Rethinking Hiring: Insights from the Organization for Autism Research

In honor of Autism Acceptance Month, CareerCircle welcomed experts from the Organization for Autism Research (OAR) to explore how employers can build more inclusive, neurodivergent-friendly workplaces. This powerful conversation goes beyond awareness, diving into actionable strategies for hiring, supporting, and retaining autistic employees. From creating accessible job descriptions to implementing universal design and accommodations, the panel shared practical insights backed by research and real-world experience. Whether you're a hiring manager, HR professional, or advocate, this webinar offers valuable tools to rethink traditional practices and create environments where neurodiverse talent can thrive. 

🎥 Watch the full webinar here.

👇 Read on for the full transcript.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Hello, Hello, welcome! Thank you so much for joining today's webinar, Inclusive Hiring Practices for Neurodiverse Talent. This conversation is especially meaningful as we are kicking off Autism Acceptance Month, a time dedicated to not only recognizing the experiences and strengths of autistic individuals but also fostering understanding, inclusion, and meaningful opportunities. 

We're so honored to welcome two incredible panelists from the Organization for Autism Research, who bring valuable insights and hands-on experience in creating an inclusive hiring process. They'll share tangible steps that employers, hiring managers, and advocates can implement to empower neurodiverse talent and build workplaces that recognize and celebrate the strengths of all individuals. 

My name is Brittany Knowles. My pronouns are she/her/hers, and I'm the Learning & Development Specialist here at CareerCircle. I have black hair in a natural hairstyle, brown eyes behind cat-eyed glasses. I'm wearing an orange blouse today. I'm so excited to be here. I'd love to hear the descriptive introductions of Brittany Short and Kristen Essex.

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): Thank you, Brittany. My name is Brittany Short, and I am the manager of the Hire Autism program at the Organization for Autism Research. I'm super happy to be here with you all this afternoon. I have long, straight brown hair and hazel eyes. I'm currently wearing a black top and a tan cardigan, and again so excited to be here with you today. I'll pass it off to Kristen.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): Thank you so much. I am Kristen Essex. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I am the Executive Director of the Organization for Autism Research. I have short blonde hair and blue eyes. I am wearing a black shirt, and I am so excited to be here today. Thank you so much for having us.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Thank you, Brittany, and thank you, Kristen. So we are currently recording this webinar to ensure accessibility for all participants. You may enable closed captioning by clicking on the “more” button on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, then clicking “captions” and “show captions.”

Whether you're a job-seeker seeking information and inspiration or guidance, or an employer looking to foster a more inclusive and supportive work environment, today's discussion promises to provide you with practical insights and actionable strategies.

Without further ado, we'd love to hear from you, Brittany and Kristen.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): Thank you so much, Brittany. That was such a great introduction. As mentioned. I'm Kristen Essex, the Executive Director, and we are ready to begin.

So we are here to learn about neuro-inclusive hiring practices. But to help you prepare for hiring and working with autistic individuals, let's first briefly talk about autism. What is it? Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition of the brain that affects a person's ability to communicate and interact socially. 

Based on updated estimates by the Centers for Disease Control, it occurs in one in 36 births. Within that, autism affects boys more than girls by a ratio of four to one. Children don't grow out of autism. It is a lifelong impact, and early intervention is the key to subsequent quality of life.

Here's a quote that we like to share when talking about autism. It's attributed to Dr. Stephen Shore, an autistic professor at Adelphi University. “If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.”

As we'll discuss later in this presentation, everyone with autism is unique with their own needs, and that's really important to remember.

As I mentioned, we're here to talk about inclusive hiring practices, but you first may be wondering “who” is or “why is”, or here to “tell me about this.” So we are the Organization for Autism Research. We were founded in 2001 by a group of parents and grandparents of autistic children. Their primary goal was to help make the autism journey for parents and families smoother. Our mission then and now is to apply research to the challenges of autism.

We break this mission down into four program areas shown here: Research, Information, Education, and Community Impact.

Research is part of our name and the foundation of the mission. We encourage and support research through two programs: The Annual Applied Research Competition and the Graduate Research Grants Program. The Applied Research Competition is our major grants program. We fund six to eight studies a year with grants up to $50,000. These are pilot studies that allow researchers to collect data and test hypotheses as an essential stepping stone to more in-depth follow-up studies. We have funded more than 5 million dollars in research since 2002.

Our Graduate Research Grants program allows OAR to support the future stars. In autism research, we make small grants to support masters and doctoral students conducting research related to autism in pursuit of their degrees.

Information is the next aspect of our mission. “What do I do?” That's the fundamental question. A parent asks when their child receives an autism diagnosis, or a teacher asks when they have an autistic student in their classroom, or an employer who hires an autistic person in their company. Providing quality evidence-based information is at the heart of our mission.

