What Is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is the variations in the functions of the human brain and cognition. The neurodiversity movement began in the early 1990s with the goal of inclusion and acceptance of all neurological variations and embracing them. The term neurodivergent is preferred rather than abnormal or disabled to describe people with different neurological functions. Also, neurotypicals describe people with typical intellectual or brain functions according to societal norms. People diagnosed with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and dyslexia are the most common neurodivergent individuals. For a long time, neurodivergent people were not recruited by many companies due to 'poor culture fit.' But recently, many companies have been trying to improve neurodiversity in workplaces.
What Are the Jobs Suitable for Neurodivergent Individuals?
Some neurodivergent individuals are found to be good at creativity, pattern recognition, memory, observation, and so on. Based on these skills, they have immense potential in coding, web development, data entry, copywriting, etc. Many have chosen careers in architecture, policy advising, manufacturing, designing, etc. However, there are many examples of neurodivergent people with successful careers in medicine, research, sports, arts, etc. Even many innovations and discoveries that improved human lifestyles came from the brain of neurodiverse individuals due to their different thinking abilities.
What Are the Challenges Faced by Neurodivergent Individuals in the Work Environment?
Neurodivergent individuals face unique challenges in the work environment.
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Stigma: Neurodivergent employees often face discrimination at the workplace from colleagues or seniors. Even though some people appear to accept neurodiversity, they still root for outdated beliefs about it. To avoid this, many neurodivergent individuals tend to hide their conditions.
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Challenging Hiring Process: The most challenging part of the hiring process is job interviews for neurodivergent individuals. They may get anxious during interviews wondering about the interviewer's next move. Individuals with minimal eye contact, stammering, or tics may get more anxious during the hiring process. Most of them are in a dilemma about whether to disclose their condition.
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Communication Problems: They may need help communicating effectively with their colleagues due to a lack of social skills. Sometimes it is difficult for neurodivergent individuals to understand facial expressions, body language, or social cues.
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Noisy Environment: Neurodivergent employees may need help to cope with the busy or noisy environment at the workplace. They can get easily irritated or overwhelmed due to this.
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Lack of Support: Offices and other workplaces are structured and function according to neurotypical individuals. Many offices do not consider the special needs of neurodivergent individuals with atypical cognitive functions, making it difficult to adapt to the work conditions.
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Difficulty in Maintaining a Job: Neurodivergent individuals sometimes change jobs because of a lack of support from the company and colleagues.
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Mental Health Issues: They often struggle with mental health due to these challenges. They often suffer from anxiety and depression due to increased stress, discrimination, lack of support, etc.
What Are the Suitable Work Adaptations for Neurodivergent Individuals?
Each neurodivergent person is different. Therefore, even though they share the same condition, their thinking and cognitive functions can differ. However, implementing the following adaptations can positively change the neurodiverse work culture.
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Adjusting Recruiting Process: Recruitment can be made more interactive for neurodivergent individuals. Interviewers need to ask relevant and direct questions to ease the difficulty and avoid confusion. In addition, the idea of a perfect candidate has to be refined. The skills and knowledge should be preferred rather than eye contact or any external qualities of the candidate.
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Educating Employees Regarding Neurodiversity: All employees in the company must be informed about the importance of neurodiversity and how to interact with neurodivergent individuals.
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Providing Additional Training: Some individuals may initially suffer in grasping the rules and regulations at the workplace, which can increase their anxiety, which can be avoided by providing additional training or mentoring.
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Calm Environment: For many neurodivergent individuals, noisy environments may affect their concentration and productivity. Providing noise-canceling headphones is found to be effective.
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Flexible Working Hours: Many neurodivergent individuals may have different sleep-wake cycles, making their biological clock different from neurotypicals. They may have peak time in the day when they can work more efficiently. So providing flexible working hours can also improve their and the company's productivity. It can also reduce the stress of being late to the office.
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Work-From-Home Opportunities: Covid-19 opened the doors of many companies' remote working or work-from-home opportunities. Some neurodivergent found it difficult to adapt to this new form of work, and the managers also faced difficulty monitoring them. In contrast, others found it reliable and were happy to work from home. Recently, studies have shown that many neurodivergent people are more willing to work from home than from the office.
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Providing Workplace Therapists: As neurodivergent employees often experience stress and anxiety related to work issues, it is important to appoint workplace therapists to counsel and support them in dealing with stress and workload. They were also found helpful by neurotypical individuals who faced difficulties in the work environment.
What Are the Benefits of Neurodiversity in the Workplace?
Neurodiverse work culture has posed many benefits in the corporate and other sectors. Even though neurodivergent employees lack skills in certain areas, they may have average or superior abilities in other areas.
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Creativity: Many of the neurodivergent employees are found to be highly creative as most of them are capable of out-of-the-box thinking. Dyslexic employees are found to be good at creativity.
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Problem-Solving: Some neurodivergent individuals are superior at pattern recognition and mathematics, and some are highly skilled at solving problems. They can provide alternate solutions to different problems.
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Rule-Based Thinking: It is a type of thinking that focuses on the principles rather than the consequences. Autistic employees are good at rule-based thinking.
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Increased Productivity: Adapting neurodiverse work culture has improved the overall productivity of many companies. In addition, the reputation of companies also boosted rapidly.
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Professionalism: Most neurodivergent employees, especially autistic employees, are punctual and fixed to their routines. Many are loyal to their job and company and exert good professionalism.
Conclusion
Many companies adopt neurodiverse work cultures to improve productivity and boost their reputation. People with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette's syndrome, and other neurologic conditions come under neurodivergent individuals. Many struggle with their jobs due to stress, lack of support, communication issues, etc. By adapting methods like additional training, adjusting the recruiting process, providing flexible working hours, etc., a neurodiverse work environment can be promoted positively.
