This article is written by David Hopkins, Senior Digital Performance Analyst, UK Government.
Source: Doyle, N. (2020). Neurodiversity at work: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults. British Medical Bulletin, 135(1), 108-125.
This article is about a neurodiversity interactive guidance project, which aims to make recruitment more equitable for neurodivergent people.
We carried out some research and it's quotes like these that emphasise how much this is needed:
“Let’s think about the process of the disabled person applying instead of making it easier for those who are advertising the role or advertising jobs.” – Dyslexic research participant
Three-quarters of our research participants need support to complete applications.
The wonderful world of neurodiversity
Across the neurodivergent conditions, there are many inherent strengths people can bring to the digital professions. For example, dyslexic people (estimated to be 10%+ of the population) tend to have heightened pattern recognition, and an increased ability to see how things connect. And autistic people (2%+ of individuals) might display a range of strengths including a capability for alternative problem solving, the ability to form complex systems and identify similarities among multiple things.
💬 Let the author know what you think making government recruitment more neuroinclusive by leaving a comment below
And yet these conditions, and others like dyspraxia, ADHD and Tourettes, are too often only spoken about negatively, as problems for or — worse — with people. Let’s follow the social model — that people are disabled by organisational, societal and environmental barriers, not by their impairment or difference.
“There's a formula for completing applications, but the method, language and so on, doesn't come naturally to me. I take things very literally, so for example in the interview questions, I tend to give short, concise answers and get marked down.” – Dyslexic and ADHD research participant
Over 9 out of 10 research participants feel anxious, confused or overwhelmed when completing written parts of applications.
So what is the problem?
Many government organisations have signed up to be champions of inclusivity and accessibility, and are keen to employ neurodivergent people to take full advantage of inherent neurodivergent strengths. However, there are few robust tools to help colleagues, managers or postholders understand what this means.
Benefits to organisations making neurodiversity integral to their inclusion policies include building stronger teams and increasing creativity and innovation within those teams.
Even among the neurodivergent community, there’s sometimes a lack of knowledge of reasonable adjustments or other elements that meet accessibility needs and can make any part of work life, including the interview process, more equitable. There can also be a fear or reluctance to make those requests.
If we do not invest in inclusion, we’ll miss out on the potential returns. By making this a priority action within our digital teams, using our in-house research and design colleagues, we can identify steps, which may be relatively small, to better inform substantial, systemic change. And we’ll have a workforce that truly represents our citizens.
“The process is too difficult. I barely understand the job descriptions. The competencies are very difficult for some ND (neurodivergent) people. I struggle to write or talk about myself and see what I do as 'my job' and not something that can be broken down into parts.” – Autistic, dyscalculic and dyspraxic research participant
Just over half of our research participants knew that they could ask for adjustments, but only about a quarter of them always did.
What are we doing about it?
We’ve embarked on an exciting pilot to create interactive guidance that informs users about reasonable adjustments for neurodivergent people, initially focused on providing this during the recruitment process. We’re helping people meet in the middle.
We’re compiling neurodivergent conditions and traits — strengths and struggles — connecting the latter with potential adjustments. Diagnoses can help but should not be necessary to achieve this aim. It’s more about building an understanding of needs where people have a neurodifference and then adapting working conditions to play to people’s strengths and harness their talents.
We’re a cross-government team, including digital, HR, accessibility, inclusion and finance colleagues.
We’re following the GOV.UK user-centred design principles of giving people the information they need step-by-step, making sure it’s context-sensitive and avoiding overload.
Who’ll benefit?
We’ve identified the initial users of this guidance as applicants, vacancy holders and interviewers. Users will be signposted to further support, and the information shared through it will facilitate making appropriate adjustments. It’ll help vacancy holders make the right choices in supporting neurodivergent applicants and create awareness of good practice.
Benefits to organisations making neurodiversity integral to their inclusion policies include building stronger teams and increasing creativity and innovation within those teams. Studies also support that neurodivergent individuals are loyal and tend to perform to exceptional standards when they have an inclusive, nurturing environment.
While developing and testing the tool and guidance, we realised this approach already helps more than neurominorities. The original concept has evolved, and using the same principle with slightly altered wording, the straightforward guidance can now help people with all types of disabilities and conditions.
Next steps
We’re pleased that HMRC has committed to piloting the tool — starting in one part of the organisation and then looking to scale across all of it. This will enable us to further iterate how it works, better meet user needs and demonstrate how it can add value. The team involved is also looking to provide additional support around educating colleagues and managers who’ll use the tool.
As the group of neurodivergent volunteers who came together and created this tool, we’re keen to offer our help, share ideas we have and help shape these.
The tool can only go so far in addressing the disparity in people’s experience of the recruitment process. To solve the whole problem we need to look more broadly at how existing resources might be used or adapted, such as Civil Service Learning, training packages and targeted learning. There’s also the need to challenge people’s attitudes, including through bespoke videos sharing lived experiences, which our colleagues in the Scottish government are working on.
Following the HMRC pilot, we hope to bring other government organisations on board to test it, so we are confident it’s appropriate and of a necessary standard for its intended use.
Future phases
There’s such an overlap between neurodivergent traits and other conditions that helping people identify adjustments based on their support needs will be beneficial to many. It’s also a model that could then be applied wider in later phases:
- By expanding support needs that are covered to include a wider range of disabilities and long-term conditions.
- It can be used in screening at employee induction, to make sure identified traits carry forward into workplace adjustments and adapted ways of working.
- It can build understanding for a wider user base around what neurodivergence is — both as a competitive advantage and how to take more neuroinclusive approaches.
Below is a selection of screenshots of the tool showing how a user flows in making a request, and the options they select, which are then reflected back to them in a ‘check your answers’ screen. Please note the content and design is subject to change as we continue to iterate, test and improve it.
Done reading? Make sure to share your own thoughts on the new interactive tool for neurodivergent applicants by leaving a comment below ⬇️
(Image credit: Unsplash)
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