Peter Hamilton, head of market engagement at Zurich and a government disability and access ambassador for insurance, explains: “In terms of recruitment, we need to be thoughtful on job adverts. Do you really have to be an 'all-rounder' in every role?
"We need to be alert to making sure the process is clear and communicated in advance. Is an interview the right process? Can we provide a topics or questions in advance and give the neurodiverse person a real chance to shine.
"We’ve stopped using group exercises as part of our graduate recruitment as that unnecessarily disadvantages some neurodiverse candidates.”
Making adjustments
For candidates who make it through the recruitment process, Hamilton says that a tailored approach, sensitive to the needs of the individual, needs to be taken when making reasonable adjustments.
“Zurich has a reasonable adjustments process in place and provides manager training in disability confidence. All the adjustments are very much tailored to the individual, but it’s important to stress that the cost to the company is often minimal, but the benefits to the team member and to Zurich significant,” he says.
Aviva takes a similar approach and has a 'workplace adjustment passport', says Jonny Briggs, responsible for global talent acquisition and diversity and inclusion at Aviva.
He says this is “designed to make it easy for colleagues to discuss with their leader how their circumstances, disability or condition impacts their ability to do their role. [Neurodiverse colleagues complete the passport] and it captures all agreed workplace adjustments, whether they are physical changes to working environment or alterations to working arrangements.”
Kirby sees making adjustments in quite a nuanced way and perceives the importance of reviewing and readapting adjustments if the job or task changes.
“When someone starts in a new role often people don't know what adjustments are required and this may need to be worked out in the first few months and reviewed if the task or environment changes," she explains.
"There is a bit of a view that people get support given at the beginning and that should be it... so this needs to be also challenged. Change in the job may require a review of adjustments."
Another stage in making the workplace more accessible is to change the language and expectations around 'disclosure'.
Kirby points out that, “for some people, [disclosing] before may have been challenging and resulted in lack of employment or progressing in an organisation.”
