How to build a neuro-inclusive advice business

Among these are millions of people who need access to financial advice - but how well-equipped are the majority of financial advice firms to welcome people with neuro-diverse conditions, either as colleagues or clients?

It is important to understand what this term 'neurodiverse' means.

Neurodiversity is the way we think, move, process and communicate differently. It is not owned by one condition or one part of our brains.

People can have neurodivergent traits that are acquired during our lifetimes.--Dame Amanda Kirby

Being neurodiverse impacts on our strengths and weaknesses and the contrast between these.

Differences between strengths and vulnerabilities can often be more accentuated than in the average, ‘neuro-typical’ person.

As a result, employers need to be aware of, and adjust to, the vulnerabilities of neurodiverse staff and clients, while looking to maximise on strengths and potential that often works really well to complement the strengths of their neuro-typical teams. These have been outlined in a previous article. 

Understanding traits

According to Professor Dame Amanda Kirby, founder of Do-It Solutions, we often associate neurodivergent traits with particular conditions, such as Autism Spectrum Conditions, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, dyspraxia (also known as developmental coordination disorder, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and tic disorders.

We do this because they commonly overlap or co-occur with each other. These are known as developmental conditions because people are generally born with them. 

However, Kirby is keen to point out that “people can have neurodivergent traits that are acquired during our lifetimes”, just as with needing glasses or hearing aids.

Likewise, accidents and conditions, such as Parkinson's, can all affect how we move, process, act and communicate.

Research carried out by Autism Research, entitled The Vulnerability Experiences Quotient: A Study of Vulnerability, Mental Health and Life Satisfaction in Autistic Adults, highlights the difficulties faced by neurodivergent individuals as they look to find fulfilling work.

The research found:

• 20% of autistic people were in full-time employment 
• 46% left workplace due to mistreatment 
• 72% left due to their environment 
• 31% were regularly overlooked for promotion 
• 53% were unable to get a role that matched their qualifications 
• 47% had spent a year unemployed and seeking work.

These significant percentages are indicative of the barriers that currently exist which prevent people on the autism spectrum, and likewise, other neurodiverse processing, emotional and thinking conditions entering and progressing in the workplace. 

It also highlights the challenges staff face in succeeding, especially where business practices, processes and culture is predominately designed for neuro-typical employees. 

Overcoming barriers

Dan Harris, founder and chief executive of Neurodiversity in Business, says it is possible to overcome these barriers, and potential employers can go further to make the workplace inclusive.

He says it is important to design roles and create job descriptions that are truly reflective of the skills needed.

This can help recruit a neurodiverse person who can have exceptional skills needed for that role like pattern spotting, or big picture thinking, but may not be strong at communication, or in customer-facing roles.

During the recruitment process, candidates should be made aware of as many details of assessments as possible, as well as the reasonable adjustments offered in relation to these assessments.  

“Don’t expect Neurodivergent candidates to know their exact needs in relation to a test or interview format they have never experienced before”, Harris says.

“Ensuring candidates have what they need to succeed should be framed as an obligation on the part of the recruiter rather than an additional self-advocacy assessment on the part potential neurodivergent candidates.

We have to put awareness in place, but be careful that we have processes and practises in place as well.Dame Amanda Kirby

"Candidates should have access to this information before being expected to declare anything” Harris says. 

He also says it is important to allow time for the hiring managers to explain, and then adapt their hiring process and implement the reasonable adjustments on offer.

While neurodivergent individuals are protected once employed, they are not guaranteed the same rights in the hiring process. Employees with processing differences may find the high, or even usual, levels of social, visual, olfactory and auditory stimuli in open-plan office environments overstimulating. 

For such colleagues, remote working can help them deliver their best work.

Harris’s guidance for building more neuro-inclusive and neuro-diverse friendly organisations include having quiet workspaces and alternative formats, but too many companies simply do not have them in place. 

