Changing recruiting processes to become more inclusive.

Looking into recent studies done by the National Autistic Society only 22 % of autistic adults are in any capacity employed. Taking the US as an example, in 2019 around 85% of autistic university graduates are currently unemployed. These numbers may seem surprising, considering the large and global campaigns organizations lead while emphasizing all the benefits in adding and working with neurodivergent employees.

As organizations keep steering away from hiring neurodivergent talent, they give up the many opportunities for innovation and development. As neurodivergent people often bring on abilities to process detailed analytical work, as well as visual and creative thinking. In addition, there are great opportunities to educate organizations on a more diverse and inclusive culture of belonging and psychological safety.

It’s exactly at this cross point that recruiters, hiring managers & teams, and staffing companies can have a very concrete and hands-on impact. Here, recruiters have a responsibility to open the funnel to include all by including these topics and areas of development into their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DE&IB) initiatives. That said, it takes knowledge, research, and strategic tactical work to better the recruitment standards for neurodivergent people.

How do we define Neurodiversity?

As a term, Neurodiversity is quite young and is used as an umbrella explanation; including autistic people, people who have ADHD, dyslexia, OCD, and other neurological conditions. We also place ‘spectrum conditions’ under this terminology having an array of characteristics.

Judy Singer proposed:

«Just as the postmodern era sees every once too-solid belief melt into air, even our most taken-for-granted assumptions: that we all more or less see, feel, touch, hear, smell, and sort information, in more or less the same way, (unless visibly disabled) – are being dissolved.”

Lyric Holmans, who works as Organisational Change Agent and Educator at NeuroDivergent Consulting, explains:

“Our strengths and weaknesses are often less common than those in the general population, bringing our diverse ways of thinking, experiencing, and processing information (and the world around us) to help round out a team. We approach problems differently because of our varied perspectives and may see things others miss”.

This taken into consideration, we still see many organizations fail when trying to both understand and utilize neurodivergent people as they don’t necessarily fit the profile searched for by employers for open roles.

Why focus on recruiting for neurodiversity?

As mentioned above, there are several positive and constructive sides to recruiting neurodivergent talents. Still, we see a larger portion of organizations hesitating when recruiting for neurodiversity. The main driver for this might be a general lack of knowledge and understanding, as well as a hiring process not accommodating these talents well enough.

It is at the heart of the issue to gain knowledge, allocate resources, as well as demystifying the areas around neurodiverse hiring. This is key if organizations want to create a truly diverse, open, and fully inclusive work environment.

Considering global movements, such as the Great Resignation, we now have a golden opportunity to utilize the shift to position the workforce better. There are already reports of increasing gaps in skills and a higher need for re-schooling of outdated practices. This already affects companies today, and by bringing on neurodivergent talent, organizations benefit not only in terms of perspectives and skills but also in strategic positioning in the market. Situating themselves for a better readiness when the market turns more positive again.

To put this in perspective, hiring neurodiverse people brings a plethora of very tangible impacts, such as:

·      STEM shortages (science technology, engineering, and mathematics).

·      Increased innovation cycles within areas such as Tech, Bio, and SaaS (due to high demand for analytical skills).

·      The global need for more skilled workforces within info-tech, pattern recognitions, machine learning, etc.

·      Developments within the ever-evolving areas of VR and AI.

Almost 1 in 36 candidates entering job interviews might have some degree of an autism diagnosis. Seeing how the job market is developing, we simply cannot afford passing on neurodiverse candidates just due to the recruitment processes not being well enough accommodating.

Putting these aspects into perspective, this creates the demand for more customized and revised hiring processes to include the whole person in recruitment, and not only the CV and level of education. We need to start implementing better hiring practices that can take both physical as well as mental diversity into account.

4 tips for including neurodiverse talent into your teams:

To bring more neurodiverse talent on board it’s firstly pivotal to understand that the term neurodiverse includes everyone. In the same way, we understand diversity as a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences, the neurodiverse includes this and the many psychological differences manifesting in functionality and behaviours.

Below is a list of four main key takeaways, recruiters, hiring managers and teams can use in creating a better arena for neurodiverse talent to flourish:

1.    Revise and create a more wholesome and inclusive recruiting practice.

2.    Optimize, and proactively include neurodiversity in your DE&BI initiatives.

3.    Utilise and include Universal Design

4.    Invest in, and continue to train, hiring teams and managers in recruiting neurodivergent people.

1.        Revise and create a more wholesome and inclusive recruiting practice.

To start from scratch, ensure that your team fully understands why you currently looking for the roles you are, as well as what kind of impact the roles will have on the organisation and business. Additionally, you need to have deeper knowledge regarding the gaps in the processes when setting up the candidate journey. When building these processes, ensure that the hiring team is aware of where they search for the different candidates, as well as the Return of Investment (ROI) of sourcing neurodivergent talent. Lastly, leverage data insights from previous recruitment processes (and feedback from those involved in the recruitment process) to understand where the team and management falls through or lacks knowledge when driving a more inclusive and diverse hiring.

2.        Optimise, and proactively include neurodiversity in your DE&IB initiatives.

Even though the whole point of DE&IB initiatives is to include and build an accepting workplace, we still see most DE&IB initiatives exclude or work against neurodivergent employees. This on the contrary to the focus areas these programs aim at: Being ethnicity, gender, race, thought, and more. In essence, organisations need to proactively think about how they hire by asking themselves questions such as:

·     Beyond the elementary employer branding and recruitment processes, are we practicing fair and objective hiring communication?

·     Do we proactively include diverse stakeholders with a meaningful variety of backgrounds in the hiring process?

3.        Utilise and include Universal Design

In short, Universal Design works as a vessel for equality in the workplace. Make sure that all decisions made will benefit everyone, leaving no-one behind. By doing this, the leadership team decides to invest in and build spaces for coaching and education on neurodiversity. An example can be to bring in an autistic expert on neurodiversity to create and arrange coaching programs for the hiring managers and leaders.

The takeaway for organisations is to offer continuous learning and development programs embedded into career planning. This ensures that all employees gains both insights and support to drive the change needed for this to fully work.

4.        Invest in and continue to train hiring teams and managers in recruiting neurodivergent people.

The best time to start is now. Organisations must invest and provide training in neurodiversity for hiring teams and recruiters in the same way they would with any DE&IB training. 

One way to do this could be to set up a deep dive training session involving asking the whole company for input and help recognising neurodiversity and learning how to utilise, and work alongside the neurodivergent employees. It is important to remember that these types of training are not just for the recruiters and hiring teams, but just as much for the team members, managers, and the whole workforce including senior and top leadership.

Attracting, hiring, and retaining neurodivergent people

Seeing how diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are celebrated in organisations, it’s essential to also include the neurodivergent talent into the celebration.

That said, we know that there are no quick fixes or one-and-done programs to fully incorporate everyone into modern organisations. It will take a continuous commitment to ensure all efforts are measured. Only through documenting all initiatives, and their impacts, will we see the increasingly positive change and effectiveness of the steps taken.

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AvantGarde Search is for the first time in our history in the process of raising capital to allow for significant expansion plans both here in Oslo, but also in Denmark and Sweden. We are considering a share-issue round via www.folkeinvest.no. In the coming weeks we are speaking to professional investors and hobby investors with the interest of investing 10 000 NOK to 250 000 NOK. Feel free to see our presentations via the linkor contact Erik Falk Hansen (efh@avantgardesearh.no | +47 40 43 54 93).