Neuropersity

Starting from childhood, I have seen and experienced a substantial range of human behavior over the course of my life. The United States has had a convoluted and complex journey when considering the best path of engagement and treatment for people who exhibit degrees of mental health.

It is important that you and your team are aware that the inclusion of neuropersity is desired and has been, informally, part of the consideration of the assembly and management of development teams and advanced analytics teams for decades.

Neuropersity is the new and current label for people who exhibit a wide range of mental health conditions and syndromes. Most of us are aware of Asperger's syndrome, Down's syndrome, and a number of other conditions that we now describe and label as neuropersity.

Leading companies like Dell, EY (Ernst & Young), Microsoft, and SAP have well-established neuropersity hiring and management programs. Companies need to establish and understand their objectives and goals when making a commitment to expanding their talent pools to include neuropergent employees:

At Dell, we believe that everyone has unique strengths and skills to contribute in the workplace. We strive to create an environment that is inclusive and accessible for all. As neuropersity is a broad category, we decided to first focus on an effort for those on the autism spectrum, rethinking the traditional interview process and removing barriers that may limit an inpidual from fully showcasing their true abilities and potential. [1]

Dell Technologies launched a pilot Autism Hiring Program in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, that included a 2-week skills assessment for intern selection, followed by a 12-week summer internship for the selected adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). By the end of the pilot, several interns were hired as full-time employees, and the program was expanded and brought to Dell Technologies' headquarters at Round Rock, Texas:

We've seen tremendous talent come in through this program—talent that would otherwise be overlooked if we were not actively recruiting in these non-traditional ways," says Lou Candiello, Senior Manager of Diversity Talent Acquisition at Dell Technologies. "We have filled critical positions across cybersecurity, data analytics, software engineering, artificial intelligence, and more with truly gifted and neuroperse talent. [2]

The talent pool of people who are considered neuroperse is large and growing:

About half a million people on the autism spectrum will legally become adults over the next decade, meaning a large majority will have the potential to enter and contribute to the future workforce. As an organization committed to bringing perse perspectives to the table, investing in hiring and training adults with autism is not only the right thing to do, it makes clear business sense. This group has incredible strengths: strong attention to detail, commitment to quality and consistency, creative and "out-of-the-box" thinking and lower turnover rates. [3]

Hiring in this area brings special requirements and you will need to ensure that leadership understands and supports the inclusion of a wider range of employees than would be typical. You will need to collaborate closely with the Human Resources department to ensure that you and your team are operating within the guidelines for hiring and managing a team that is outside the norms for the organization. Also, the initiative needs to be a long-term, strategic program that is supported and funded over multiple years:

Dell's executives say that their recruitment efforts are part of a long-term strategy to persify its workforce, and that the company won't abandon them just because the unemployment rate ticks back up. [4]

Hiring neuroperse talent is beneficial for the company, team, and the employees. It is important that these types of programs are designed, developed, and deployed in expanding economic cycles. These programs and the gains established by them are fragile overall, but the changes can be life-changing for inpiduals:

For workers hired during the good times, the benefits can be enduring. Economic research has found that once people are drawn into the labor force, they tend to stay in it. That may be especially true for workers with disabilities or other barriers to employment who thrive once given a job — but who struggle to get that chance in all but the strongest job markets. [5]

You must be mindful to ensure that you are hiring people who are capable of functioning in a team environment and working over a period of years in collaborative situations. The variety of people that you will bring together will require consideration of the physical environment, the team dynamic, the workload assigned, and more.

At a high level, this is not tremendously different than any other team, but the team members you hire will, in many cases, exhibit heightened sensitivities to light, sound, interruptions, and other considerations that may not be designed into the traditional physical environment to ensure a harmonious and productive setting.

Diversity of thought, action, and ideas are good and positive attributes, but we are talking about hiring people who may need additional consideration and accommodation in their team and work environment. Accommodation is expected, but you must be able to distinguish between those inpiduals that simply need an accommodation like noise-canceling headphones or larger monitors to be productive and those that cannot and will not be able to function in even a well-designed workspace.

Keep this in mind: special consideration and accommodation, yes; special treatment, no.