In recent years, large corporations such as JP Morgan and Microsoft have started initiatives to hire more people with autism into their workplaces. While the numbers are not massive (70 and 50 employees each over a 4 year period), it’s encouraging to see multinational businesses deliberately seeking out neurodiversity. In both situations, managers reported that the individuals on the spectrum showed significant gains and achievements compared to their neurotypical counterparts, and found them to be much less distracted by social interactions and internal office politics.
Employing people on the ASD requires businesses to rethink their hiring processes and the supports that you’ll need to provide your new hires. It’s also worth remembering that autism affects everyone differently, and that what worked for a similar organization might not work for the individual in front of you. However, there are common strategies for businesses looking to take advantage of the untapped potential of employees on the spectrum:
Intentional planning
A company that simply expects someone on the autism spectrum to step into a traditional job role is setting everyone up for failure. Contained with even the most basic job is a level of self-training and social interaction that is challenging for individuals with autism. A better solution is to build a job that specifically taps into the strengths associated with high-functioning autism. These include an incredible ability to focus on a specific task, a high attention to detail and the ability to think outside of the traditional box to find novel solutions to existing problems. It may be possible to adapt existing roles to make use of these strengths, or organizations may need to look a few months down the line to see where a possible need will arise, and start to create a job role with a candidate on the spectrum in mind.
Part of the planning process also needs to include the rest of the staff, and the person who will be line managing the individual in particular. This will include autism awareness trainings and discussions as well as meetings to discuss how the workplace will need to be adapted to become more autism friendly. The line manager will need to be someone who is already empathetic and is able to bring the best out of people, but they will also need specific training and plenty of time built into their schedule to help support the person with autism.
Adapt the interview process
The traditional resume and sit down interview process puts many people with autism at a severe disadvantage from the start. Building a resume that shows their strengths can be difficult, as can the thought process of trying to understand what a nameless person is looking for. A better approach is to have closed ended questions that allow the applicant to demonstrate their experiences. The interview process doesn’t allow anyone to show their true ability to do the job, and more and more businesses are turning toward practical tasks and group projects instead to see how the applicants deal in real life situations. These hiring processes work well for individuals with autism, and it also gives potential employers a chance to see what accommodations would need to be made to get the best out of their new employee.
Engage the experts
Hiring neurodiverse employees is a tricky business, especially for organizations with little or no experience of employees with autism. Fortunately, there are nonprofits out there who specialize in helping individuals on the autism spectrum find meaningful employment. By signing up with these autism hiring programs, companies get a choice of prequalified candidates who have had vocational training to help them acclimatize to the workplace, as well as support once the job starts and training for the rest of the staff. Just reaching out to one of these programs is a great way to start thinking about how to hire neurodiverse employees.
The job is never done
Once the employee with autism has been hired, it will be important to remember that they will need permanent support to help keep them engaged. This will include observations, feedback and ongoing training, especially as they become comfortable with each part of the job. However, all of these time investments can be transferred over to other staff members so that the entire organization benefits from hiring neurodiverse employees.
