Celebrating Neurodiversity: Insights for Autism Acceptance Month
As April approaches, Jani’s Journal proudly joins the global celebration of Autism Acceptance Month. In this special edition, we are honored to feature Jenae McPhatter, MBA, MSEd, President and Founder of EVRO, Inc., shedding light on the importance of neurodiversity in the workplace. EVRO, Inc. is a nonprofit standing at the forefront of advocating for inclusive hiring practices and empowering neurodivergent people to thrive in professional environments. As mission oriented, purpose-driven organizations often focused on underserved populations, nonprofits are uniquely positioned to both embrace and benefit from neurodivergent workers.
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Clearing the Path: Building a Neuro-inclusive Workplace
by: Jenae McPhatter, MBA, MSEd, President and Founder of Evro, Inc.
Neurodiversity, a term coined by Australian sociologist Judy Singer, celebrates the unique ways that individuals experience and engage with the world. Instead of defining these differences as deficits, neurodiversity recognizes them as a natural variation within the human population.
As the result of mainstream recruiting and hiring practices, neurodivergent individuals encounter enormous barriers when pursuing employment. Data shows that approximately 85% of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (“ASD”) are unemployed or underemployed, including those who are college educated. Many neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ASD and Dyslexia, present with above average memory and quantitative abilities. Yet, all too often, these skills are overlooked in favor of arbitrary social norms. This needs to change.
Creating neuro-inclusive work environments requires a re-evaluation of mainstream hiring practices to focus on skills rather than traditional and sometimes antiquated social expectations. If a candidate demonstrates the skills to do the job, they deserve genuine consideration, regardless of whether or not they perfectly conform to societal norms. It’s also time to normalize discussions about reasonable accommodations during the hiring process, allowing employers to gain insight into what supports their new hires may need to succeed.
From a business standpoint, embracing neurodiversity isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s smart business. Research shows that many neurodivergent individuals possess above average pattern recognition, exceptional memory, superior quantitative ability, creativity, and the ability to hyper-focus. Instead of being perceived as a compromise, creating a neuro-inclusive workplace can enhance the competitive advantage of an organization.
It's time for employers to recognize and foster the potential of neurodivergent work environments. By removing barriers, focusing on skills, and allowing reasonable accommodations, companies can tap into a rich talent pool that will drive the success of all stakeholders.
Tips for fostering a neuro-inclusive work environment:
Focus on Skills Assessments (see Jani’s Journal Issue #10 for some great articles on skills-based screening and hiring).
Use caution with icebreakers that may require on-the-spot and uncomfortable social interactions.
Avoid judging candidates based on body language. Limited eye-contact or atypical gestures does not necessarily mean a lack of interest or focus.
Provide clear and explicit directions and feedback.
Discuss communication preferences.
Be flexible on when and how employees engage with co-workers.
Be specific in your requests and expectations.
Avoid overuse of inferences, idioms, and sarcasm as these may not be easily understood.
The Business Case
🔗 Neurodiversity: The Untapped Competitive Advantage 🔗
Explore the strategic imperative of embracing neurodiversity in the workplace, as highlighted by Andrew Pfeiffer in his TEDxCanberra talk. Gain insights into the transformative impact of inclusive hiring practices and learn how organizations can leverage neurodiverse talent to drive innovation and success.
Leveraging Neurodiversity as Your Competitive Advantage
🔗 Embracing Neurodiverse Talent Is A Business Imperative 🔗
Korn Ferry reiterates the strategic necessity for organizations to tap into the 20% of the population with neurodiverse talents and offers five practical steps for organizations to create inclusive environments that foster the growth and development of neurodiverse individuals:
Build a culture of inclusivity through education dispelling myths about neurodiverse people which fosters greater understanding and acceptance by co-workers and managers.
Adopt inclusive recruitment and hiring practices such as providing interview questions in advance, focusing on skills required for the job rather than personal connection with the candidate, using work samples, skills assessments, or trial periods.
Make reasonable accommodations for neurodiverse people to create their optimal workspace to meet their needs for structure, sensory comfort, and routine, such as noise-cancelling headphones, quiet workspaces, lighting adjustments, additional time for tasks, decompression spaces, remote work, and flexible hours.
Establish mentorship and support programs such as pairing neurodiverse workers with more experienced co-workers and creating an employee resource group for neurodiverse people.
Monitor your approach to refine your strategy by seeking feedback from neurodiverse and neuro-typical workers and tracking key metrics such as employee satisfaction, productivity and retention rates among neurodiverse employees.
🔗Building the Neurodiversity Talent Pipeline for the Future of Work 🔗
This MIT Sloan article highlights community colleges as a key partner to organizations looking for neurodiverse talent. Approximately 80% of neurodiverse people that attend college go to a community college. Further, community colleges also typically partner with local employers, particularly nonprofits, for opportunities like apprenticeships, paid internships, and job-shadowing which are often more telling of a person’s work than the traditional interview.
🔗 Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage 🔗
This 2017 Harvard Business Review (“HBR”) article explore SAP’s pioneering initiative to leverage neurodiverse talent. Launched in 2013, their program offers a roadmap to other organizations large and small, for profit and nonprofit. Highlights of their program as described by HBR include:
Team with “social partners” for expertise you lack in neurodiversity such as your state’s department of (vocational) rehabilitation or other government agencies as well as fellow nonprofits such as EVRO, Inc., EXPANDability, and Arc.
Use non-traditional, non-interview-based assessment and training processes that extend the assessment period allowing neurodiverse talents and needs to emerge.
Train other workers and managers to help them understand what to expect from their new co-workers.
Set up a support ecosystem that includes a team manager, a team buddy, a job and life skills coach, a work mentor, and an HR business partner committed to their neurodivergent worker’s success.
Tailor methods for managing careers to ensure a career path with clear performance criteria to achieve along the way.
Start small and scale the program across multiple departments, sites, etc. as applicable.
Mainstream the program by making recruiting, hiring, and training practices universal. What is inclusive for neurodiverse people is also inclusive for neuro-typical people and helps organizations tap into a wider talent pool.
Ready to Embrace Neurodiversity in Your Organization?
Equip your organization with the knowledge and tools to foster a more inclusive workplace environment. Regardless of your nonprofit’s mission or primary service, most organizations have support department roles such as IT, finance, quality assurance, and marketing where people with neurodiverse talents can shine. These websites describe industries and types of roles that your organization might benefit from hiring or contracting with a neurodiverse person.
Thrive Autism Coaching, the Indiana University’s Institute on Disability and Community, and Forbes notes that visual thinkers may excel in roles such as web development (coding, designing, maintaining websites), drafting, engineering, graphic design & photography, agricultural work (farming, horticulture, and animal care), mechanic (auto, truck, aircraft), building trades (carpentry, welding), handcrafts (jewelry making, woodworking), computer programming. Non-visual thinkers may excel in roles such as data entry, library sciences, journalist, copy editor, accounting, data analysis & statistician, IT Support, quality control technician (medical, science, or manufacturing).
Mentavi Health and ADDitutdeMag.com notes people with the empathy, adaptability, enthusiasm, and hyper focus under pressure often found in those with attention deficit hyper activity disorder (“ADHD”) may excel in technology and engineering, healthcare, education & childcare, emergency services, culinary arts, cosmetology, marketing, entrepreneurship, and the arts.
As we commemorate National Autism Acceptance Month, let us reaffirm our commitment to embracing neurodiversity and creating environments where every individual is valued and empowered to succeed.
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