FUTURE TALENT November - January 2019/2020 | Page 18

F
FRONT OF HOUSE
spectrum take things literally. If you
s ay, ‘we need three years’
experience’, people with two-and-
a-half years won’t apply.
“And when people come in, we
don’t interview consultants – ever!
An interview is a high-pressure,
unstructured test of interaction skills;
totally irrelevant to the skills we’re
looking for. Instead, we bring in
candidates for a skills assessment
and test them for exactly those
cognitive skills we said we were
looking for; no more, no less.”
Tests are devised by a third-party
company and results are shared fully
with candidates. “They get the same
results we get, at the same time,”
explains Coyle. “It’s an open process.
If candidates have the tech skills
we’re looking for and the cognitive
skills, we’ll employ them.”
VALUABLE LESSONS
When it comes to matching
consultants to corporate clients, he
believes that “it’s easier for us than
for most businesses because,
through our preparatory work, we
get a really good understanding of
the consultants’ capabilities”.
The core challenge lies in
educating clients who start off with
a traditional “I want someone with
three years’ experience” approach.
“Once clients understand why
we’re doing what we’re doing, they
tend to be very responsive,” says
Coyle. “If we go back and ask, ‘are
you looking for someone who’s very
detail focused or for a creative
problem solver’, they may not have
put it in the job description, but they
will know. That enables us to get a
better match. We’re trying to put in
someone who will deliver the work
in the way the project manager
wants it delivered.”
While he admits “it can take a bit
more communication around that
to get it right” he feels “there is an
awful lot of value in that. I think there
is very little we do that wouldn’t be
a valuable lesson for anyone dealing
with neurotypical people,” he adds.
Once auticon’s consultants are
matched with clients, an expert
conducts a workplace assessment
looking at any adjustments that
could be made in order to “set up
the project for success”.
18 // Future Talent
Coyle is keen to emphasise that
this isn’t about sending in an expert
and saying, “I can make this
wo r k p l a c e au t i s m f r i e nd l y,
generically”. Instead, it involves using
their detailed understanding of their
individual consultant’s needs and
suggesting minor changes to the
physical and communications
environment that will enable the
consultant to perform better.
F or people wi th au tism,
adjustments range from tweaking
desk allocation to providing noise
cancellation headphones or
allowing consultants to submit
updates via Slack rather than face-
to-face. “It’s about reducing the
anxieties or difficulties you put
people through in order to free up
their cognitive capacity to do the
job you’re paying them for; it’s
commercially justifiable,” says Coyle.
There are a lot of
ancillary benefits
to bringing
neurodiversity
into a team and
you will raise
the game for the
entire team
“It’s a good approach for anyone
bringing human resources into a
business,” he continues. “To get the
most out of people, take the time
to get to know and understand them
as individuals, give them the chance
to say, ‘I will perform better if we do
this’, then make those adjustments.”
He acknowledges the “inherent
conflict between wanting to treat
people as individuals and wanting
to treat people equally” but
concludes, “we’re going to have to
deal with it as best we can if we want
to create a truly diverse workplace.”
Different elements of diversity
have the power to catalyse change
within organisations, he believes. “If
you have a more neurodiverse
workforce, it challenges and
improves people’s approach to
communication, management and
teamwork. For example, if a team
m e m b e r re q u i re s c o n c i s e ,
unambiguous instructions and
task allocation, people will start to
pay more attention to their
communication generally.
“There are a lot of ancillary
benefits to bringing neurodiversity
into a team and you will raise the
game for the entire team,” he
argues. “Also, if you have autistic
people doing what they do best,
you also free up neurotypical people
to do what they do best. It’s a win-
win, provided you approach it in an
open and inclusive manner, where
people are confident to speak out
about where they have strengths
and shortcomings.”
Would he advise organisations
to begin recruiting neurodiverse
people directly into their teams?
“I think this can be perceived as
difficult,” he says, highlighting
concern around the potential to do
harm to individuals with autism and
to undermine future messaging
around neurodiversity, where
implementation is flawed.
“That’s why we set up auticon as
we did. It’s hard for us to make a big
dent in the employment statistics,
as a small business, but with our
clients, we can make a difference.
If we are step one (helping to drive
knowledge and positive messages)
and the catalyst for businesses to
start building their own more
neurodiverse workforces, that’s how
we achieve our social purpose.”