When you’re growing a business, you’ll want to recruit the best people. But too many employers are unknowingly missing out on top talent, because they aren’t recruiting with neurodiversity in mind.
What is neuro-inclusive recruitment?
When you recruit inclusively, you remove as many barriers as you can. This means making your process accessible to neurodivergent people – those who are autistic, dyslexic, dyscalculic (struggle with numbers), dyspraxic and/or have ADHD.
The best way to do this is through the very-fancy-sounding “systemic inclusion”. All this means is that you recruit everyone the same way, neurodivergent and neurotypical alike. There are multiple benefits to systemic inclusion.
The first is that it is best practice – you’re not asking the “special needs” people to contact you with their requirements, and thus giving them extra tasks. The second is that it’s de-stigmatising – no-one has to disclose or discuss their neurodivergence. Thirdly, it’s more efficient and therefore cheaper than traditional processes. And the last, and most important factor, is that it makes the process better for everyone (Maras et al, 2020).
Why should I care about neurodiversity in recruitment?
Good question. What’s in it for you?
Well, I believe that being inclusive of people regardless of their neurodiversity, is simply the right thing to do. We have a lot of inequality in our society and it’s everyone’s job to try to level the playing field, especially when we’re in a position of privilege.
As well as being a better person, you’ll attract top talent to your company when you recruit inclusively. Not just those who are neurodivergent, but across the board. When candidates see that you take inclusion seriously, they are more likely to want to come and work for you – and less likely to leave.
If you look at any metric on inclusion and performance, you’ll find that the most inclusive companies are doing better than their peers – generating higher profits, becoming more innovative, outperforming competitors… the list goes on. So it makes sense to have your recruitment process as inclusive as possible.
How can I recruit more inclusively?
The good news is that you don’t have to do everything, and you certainly don’t have to do it all at once. There’s no 100% when it comes to inclusion, you can choose what’s going to work for you, your organisation, and the people you want to come and work for you. But here are some tips to make your recruitment process more inclusive.
- Ditch the “we strive to make our workplace inclusive regardless of…” etc. Everyone does this so it means nothing.
- Make the ad shorter. For those who want more info, you can provide links, eg “Click here to read more about our history.”
- Lay out the process clearly. What happens after they apply, and what happens after that? Will there be a skills test? DBS checks? How many interviews?
- Tell them what to expect for the interview (eg who will be there), and what you expect of them (eg knowing the dress code can reduce anxiety). With our last hire, we sent them the questions in advance and we also told them we would have some surprise questions so we could see how they think on their feet.
- Tell them how long the interview will be and offer breaks. One of our clients gives break options. Instead of “tell us when you need a break”, each candidate is given 3 options so they could have frequent breaks, one break halfway, or no breaks (some people like to get into the flow).
- At each stage, ask yourself if there are alternatives to old-school written words. Can they submit a video CV? Can you make a video of your workplace and introduce a few people? Can they send a voice note if they have questions rather than an email?
The best thing about using even one of the tips above is what it communicates to your potential candidates. Even if they don’t use what you’ve offered, they know you take inclusion seriously, which means you’ll be a great person to work for.
