Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of our Variations
2e magazine, which included a special section focusing on neurodiversity in the workplace. Head here for more information on how to obtain a copy of the magazine and/or subscribe to Variations
2e and 2e News.
In bringing together the voices for this special section, we had the pleasure of getting to know people and organizations on the forefront of pursuing equity and individual achievement in the workplace for twice-exceptional and other neurodiverse employees. Their stories and perspectives highlight the challenges that many gifted, highly capable employees and job seekers face due to cognitive differences or disabilities such as ADHD, dyslexia, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These factors can complicate their ability to obtain and maintain employment, as, historically, organizational routines and recruitment practices have not recognized the specialized needs of neurodiverse populations.
But some companies are beginning to understand the cognitive profiles of neurodiverse employees and are building institutional structures, such as specific training and support, to maximize their strengths and contributions. In so doing, they are harnessing the cognitive energies of all people to spur innovation, propel advancements in technology, and evolve the notion of what it means to be a successful professional in the workplace.
A 2017
Harvard Business Review piece described a “competitive advantage” that neurodiverse employees can bring to the table. Potential employees on the autism spectrum, for instance, may be highly skilled in technology or data analytics but come across as awkward to an interviewer unfamiliar with certain behavioral characteristics.
“Sometimes they exhibit challenging eccentricities,” write Robert Austin, a professor of information systems at the Ivey Business School in Ontario, Canada, and Gary Pisano, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. “In many cases the accommodations and challenges are manageable, and the potential returns are great. But to realize the benefits, most companies would have to adjust their recruitment, selection, and career development policies to reflect a broader definition of talent.”
SAP, a Germany-based software company with offices in 180 countries, is among the organizations making major strides in recruiting, hiring, and keeping neurodiverse employees. SAP’s Autism at Work Enterprise Readiness Program offers potential job candidates on the autism spectrum six weeks of pre-employment training.
In 2013, SAP set the goal of hiring 650 individuals on the autism spectrum by the year 2020, which added momentum to conversations about neurodiversity in the workplace among companies and communities. Jose Velasco, a vice president of product management who heads SAP’s Autism at Work initiatives, says that ongoing program outcomes have helped SAP shape its global objectives, moving away from the static goal of hiring 650 employees toward a broader and more impactful objective that considers the realities of the autism community and the long-term needs of SAP.
“Our five-year journey has been characterized by a cycle of discovery, transformation, and sharing,” Velasco says. “We’ve learned many things through this process and transformed our vision and practices to better serve [job candidates] and employees with ASD as well as other stakeholders.”
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Companies are harnessing the cognitive energies of all people to spur innovation, propel advancements in technology, and evolve the notion of what it means to be a successful professional in the workplace.[/perfectpullquote]
Originally, SAP officials envisioned its program recruiting and placing employees on the autism spectrum in roles such as software testing, programming, and quality assurance. But company officials observed that many employees with autism excelled in additional professional areas. Now the types of jobs they take on have grown tenfold — to roles in human resources, data protection, software development, and customer support.
The program also initially sought to hire full-time employees, but not everyone on the autism spectrum wants or can hold a full-time job, so they are hired on a full-time, part-time, and contract basis.
As SAP’s partnerships and work with the autism community grew, company officials learned that persons on the spectrum often did not have exposure to the job market during their early life and educational years, and many did not have college degrees. In response, SAP expanded their programming to offer internships, vocational schools, and training opportunities for college students. They also offer a pilot mentorship program to provide high school students with early exposure to the world of entrepreneurialism. These efforts have reached 170 students and 180 workers.
SAP has shared information about its programs with more than 260 other companies, also collaborating with Microsoft, EY, JP Morgan Chase, and DXC to launch the Autism at Work Summit. This venue brings together constituents from the private and public sectors, academia, higher-education, K-12 education, research, and philanthropy. SAP has also taken its story global in settings like the United Nations and the World Economic forum.
“Sharing our program has become an unanticipated priority of our mission,” Velasco says. “A subtle but critical element of our discovery journey has been the realization that sharing our experience is as important as living our business beyond bias experience.”
Eva Woo, a human resources director for SAP, said that the company is also mindful of accommodations that neurodiverse employees may need, such as assistive computer programs and noise-canceling headphones, to support their productivity. SAP also promotes awareness and sensitivity training among neurotypical employees who often help new hires matriculate into the the day-to-day experience of their company.
“We have mentors set up to work with the neurologically challenged, so that they have a sounding board and someone to help them along the way,” Woo says.
Woo observes that programs like this provide benefits not only for people with autism, but also for the companies that hire them.
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Shining a Light on Neurodiversity
Any push to support neurodiversity in the workplace is largely rooted in broader societal recognition and acceptance of those who think differently.
