Kelly Creighton* says there are significant benefits for employers in increasing the neurodiversity of their workforce.
Image: Gerd Altmann
While many organisations have pledged to be more inclusive and diverse, many university graduates who fall on the autism spectrum remain unemployed.
Others are severely underemployed, often only being offered part-time or minimum-wage jobs after they graduate.
Additional research finds that around 90 per cent of individuals on the autism spectrum are either unemployed or underemployed.
What’s more, employees who have other neurological structures and functions or disparities, such as those who suffer from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder or dyslexia, are often ostracised, bullied, or looked down upon in the workplace.
Overall, although organisations seem to focus on diversity in their workplaces, they don’t necessarily focus on neurodiversity.
What is neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is the range of differences in individual brain functions and behavioural traits — regarded as part of normal variation in the human population (used especially in the context of autistic spectrum disorders).
Below are some of the benefits and challenges behind neurodiversity inside the workplace.
Benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace
Focusing on neurodiversity gives organisations a competitive advantage.
Autistic employees, for example, produce, on average, 48 per cent to 140 per cent more work than their non-autistic colleagues, depending on their roles.
What’s more, it creates a truly diverse workforce wherein individuals must empathise and learn about each other to collaborate.
Challenges of neurodiversity in the workplace
As you weigh the benefits of having a neurodiverse workforce, you must understand the challenges, as well.
When recruiting, hiring, training, and developing individuals who are neurodiverse, understand that each person is different.
For example, each individual may fall on a different place on the autism spectrum.
Neurodiverse employees will require different accommodations and/or benefits.
In general, neurodiversity in the workplace has many benefits for employers and entire industries (especially those in the finance and technology industries) but can be very challenging to implement.
* Kelly Creighton writes for HR Daily Advisor.
This article first appeared at hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/.
