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Catalyst | Soundbites
as an applicant’s university from CVs, and has
their interview answers evaluated by people who
weren’t present in the interview room.
Meanwhile, Government Communications
Headquarters (GCHQ) employs around 300
people with autism because it needs staff with
sustained concentration to work on large,
unstructured data sets. When looking for Oxford
and Cambridge graduates to employ, it advertised
for applicants with “the Turing factor: brilliant
and unemployable”.
Progression and promotion
If finding a suitable job can prove challenging for
those who are neurodivergent, career progression
can be just as difficult. In many companies, salary
increases come with moving into management
roles. However, managing people isn’t necessarily
something that people with autism are
comfortable doing.
In workplaces that make no adjustments
for neurodiversity, progression can be
all-but-impossible for staff with autism,
Coyle stressed. For example, in the UK,
anyone applying to work at a bank must be
checked by the Disbarring and Disclosure
Service (DBS), which prevents unsuitable
people from working with vulnerable
groups. But you cannot pass if you have
been homeless at any point. This is
something that applies to a significant
minority of Auticon’s consultants.
“It’s outrageous,” he said. “But it’s not
even visible because the path from
homelessness to banking is not a
well-trodden one.”
One crucial element of
Auticon’s work is negotiating
workplace adjustments for
each of their consultants when
they go out to clients’ offices.
This involves considering the
physical and communications
environment from the specific
individual’s perspective. “You
can’t make an office ‘autism-
friendly’”, pointed out Coyle. “You need
the individual involved to tell you what
adjustments they need.”
In this regard, neurodiversity could act as a
lever for positive change. For instance, people
with autism struggle with lazy, vague or unclear
communication. Line managers who reduce the
ambiguity in their communication with autistic
people could become better at communicating
with everyone, as a result.
Employing interns with autism at Credit
Suisse prompted staff to think about their own
communication skills, attested the firm’s global
head of recruitment Annabel Morris.
Changing perceptions
While much of the roundtable was focused on
autism, David Mason, head of talent acquisition
at Santander, highlighted the prevalence of
dyslexia in the workforce, another example of
neurodivergence.
He argued that modern businesses will need to
embrace neuro and cognitive diversity of all kinds
in order to succeed in the modern marketplace.
There is a commercial risk in trying to hunt down
the metaphorical unicorn – a perfect, probably
mythical candidate. Coyle agreed, warning that
when hiring managers cannot source ‘unicorns’,
they tend to employ candidates in their own
likeness, entrenching the impression that
everyone looks and thinks the same.
“It’s about getting
everybody to do what
they do best”
Walker admitted that Auticon’s work can
only “chip away” at attitudes. In order to change
perceptions, the company requires high-level
sponsors, while to make a real difference, more
companies must embrace (and be seen to
embrace) a neurodiverse workforce.
Coyle believes that such change will prove good
for business, beneficial to society and positive for
individuals, though he acknowledged the need to
“be reasonable in the scale of our ambition. We’re
not going to get from 16% to 78% in employment
in a short period of time,” he admitted.
The ultimate aspiration is for businesses to
wake up and recognise the value of a neurodiverse
workforce and the individuals that contribute
their unique perspectives.
While people with autism are thought to
struggle with empathy, Coyle considers this a
two-way street: autistic people struggle to
empathise with neurotypical people, but the
reverse is also true. “Each side has a problem
with empathy,” he concluded.
Issue 3 - 2019
17