We've offered timely information via our website and our Monthly Newsletter called the Oracle. It's an e-newsletter. Our website includes our Life Journey Through Autism series, which has nine guides. Everything is available on our website for free to download or to order a physical copy.

We also offer the only resources especially designed for military families impacted by autism. And as we'll talk about later, our Hire Autism program has a bunch of resources available on that website, as well.

Education is our third mission area. Through this, we offer webinars throughout the year on topics of high interest to the autism community. Our website has all of the past webinars available. We've done 2 employment series, which are full of information, and they're free to view on our website. We also have a scholarship program for autistic students pursuing undergraduate studies, undergoing vocational technical training, or participating in transition life courses after high school. Additionally, as part of our Hire Autism program, we have our Synchrony Tech scholarship for autistic job seekers pursuing certification or job skills in the tech field.

Our last mission area is Community Impact, which, as this signals, is that the programs here are OAR’s major initiatives. Where you find difficulty in communicating and interacting socially might have the earliest and most significant impact on school. So, one of our biggest programs is our Kit for Kids peer education program that has literally gone around the world. It's been translated into Georgian, Korean, Spanish, and various other languages, and it helps neurotypical peers better understand their classmates with autism. 

We've expanded this program with our Peer Education Grants program, which provides grants to community leaders and schools to use the program to spread autism acceptance. Our Community Grants program is based on the belief that autistic individuals and the people around them have the potential to innovate practical solutions that promote the quality of life of autistic individuals.

Through this program, we seek to support the design, packaging and distribution of information resources that aim to enhance the physical health and quality of life for autistic individuals. And our final community and community impact program is Hire Autism. Which is why we are here today.

So Hire Autism is a job portal that offers resources to help autistic adults find meaningful employment. The initial concept was solely an online jobs board. We quickly learned that that was not sufficient to support the community.

We expanded it to have job-seeker resources, employer resources, and a lot more hands-on programs with our Navigator Training Program that works with job seekers, one-on-one.

We launched this in Northern Virginia as a pilot program, and we went nationwide in 2020. We have job seekers in 49 States, and as of this morning, Brittany informed me that with a recent national partnership, we will now have jobs available in all 50 States. So we are very excited about that expansion, and that was our goal to have that by the end of the year. So we have it now, and it's a great resource for autistic individuals and employers.

And then my closing slide here before I pass it off to Brittany is this is a quick video demonstrating a little bit of the impact OAR has had through the Hire Autism program.

Kristen: I totally had trouble with confidence while growing up. When you have autism, it's really hard to actually speak up about what you want. I really feel that understanding yourself more can actually help you succeed. Hire Autism offers services and job skills to people who are on the spectrum. I actually found the job on OAR’s website.

They were hiring for a barista at Starbucks. I thought that it would actually be a really great opportunity for me to learn another experience to actually work in the customer service field and make coffee. I gained confidence. I gained the skills that I wanted to pursue. And of course, I gained the connections that I have with OAR. 

Kristen Essex: Now you've heard a little bit more about how we can support inclusive hiring through our Hire Autism program. I'm going to pass it off to Brittany to go into a little bit more detail about how you can support autistic employees in the workplace.

Brittany: Thank you, Kristen, and thank you, everyone, so much for being here with us this afternoon. I just want to take this time to thank you, because I think, being here and engaging in these conversations, and this discussion, is an amazing first step to becoming more inclusive and just learning more about how you can support neurodivergent colleagues, staff members, and job-seekers.

So to start our conversation off about autism as it relates in the workplace, I'm going to share more about the business case for hiring autistic individuals, as well as give you more information on some of the challenges autistic individuals are facing in the workplace. So we can come from a place of understanding.

So, autistic individuals can be an immense asset to the workplace and often present new and innovative approaches to problem solving, as well as helping to enhance products and services. This can broaden and deepen team and cross-functional discussions as well as foster increased creativity

Individuals with disabilities, including non-apparent disabilities like autism, have reportedly had lower attrition rates and fewer absences. When companies intentionally foster a culture that embraces inclusion, they cultivate a more positive and supportive work environment overall. These qualities contribute to higher retention rates, lower turnover, and greater productivity

Research from Accenture in partnership with Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities revealed that companies that embrace best practices for employing and supporting more people with disabilities in their workforce have outperformed their peers. In 2018, Accenture and Disability:IN published a landmark report that showed that companies that led on those key disability inclusion criteria are 25% more likely to outperform on productivity compared to their industry peers.

