Neurodiverse individuals comprise 15% of the world's population, and we often don’t even know when the people we work with or seek to hire are neurodiverse. To create a truly inclusive hiring process, it is critical to provide options that are beneficial to people with different ways of thinking and experiencing the world. This not only gives everyone an equitable opportunity for success, it also helps companies attract and retain some of the best talent.
Here are some tips for attracting neurodiverse professionals who might face challenges with certain mainstream practices, through inclusive job postings and CV review processes. Part 2 of this blog gives tips for interviewing and onboarding.
Job Postings
There are ways you can make your job postings more attractive to the neurodiverse community, and therefore draw unique talent that you might otherwise miss out on. To create DEI-informed job postings for the neurodiverse:
- Be very specific.
Neurodiverse professionals might not apply for jobs unless they feel completely confident that they can meet the requirements. Therefore, it’s best to be as specific as possible about what positions entail. This includes tasks to be performed, what kind of work schedules are available, as well as traits or skills needed for the job.
Example: Instead of simply asking for “good communication”, specify whether strong communication skills must be digital, written, verbal, or all three.
- Make it easy to ask for accommodations.
Be clear and specific about how candidates can request accommodations for the recruitment process, and phrase it so that it applies to everyone, rather than only people with disabilities.
Give examples of what adjustments you can offer, provide a contact for candidates to discuss their needs further, and do your best to convey that this is a normal part of your work culture.
CVs
The CVs of neurodiverse professionals can sometimes look different from others. There might be longer time gaps due to many factors including hiring discrimination, or they might have only reached a certain level in their careers due to limitations imposed by bias. Therefore, this should not be interpreted as an indication that they are not the best person for your company’s position. Here’s what you can do:
- Consider the whole picture.
When reviewing the CVs of neurodiverse individuals, acknowledge that this piece of paper likely reflects the many hiring challenges and societally created barriers to success that they might have faced in the past, rather than their level of skill. Do your best to keep an open mind and to see the whole picture.
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Focus on future potential instead of past experience.
Instead of requiring only a CV, consider offering supplemental options that showcase what candidates are actually capable of. It is helpful to identify a few of the most essential traits required for the role, and then either ask candidates to respond to questions about those specific traits, or to perform sample tasks that demonstrate them.
Neurodiversity can be a benefit to any team, and changing the way your company attracts and reviews job candidates to be more inclusive and equitable for neurodiverse professionals can help build a more diverse, creative, and innovative team.
To further explore what neurodiversity is and how to create inclusive environments for neurodiverse professionals, learn more about our Neurodiversity in the Workplace course.
*The tips in this article were inspired by Jane Hatton’s 2022 webinar, Harnessing the Power of Neurodiversity in a Business Context.
