An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Hiring A Neurodiverse Workforce

BY JENNIFER ALSEVER @JENNIFERALSEVER

Shaun Arora has worked as a cultural anthropologist, business incubator director, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist over the past two decades, but he always felt like he was kind of off when it came to certain social interactions. 

“Maybe I would say something that I thought people would think was funny and it wasn’t, or I would not get something because I was taking it too literally,” says Arora, 45. It wasn’t until 2021 that the New York-based entrepreneur learned he was autistic, and now says the condition might have held him back from promotions and advancement and perhaps led to an interaction that caused him to lose his job. 

Like Arora, an estimated 15 to 20 percent of adults experience some form of neurodivergence, which is a developmental disorder that’s marked by processing and absorbing information differently as well as, potentially, learning and behavioral difficulties. The condition can often be paired with ADHD and dyslexia or even sensory processing disorder. Autism spectrum disorder is one of the fastest-growing segments of neurological disorder diagnoses today, and employers are taking notice.

Amid ongoing challenges to recruit and retain workers in a tight labor market, employers are increasingly focused on creating more welcoming workplaces for neurodivergent individuals. Large companies like Microsoft and Goldman Sachs have already created neurodiversity hiring programs, and a crop of experts and consultants are popping up with recommendations for smaller and midsize businesses.

“It has become pretty big in the past few years,” says Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, a Boston workplace research firm. “Five years ago, it wasn’t even a thing.”

Overcoming the hiring hurdles facing this community also has compliance benefits. Last year, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw a 77 percent increase in claims related to discrimination. Many managers are unaware of what neurodiverse accommodations are or what the process is to make them, says Melissa Danielsen, co-founder of Joshin, a Minneapolis company that offers a software platform for neurodiverse workplace support. But she’s starting to see the tide turn. “As people are getting diagnosed and as the community is becoming more aware of their needs, I think more pressure is getting put on employers.” 

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Neurodiverse workers can add a lot to an organization, says Schawbel. They often bring such strengths as intense focus, observational skills, attention to detail, and an ability to see patterns others don’t. What’s more, research suggests that certain teams with neurodiverse members are 30 percent more productive. 

“When you have a team with neurodiversity, you’re generally going to get pushback on ideas, new ideas, and better solutions,” says Schawbel.

The question for employers isn’t really why, though, but how? How do they harness the power of this workforce without alienating individual members?

Give People Grace

The process starts with the job interview. To ensure employers aren’t excluding neurodiverse candidates who may be perfect for the job but would otherwise struggle with social situations, the key is to flip the protocol, says Danielsen. Neurodiversity-sensitive employers might, for instance, ask candidates to perform a task or work on a real-world problem rather than do a 30-minute face-to-face or Zoom interview.

“They can tap into their own strengths on their own time and in their own format,” says Keith Wargo, president of Autism Speaks, an autism awareness nonprofit in Washington, D.C. The organization offers courses for employees of all backgrounds to raise awareness around differences in thinking and communication styles.

Such training changed the way Amber Broadway, 44, interviews prospective employees. Broadway is director of operations at Comprehensive Billing Consultants, a virtual medical billing company that submits medical health claims on behalf of autism service providers. In the past, she might have written off candidates if they didn’t make eye contact or if they weren’t engaging in an interview. 

“I’m more accepting and open to a broader communication in that initial intake call or introductory call than I would have been in the past,” says Broadway. She noted one encounter in particular that helped change her mind. In a July job interview, the candidate Broadway interviewed spoke in monotone and gave very direct answers. In the past, Broadway would have interpreted this communication as rude. But with a more open mindset, she extended the interview process and ended up hiring her. “She was absolutely a fantastic fit, and I couldn’t be more proud of her,” she says. 

So how do you know if someone is neurodiverse? The rules are pretty clear about this: Employers aren’t allowed to simply ask if an applicant has a disability, to avoid stoking conditions for potential discrimination. They can, however, create an environment in which one might volunteer this information, thereby sidestepping the prohibition. So if you want to know if someone is neurodivergent—to better adjust your own hiring processes, among other things—you might promote your company’s neurodiversity accommodations in your hiring materials. Knowing that your company embraces steps like taking breaks, going off camera, asking for extra time on an assessment, or the like might make members of this community more inclined to share.

