Graham Glass is the founder & CEO of CYPHER LEARNING, which specializes in providing learning platforms for organizations around the world.
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Our cultural opinion of autistic and neurodivergent (ND) people is complicated. On the one hand, we celebrate the "autistic superhero" stereotype and admire prominent figures on the spectrum, from Sir Isaac Newton to Temple Grandin to Anthony Hopkins.
On the other hand, unemployment among neurodivergent people may run as high as 40%, and corporate diversity, equity and inclusion agendas often omit ND concerns. In fact, various aspects of the knowledge-worker routine can be problematic—from ambient office noise to bullying to ineffective or no training—and too often go unaddressed.
It looks like many employers aren’t walking the walk here. They may applaud neurodivergent people online, then remain oddly quiet in hiring meetings. And even though employers say they crave common qualities among neurodivergent people, such as creativity, focus, visual processing skills and pattern recognition, they struggle to close this group's employment gap.
Yet, data illustrates the kind of successes that result from developing a neurodiverse workforce. For example, when Hewlett Packard Enterprise placed neurodivergent workers in software-testing jobs with an Australian public agency, they proved 30% more productive.
So why do many American organizations act skittish about ND talent?
3 Reasons Why Neurodivergence Is Overlooked At Work
Here are my top three thoughts on why employers don't actively pursue neurodivergent talent.
1. It may boil down to simple misapprehension.
There's a high likelihood that employers just don't understand what "neurodivergent" actually means. Neurodivergence is a market basket of neurological diagnoses. Most people assume it's limited to autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but it includes dyslexia, dyscalculia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome and more.
The concept of neurodiversity—that neurological differences are naturally occurring and there's no "right way" for brains to develop—wasn’t widely discussed until the 1990s. The term itself was coined in 1988 by Australian sociologist Judy Singer, then popularized in the late '90s by journalist Harvey Blume.
So it's not surprising that many organizations simply don’t know what a neurodivergent employee looks like. They might assume they need to find a caretaker for someone with high-support needs when, in reality, the employee just requires a quiet place to work. Maybe employers are envisioning a character like Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, who exhibits highly disruptive behavior. Innocently formed or not, such bias hurts both the business and prospective employees.
2. We’re seeing simple, lamentable bias at work.
Employers, hiring managers and co-workers may be consciously overlooking or avoiding ND applicants. In 2015, an eyebrow-raising study by researchers at Rutgers and Syracuse universities found that when job applicants’ cover letters mentioned a disability, the response rate was 26% lower compared to neurotypical applicants (those without neurological conditions). Relevant work experience was no help for ND professionals. In fact, highly qualified ND professionals were "34 percent less likely to get responses than their nondisabled counterparts."
3. Employers hesitate to accommodate neurodivergent talent.
This reason, while unproductive, is somewhat rooted in reality. Neurodivergent people can often face challenges in areas that affect work, such as difficulties with social interaction and communication or focus. Unlike making adjustments to physical spaces, like providing access ramps for wheelchair users, finding ways to accommodate these needs isn't straightforward.
One key area where employers fail to engage with neurodivergent workers is in learning and development (L&D). Oftentimes, ND people don't benefit from one-format-for-all training systems. In a worker survey that my organization CYPHER Learning conducted in 2023, 21% of those self-identifying as neurodivergent said that workplace training they’d undergone hadn’t met their needs. For example, dyslexic learners may prefer visual aids like charts, diagrams and videos rather than L&D programming that relies heavily on text.
A personalized L&D environment can help all staff learn and grow regardless of needs, preferences, working style or physical location. When organizations find ways to adapt to neurodivergent talent's unique needs, these workers often respond with impressive productivity, results and innovation. J.P. Morgan Chase is one organization that's been doing a commendable job since 2015 when it instituted its Autism at Work program. This initiative provides resources for neurodivergent talent, including a hiring pipeline, so they can succeed in more than 40 roles across the organization.
In his turning-point 1998 Atlantic piece, Harvey Blume wrote, “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?” The years since suggest he was right. As competition for top performers remains heated, ignoring the neurodivergent talent pool gets harder to justify. Don’t fail to engage with singular talents whose abilities and insight, when deployed in a sensitively calibrated and supportive work environment, can lead to extraordinary things.
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