The case for neurodiversity: Why companies are hiring more autistic people
Room for improvement
Despite these clear benefits, participation rates of autistic people in the workforce is low. It’s32%in the UK (16% full-time) and38%in Australia, despite the vast majority of unemployed autistic adults wanting employment and having skills to offer. In many other countries, there is no data – autistic people of working age are invisible.
Selection processes for jobs often emphasiszs eye contact, small talk and rapport, which can lead to employers missing out on autistic candidates. So-called soft skills may be sought and judged when they are not required or not an integral part of the job, even where they are trumped by work ethic, technical and perception skills.
Some consider people on the autism spectrum to be refreshingly direct and honest. But autistic people can be considered rude for their direct way of communicating. This isn’t because they do not care about others, they just might not respond to people in the way that neurotypical people expect.
Recentresearchby Catherine Crompton and Sue Fletcher-Watson “found that autistic research participants communicated more effectively with one another than mixed groups of autistic and non-autistic people”. This shows that autistic and non-autistic people have different expectations about communication and social interactions. They think, feel and communicate differently.
Reporting and accountability
To avoid missing out on the skills autistic people bring, companies can learn from the experience of improving gender and race diversity, where both direct and indirect discrimination act as a barrier. There is still a long way to go when it comes to gender and race equality in the workplace and the road ahead for the neurodiverse is no less arduous.
Over many years of reviewing corporate reports, including their equal opportunities policies and disclosures on gender, race and “disability”, I can count on one hand the mention of the benefits of neurodiverse teams, the successes of autistic individuals or the measures taken to accommodate them. My research shows how the banking and retail sectors have changed the way they hold themselves accountable for the employment ofwomenandethnic minoritiesover the last century, in line with changing views of society. This also reflects changes in government policy.
Greater awareness of neurodiversity is needed and will hopefully lead to similar changes for people who think differently to the majority. We need all kinds of people – women, different races, cultures, sexual orientations and neurodiversity – at all levels of our organizations to create our future. Whether that’s activist Greta Thunberg daring to confront political leaders on climate change, an academic challenging practice and policy through evidence, or an employee finding an innovative solution to a problem.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyCarol A Adams, Professor of Accounting,Durham Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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