They earned 1.6 times more revenue, 2.6 times more net income, and 2 times more economic profit than others. They also received twice as many positive reviews related to aspects of disability on Glassdoor as their peers. So, as you can see, there's an extremely strong business case for onboarding autistic employees into the workforce. 

However, even with this strong case, they still remain a largely untapped talent pool. So let's take a look at why this may be happening. Some of you may or may not be aware, but recent statistics have found that between 50-90% of autistic adults are unemployed or underemployed.

This makes it the highest unemployed disability. In addition, studies in the past decade estimate that nearly 85% of autistic adults with a college degree are unemployed.

As you can see, the unemployment statistic is rather wide, and this is due to the intricacies of tracking it across different industries, as well as a variety of reasons that can cause individuals to be unemployed.

Statistics also show that autistic individuals have increased feelings of anxiety and depression, and they are more likely to leave positions because they're not being supported. 

These increased feelings of anxiety can lead to neurodivergent workers thinking about leaving their jobs because their employers simply did not support their needs. So while every person is unique, there are some common challenges that autistic individuals face in the workplace, and these contribute to these high statistics. So let's take a look.

As you may know, a core component of autism is social and communication differences or challenges. This can present difficulties in the onboarding process as well as on-the-job communication. Some social differences might include a lack of eye contact, taking pauses between responses, misunderstanding facial expressions, and nonverbal cues. For example, understanding that they might need to potentially end their conversation with a colleague early if their colleague’s phone rings, not understanding office jargon or jokes, not understanding office etiquette, those quote unquote “unwritten rules of the workplace”, interpreting phrases literally and even refraining from asking for help because they just simply aren't sure how.

Unfortunately, these social differences can significantly impact job-seekers' from being hired and their longevity at an organization. Consequently, this can lead to qualified candidates being counted out for a specific role, struggling to create strong relationships with their managers and their colleagues, and ultimately being let go or leaving the company.

There are also challenges facing autistic job seekers in the accommodations process. Those of you who are not aware of what accommodations are, they're often referred to as reasonable accommodations, and it's defined as a modification or an adjustment to a job, the work environment, or how things are usually done. These modifications are what enable individuals with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to get a job and successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities.

The accommodation process can also pose a challenge because, in order to request a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a job seeker must disclose their disability.

This decision can be extremely personal, and can be affected by many factors, such as fear of discrimination, a preference to just keep their diagnosis private, employers’ lack of understanding of the accommodations process, limited clarity in what they need in order to be successful on the job, and fear of being seen as incompetent. This leads individuals to weigh the pros and cons of disclosing before approaching HR. 

Their manager and other colleagues in a study conducted by Audicon, a company specializing in neurodiverse workplaces and technology, found that about 70% of autistic employees have discussed their condition with someone outside of HR, such as their manager or a trusted colleague. But just 30% disclose their autism to HR. This survey got responses from about 985 workers across 8 countries.

So, as you can see, people are very hesitant to come forward about their diagnosis and disclose their needs. Another challenge facing autistic individuals is ableism. Ableism is defined as discrimination or prejudice against disabled people. It sees disabled people as inferior or less capable than non-disabled people.

Ableism can manifest itself in the workplace in many ways. So, for example, the unique needs and reasonable accommodation requests of autistic employees might be invalidated, dismissed, or discarded by an employer simply because they are not able to empathize with autistic people or understand why they may need a specific accommodation.

Some other examples of ableism in the workplace could include choosing an inaccessible location for a meeting or an event, making a stereotypical assumption about an autistic person's capabilities, including both their strengths and weaknesses, and questioning a disability if it isn't visible or presented in a way that society expects it to be. A common phrase that you will hear, or autistic people often hear, is, “You don't seem disabled.”

Lastly, the oversimplification of disabled people, such as someone deliberately speaking slowly, using unnecessary or exaggerated inflections, or ignoring the autistic individual altogether, and instead asking a colleague for a status update or a progress report.

As I mentioned in the previous slide, people might say some harmful things like “you don't seem disabled to an autistic person”; however, often a person might not realize someone is disabled because they are masking. Masking occurs when a disabled person attempts to hide their disability and come across as neurotypical.

A few reasons that someone may choose to mask are to avoid bullying, being discriminated against, and harassment. They may want to avoid losing their job for fear of termination. They're trying to avoid judgment and rejection. And then, finally, they're trying to fit in with that workplace norm.

Masking can have detrimental effects on autistic employees’ mental health and workplace happiness. In a 2019 study at the University of London, Researchers found that stress and anxiety were higher in people who routinely masked autistic traits compared to those who masked less often. This routine masking can often lead to burnout because it consumes a lot of energy from an individual.

Burnout can, in turn, lead to lower performance and efficiency. Burned-out employees also have been found to be 2.6 times more likely to be actively seeking a different job.

