6 in 10 managers have had no training on how to help neurodiverse employees

National World - LocalTV

New research has found that some neurodivergent people feel discrimination and negative bias in the workplace, particularly in the recruitment process of some jobs.

Transcript

00:00Some of the key findings from the report by Pern Candola found that when job hunting,

00:05neurodiverse candidates faced bias and negative attitudes from employers. Interestingly, it

00:11was found that 6 in 10 managers in the workplace have never had any training on how to manage

00:15a colleague with neurodiversity.

00:19There's lots of things, but also very simple, low cost or no cost things that employers

00:23can do. One of the first is actually awareness. So we know that, I touched upon earlier, there

00:28are lots of stereotypes and myths around what it means to have neurodiversity, but

00:33actually the research is really clear that there's a number of strengths that neurodiverse

00:37candidates or role holders can bring around things like creativity. So literally seeing

00:42the world differently, things around, for instance, having special interests or developing

00:47particular skills, really in-depth skills and expertise.

00:50So one thing is that sort of education piece so that managers, employers really can see

00:55the benefits of being inclusive and having a sort of diverse sort of staff from that

01:02point of view. So actually providing candidates with things like options. Would you prefer

01:07this to be an online interview, which we're all very used to now, or an in-person interview?

01:12We know that for some neurodivergent individuals, having that online option is really great

01:17because it's a predictable environment. You've got your own technology, you can control the

01:20lighting, you can control the temperature. Certain things, which again, in a different

01:24environment, differences in temperature, etc. and lighting and noise can be quite disruptive.

01:30According to research by Pern Candola, 6 in 10 neurodiverse employees mask their condition

01:35from colleagues and more than 2 in 5 admit to feeling uncomfortable asking their employer

01:40for adjustments to accommodate their neurodiverse traits.

01:4340% of people from our research said they haven't sort of asked for things like reasonable

01:48adjustments and that's partly for fear of actually, you know, sort of almost revealing

01:53too much of themselves and maybe being exposed to biases.

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