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Neurodiversity In The Workplace

Authors: Caroline Cannistra and Kristin M.

Editor: Jae Kuhn


Barriers to Successful Employment for Neurodivergent People

People who have conditions that are commonly considered to fall under the umbrella of neurodiversity are likely to be unemployed or underemployed. The unemployment rate of college-educated autistic adults, for example, has been estimated to be as high as 85%. Underemployment has also been observed in adults with ADHD and intellectually disabled adults. Neurodivergent people who are employed also tend to struggle with job stability and workplace discrimination.

Researchers and recruiters attribute some of the gap between neurodivergent and neurotypical unemployment rates to structural barriers for neurodivergent people in the recruitment process. In order to get a job, you need to know how to apply for a job, how to network and look for opportunities, how to conduct yourself in an interview, and various other “soft skills”. The traditional interview especially has been subject to criticism for being a hostile environment for autistic people, as it prioritizes social skills that autistic people tend to struggle with. Interviews might also be held in a sensory-unfriendly environment, or last for long periods of time that can be exhausting for neurodivergent people. Accessibility issues continue to persist in the workplace if the candidate does get the job. A sensory-unfriendly work environment, unclear communication from coworkers, and a lack of room to provide accommodations are all potential barriers to success in the workplace.

Choosing whether or not to disclose a diagnosis is another potential barrier for neurodivergent workers. Some autistic employees and managers of autistic employees have reported that disclosing an autism diagnosis during a job interview can be a positive experience. Specifically, they say that being able to openly talk about their identity and discuss what accommodations they may need in the future improved the relationship between the employee and manager. One study has also shown that managers have better perceptions of people who disclose a diagnosis compared to those who do not, although people who showed autism symptoms tended to be perceived more negatively. However, not everyone’s experiences with disclosure are positive. Other employees say that they’ve had managers see them as less capable than others because of their diagnosis, even getting rejected on the basis of their diagnosis due to explicit or implicit bias.


Neurodiversity Hiring Programs


Recently, in an effort to become more diverse and harness the talents of neurodivergent people, some large companies have started recruiting programs for autistic people. SAP’s Autism at Work program, launched in 2013, is the first program of its type and the model followed by other companies since. Some of these programs, such as the one hosted by Microsoft, have transitioned to using the language of neurodiversity in more recent years, instead of focusing specifically on autism. Each program provides varying levels of support for their employees, and takes a different approach to hiring.

In this article, I’d like to focus on Microsoft’s Neurodiversity Hiring Program, since Microsoft is close to UW and actively recruits UW students. This program was founded in 2015 with the goal of hiring autistic employees in a variety of roles, with a focus on engineering roles. As of 2021, about 130 full-time employees have been hired through this program. The program’s main function is to host inclusive hiring events and vet potential employees through a series of assessments instead of a traditional interview. Typically, this means a technical skills assessment, a “soft skills” exercise (such as a team-building exercise), and short interviews over the course of multiple days. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the program transitioned to carrying out team-building exercises in Minecraft, since in-person activities were not an option. This process may be adapted to fit the needs of an individual candidate. For example, candidates are given the option to communicate verbally or with a text feature. Employees who are hired through this program work in teams alongside neurotypical employees at Microsoft, and continue to receive support from job coaches, mentors, and a peer support network, as well as accommodations. Microsoft, along with other employers, collaborated with UW’s Information School to write the Autism @ Work Playbook, which lays out guidelines for other companies to start their own autism hiring programs. This playbook was recently updated to include guidelines for hiring remote workers.

Some Microsoft employees who were recruited through the Neurodiversity Hiring Program have shared that their experiences with the program were largely positive. However, the program has also been criticized for its focus on technical positions, and for primarily hiring white men. In a 2018 Medium article called “I’m Autistic, And I Don’t Support the Microsoft Autistic Hiring Program”, Shaun Bryan writes of his experience in a virtual hiring event:


I spied a post by a young woman looking for a customer service, non-technical role with Microsoft. She received no answer whatsoever. A young man below her inquired about a data scientist position; a recruiter responded immediately, asking for his resume and sending him the direct contact information of a hiring manager. I then tried a chatroom for another major employer and sponsor of the career fair. Similarly, I discovered a post by a young man with an ethnic name searching for a non-technical career with the sponsor company. A recruiter responded thirty-three minutes later, telling him to send his resume into the void (a general e-mail address). Exactly like the other board, young men with white-sounding names looking for technical careers were almost immediately contacted with specific connections to network themselves into a job.

Additionally, in the 2018 In These Times article “Push to hire autistic workers in tech could lead to hyper-exploitation”, Julianne Tveten suggests that the motivation behind these programs might rely on the assumption that autistic employees are less likely to self-advocate in the workplace:


Companies seeking autistic people, she (Elena Chandler) added, bank on those candidates’ low likelihood of leaving or asserting their rights as workers — from pay to intellectual property — due in large part to a dearth of alternative job options and limited work experience.

The criticism here is that autism hiring programs rely on the assumption that autistic workers create more value for a company by being more “loyal” to the company, more willing to do unpaid work, and less likely to advocate for their rights due to a lack of other employment options. One specific example of concerns over autistic workers’ rights comes up with Microsoft’s hiring program. The alternative screening process that Microsoft offers, as well as traditional interview processes for tech jobs, can take many hours that ultimately go unpaid. In regards to the technical assessments that companies use to screen candidates, one might also ask how effective these assessments are at finding the best candidates, and if there are invisible biases at play in their design.

Some might respond to this criticism by saying that the goal of Microsoft’s Neurodiversity Hiring Program is not to promote diversity or to employ a historically underemployed group of people, but to increase productivity by tapping into a previously untapped resource. Indeed, the Autism @ Work playbook defines the need for autistic hiring programs in the context of the current labor shortage: “Many individuals on the autism spectrum have the capabilities businesses need, and with an under- or unemployment rate nearing 80%, they can become a key part of the solution [to the labor shortage]” (Autism @ Work Playbook, 2021). The Autism @ Work Playbook also suggests that autistic people are uniquely desirable as employees because of their “trustworthiness, reliability, (and) focus on work and results (productivity).” However, the same resource also defines “desire to make positive social impact” and “benefits to the organization’s culture and values” as selling points for this type of recruiting program, along with “strategic value”. According to Microsoft, the goal of their program is “to increase the percentage of employees with disabilities at Microsoft” and “this program is part of our recruiting and career development strategy related to diversity and inclusion”.

Overall, it doesn’t seem surprising to see these companies combine the rhetoric of human resources with the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion. A common theme in writing on neurodiversity hiring programs is that a diverse workforce leads to more open-minded employees and managers, who will thus be more willing to learn and more capable at their jobs. Additionally, the “business case” for hiring more neurodivergent employees is not necessarily at odds with the goal of improving the lives of neurodivergent people. Employees who are treated well by their employers are more likely to continue working for the company and be more productive. However, it seems worth considering that the interests of a company that hosts a neurodiversity hiring program may sometimes be in conflict with the interests of a neurodivergent employee at that company. As such, it’s important for neurodivergent workers to know their rights and have the tools to self-advocate in the workplace.


Final Thoughts


This is a very complicated topic, but overall I think programs like Microsoft’s can be really good for some neurodivergent people, and it seems that they are getting more inclusive as they hire more employees. But it’s still good to be critical of these programs and be on the lookout for exploitation or discrimination. We should also remember that getting a job might not be the best path for every neurodivergent person, and supporting the rights of neurodivergent people should not be limited to increasing employment rates.



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