A look at creating a Neurodiversity Project to improve employment for Neurodivergent candidates

I understand the challenges that come with the hiring process and how it can be difficult for neurodivergent candidates to navigate. While it's important to have a thorough process in place to prevent "bad hires" and ensure effective communication, it's also important to consider the strengths of all candidates and not solely focus on their potential weaknesses. This approach leads to more positive outcomes for both the company and the candidates.

But where to start?

A recent job posting for a new foundation is one place. it seeks to improve employment for neurodivergent individuals through 6 key focus areas. I wanted to use this post as an opportunity to dive a little deeper into them:

• Researching neurodiversity and employment

• Educating and training employers

• Developing career pathways

• Building a community of practice

• Forming and nurturing coalitions

• Advocating for informed policies

To look at them we will need a framework, and to form a framework we will need to know what we want to do.

So what groups live in each one of these 6 categories?

• Funders - providers of resources and funding

• Convenors - enabler and connector of resources

• Thought Leaders - providers of trust or recognized expertise

Who are the stakeholders involved?

• employees (or the unemployed/underemployed)

• employers

• community members

• policy makers

• institutions and foundations

Researching neurodiversity and employment

How can researching neurodiversity and employment lead to improved outcomes in the market?

- building of understanding and trust

- enable communication

- ability to quantify and qualify options and ideas

What are the primary costs for research?

- setting up/running studies

Who is currently working on this research?

- The Stanford Neurodiversity Project - https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DwkxEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=research+on+neurodiversity+and+employment+stanford+neurodiversity+project&ots=_CVnlVefvU&sig=POzqzJZRablrBicWNoACiEw4je4#v=onepage&q=research%20on%20neurodiversity%20and%20employment%20stanford%20neurodiversity%20project&f=false

- Cambridge - advantages-and-challenges-of-neurodiversity-employment-in-organizations

- NIH (UK Health) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7732033/

-American Psycological Association: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fmgr0000031

Birkbeck University of London: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EDI-06-2020-0172/full/html

Microsoft Research - https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2700648.2809841

University, sydney Australlia - https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-0874-5_11

Worchesire polytechnic institute: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eleanor-Loiacono/publication/329458841_Building_a_Neurodiverse_High-tech_Workforce/links/5c671ab092851c1c9de45108/Building-a-Neurodiverse-High-tech-Workforce.pdf

Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00953997211069915

Who are some of the current thought leaders on this research?

- Genius Within

[TBC]