Improving experience for our neurodivergent employees

Neurodiversity in Business recently carried out some research into neurodiversity at work, highlighting the needs and concerns of the neurodivergent workforce. 990 neurodivergent employees and 127 employers took part in the research.

As a Neurodiversity in Business corporate member, we’re committed to continue to strengthen inclusivity and support for neurodiverse employees. Here’s some of the things we’re already doing:

• We’re working with the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire Integrated Care System and Autistica to pilot a neurodiversity profiling tool that will highlight key strengths and identify areas where we can offer more support to colleagues
• We’re carrying out some research to identify the benefits of neuro-inclusive recruitment practices
• We’re promoting neuro-inclusion and neurodiversity at staff engagement events and meetings, including meetings with our system partners, estates and the board of directors
• We’re working with the Diversity and Inclusion team to support a launch of the new reasonable adjustment process and the staff health passport

Visit the Autistica website (opens new browser tab) 

Read the Neurodiversity at Work 2023 report from Birkbeck, University of London (pdf)

Report highlights

Here are the top 10 takeaways from the report

1. Neurodivergent employees have unique strengths and challenges, including hyperfocus, creativity, innovative thinking and details processing – all of which are essential for innovation.
2. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policies need to include a focus on neurodiversity
3. Flexibility – being able to work from home and having a flexible schedule makes a big difference to neurodivergent employees
4. Neurodivergent employees report low levels of wellbeing (2.02 on a 5 point scale)
5. Fear of stigma is often barrier to disclosing neurodivergence of requesting support
6. Line managers need guidance on how to support neurodivergent employees
7. Lack of opportunities to progress to specialist roles can prevent neurodivergent employees from moving forwards in their career
8. Almost half of people who took part in the survey said they are likely to leave their role for reasons including lack of support, not feeling psychologically safe and not feeling satisfied with their career
9. Intersectionality has an impact – the intention to leave was significantly higher for Asian, Black and Mixed Heritage respondents
10. The biggest barrier to accessing adjustments is lack of disclosure – yet employees expressed caution on self-disclosing for fear of stigma and discrimination

Find out more

Our neurodiversity vision is for everyone at Berkshire Healthcare to recognise, understand and celebrate neurodiversity.

We’ve developed our neurodiversity strategy to try and address some of these issues.

Read more about our Neurodiversity Strategy on our website

Find out more about our neurodiversity services for children and young people