Now that we're coming from that place of understanding the challenges that autistic individuals are facing in the workplace, we're going to shift into what we can do about this. Our goal is to help you feel more equipped and confident starting today and supporting current and future colleagues, staff members, and job seekers on the autism spectrum.

It's extremely important to lead by example to foster inclusion among team managers and supervisors, those individuals whom you oversee and support. They're commonly looking to you as an example of what the best practice is in that workplace.

One of the ways to be more inclusive is by destigmatizing your support needs. There are things that each one of us needs to make it through our workday, and they can vary from person next to us.

This is true whether you are neurotypical or neurodivergent, and as a leader, don't be afraid to share your needs with your colleagues, especially if you are neurotypical. This can help set the example. For example, if you're somebody who needs to hold a fidget toy during work hours, or if you're somebody who needs to schedule short breaks in your schedule to re-energize yourself for your next task. Share that with those who are looking up to you as an example.

Leading by example includes showing and welcoming these needs and reinforcing the concept of human-ness with your staff. We are all human, and we all have varying qualities, and we are all unique. That is why humanity is so essential to talk about today. Humanity is what helps us build stronger relationships, help people feel valued, heard, supported, and feel that sense of belonging in the workplace.

When you exemplify humanity, you put aside your own view on how others should act or present themselves and accept people for who they are and what they contribute.

You can do this by encouraging transparent communication, in which people are actively listened to and feel comfortable expressing their ideas, and even concerns. This also includes showing people empathy and encouraging those around you to also show that same empathy.

Demonstrating leadership in these ways doesn't only apply to management as a colleague. It's important to be welcoming of your peers despite their differences. Another way to lead by example is to promote continued learning opportunities for those in your organization. This can include offering staff training on autism in the workplace and neuro-inclusion.

It could also mean researching resources, sharing with staff members, and creating opportunities for them to practice empathy with colleagues. There are many wonderful webinars, like the one you're on today, podcasts, and virtual events that people can attend on building inclusive workplaces and best practices for supporting autistic and neurodivergent colleagues.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): And I wanna add something real quick to Brittany's point about communication that is so important in this aspect of it is that it's not just about promoting communication. It's promoting authentic communication and making sure, as you are encouraging your staff members to speak to you, that you are responding to them and taking what they have to say into consideration, and not just saying, “let's communicate.” And then, disregarding what they have to say, which is so important in this.

Brittany : Absolutely. Thank you, Kristen, for adding that on. I appreciate that. 

Next, we're going to talk about leading with respect. So it's also important that employers lead through respect and understanding. Employers must understand the additional barriers, like we talked about earlier in this presentation, that autistic people face and the inherent differences between autistic and non-autistic employees when working with autistic people. 

Some best practices include leading through validation. Validation is crucial because it allows autistic employees to feel seen, respected, and heard. Many autistic employees have had traumatic experiences that have led them to find it difficult to trust or be open with people. By acknowledging and validating the very real lived experiences of your autistic or neurodivergent employees, you are providing them with a safe space to unmask and share their authentic experiences, concerns, and anxieties. Not only will this help autistic employees feel safer, but it will also help them feel valued and gain that sense of belonging in your organization. Additionally, the validation of one's experiences could be the start of a healthy and trusting relationship with your autistic colleagues. 

Another important practice is to ask, don't assume. There's a lot of diversity among autistic people. Let's think back to the quote that we heard Kristen share with us earlier in the presentation. “If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.” This means the supports, needs, and presentations of one autistic person can vary significantly from those of another.

It is important to ask questions about what the individual employee needs rather than making assumptions based on generalizations, because assumptions can lead to those stereotypes and stigma that further exacerbate ableism and discrimination.

Lastly, it's important to let autistic people control the narrative around autism. Some of the ways you can do this are by inviting autistic employees to have a seat at the table as it relates to the discussions directly or indirectly impacting the autistic community.

You can create Employee Resource Groups, neurodiversity advisory boards, and panels. You can hire autistic consultants for ongoing projects that you may be working on, and welcome autistic speakers to share more about their lived experiences.

Even this presentation that you're listening to today has had input from an autistic self-advocate. And that's something that we, as an organization, really strive for, is to make sure that autistic persons really do have a seat at this table.

Lastly, it's important to respect the boundaries of autistic employees who might not feel comfortable sharing, disclosing, or talking about disabilities if they don't want to. Respecting the consent of autistic people is truly crucial in creating that trusting and welcoming environment.

Earlier in this presentation, we spoke about disclosure being that very, very personal decision. However, being transparent through the hiring process can help autistic candidates feel more comfortable just starting and making that accommodation request. This can include incorporating autism and neurodiversity as a main component of your organization's hiring practices. This goes beyond simply stating support for autism, and encompasses creating those inclusive job listing inclusive interview practices, inclusive onboarding and training practices, as well.