Prioritize Retention

According to some research, if neurodiverse individuals are not supported by their employer, turnover can be high and they’re more susceptible to burnout and may experience mental health struggles. The problem for employers? Certain neurological conditions, like autism, may not be visible, so they won’t always know.

“For years, I was ashamed [of] my dyslexia,” says Gil Gershoni, 53, owner and creative director at Gershoni Creative, a San Francisco branding agency. For years, he never told people he was dyslexic and instead had other people, including his business partner, help him with communications. In 2017, he decided to open up about his disability, and following a speech at the South by Southwest conference, he began writing about it. It was then that he developed a concept called Dyslexic Design Thinking.

“I started to realize that actually what contributed to my success was my dyslexia thinking,” he says. That included a photographic memory and an ability to see unrelated concepts and patterns, and to think more creatively. Today, Gershoni’s 15 agency employees include a mix of neurodiverse and neurotypical, but what unites them, he says, is that “everyone approaches every project through the lens of Dyslexic Design Thinking, which allows us to apply diverse perspectives and craft innovative solutions.”

Gershoni’s transparency is rare. From personal reasons to concerns over professional blowback, most neurodiverse people want to stay anonymous. As such, Danielsen’s startup, Joshin, offers anonymity. Through its platform, employees can access support and coaching on organizational, time management and decisionmaking abilities, career advancement, community resources, and other workplace accommodations. Managers can also get training and coaching on how to best support their employees, and caregivers can access community and medical support. If a person doesn’t know if they need support, they can take a free assessment to get started. Danielsen says that Joshin users include BestBuy, Boston Scientific, and Hearst.

Danielsen started the company with her twin sister, Melanie Fountaine, in 2020 after watching their brother, Josh, navigate the world with disabilities. Later, the sisters were diagnosed with ADHD. “We felt compelled to build this,” says Danielsen. 

Employers receive big-picture anonymous data from Joshin that gives them a snapshot of their workforce, says Danielsen. “Most of them are surprised by what they find,” she says.

As many as 54 percent of Joshin members identify as neurodiverse, with 21 percent disclosing ADHD diagnoses and 16 percent disclosing autism diagnoses. Danielsen and Fountaine found that 85 percent of their own employees identify as disabled or neurodiverse. “Our goal is that no matter who you are, you have that safe place with the right type of resources,” says Danielsen.

Create a Safe Place

Experts now encourage employers to create employee resource groups for neurodiverse individuals to receive mentoring and professional development. Tech tools can also make navigating the workplace easier for those individuals. Think noise-canceling headphones and Zoom captions, apps to better organize tasks, and calendar or meeting transcriptions. One tool, Bionic Reading, bolds the first few letters of words to allow people to easily move through text and stay focused.

Another pro tip: Arora says it can be easier for neurodiverse individuals to track communication if colleagues change the subject line of email chains when the subject in the conversation changes. He also recommends using bullet points or summaries in text messages rather than a text wall that can be overwhelming to some. 

Where and when people work can also matter. Neurodiverse individuals may feel more comfortable when they can choose among a variety of spaces in which to work. Greg Gallimore, a principal at architecture firm Gensler, says the company’s San Francisco headquarters has “light, bright spaces with high ceilings, which support more collaboration and conversation, whereas the darker spaces signal a different type of behavior—spaces for focused, quiet, individual work.” 

According to Gallimore, it’s not just the choice of where they work that’s important to neurodiverse people like himself, but also when they work. New research shows that we all have different circadian rhythms, so we may have different ebbs and flows in our energy and thinking and creativity throughout the day. Employers that offer more flexibility can better harness those peak moments, he says. 

Arora eventually went on to start a neurodiversity consulting firm called Brain Types, after multiple neurodivergent conditions were diagnosed in his son in 2022 and 2023. It was Arora’s feeling that the work world held outdated views on the diagnostic labels; he wanted to have a role in changing things. He now hopes that one day people won’t have to have a diagnosis or advocate for themselves to get accommodations. 

“No one is typical,” Arora says, “and if we could vanquish these words like ‘disorder’ and ‘neurotypical’ from our language, we would have a lot more empathy, and we could harness the collective intelligence of the world.” 

Illustration: Zhenya Oliinyk.