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Two of these strategies are the clarity of instructions at the outset of a task and the safe space.

Clarity of instructions.

This strategy, sometimes referred to as The Brief, is an essential step in managing anyone at work and is more important for those who are autistic and/or have Asperger’s Syndrome which is part of the autism spectrum.

With any task, it is essential to set out what is required of the employee so that they start on the right footing and know what they are required to do. At the brief, take the time to find a quiet office or conference room where you will not be disturbed, have a cup of tea/coffee and sit down with the employee in a relaxed manner and go through the work steps by step. It is a good idea to have thought about this beforehand and prepared a checklist and to go through the checklist point by point in a measured way.

Do not rush this step and clearly set out if there are to be others in the team and if so what are the chains of command and communication channels. If there is any computer software to be used make sure that the employee has been fully trained in the programme before doing the task and if there are any problems who they can seek out to help. It is no use telling the employee, any employee, that there is software on the computer in the corner, off you go. That is poor management and is doomed to failure. No one will respond well to those kind of instructions.

A key aspect of clarifying the requirements is giving the employee the opportunity to ask questions about what you have just told them. It is really important that at this stage you should prepare for silence from the employee on the spectrum and not to worry about it. They are not ignoring you, they are talking the time to process what you have just told them and are formulating their questions. Their brain is wired differently and it may take them some time to organise their thoughts. When this silence happens, do not look or act impatient by drumming your hands on the desk or berating them in some way, be calm and patient. Then, be prepared for questions that you might not have been asked before. Also, they may ask more than one question, so allow for this in your time allocation for the briefing.

When you have finished the briefing make sure that you hand over the checklist for the person to keep. It will be a good reference point for them.

The Safe Space.

The second key strategy for managing some with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome is the safe space.

People who have autism and/or Asperger’s Syndrome often face challenges relating to overwhelm, anxiety and stresses caused by sudden change. When this happens they can reach the point of overwhelm which can be a violent outburst that can cause a scene or incident at work. This needs to be avoided and one of the ways to achieve this is to have a safe space where they can go, calm down, refresh themselves with a drink and return to work a short while later able to work productively.

In a number of larger organisations, they have break out areas and these might be suitable places although bright lights and loud music/televisions may not work for some people and they would need a quieter place to go. It doesn’t need to be luxurious but it does need to be away from the hullabaloo of the work environment where they can relax and feel safe.

There are some logistical issues that need to be established. Firstly, in the event of a fire or alarm, the management need to know where everyone is in the event of an emergency evacuation. This can be resolved by having a pre agreed signal with their supervisor/manager so that the manager knows that the person has gone to their safe space. It might be as simple as putting their stapler or whole punch in the middle of their desk. However, it is essential that when the employee feels the need to go to their safe space that they do not have to ask for permission to do so. It may well be that the very act of asking could tip them over the edge because it may have been something that their supervisor/manager has done that triggers the need to go in the first place.

Some companies are located where they can have a garden within their grounds. This would be an ideal safe space for dry days and providing there are some benches or places to sit they would work well as a safe space to allow the employee to relax and calm down.

There is also the issue of making up time. This needs to be agreed beforehand with the supervisor/manager so that it is not made to be an issue that could cause problems for the employee. These things can be accommodated, because employers make allowance for smokers who go outside of work to smoke and have some form of agreed way of making up lost time, the same can apply to those on the spectrum who need the safe space.

The management of the safe space needs to be a sensible practical one that enables the person to go uninhibited and not feel pressured about it or the consequences. You certainly don’t a supervisor clock watching their time in the safe space, there needs to be trust on both sides. The alternative is that the person doesn’t feel able to work and has time off, sometimes extended time off and that doesn’t serve either the employee or the business.

If you would like to know more about strategies to manage people with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome at work, please visit my website www.aspergersmatters.com or email me at andrew@aspergermatters.com.

The Resilient Asperger

By Andrew Marsh

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Throughout my teenage years, I saw numerous psychologists – all were left confused about the complex, chronic, and paradoxical nature of my social and emotional difficulties. I would describe unbearable mental anguish and social anxiety, yet be able to function, and even excel in my pursuits. I also showed traits that were obsessive-compulsive (lining things up) or resembled borderline personality disorder (impulse control difficulties). A whole decade of psychologist appointments passed, yet no one could help me.

Then, at 24 years old, something wonderful happened. I realised that I am autistic. Along with this realisation, my past experiences made sense. I also uncovered new understandings about myself.

What does autism mean for me? My autism means that since childhood, I have been frequently misunderstood. I experience sensory input intensely; sometimes this is overwhelmingly agitating, but other times overwhelmingly beautiful. I have thrived academically and professionally because I quickly notice details and patterns in information, am methodical, and analytical. I lose myself for countless hours in subjects and projects that I find interesting. I love routine and structure: lists, plans, and spreadsheets keep me grounded. I value sincerity, openness, and straight-forward communication. I dislike reading between the lines, small talk, and forcing myself to make eye contact.

Over the past two years, I have been happy. I attribute this to understanding myself better, my patient fiancé, meeting like-minded friends, and working in a company that empowers autistic individuals. Finally, the people surrounding me celebrate, rather than reject, my differences. I too am starting to accept myself. As that happens, my life is increasingly becoming “like art” – a beautiful, neurodivergent masterpiece.

By Amy Cramb

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Asperger Services Australia was established in 1994 because our founding members had experienced the frustrating lack of support for autistic people and their loved ones in accessing quality programs to improve their individual life journeys. With a vision for people with Asperger’s Syndrome to live with confidence and self-belief, our mission was to empower people with Asperger’s Syndrome to reach their potential through programs and services based on inclusiveness, self-development and self-advocacy.