A good place to start, if you haven't already, is with the job application. You could add language that insinuates that candidates can request accommodations. For example, you could say something like, “We are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As a part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If a reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact us.” This is a quote that is shared through the Job Accommodation Network, which I'll share even more about them just shortly.

While it is important to provide support to new employees coming into your workplace, you really want to make sure that you're taking a frequent pulse on your current staff.

Kristen shared those numbers with us earlier in the presentation that indicate if you think that there's not an autistic person in your staff right now, or another neurodivergent individual, you're likely wrong. They're likely already in your organization. So I truly encourage you to send out something such as a survey and ask for feedback on what you could do to improve your current workplace today. You might ask something like, “Is there anything you need to be successful on the job?” which opens the door for individuals to share those more personal requests. And you could also make this anonymous. So they don't actually have to indicate who they are.

The workplace and individuals' needs can frequently change. So it's imperative to consistently check in on this with your employees and see how you can support them in your current environment.

Now let's take a look at some common accommodation requests in the interview process and on the job.

These are a few examples of what you could do to create a more neuro-inclusive interview process. You could try giving an outline of the interview process and timeline ahead of time so they know exactly what to expect. You could provide interview questions ahead of time, and in writing. You could rephrase questions if the job-seeker is unsure of what you are asking. 

And if you have multi-part questions. So, for example, “When was the time when you had to work with a difficult colleague? And how did you handle it?” You could break that up into 2 questions and ask the second one once the candidate has finished responding to the first question.

You could allow a few more seconds for that individual to think about a response. You could offer a one-on-one interview versus starting with a panel interview.

And finally, you could provide the option to have the camera off if it is a virtual interview, and, as you can see, none of these accommodations have a cost associated with them.

Sometimes, not all employers will be able to provide those accommodations. I think it's important to discuss that today – that it's okay that you can't always provide accommodations. However, sometimes an explanation can be helpful for individuals to understand why not. When we were looking at onboarding the associate for the Hire Autism program, and we were doing virtual interviews, I asked all of my candidates to appear on camera because it's an essential function of the job.

Some on the job accommodations include, but are not limited to, providing a knowledgeable mentor for autistic individuals. They can help educate them on the organization's structure and operation, develop skills and competencies by demonstrating those tasks and providing consistent feedback on their work.

Providing alternate means of training and providing training, refreshers, periodically taking breaks, offering a flexible schedule option, offering the ability to wear noise-canceling head headphones, or the option to hold and interact with fidget toys.

Providing agendas ahead of time and written instructions, or just instructions based on those individuals’ preferred learning style and needs. Making sensory changes where applicable and making non-work-related events optional, or providing accommodations at those work-related events or non-work-related events. 

Once again, we're looking at accommodations that truly come at little to no cost, and as you can see, these accommodations vary significantly, because accommodations are not a one-size-fits-all process. Recognizing this and allowing each individual the support they need to succeed will only help your organization grow. Your organization is much more likely to thrive if all of your employees are thriving as well.

When you provide reasonable accommodations, you are only increasing the ceiling of your organization's potential. When it comes to best practices around accommodations, something you've heard me mention is the Job Accommodation Network, or JAN for short. So, JAN is truly the leading organization in everything accommodations, including updating accommodation policies and creating an accommodating workplace for people with disabilities.

JAN also supports employers with understanding their rights in the accommodation process. It's important to note that to deny an accommodation request, an employer must be able to show that the accommodation puts undue hardship on their business. Cost alone does not equate to undue hardship, however, undue hardship truly does mean different things for different businesses. So it's unique to your organization.

One of the ways that your organization can start to utilize accommodations is through universal design. Universal design is something that I really love to share because it's something that is good for all of us – neurodivergent and neurotypical. Universal design is a framework that puts equity, accommodations, and accessibility at the forefront. It seeks to create the most inclusive environment for all employees, and can include practices such as tailoring training materials and the format of instruction for the learner.

There are three branches of universal design that we are going to discuss today. Multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression.

So the branch of multiple means of engagement is designed to ensure that there are multiple modes of engagement and multiple ways to promote interest and inspiration within an employee's work. Perhaps this could include gradually incorporating new and innovative tasks every so often, or tying one's work in with their passions, interests, or strengths.

The branch of multiple means of representation symbolizes the importance of having many ways of presenting material, because everyone learns differently. This is especially relevant to training materials and providing instructions.

For example, you could incorporate a variety of ways in which employees can be trained, such as a written document, a training video, having staff members who can show the employee how a task is done, and giving feedback right there on the spot.