However, some neurodiverse colleagues benefit enormously from the structure and routine associated in-person work.  

Harris also advocates making it easy for employees to find an appropriate workspace by, for example, creating hot-swap desks and quiet working rooms or floors in less stimulating areas of the workplace. 

Training and awareness

To address attitudes and approaches, Harris also says companies should “ensure recruitment staff receive training in relation to neurodiversity. This training should be focused as much on strengths and benefits for neurodiversity as it is the provision of accommodations.”

NIB, the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity, and Do-It Solutions all provide organisations with assistance in catering for neurodiverse staff - see the info box, below. 

Managers and HR professionals need to appreciate and acknowledge invisible disabilities, and the need for associated reasonable adjustments. 

Ensure employees can access reasonable adjustments swiftly and easily, and ensure access is not diagnoses dependent. “NHS wait times for assessment are often measured in years, not weeks or months.

There is no legal requirement to have a diagnosis, some employers forget that,” Harris explains.

Ensure managers and HR professionals are trained in both general provision of adjustments and have adequate support or a path to find additional information and expedite the reasonable adjustments process to enable employees to perform at their best. 

Harris believes that “a failure to embrace and accommodate different communication styles can be very damaging for some neurodivergent employees, as they are either forced out of the organisation or face burnout and stress associated with masking their own unique communication styles and behaviour”.

When developing a work place that is neuroinclusive, Peter Hamilton, director of market engagement at Zurich, believes it is important to build awareness. And for all organisations that entails embarking on ‘a journey’. 

Kirby adds to this, saying that while raising awareness of barriers is invaluable, “if we do awareness without action, we can raise expectations on individuals that something is going to happen, but it can have unintended negative consequences…

"Managers feel less skilled, and it puts them in the dark. We have to put awareness in place, but be careful that we have processes and practises in place as well.

"The more we can do things in an anticipatory way and design processes and principles and the more neurodiverse we can be then managers can have a toolkit to help them. 

Measures to take

Measures that Zurich are taking as described by Hamilton include flexible working and hybrid working: “These are becoming more normalised, but have historically been fought for by marginalised groups like neurodivergent people for years.

As these become more common, it's important to be mindful that true flexibility goes beyond letting someone work from home 2 days a week” he says.

Zurich has also become the first insurer to sign up to Roleshare, a service which matches applicants searching for part time and job share roles with employers.

Aviva runs a Reverse Mentoring programme with Senior Leaders and members of the Ability Community, so they can share their experiences of being ND / physically disabled in the workplace.

A failure to embrace and accommodate different communication styles can be very damaging.Dan Harris, NIB

Jonny Briggs, diversity equity and inclusion resource director describes how Aviva encourages colleagues to complete a Workplace Adjustment Passport.

The passport is designed to make it easy for colleagues to discuss with their leader how their circumstances, disability or condition impacts their ability to do their role.

The passport captures all agreed workplace adjustments, whether they are physical changes to working environment or alterations to working arrangements.

Briggs also says that at Aviva, “where leaders are comfortable we encourage them to share all their experiences and interest across the DEI spectrum. At a leaders' event recently a senior leader relayed how their children had a neuro-diverse condition and how they saw things differently.”

Trust is essential

Vic Mazonas, General Manager of GAIN, believes that feeling secure and safe are key to the fruitful contributions of staff: “Disclosure requires a feeling of psychological safety.

Workplace transitions are the times when we may need the most support, but they’re also the times where we’ll have the least amount of psychological safety.

"You’re in a mindset of needing to prove your worth and your capability.  It’s extremely difficult to ask for extra help in moments like that, and creating a high barrier to support can make that impossible."

Mazonas adds: “Remember that providing adjustments and the freedom to build your work around your own strengths and needs isn’t giving someone special treatment.  

"It’s about removing invisible barriers that your employee is having to climb over every day and giving them the freedom to run.”

Anita Boniface is a freelance financial journalist