Being an Autism-friendly employer is MUCH easier than it looks

Not sure how to create an Autism-friendly workplace? Here’s some good news: not only is it really easy to do, but get it right and you’ll see your neurodivergent hires thrive and shine like you’ve never seen from a colleague before.

Plus, as well as being the right choice legally, ethically and culturally in 2024, you’ll also improve the workplace for every single colleague along the way.

Sounds good? Then it’s just a case of ‘how’.

Read on and I’ll explain – using a lifetime’s experience of working environments as an Autistic person - what a great workplace has looked like to me AND how straightforward it is to make it happen. 

I’ll even include some examples along the way.

The bad news

First, a warning we can’t ignore. And a disclaimer. Making your workplace or working culture uncomfortable for an Autistic person - intentionally or by omission - can damage their confidence or, worse, their entire career.

After all, it can take more energy, more sensory processing and more risk of mental exhaustion for an Autistic person to get through a recruitment process and function in a role. This can increase their risk of burnout and can put their success or failure in your hands to a greater degree than you might have encountered before.

But the upside? It’s really pretty simple to get it right.

One caveat before we get to the good stuff: we’re going to be talking about older adults in the workplace, many of them being late-discovery Autistic adults, as that’s what I know. I definitely don’t speak for every Autistic person, including those with higher support needs.

The golden rule

I’ve a single, essential fact to share based on personal experience of Autism in the workplace, as someone who has studied and observed leadership and as someone who has seen the best and worst examples of working environments first-hand.

Here it is: a successful, Autism-friendly workplace is ALL about the manager.

A former Chief People Officer, and the most inspiring person I know on the subject of working culture, once told me that “regularly losing staff is aways, always a management issue”. 

This effect is, in my experience, amplified for Autistic colleagues.

That’s because every working Autistic person I know has said they rise or fall in work based on the quality of their manager. 

Yes, policy has a role to play, BUT a great manager = great results.

So, leverage the way a talented manager brings empathy, clear communication and an appreciation for quality of output (rather than just a love of black and white rules) to a workplace and you’ll be a long way to creating a place where Autistic colleagues can thrive.

Conversely, though: not sure whether your manager has the ability to be an inspiring boss?

Don’t saddle an Autistic colleague with them. Not sure if they’re a good communicator, capable of giving clear directions and delivering at least a basic level of human support? Again, don’t saddle an Autistic colleague with them. 

Easy.

Saying that, if a manager can’t meet this low watermark it might be an idea to consider whether they should be a ‘manager of self’ instead and kept well away from the opportunity to put a dent in your retention stats. If you opt to do nothing you might want to ask yourself this: at what point does it become ethically negligent to ignore the issue?

Why bother? A surprise benefit 

An excellent Autism NI workplace awareness session I was lucky enough to attend included a powerful truism that’s stuck with me to this day. 

The facilitator simply explained that a great workplace for Autistic colleagues is a great workplace for everyone. 

In other words, effective Autism policy and high-quality management of Autistic colleagues is effective policy and high-quality management for all. 

In the next section I’ll share some examples of a workplace where I felt that an Autistic person could be at their best and, unfortunately, some insights into the opposite experience too.

As an introduction each good example has some common themes of flexibility, structure, inspiration and communication. 

Ultimately, working on these factors can be transformative for your Autistic colleagues and transformative for your organisation as a whole.

Management: the good, the bad and the ugly

Creating a great environment for your Autistic workmates to be at their best isn’t, as we’ve discussed, all that difficult.

Here’s what it looks like done well…

• The best case scenario: In some roles I’ve had managers who supported a bit of flexibility such as allowing an earlier start to the day at least some days so I’m home earlier before sensory brain-drain starts to bite. 

On-boarding in these cases tended to be a masterpiece of clear communication, some adjusted the job duties a little so we could play to my strengths and each kept lots of two-way feedback and check-ins flowing.

Oh, and they tended to take an interest in colleagues on a personal level, let people work in their own way, added a touch of craic and usually became good friends too.

Another thing they also had in common? They knew when to give support and knew when something was too far out of my wheelhouse. For example, I’ll never host a workshop or a webinar as I just don’t have the verbal footwork to make it happen. But I’ll prep, edit and proof the presentation for the event with extreme accuracy, and fast, if I’m left alone to work. 

A good manager and workplace - like, I should add, my wonderful current manager and workplace -  simply ‘gets’ all of this.  

In fact, the very best workplaces already have impressive flexibility, clear processes, structured working, respect for different working styles and high standards of empathetic management at their core to a degree that they become largely Autism-friendly by default. This is the highest water-mark and is achieved by only the very best workplaces I’ve seen across a working lifetime.

I’ve also seen for myself that supporting these great managers and workplaces ‘from the top’ with things like flexible policies and social battery-protecting offices (think meeting pods etc) as excellent internal communications will mean both the leader and their report can be at their best.

• The worst case examples: Aside from workplaces with blatant sensory nightmares like ear-splitting (but avoidable) noise, constant interruptions or blistering heat for months on end, the holy trinity of workplace hell has – for me – been a combination of inflexibility, chaotic or lacklustre communication and AWOL management.

With one employer, an easily-facilitated request for a very small amount of flexibility was blankly refused, the communication and processes were as chaotic as I’ve see in a 25-year working career plus face-to-face management was distant at best and absent at worst.

If you’re an HR professional and think an Autistic person in your workplace may be facing a similar working culture as this ‘worst case’ example then the choice is stark: put it right or get ready to potentially waste time and money refilling roles. 

A word for recruiters (and candidates)

Hiring managers: Competency-based interviews and their long-winded application forms are a paint-by-numbers approach to recruiting and a paint-by-numbers insult to your expertise. You didn’t reach this far in your career to oversee a dated process that unfairly disadvantages some Autistic people. 

It’s 2024 now and time, perhaps, to be the one to lead your organisation to do better.

Working in HR, you’ll have seen at least one retention crisis by way of the post-Covid talent drain some sectors experienced. To get ahead of the next one, consider ditching interview formats with poor accessibility as well as rambling application forms too.

Turning then to Autistic job-seekers, if you want a role with flexibility and a good working environment as well as clear, no waffle communication with human touch then ask yourself if the recruitment process shows these things. 

Does the potential employer show, through their recruitment, that they put processes way before people? If so, it might be a sign to ditch the process and try elsewhere.

Managers and leaders: where to find help

I’ve mostly aimed this article at employers as I wish, deeply and sincerely, that as many Autistic people as possible have the chance to enjoy the best of managers and working environments. It’s a personal insights blog as opposed to a policy advice blog as there are better sources of advice for the latter.

From a legal point of view for employers, I believe the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland can help. A link for Autism NI workplace training is also above and you might want to see how Specialisterne can support your efforts to find, and retain, neurodivergent talent for your organisation.

Ultimately, the difference between a good working environment and a poor working environment for an Autistic person takes very little to deliver, benefits everyone in your organisation and is the standard a modern workforce expects in any case.

Aside from an Autism positive workplace being ethically right, the question is this: in an age of rising retention costs, not to mention a global workforce with a growing emphasis on flexibility and culture, can you afford to do anything less?