The last branch of universal design is multiple means of action and expression. The purpose of this branch is to have multiple ways to evaluate one's competency in a role. Just as people don't all learn the same way, not all people can fulfill their tasks in the same way. There might be some parts of the job that autistic people might feel uncomfortable doing in their current format, however, they might excel if they are able to achieve that objective in a different way.

Universal design is also backed up by research. Several studies have supported the need for universal design, including a study conducted by Solviva at West Virginia University, which found that 71% of employers reported increased employment productivity when given accommodations. In addition, 30% of the sample of employers mentioned increased overall company productivity due to providing these accommodations. As you can see, it truly benefits the organization to work with its employees.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): And I'd like to share from a management perspective – what we've done is we offer very flexible scheduling. We offer hybrid or remote, if needed, for a longer term. And one of the things that we have seen as we've made these changes over the years is that really does increase productivity and loyalty. Overall, our staff is very happy with what they do. The flexibility that it offers them and their ability to really adjust their schedule and their workspace as needed. And so from a hands-on in a personal perspective, I can really say that I have seen the impact of providing that universal design approach in a workplace.

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): I'm super glad Kristen shared that with you all this afternoon. I know I have been very appreciative of Kristen's leadership and flexibility, and it truly just kind of has that trickle-down effect. We all come from a good place of understanding, thanks to her example of leadership.

So, an alternative or collaborative practice to universal design also includes the strength-based approach to learning. The purpose of a strength-based approach is to play to each individual’s strengths and to create the best outcome for the organization and the individual.

Nobody is going to be good at every single thing that they do, and this framework recognizes this. It is based around the idea that everyone has their own strengths, talents, and capabilities, and that the focus should be on their employment rather than the more common jack-of-all-trades approach. This approach recognizes that not everyone can do everything and focuses on nurturing the employees’ strengths, allowing them to grow in those areas.

If we want to work as an organization to the best of our abilities, to fulfill our potential, and produce the best product. We must work to each employee's strengths, and if there is a vacancy, we must find someone else who has those talents who can fill in that gap. Strengths-based approach has direct implications for employee satisfaction and retention.

All right, to recap this portion of the presentation, we're just gonna highlight a few key takeaways from what we discussed. 

Number one: Inclusion starts from the top down, led by example, and with respect for all employees.

Number two: Everyone is different, and we all have different needs.

Number three: Many accommodations can be implemented for free. So while it can be scary to dip your toes in there and think, “Oh, how much is this going to cost us?” There are a lot of small changes that you can make that can make a big difference.

So we ask: What will you do tomorrow to make the workplace more inclusive? All right, before we wrap up in total of this presentation, I just want to briefly touch on the support that the Hire Autism program can offer to employers

By partnering with the Hire Autism program, employers can gain access to posting an unlimited number of jobs on our jobs portal for absolutely free. We're open to working with all industries and organizations of all sizes, because our job seekers are truly looking for all types of work.

We offer the ability to prescreen and recruit talented autistic candidates. We also offer support from the Hire Autism staff, such as myself, for tips on hiring, interviewing, onboarding, retaining autistic candidates, and finally, access to free resources and employer training. In addition to these supports, partnering with the Hire Autism program can help organizations build the trust and confidence of autistic job seekers to apply to their open roles.

William, a previous Hire Autism job-seeker, found meaningful employment with one of our employer partners, Compost Nashville. William shared that if he had found Compost Nashville on Google, he might not have been as inclined to apply, but seeing them on Hire Autism gave him the confidence that it would be a respectful and inclusive working environment.

We have over 6,000 job-seekers registered on our platform, with an average of 140 new job seekers signing up with us each month. So, partnering with Hire Autism can also give employers the confidence that they are directly reaching many autistic job seekers across the US.

Dale, from Compost Nashville, also shared with us that choosing to recruit with Hire Autism gave them the confidence that they are accessing all talent pools in the Greater Nashville area.

And before I end here, if you're interested in becoming a Hire Autism employer, I absolutely welcome you. The best way to get started is to go to the Hire Autism website www.hireautism.org, create an employer account with us, and then you'll schedule a brief call with the staff.

We would get you approved and get you started. So you can start posting your job opportunities and connect with us. I have also shared our direct email addresses here on this last slide. And we welcome any questions about the organization or program, or any other questions you may have from today's presentation. 

Thank you all so much for listening in today. It's been a pleasure.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Absolutely. Okay, you all have kept me engaged, and I'm so excited because we have some amazing questions from our esteemed guests who are here with us to learn from you, our subject area experts, in the space. All right. So, first question, what was the name and the details of the study that you mentioned that was conducted at West Virginia University? The individual wanted to look more into that, so they wanted some additional insight on that.

