everyone’s strengths. How does your company ensure that staff have a clear understanding of work tasks and what is expected of them. Have you considered what percentage of a person’s work is task-oriented or people-oriented and whether that is the right balance to interest or motivate the person to fulfil their role? What is the balance of personal interaction, written interaction and independent work in a person’s workday and have you checked whether it is the right balance for a person’s needs?
HIRING PRACTICES AND ONGOING MENTORING
Adjustment of hiring practices and mentoring are crucial to building a neurodiverse workforce. Is your company’s interview process and reasoning clearly explained to candidates in advance. Does your onboarding process take into account a person’s needs or perspectives? Does your company provide regularly scheduled on to one sessions with a manager or on-site mentoring that could support somebody feeling stressed in a new role? Would designated job coaches support neurodivergent individuals to progress in their careers, and if so, how could your workplace introduce this? How embedded is learning and development in your support of company employees?
WORKPLACE ADAPTATION TO NEED AND DIFFERENCE
A workplace should accommodate for sensory or language processing differences that a neurodivergent person frequently needs to cope and/or thrive. What efforts does your workplace make to learn what accommodations a person may need? Do you have a mentor or job coach at work that is regularly available to staff for support or to manage on-the-job stresses? How are any sensory or language processing differences accommodated at work? An example might be headphones to prevent auditory overstimulation. Other examples of accommodations are that a person can work remotely or in a quiet and private space with limited interruptions, that OT is made available to a person to assess their workspace, or that a person is allowed to make adjustments to their personal workspace to accommodate their sensitives or better match to what they might need?
WORK CULTURAL FIT AND OPENNESS
Communication is the most needed, and easiest, workplace accommodation. It is worth examining whether your company has a culture of awareness and openness. Too often a neurodivergent person is expected to provide teaching moments for other employees at an individual level. An employer would do well to consider what support can be provided at a systemic level to reduce that pressure on the individual. In examining support of neurodiversity at your company, it is worth considering whether staff receive regular constructive feedback from a manager in a way that suits them, and what measures the company puts in place to communicate that a person’s perspective is welcome.
One big benefit of an inclusive work culture is that it fosters diversity of thought, different approaches to work, innovation, and creativity. When offering one to one meetings with employees, does your company take the time to explore whether the employee believes their job is a good match for them technically and culturally.
VALIDATION OF SUPPORT AND WILLINGNESS TO CHANGE
Working as an autistic person can involve a lot of teaching moments which can in itself be exhausting and lead to burnout. Does your company take the time to gauge a person’s overall relationship to their job, and whether their job has an effect on their stress and anxiety levels. Does working in your company require an individual to accommodate internal bias or lack of awareness about neurodiversity in the workplace? Does the individual need to mask who they are or are they comfortable and validated enough to be their authentic self at work? In reality, how flexible is your work culture and how often does it prioritise well-being over defending the status quo?
A supportive employer will make efforts to ensure that the workplace practices communicate that a person’s perspective is valid and will support a person’s needs by making changes that can enhance a person’s experience.
If you would like a copy of my Workplace Score Card, please reach out to me at anne@careercounsellor.ie.
SUGGESTED READING
Interview with an Employee at a Majority Autistic Company (askamanager.org)
The World Needs Neurodiversity: Unusual Times Call For Unusual Thinking (forbes.com)
AskEARN | Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Neurodiversity Is a Competitive Advantage (hbr.org)
Neurodiversity Resources For Employers — Neurodiversity Hub
