Over the last decade we’ve taken enormous strides to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace. While the Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society, the term ‘neurodiversity’ remains one of the least understood, but increasingly discussed, potential areas for discrimination. It is a relatively new concept and our general understanding of its full scope and impact is limited, especially in its application to organisational diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
We now estimate that neurodivergent people represent 10% or more of the overall population. For employers this means that 1 in 10 job applicants, existing staff and customers are likely to be neurodivergent in some way. It’s too big a part of the workforce to ignore so this blog has been written to help understand the topic, and the potential that this group can bring to the workplace. We also share a number of tips that employers can do to support this group at work.
Defining neurodiversity
There is a difficulty in defining neurodiversity. In very broad terms we have for centuries talked about being ‘like-minded’ and more recently of being ‘on the same wavelength’ with others. We recognise the comfort we feel on being with those who think and act in the same ways that we might do. We know from all aspects of discrimination just how hard it has been for us to re-think our attitudes towards difference, to ‘embrace diversity’ and recognise the value as well as the need for inclusion. Few of us without clinical and specialist training find it easy to understand the terminology of neuroscience let alone the complexity of how it functions. Instead, we talk of people being ‘wired differently’.
It wasn’t that long ago that we viewed people whose way of thinking and acting were markedly different to our own as suffering from a disability, a clinical abnormality, a pathology, or a disease. We talked of ‘abnormalities’ as if there was a predetermined norm for how the brain works, a deviation from the standard model. Such terms were deeply unhelpful in the way in which so many of the terms we use to describe people who are different from us end up being highly discriminatory and pejorative.
Even as we have begun to reframe our thinking on neurodiversity during the last twenty years or so, we have tended to over-simplify and reduce it to a cluster of stereotypes, some of which gain more interest and more attention than others. So, for example, we talk of a ‘wide spectrum on the autism scale’, from mild to severe, or a recognition of more widespread ‘dyslexia’ in the population as a whole than we had initially contemplated. More recently we have re-thought Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from seeing it as the disruptive behaviour of certain children in a classroom whose attention span is limited, to a condition which affects many adults throughout their lives.
The ‘neurodiversity paradigm’
We have come to recognise, albeit very slowly, that there is no one way in which the brain functions and that normal is a statistical term rather than a clinical reality. “We need to admit that there is no standard brain” wrote Thomas Armstrong, author of The Power of Neurodiversity[1]. What’s known as the ‘neurodiversity paradigm’ has helped reframe how neurodivergence is understood, highlighting common strengths as well as challenges and beginning to shift our thinking away from pathology and abnormality.
According to the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, there is equal emphasis on the necessary culture change needed for greater understanding and acceptance of neurodiversity – and its value to employers – and tangible action steps to help develop greater confidence in talking about neurodiversity at work[2]
Neurodiverse entrepreneurs
We increasingly recognise that sometimes neurodiversity, divergent ways of thinking, understanding, and interpreting the world, leads to innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. Richard Branson, for example, talks openly about his neurodivergence seeing it has a strength and not a disability. Others are Steve Jobs and IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad who have demonstrated great achievements. Undoubtedly these are examples of extraordinary thinkers who have had a significant and beneficial impact. But we must also be careful. Not everyone who is neurodivergent, is a genius, an entrepreneur, a world-stage leader. In our well-intentioned wish to redress the imbalance and discrimination of centuries we run the risk of ascribing to everyone a mythology of superpowers and exceptional ability.
The support employers can give
This can then lead to a failure in our workplaces and in society of recognising that neurodivergence still brings obstacles and barriers for many people and still requires us in the workplace to consider carefully what positive support is needed to ensure that people are able to be themselves in the workplace and can fulfil their potential. For many people, neurodiversity is debilitating and a frustrating obstacle. While there is praise, therefore, for a recognition of the inherent value of ‘difference’ there is concern that this can take us away from providing sufficient resources and support, particularly in the workplace for those impacted. This is summed up very succinctly by one of the support groups for ADHD[3]
“ADHD is neither a blessing nor a curse, it simply is, and we must find ways to alleviate any distress or suffering it may cause.”
Employers can play an enormously beneficial part in addressing these concerns by becoming more aware of neurodiversity and being more supportive. They need to provide strong leadership to identify for each person what support, what adjustments may be needed in the workplace. For some, little is needed except encouragement and a culture within the organisation which is inclusive and recognises and values different approaches and ways of thinking. But for others, there may be a need for more significant workplace adjustments.
Our top three suggestions for employers:
- Make inclusion a priority not only for your HR department, not even for your line-managers, but for your senior leadership team as well. Raise the profile of inclusion not as a nice to do, but as an essential part of the future of our organisation.
- Ensure that your external recruitment processes, and internal career development paths, do not consciously or unconsciously discriminate against those who think differently, see the world differently, and act differently. Treat this as seriously as you would in terms of gender bias, or racial bias.
- Recognise that simply saying “we are inclusive” is woefully inadequate. Being inclusive means providing support for everyone in the workplace to be themselves, to realise their potential. Ensure that those who are neurodivergent have a full and positive assessment to identify what needs they have, what reasonable adjustments should be made in the workplace, and how they can best be supported. Policies and processes may certainly be developed by the HR and Learning & Development teams and by lead-bodies, but increasingly it should be the responsibility of every line-manager to take responsibility for ensuring that every member of their team has the support appropriate to their needs.
ACAS[4] provides excellent guidelines and support for employers to explore what more they can do to make their workplace more inclusive and raise awareness of neurodiversity. This includes ensuring managers have the skills to manage neurodiverse staff, have hiring and onboarding policies and processes in place, to provide a range of employer services to help build a sustainable and authentic culture of belonging, in which all employees feel valued.
In conclusion
Inclusion is not just a management responsibility. We all have a part to play and all of us can make a difference. Research evidence shows that those people who go out of their way to be inclusive have a highly significant impact on creating a positive working environment. They also contribute greatly to the wellbeing of the persons concerned and in themselves far happier, far more engaged, and far more productive.
[1] Armstrong, T. The power of neurodiversity, Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2011
[2] Neurodiversity At Work: CIPD February 2018
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/wiki/resources/neurodiversity
[4] ACAS Advice and Guidance: Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