With various estimates putting the neurodiverse population between 10 and 25 percent, it is clear that embracing this workforce is a necessity.
“It’s really important that when we talk about the workplace that we don’t divorce it from society,” says Ed Thompson, CEO of Uptimize. “Sometimes we talk about the world of employment like it’s its own little planet, but it’s very much people in society.”
Drivers of this greater recognition include many celebrities. Richard Branson’s Made by Dyslexia charity enlists the support of actors such as Jennifer Aniston, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom, as well as Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. Branson has noted that his dyslexia provides him with an advantage, telling
USA Today that dyslexics “have a slightly different wiring to our brains, which enables us to think creatively and differently.” Other industry titans, such as JetBlue founder David Neeleman, also have embraced their neurodiversity. “If someone told me you could be normal or you could continue to have your ADHD, I would take ADHD,” Neeleman told
ADDitude magazine.
The willingness of culturally prominent members of society to call attention to their neurodiversity is a relatively recent development. “These things you just didn’t have 10 to 20 years ago,” Thompson says.
It also spills over to pop culture, with television characters such as Temperance Brennan (
Bones), Dwight Schrute (
The Office), Shaun Murphy (
The Good Doctor), Sheldon Cooper (
The Big Bang Theory), Gregory House (
House), and Ari Gold (
Entourage) dealing with various exceptionalities. Even in the most recent iteration of a television classic,
Star Trek Discovery, Mr. Spock’s dyslexia saves the galaxy.
But in broadly promoting and celebrating the accomplishments of the neurodiverse — both real and fictional — there is a danger in inaccurately portraying them as all being geniuses while downplaying the significant challenges faced by those most affected by certain exceptionalities, including autism spectrum disorder.
In response to assertions that society is unaccommodating to those with autism, Thomas Clements — an author with Asperger’s syndrome — explains that these points of view ignore the realities of the condition.
“It’s not fair to blame everything on society,” Clements wrote on Twitter. “The fact that 95 percent of autistic people will never marry and that [many] will die from health complications before they’re 50 is not due to a lack of autism acceptance or accommodations. It’s due to the pathology of autism.”
As part of April’s Autism Awareness Day, Clements tweeted: “Autism is a disability first and foremost. It should never be allowed to become an edgy, alternative identity label.”
Perhaps “neurodiverse” is too broad a term. Researchers and advocates need to consider the vast nuances of individuals on the autism spectrum when drawing conclusions and offering assertions about their life outcomes. As we see it, the global neurodiversity at work effort is about expanding opportunity to a population that can make significant contributions to their industries, but we must also not lose sight that for some, the needs for support lie far beyond what most employers can accommodate.
Clements’ comments highlight the perils of overgeneralization. But for those in the neurodiverse population who could benefit from accommodations or flexibility — and do not require more significant measures — the push to broaden neurodiversity in the workplace eventually will harvest positive results. [/dropshadowbox]
“When you have diversity in your workforce, you become way more productive, have much more innovation, and [get] a better return on your investment,” she says. “Those are the metrics we discovered. Diversity has improved our go-to-market by having a mix of people from different backgrounds and with different approaches.”
The push to hire more neurodiverse employees sometimes can be spurred, at least initially, not by specific efforts to diversify or to support a specific population, but rather by a very simple, business-driven reality: the need for more staffing.
Ed Thompson is the founder and CEO of Uptimize, a firm that provides neurodiversity training to corporations. Uptimize helps key personnel such as managers and HR teams to better attract, hire, and retain neurodiverse talent.
Thompson sees opportunity in the intersection of staffing needs and the availability of neurodiverse workers. His company educates its clients about the value of building a neurodiverse workforce and how to best support it. Thompson says that companies are faced with the question of finding enough talent.
“Every company, to some extent, is becoming a tech company, so that becomes, ‘Can we find enough tech talent?” he says. “It’s tough in [many] companies because this is a new thing and nobody has neurodiversity in their job title.”
Sometimes, Thompson says, it’s a hiring program that can start with a company asking a question like, “Can we hire 15 programmers in Austin, Texas?”
But the impetus can come not only from specific staffing needs, but also a recognition that an opportunity exists.
Thompson reports that clients often want to know how to train people internally to organically become more inclusive. He notes that he often hears from people who had been diagnosed themselves and realize that “there are people like me here who need this support.” Many business people see “the need within teams, often tech teams, for greater awareness of neurodiversity,” he says. “So the spark to start looking at neurodiversity inclusion can kind of come from anywhere.”
The focus isn’t exclusively on tech companies, however, though it is understandable as to why tech firms may be leading the way in regard to developing a neurodiverse workforce.
