A key part of Diversity and Inclusion efforts globally has been recruitment. Increasing an organisation's representation of neurodivergent staff through targeted recruitment efforts.
Whilst these programs can improve diversity, do they support inclusion?
Read MoreDo you sometimes feel that you can never have enough impact on the things that matter the most to you? Have you ever thought that the issue is so big, complex or challenging? That no matter what you do, it could never be enough?
Read MoreHave you ever had an employee that didn’t seem to work well with their team members? Have you come across those project teams that seemed to be dysfunctional and worked against themselves more than for themselves?
All too often you’ll have lost employees, they’ve just left or worse still perhaps is they have remained and ‘underperformed’ or being problematic. Imagine if you didn’t need to face the constant threat of attrition, poor performance or interpersonal conflict within teams.
Imagine how much more productive, effective and engaged your staff would be if they understood each other, the organisation and had a voice.
Read MoreOver recent years, the process of recruitment has been heavily influenced by the same pressures that all business processes have experienced. The constant need for ever greater productivity and efficiency. A focus on common metrics such as Time to Hire and Cost to Fill and the ever-present debate between insourcing and outsourcing recruitment requires more rapid judgements when making hiring decisions.
When making filtering decisions, weeding out candidates who'll not be a good fit, how often do you make judgements based on experience or broad assumptions such as the candidate's degree choice?
Read MoreInclusion as a concept is not new and has certainly been around for quite some time. In contrast though, whilst the concept of Neurodiversity is not new, it’s place on the corporate Diversity and Inclusion or talent strategy agenda is.
The value of a diverse workforce has been the subject of research and analysis. Unsurprisingly, greater diversity of thought and perspective leads to be better business outcomes. The avoidance of group think resulting from hiring people like ‘us’ also leads to improved employee engagement and retention.
In all honesty, I don’ think that inclusion is complex, in fact it is often very simple. But be mindful that simple does not necessarily equate to easy. If it were easy, well, you’d not be reading this article because I’d not have felt any need to write it…
To help provide some clarity on the how, I’m going to cover some relatively simple strategies you could employ, and I do encourage you to think how you could incorporate each idea. Not everything will work for everyone, I understand and accept that. But even just making one or two changes to the way that you recruit could make all the difference to the level of diversity you could reach in your organisation.
Read MoreThis is a reasonable question. And one that often gets asked when an organisation is beginning to think about actively pursuing a broader diversity and talent agenda.
Are there roles that might better suit neurodiverse staff? In order to hire in, should new roles be created and carved out for them? What approach makes the most sense and will be more successful?
It is these questions that I’ll explore and offer some thoughts on in this article. I want to remove some of the uncertainty here and make it easier for you to start hiring neurodiverse candidates.
Read MoreCertain assessments that are commonly used within recruitment selection processes can be very effective at filtering out candidates. The question is, how often are they filtering out candidates that might actually be ideally suited to the role?
Are these tests causing you to not only miss out on quality but diversity in your team as a result?
In this article I’ll discuss some thoughts on why psychometric testing could be causing you to miss out on talented candidates.
Read MoreThe sensory environment at work impacts not only neurodiverse people. You’ll be surprised by the number of people who aren’t autistic or dyslexic for example, who are also affected by the amount of noise and movement in the office.
I’ll explain a few a common areas that create challenges when it comes to the sensory environment and work, along with a few simple strategies you can employ. The upside is, the cost of doing so doesn’t need to be high, and the benefit of having done so will be felt by many of your staff.
Read MoreIs there a connection between your recruitment process and the level of diversity in your workplace? Absolutely!
In this post I’m going to show you how your interviews could be eliminating specific people from your recruitment pipeline and preventing you from hiring not only diverse talent, but talent that could be driving real business results.
Read MoreOnce again I attended the Autism@Work Summit in Melbourne, hosted by DXC Technology, ANZ Bank and the Autism Co-operative Research Centre.
This has proven to be a fantastic day (this was my second time attending) the last couple of years and it’s hard not to learn something. With speakers from a variety of organisations and insights from many angles on a range of topics there is plenty to learn about and loads of great connections to make as well!
I had previously shared a short video post on the key takeaway I had from the day, but let’s explore that in a little detail along with the other key takeaways.
