Cybill Watkins, Zellis Group’s Product Legislation Manager, shares personal and professional insights on how to support neurodivergent employees to thrive at work.

Before receiving my diagnosis of Asperger syndrome (a form of autism) and ADHD, I struggled with anxiety and feeling overloaded at work for many years. This resulted in regular burnout and frequent job changes post-recovery.

But everything changed when someone close to me suggested I was potentially demonstrating Asperger’s-like traits. After Googling the definition, I found it resonated and made sense of my experiences.

These days, I’m keen to talk about these experiences to promote more awareness of neurodiversity at work. My aim is to help employers support their neurodivergent employees as effectively as possible, so both parties benefit.


What is neurodiversity?

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No two neurodivergent people are the same, even if they have a similar diagnosis. Just as neurotypical people, and their needs and expectations, are unique, the same is true of those of us who are neurodivergent too.

But what is neurodiversity? The term was coined by Australian sociologist Judy Singer in the late 1990s. It describes the spectrum of differences in how people’s brains process information.

It’s estimated that 15-20% of people around the world are neurodivergent. This means their brains process information in an atypical fashion compared with the rest of the population. Included are individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and Tourette’s syndrome.

Singer, who is herself autistic, wanted to clarify that everyone’s brain develops in different ways. A further aim was to characterise such brain differences as normal rather than being the result of a disability to remove the associated stigma.


Neurodiversity at work

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However, although the term is more widely understood than it used to be, neurodivergent people still face challenges in the workplace. For example, managers may perceive employees with ADHD as disruptive. This is because they can struggle to sit still for long periods of time and may fidget during meetings.

They may also unwittingly interrupt others when speaking. This is not the result of rudeness. It is because of a proneness to forget what they want to say if it’s not expressed immediately.

Another issue to consider, particularly in the tech industry, is gender imbalance. For instance, men with high-functioning autism often thrive in application development and coding roles where social interaction is not a key element.

But autistic women in the same roles often face higher expectations to fit in or adapt to their male colleagues’ way of working. As a result, neurodivergent women tend to ‘mask’ more than men, which is exhausting and can lead to burnout.


How to support neurodivergent employees

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So, the big question is how to support neurodivergent employees in the most effective way possible? Here are three suggestions based on my own experiences:

1. Find out what people need

Although everyone is different, the most effective approach to establish what people need is to reach out to those employees who are happy to talk about their own experiences of neurodiversity. A key objective here is to understand the challenges they face and how to address them.

This approach will enable you to help people in managing or eradicating problems or issues so they can work in a way that best suits them. It should not be a one-off activity though as people’s circumstances change. As a result, ongoing open dialogue is vital.

2. Make reasonable adjustments (with or without a diagnosis)

Obtaining a diagnosis to assess if someone is neurodivergent or not can take many years. But it is a little-known fact that employees do not need a formal diagnosis to ask for reasonable adjustments.

Employers have a legal obligation to make them available if an individual has, or could be considered to have, a disability under the Equality Act 2010. This means HR professionals and managers should offer, and make, adjustments throughout an employee’s lifecycle as particular traits appear and it becomes clear they require additional support.

However, as the aim is to remove any barriers to their performance, doing so actually works for everyone. If you can identify and address why an individual keeps making mistakes or is struggling to get their work done, their performance and productivity will improve.

One thing that can assist HR professionals in understanding the scale of neurodivergence in their workforce is the Zellis Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Dashboard. This offers practitioners real-time insights into patterns and trends in their DEI data to enable them to support their people most effectively.

HR practitioners can also use the dashboard to undertake a DEI health check. The aim here is to obtain a snapshot of the workforce’s protected characteristics in order to identify potential areas for action.

3. Adapt to your employees’ needs

When managing neurodivergent employees, it makes more sense to adapt to their needs rather than the other way around.

For example, if someone is easily distracted, avoid situating them in the main thoroughfare through the office. Also be aware that policies like hot desking, can cause problems for people who find it difficult to adapt to change. They may also struggle if they experience sensory issues with light or noise but do not get to choose where they sit.

Approaches such as providing a quiet space away from stimuli where people are able to go to decompress can make a big difference. Also helpful is taking neurodivergent employees into consideration when reviewing company benefits. This includes providing company-funded counselling, which I personally found very beneficial. Signposting the broader support services that are available to people will also make a big difference.

For more information on Zellis’ DEI Dashboard, click here.