How to manage neurodiversity in the workplace
Thank you to everyone who came along to our recent webinar on the complex topic of neurodiversity.
In this webinar, VinciWorks’ Director of Learning Nick Henderson and Skill Boosters’ Content Designer Maurizio Caldera explored some of the many facets of neurodiversity, the challenges faced by neurodivergent people in the workplace and the opportunities for employers that take a whole-organisation approach to supporting neurodivergent staff, customers and service users.
The webinar covered:
- What is neurodiversity?
- The challenges that neurodivergent thinkers face in the workplace and what that tells us about the broader working environment
- The benefits of recruiting from a neurodiverse talent pool
- What is ‘diversity of thought’ and how can it be successfully applied?
- Interviews with neurodivergent individuals on their personal experiences
- Short scenario clips and interactive polls on what we can do to support neurodivergent people in each example
- How to support colleagues who care for someone who is neurodivergent
Neurodiversity: Your Questions Answered
Following on from this webinar, we received a number of questions on this topic, and have collated those questions and tried to answer them as best we can here.
Does a person have to tell their employer about being neurodivergent?
Disclosing a condition is an individual decision, and there is no obligation on anybody to do so. However, the employer is not obliged to make reasonable adjustments if it does not know (or could not be reasonably expected to know) that the worker is disabled under the terms of The Equality Act. If a person is unsure, it is likely better to disclose to a union rep, who can then explain the pros and cons of disclosing to the employer and support the employee in whatever decision they take.
What are the requirements for organisations to make adjustments for staff who have not been diagnosed or deemed ‘not disabled’.
Disability has a specific meaning under the Equality Act: a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect. It’s important to remember there’s no requirement to have any kind of formal diagnosis. Also, there’s the issue of neurodiversity not being that well understood in society so people may actually have an impairment or be ‘disabled’ but not know or not identify with that.
An organisation might not have any obligation to provide a reasonable adjustment for someone who doesn’t identify as being disabled. However not gatekeeping reasonable adjustments is actually a way to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Asking people for diagnosis or placing labels on people who might not want them in order to access support is not as effective an approach as opening out the support options to those who need it regardless of formal diagnosis or not.
Is there anything we should consider when implementing performance management practices to support neurodivergent employees?
Remember One size doesn’t fit all. Some of the objectives in performance reviews might be difficult to achieve for certain people because of their differences. Simply put, that’s not fair.
Some points to consider when thinking about performance reviews:
- Discuss the objectives in advance with the individual and consider the unique challenges that they might encounter as a result of their neurodivergence.
- Together with the individual, explore a series of objectives tailored specifically to their abilities.
- Ensure that any reasonable adjustments have been in place for some time before the performance review takes place for a genuine reflection of performance.
- Take the opportunity of discussing the reasonable adjustments in place and whether they require refreshing.
- Allow the individual plenty of time to prepare for the review and discuss the most appropriate environments and methods of communication for the review.
- Always build the feedback around the individual’s strengths.
That being said, some organisations are moving away from a more formal appraisal process to more of the idea of development conversations with the onus on the employee to drive feedback from management and colleagues.
What changes can we make to the workplace to make it accessible to everyone that doesn’t require huge investment?
There’s plenty that can be done with little to no investment. When considering what to implement, enacting it across the board tends to make it easier and quicker. Consider flexible working. Roles that aren’t shift work or on-call type work can generally be done with flexible working, meaning that the specific hours people work are either set by themselves or aren’t tracked. That can be a hugely beneficial reasonable adjustment for someone who is neurodiverse. It might take more time for them in the morning or in the evening, they might have appointments throughout the day; getting to the doctor, for instance, or even getting access to medical support, is incredibly difficult within a strict workday. Therefore flexible working is a great reasonable adjustment for neurodiverse people, or for anyone actually, which costs nothing. If everyone has access to that there’s no need to put people through a process to access it.
Hybrid working can also be very beneficial. Many organisations have adopted hybrid working which also costs nothing to do. It can be incredibly beneficial for a neurodivergent person, who might be sensitive to a lot of noise for example. Some office days can be much noisier than others and forcing them into an office when it might be really noisy and difficult for them to manage their time and their tasks in that environment are counter-productive.
Empowering people to manage their own time and own locations of work is beneficial to everyone, not just neurodiverse people. A person might have a deadline or a lot of work to get done that needs high concentration in the mornings, for instance, so with hybrid and flexible working, they can spend the morning concentrating at home and then do in-person meetings or whatever else in the afternoon at the office. Giving flexibility and allowing hybrid working is the sort of thing that costs nothing and makes the workplace much more accessible to everyone.
What support should businesses have in place to support parents/carers of neurodiverse children in the workplace?
The following story highlights a powerful experience of a mother of two boys with ADHD.
One of her boys would get very anxious at night, and couldn’t sleep. He would become very agitated. She had to be there for him, to try and calm him down, and in the end, she might get an hour of sleep herself before going to work.
Needless to say that that impacts mental well being. Diagnosis is a long and difficult process, with lots of false negatives along the way. There were long hours of meetings with the school and other relevant authorities to get the support that her kids needed, and in her case, it took years to get a diagnosis, to then be able to get the support they needed. That is massively draining and time-consuming. If organisations are not careful they will lose good people, because their family comes first.
Flexibility is absolutely key and the number one thing to offer people in that situation.
Ideally, a package of reasonable adjustments should be put in place as a formal organisational policy. If there is no policy in place, an organisation might be at the mercy of the next manager who comes along, who may or may not be sympathetic.
What are strategies for advising colleagues of a peer’s neurodiversity in an appropriate manner?
This is a complex question and can be complicated by the issue of disability. Actions the employer might take could end up being discriminatory, even if they are designed to help. If someone has disclosed that they are neurodiverse and if that is also a disability, the employer needs to be very careful about how they treat that information.
Any health data is special-category personal data under GDPR. It doesn’t even matter if it is technically a disability or not because it is still health data. The employer needs to treat that very carefully and consider how they communicate with other people. If a person says ‘don’t tell anyone I am neurodiverse,’ that would need to be respected. Sharing health data needs to be done carefully and in line with data protection, and information about someone’s neurodiversity is very much within that category. It is important to find out from the individual if and how they want information shared about being neurodiverse, and absolutely make sure that follows data protection rules.
What advice would you give to managers about how they can continue to learn and best support their colleagues?
The fundamental lesson of neurodiversity is that one size doesn’t fit all. Be flexible and creative in your approach. Avoid making assumptions about people; rather, create opportunities to find out what makes people tick, particularly focusing on strengths. In the long run, taking the time to get to know individuals on the team will strengthen the team and productivity.
New video-based diversity training from Skill Boosters
Skill Boosters’ neurodiversity course examines the nature of neurodiversity, the challenges neurodivergent people face and how organisations can support neurodivergent staff, customers and service users.
Learner outcomes:
- Understand common neurodiverse conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism and ADHD
- Understand key terms and vocabulary and learn how to discuss neurodiversity in a sensitive and inclusive way
- Understand how to support neurodivergent people at work and be aware of the sort of adjustments they may need to do their jobs
- For managers, gain an awareness of key issues when managing the performance of neurodivergent staff
- Learn the benefits of recruiting from a neurodivergent talent pool