“There’s a perceived cultural correlation to some extent between neurodivergent people and abilities in tech,” Thompson says. “Sometimes it’s tech companies or departments who are most conscious of the need to innovate, and equally the most innovative themselves in how they address their challenges.”
Still, says Thompson, tech and non-tech firms alike face the same challenges and ask the same questions: “Are we recruiting the best people? How are we supporting the people that we have?
“While organizations are leveraging neurodiverse talent in tech roles, it’s so important to be aware that many neurodivergent people are interested and proficient in other fields. And some of the tech companies that started by hiring tech talent are now hiring into dozens of different roles, including HR and marketing.”
There are a number of non-profit organizations whose mission is to help align recruitment efforts with neurodiverse job seekers. Since it was founded in 2017, EvoLibri has worked with about 200 clients each year. Jan Johnston-Tyler, who runs EvoLibri with 17 employees, works with clients to identify a career path based on clients’ interest, ability, resources, and how well they have done in education to date. Ideally, a client comes to EvoLibri while still in high school. EvoLibri’s program, called Workplace Adaptability, targets skills most critical to being a successful professional, including emotional regulation, executive functioning, independent living skills, and self-advocacy.
“We help them build skills so that they don’t run into as many problems and learn to be better advocates of their own needs,” she says.
Though she is encouraged by strides made at many corporations to formalize programs for neurodiverse workers, she says there is another side to these programs that is not often discussed.
“Many of these companies are suffering from the ‘not-invented-here’ syndrome,” Johnston-Tyler says. “Every company has a different program. Some call them ‘Autism at Work,’ others call them ‘Neurodiversity Hiring Initiatives.’ Some have special side doors through which applicants enter.
“But for a person who is trying to get a job, how many programs do they have to go to before they get a job? To add to that, all of these programs take place during working hours, so you have to be unemployed. We’ve had people who have had to wrestle with, ‘Should I quit my job to participate in a program?’”
As such, the trajectories for many neurodiverse job seekers are not linear and do not occur within structured programs. Stuart Shader, who works in technology in the San Francisco Bay Area and has dyslexia, struggled in high school as a result of his learning disability. Falling behind in his academic classes, he thrived in an industrial arts program, passing a basic electronics course that allowed him to tinker with audio/video technologies in the school’s cable television studio.
Shader’s budding interest in technology developed alongside broader advancements in personal computing. He bought a Macintosh, and while at his job in the mailroom at accounting firm Arthur Anderson, he jumped at the opportunity to work with computers. Though Shader was not overly familiar with the hardware and software coming in, his hands-on, autodidactic approach to new learning enabled him to make strides in the company.
“Every job I’ve taken, I really didn’t fully know or have expertise in their products,” he says.
Shader did some teaching, owning a training business for a time, and working for various tech companies, including Apple and Microsoft. The fact that he lacked a college degree just didn’t come up.
“It only showed up once at an interview for a startup,” he says. “A recruiter asked me about it, and the CEO wasn’t interested in me because I didn’t have a college degree.”
Shader has observed that when a company moves forward with programs for neurodiverse employees, it often involves a high-ranking official who has a personal story involving a family member with a mental or physical difference or disability.
Microsoft, for instance, has an Inclusive Hiring Program that reaches out to individuals with autism and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has a son with cerebral palsy.
These revelations have an impact not only on the company itself, but in the case of firms like Microsoft, potentially on entire industries. In establishing neurodiversity programs, companies like Microsoft also can set an example for others in tech and beyond.
“What those guys have done is put it on the map, and there’s nothing more powerful than other businesses feeling like they’re the ones who are late to the party,” Uptimize’s Thompson says. “There is a natural adoption cycle. And we are serving the businesses that have moved down that path as well as continuing the advocacy for this category of neurodiversity at work and helping to spark that the interest elsewhere.”
Employers begin to grasp that neurodiversity is universally relevant, and that supporting neurodiversity in the workplace benefits everyone. “Everybody thinks differently in some way,” Thompson says. “Neurodiversity is a human reality and therefore relevant across the board in an organization.”
To skeptical employees in a training session, Thompson and his team will ask for a show of hands around communication preferences: If given the opportunity to receive communications or marching orders in the manner of their choosing, how many workers would prefer text? How many prefer phone calls? Perhaps video conferencing or face-to-face communication?
“Everybody puts their hands up for different things,” Thompson says. “And people start to understand that this is really about recognizing and including differences across the human spectrum. Not everybody is going be comfortable in the same routine in the same environment, and not all of your coworkers or direct reports are going to perform best if you communicate with them in the same way.”
Shader remains tapped in to discourse about neurodiversity in the workplace and feels that companies’ perspectives on these issues ultimately will be driven by profitability.
“I think at some point this will come down to money,” he says. “Do we have access to another pool of candidates that puts us at an advantage [and] is going to change my business process?”