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): That is a great question. I would love for whoever asked that question. Or if you can send me their email, I will follow up in an email with direct links to the study and more information. Or send me an email at bshort@researchautism.org, and I will be sure to get you that information.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Absolutely. So, do you have vocational research and or presentations for those with autism and other co-morbid diagnoses, such as ADHD, that support navigating those unique challenges?

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): So, through the Organization for Autism Research and the Hire Autism program, we offer various educational presentation opportunities. Hire Autism offers a lot of educational opportunities about best practices on the job search, however, we are more geared towards educating about autism. That is our area of expertise. I think that there's a lot that people can learn from us. Maybe that goes outside of autism and is more under that complete umbrella of neurodivergence. But we are definitely specifically geared towards educating on the autistic community. Kristen, I'll pass it off to you to share anything else.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): I would say, and we do recognize that ADHD and autism diagnoses, or Audhd, as some people like to refer to it. That is a fairly new occurrence of the DSM, allowing those 2 concurrent conditions to be diagnosed. So we have not ventured too much yet into how we could potentially support the combination of the 2. But it is something we will definitely keep in mind as we look to expand, and as we continue to support autistic individuals directly going forward.

Definitely keep an eye out for what we have available

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Thank you so much. The next question is, how can companies create job descriptions that better attract and support neurodiverse applicants?

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): That's a really great question. I would say, the best thing to do is to start and really look at what you need from that individual to do in their job, coming from that place can help you eliminate a lot of things in the job description that might go outside of exactly what you need from that individual and what the candidate must have. Those must-have skills are very explicit in a job description versus the required skills. And then, like I mentioned earlier in the presentation, too, I think if you do want to promote that you are inclusive, and that you're opening to learning about different individuals' needs, state that on your job description – that you are open to supporting different needs, and that you know that the person out there might not fit everything exactly in that job description. But you're still open to interviewing individuals who might not exactly fit that job description exactly to a T.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): And I think it's really important that, like anything we do, it's a constant learning process. So every time you post a new job, and you get your applications in, assess what kind of applications you received. Did you get the diversity that you want, and then assess? Tweak it each time. How can you make changes? Are you posting in the right places? Because where you're posting matters, too, and how you're posting and what keywords you're learning. So there's just that ongoing learning process and content, constantly assessing what you're doing and figuring out ways to improve it.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Absolutely 100%. Okay, I have another question. How can businesses make their performance evaluation processes more equitable for neurodiverse employees?

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): That is a good question, and one I don't think we've come across. Brittany, have you come across this one?

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): I'm trying to take a minute to think about it. I mean, looking at it from a perspective of performance evaluations, really thinking about what that person is doing in their day-to-day, their job, and how well they're fitting. How can I make this better for autistic employees or neurodivergent employees? But all employees in your organization? I think it's only fair for all of us to be evaluated based on our work performance, not trying to evaluate people based on how well they fit in socially, or how well they're communicating. Unless, of course, that's a specific criterion of the job that you're looking to evaluate the performance. But just looking at it solely from how well they're doing in that role for all of your employees.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): And I think that one thing that we use in our organization is a written self-review, which has been beneficial for a lot of our employees. I know a lot of people don't enjoy doing those, but it gives the employee a low-pressure way to say what they want to say ahead of the review, because a lot of employees, and I know some of our autistic employees specifically, aren't always comfortable, verbalizing in person what they want to say. 

Allowing them to prepare it ahead of time is really beneficial. My personal motto for any review performance review process. There should be no surprise. If there are issues in an employee's performance, they need to be addressed throughout the year; you know, don't save up these issues for the performance review process. And I think, especially when dealing with neurotypical or neurodiverse employees, that really is key because they should go in and not have surprises that you've been saving up to do that

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Well, I love y'all's responses, and if I could just provide a little context on this, I agree so much. I had an employer ask me what I had done over that year, and to write it down prior to my evaluation. Oftentimes at work, we do so many things, and we wear so many hats. And to even just think about what was accomplished. I'm going into this meeting feeling like I'm on top of the earth because I've done this, dotted all my eyes, and crossed all my t's. So that's absolutely a wonderful way of addressing that if an employer provides that opportunity.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): And I love that perspective. When I review those staff reviews, sometimes I'm like, “I forgot you did that. Thank you so much for including it, because that was an amazing thing you did.” And it really does help me go forward with that review process.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Absolutely 100%. Self-advocacy is so key. Okay, we have time for two more questions.

On the topic of universal design, would you recommend making accommodations that everyone can benefit from to meet everyone's needs? So that includes fidgets, different lighting options, flexible seating, assuming that someone who has certain needs has decided not to disclose?

