Louis Taylor - Neurodiversity
Louis Taylor - Neurodiversity...
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What is neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity refers to the different ways in which our brain processes information.
What does it mean for an organisation to be neuro-inclusive?
For an organisation to be inclusive, it's about making sure that we're working to be proactive and we're going through a systemic approach. What that means is that we're working at all levels of the organisation and making it something that we work across the board rather than making it an ed. And I challenge what we're doing there is we're making it something that we can focus on as a culture within our organisation. So what that means is in practise is that we need to make sure that we are focusing on the strengths around neurodiversity, making sure that we're equipping our team members to be able to support neurodivergent colleagues, but also making sure that neurodivergent colleagues feel comfortable being able to speak up about their neuro differences, the challenges they're experiencing, and also being able to reach out for the support throughout their employees employment journey within your organisation.
Do you any top tips for our company to support neurodivergent employees?
Some of my top tips would include supporting neurodivergent colleagues by ensuring that we're being proactive, not reactive. And what I mean by this is when we're not supporting our neurodivergent colleagues, it can trigger this vicious cycle. And what happens with that is the employee might experience challenges, they might become stressed, they might become overwhelmed as a result of this, and they might experience things that can impact their wellbeing as a result of this. And that can then lead onto them impacting their performance, which is obviously going to impact the organisation. And what usually happens is then is it's then triggered when individuals are in this crisis mode, but actually when we're being proactive, making sure that we're having the conversations about what type of support could be put in place for you, what adjustments could help you around this, or trying to work out what adjustments could actually support that individual. You're starting to take that more proactive approach to be providing that tailored support for that individual, which is the important thing here. You are not trying to put the labels and diagnose them, but what we're trying to do here is making sure that that individual is supported throughout their journey at your organisation. On the back of that though, what can also be really useful is to ensure that we're investing in training and education for our managers, for our HR teams, and for our employees within our organisation. Managers may need support as well to be able to support Neurodivergent colleagues, working out the best ways that they can support that neurodivergent colleagues through their journey, making sure that you're capitalising on their talent and making sure that they're being able to be as supportive as they can to make that psychologically safe culture. It's really important that we invest across the organisation as well, because by making our team members equipped to support Neurodivergent colleagues, it means that we're creating that supportive culture throughout.