Read MoreSomething I haven’t really written about before is my own experiences working in accounting. In fact, it’s possibly even something that you may not have appreciated I spent the early part of my career doing!
So, I thought it might be helpful to share with you my own thoughts on how a neurodiverse inclusive approach to hiring could be of benefit to accounting firms. My own experience was predominantly within mid size and small firms, but I think this will be relevant to any size firm. I’d like to explore how an understanding of neurodiverse individuals and their work preferences could enable firms to both attract applicants that are both capable and motivated and to avoid the often common mid level drop off. That career point where many people either leave professional practice or move ‘up’ to bigger firms.
Read MoreThe neurodiversity concept or movement is gaining traction globally. Certainly as awareness increases, more people are coming to understand what it means and how to relate to neurodiverse people.
A follow on implication is greater understanding of the contributions that neurodiverse people can make. What also seems to stand out for me is the realisation people have when it comes to how many people are touched by it.
So whilst approximately 10-15% of the population may identify as neurodiverse, think of all the people directly connected to that individual. With the ‘average’ family represented by four people, there are potentially at least a further three people directly and closely connected to every neurodiverse person.
Read MoreGraduate programs are a mainstay of early career talent strategies for most larger organisations. However there is a growing shortage of skilled graduates entering the market every year.
In Australia alone the demand for Information & Communications Technology roles could result in a deficit of 65,000 candidates by 2023 according to the Group Executive of People for Telstra, Alexandra Badenoch.
Read MoreHaving dealt with the challenge of how to recruit neurodiverse candidates and on-board them into your business, you’re now considering the next steps as part of your diversity and inclusion plans.
Or you may be in the camp where you have identified existing staff who have disclosed as being neurodiverse or are facing ‘stereotypical’ workplace challenges.
Making reasonable adjustments to the workplace are often mandatory legislative requirements in most countries. But beyond that, having an inclusive workplace that caters for the needs of your staff will allow them to perform at their best.
Read MoreManaging staff requires a mix of guiding through missteps and mistakes. Encouraging continued good work and dealing with the odd interpersonal challenge. This is no different when it comes to neurodiverse staff. But, this is often an area of uncertainty for many managers new to supporting a neurodiverse employee.
When establishing an inclusive workplace it's important to treat all people equal. Making distinctions on how one person is treated versus everyone else fosters exclusion.
Read MoreI’ve been exploring mindsets again of late and have circled back to the work of Carol Dweck and the Growth Mindset.
The idea of the Growth Mindset is the belief that your ability to learn and adapt is flexible. It is something that we have direct control over.
This leads to the view that your potential is limited by your effort and imagination.
Read MoreAn area that I find interesting and I believe many others do also, is that of creativity. What is it? And is it something that can be learnt, developed and harnessed?
Through an exploration of three well known creative figures, I had hoped to gain some insight into potential answers to these sorts of questions.
Whilst a sample size of three is clearly not going to be statistically significant, there were a number of key insights that can provide some useful lessons regardless.
The three people that were the subject of this ‘grueling’ analysis were James Dyson, Richard Branson and Thomas Edison. You might be wondering why the inclusion of Edison, he’s a little of out time with the other two.
The rationale was that including someone from the previous century (or two) would provide an interesting perspective as to how pervasive (over time) any insights might be.
I had hoped to see if any lessons we might learn would likely have future validity beyond the here and now.
Read MoreWhen it comes to establishing a deliberate approach to increasing organisational diversity, creativity and performance, a neurodiverse hiring program is certainly a growing ‘go to’. The question for many organisations starting out though, is how?
In simple terms there are really 3 primary formats that any organisation can take. In this post I’ll explore each in turn along with some thoughts on pros, cons and what considerations might be relevant for your organisation.
Read MoreAn area that will rise in relevance and importance for many employers is tapping into neurodiverse graduates.
It’s well documented and most people would agree - there is a war for talent. Now for sure in some industries and for some skill sets the battles are more hard fought than others.
Read MoreJob seeking can be an intimidating and confusing time for anyone, but for Autistic job seekers, these feelings are often compounded.
However, with a few tweaks to your approach, you can not only lessen the stress and confusion of trying to find work but also increase your chances of being successful!
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