Making reasonable adjustments for neuroinclusivity

“Reasonable adjustments” must be made by employers to ensure workers with disabilities, or physical or mental health conditions, are not substantially disadvantaged when doing their jobs.

First and foremost, it’s important to pose the question from the outset. From the recruitment stage by adopting the recruitment process so a candidate can be considered for a job, and perhaps more importantly, to ask an employee once they have joined your company whethere they require any reasonable adjustments in order to do the job.

This may seem like an unnecessary step in the employee lifecycle, but asking the right questions from the beginning can save you in the long run.

Reasonable adjustments include:

• Adapting your approach such as allowing someone with social anxiety to have their own desk instead of hot desking

• Changing their equipment, for instance providing a standing desk for someone with ADHD

• Allowing an employee who suffers from multiple sclerosis to have flexible hours or part-time working

• Offering adequate training opportunities for employees on the spectrum, whether it’s ADHD, autism or dyspraxia

• Facilitating a disabled person to work somewhere else, such as on the ground floor for a wheelchair user

Proper disclosure is the first step to enabling employees to communicate their needs. Once disclosed, a company can then make informed steps and put in place reasonable adjustments for their employees and mitigate in so doing reduce the risk of receiving any discrimination claims further down the line.

Incidentally, focusing on accommodating the needs of your neurodivergent employees by implementing reasonable adjustments, can actually help improve your workplace culture overall.

It can improve staff wellbeing, reduce stress – caused by masking, when an individual hide’s their true self at work – and as a consequence reduce staff absence levels and employee turnover.

If you’re a small organisation, the cost of absence or recruitment can be really impactful for your business and in this way, making your business neuroinclusive can actually be cost-effective.

Consider:

• Giving clear instructions such as printing off job descriptions, with clear goals and manageable targets

• Writing in clear language – this can help an autistic person who might take things more literally, or an ADHD’er who might forget verbal instructions.

• Revisiting your recruitment process – recruitment is of course the first impression a prospective employer makes in a candidate’s mind – by offering reasonable adjustments such as sharing the questions before the interview.

• Train interviewers on how to avoid making assumptions based on an applicant’s body language or facial expressions.

• Consider alternatives to traditional interviews such as practical assessments that can be completed in a quiet space without distractions (i.e. at home) or in a quiet space in the office, as preferred.

Most of these things are easy and don’t cost much, and they get line managers who are doing the hiring/firing to think about inclusivity in the workplace.

Discrimination can come in a variety of forms and employers should do all they reasonably can to create an environment where people feel safe and comfortable to talk about their disability. It’s not about asking intrusive questions but focusing on the reasonable adjustments and support that can be put in place.