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): A 100%. And I think it's it's not necessarily even just providing them – it's having the flexibility where anybody can utilize these things. We have had employees who who need accommodations, but haven't had to request formal accommodations, because our flexibility is so much that they can just flex their schedule or flex what they need to do without putting in that formal accommodation process, and it makes it so much easier for the employee and the manager to have that flexibility and availability for everybody just to use as they need, whether they disclose or don't disclose.

Brittany, anything to add to that one?

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): I think you did a great job of answering that question, and just something to add here is that that's why it's also really great to be transparent early on through your job descriptions and the interview process about what exactly an employee can expect about that job. The tasks they're going to be doing the work environment that they're about to be transitioning into.

So that way, if for some reason you're not able to be a very flexible workplace, and there are lots of workplaces that can't be as flexible, you know. The candidate can very clearly make that decision. Is this going to be a great working environment for them, or maybe it doesn't quite align with what they're looking for and what is best for their needs. But Kristen did a wonderful job of answering that question.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): I was gonna add on. One aspect of the universal design that Brittany touched on was the strength-based approach. And I think that is also important to put in place across the board and work with your employees on that one-to-one strength-based area. Because, you know, we're a small organization. We don't have a ton of growth potential. So we really do try to work with employees on their strengths to keep them engaged for the long term. It's improved our employee productivity, and it's improved the longevity of our staff on the team. You know, we've gone from an average of the two-year turnover to most staff have been there five plus years at this point. And that's that strength-based approach, and just working with them, one-on-one with every employee. Not just your neurodiverse employees are key.

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): Can I just say that's such a flex what you just said right there? You're amazing, and you all need to know it, and I love that for you all. 100%

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): You know, we try to do what we're teaching. So we're trying to put the things in place, too, so that we can say, “This is what we've done, and we've seen it. We've seen it work, so do it.”

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): I love the transparency of it that you started from this point. And you all have these processes that you've put into place with your listening and getting that feedback. You've been able to inform your processes that you're getting this outcome in the end.

Kudos to you on that last question from the audience. Oh, yes, give yourselves your own hand. 

And then the last question from the audience: What are some effective ways to assess the skills and potential of neurodiverse job applicants beyond traditional interviews?

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think that will probably vary from business to business. Something that we've kind of worked on incorporating besides, just the traditional “Okay, we're gonna sit down and meet with you and ask you questions.” Providing some thought exercises for the roles that we think would be beneficial. So that way we can get to know them better, their way of thinking, and again, this isn't really targeted for autistic or neurodivergent employees, just everyone. And then also trying to be very aware of not just putting a thought exercise out there just to do that to somebody again. It's really to tie it into something that they would be doing on a day-to-day basis, or that involves the role. 

And that is important so that we can get a good, complete understanding of the applicants. And if they're going to be successful in the role. It's certainly true that the interview and onboarding process isn't perfect, no matter who you are. But we just try to be very purposeful with what we ask candidates, and try to make sure that they're not doing too much excessive stuff that really won't give us any insight into how they're going to do in our workplace or in that role. 

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): I know that panel interviews have become very popular, especially as we move a lot of interviews to virtual, and people think it works to have a bunch of people. Those can be very intimidating. So we try to be very deliberate as to who we have for an interview. I may hop on at the beginning, just to give a brief intro and then pass it off to a couple of other people to do it, but we generally try not to do large panel interviews, because I know for the job-seeker it can be a little overwhelming with a lot of people, either on their screen or in person. 

And how you go through the process, you know? Think it through. Is this necessary? Will this give me what I need? So you're not doing unnecessary things for these people, and you're just focusing on what will help you get to what you need to hire them. 

Brittany Knowles, CareerCircle (She/Her): I love that so much, and we are at the time you all. I thank you so much. Thank you to our amazing panelists from the Organization for Autism Research for sharing your experiences, perspectives, and knowledge with us, and thank you to our engaging audience for adding to the important conversation of inclusive hiring. We hope you've learned something and pulled some best practices.

Please check out our events page on www.careercircle.com/events to register for upcoming webinars and events we have in store. Our next event is going to be on May 15th. We have a webinar entitled Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in the Workplace from 1 PM to 2 PM Eastern Standard Time. We'd love for all of you to check it out and share it with your networks. Make sure to follow our panelists. They've already given you their email addresses. 

Follow them on LinkedIn as well as take the survey. After this webinar, we want to hear from you. We'll be sending you an email with today's recording resources discussed as well as upcoming event information. So be on the lookout. Thank you for coming and see you next time. Bye-bye.

Kristen Essex, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): Thank you.

Brittany Short, Organization for Autism Research (She/Her): Thank you. Everyone.