After almost 28 years, we feel the time is right to update our brand and messaging in order to better reflect who we are and all we have to offer autistic people. So we are excited to share with you the new Empower Autism brand which comes into effect today, 20 January 2022.

Our logo and colours won’t change, as these were designed with the input of autistic people and we believe they convey the insight and empowerment we provide.

Our New Website Today we are launching a brand new website, consistent with our new and improved brand direction. You’ll see similar updates across all Empower Autism materials over the coming weeks, ensuring consistency and quality in all that we do.

Our Commitments To You

Empower Autism believes that society thrives when diverse individuals, experiences, perspectives, and cultures are welcomed and celebrated. We envision a world where autistic people fully participate, contribute and succeed to their fullest potential with confidence and self-belief.

Empower Autism is committed to act with purpose and intention to:

• Champion diversity by building a community of board directors, staff and volunteers who are as diverse as the community we serve.
• Encourage open, transparent dialogue among diverse voices and perspectives to shape our services, programs, and workplace culture.
• Commit to inclusiveness of lived experience in all program design and development.
• Empower and support autistic people to improve their employment outcomes and social connectedness.
• Collaborate with employers to create a mutually supportive workplace.

Our commitment to the 5 pillars above will ensure we are able to celebrate and cultivate a diverse community, while working to enable positive social change for and with autistic people through programs based on inclusiveness, self-development, and self-advocacy.

How will our new name and brand impact on our participants, families and supporters?  

We’re keen to ensure there are only positive impacts! We’re still the same organisation that has been supporting the autistic community for the past 27 years. There will be no reduction in the programs and services we offer – in fact we’re looking to expand our service offering. We’ve always held the belief that how people refer to their neurodiversity is an individual choice – whether you’re an autistic person, an Aspie or a person on the spectrum; you’re an individual and we will always respect you and your right to choose how you identify.

What’s Next?

You will continue to receive communication and resources as we roll out the new Empower Autism branding and messaging. What you will notice moving forward, will be the communications you receive from us by email will emanate from our new email addresses (e.g. office@empowerautism.org.au), so you may want to flag that address as ‘safe’ on your senders list. In the meantime, check out our new website and keep your eye out for exciting things to come www.empowerautism.org.au

We hope that you will see this change as a better reflection of our role within the autistic community. For any further questions, please contact us on (07) 3865 2911 during office hours. Thank you!

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It’s time for business leaders to bring their hearts and minds together on this and lead and create future organisations that are both fair and smart!

In this post I will highlight some key reasons why employers should enable social inclusion of autistic people in their organisation and how they can leverage the value of a neurodiverse workforce to drive an inclusive and engaged culture, increased brand value and competitive advantage.

Why not overlooking autistic people as valued employees is so important

Autism prevalence rates in Australia continue to grow rapidly, an increase of 25.1% from 2015 to 2018, with more than 200,000 Australians having a diagnosis of autism (1). This represents a growing and prominent portion of our population and may represent your brother, sister, child or friend. And yet despite this rising number of people with autism, this portion of our society remain vastly underrepresented in our workforces around the country and across all industries. In fact, the 2018 labour force participation rate is 38.0% for autistic people of working age compared with 84.1% of those without disability, with an unemployment rate for autistic individuals almost eight times that for those without disability (1). This reflects a primary quality of life indicator that leads to both social and financial exclusion of autistic people and is a distressing reality for many of these individuals who are, in the words of James Mahoney Executive Director and Head of Autism at Work at JPMorgan Chase & Co “simply brilliant people–highly educated, highly capable, detail-oriented, yet unemployed” (2).

In seeking to understand the causes for this inherent exclusion and vast under representation of autistic people in Australian workplaces, The Community Attitudes and Behaviours Towards Autism survey conducted by Amaze highlighted 15 key reasons/barriers that prevented autistic adults successfully engaging in employment. Of these, 3 of the top 4 causes included lack of understanding of autism from potential employers, lack of support available to help me get to and support me in a job, and unable to attend interviews due to my autism/anxiety (3).

Contrastingly, in recent years, there has been a growing acknowledgment of the value and benefits of neurodiversity in the workforce amongst private enterprise and government organisations – what Specialisterne Australia refer to as “Harnessing the Autism Advantage” (4). According to Belinda Sheehan, IBM Neurodiversity Program Manager “The world needs all the talent it can get… different perspectives are desperately needed if we are to innovate our way through today’s global challenges” (5).

By enabling employment practices and operating environments that support and empower autistic adults to use their strengths, a vast number of employers are reporting that the adjustments help to better identify and leverage the talents of all employees, making workplaces more generally inclusive and diverse. This is proving to deliver both increased brand value as organisations seek to reflect the communities in which they operate and new operational capacity and advantage as new and different ideas, perspectives, and skills are embraced and leveraged. In support of these claims The Community Attitudes and Behaviours towards Autism survey conducted by Amaze indicates that 70% of Australians believe employers should make adjustments for autistic employees (3), indicating public and consumer sentiment towards employer responsibility and thus the positive brand association towards those organisations embracing and leading the way!

Further, for those employers who want to leverage their workplace productivity and operational capacity, here is one to note – research conducted by JP Morgan Chase & Co indicates that autistic employees are reported to be 92% more productive and 48% faster than non-autistic employees across a range of roles and industries including software engineering, app development, quality assurance, tech operations, business analysis, and even personal banking, to name a few (6). Further, research has demonstrated that autistic individuals often have a strong work ethic, high attention to detail, strong visual acuity, a superior ability to concentrate, innovative problem solving, and low error rates in their work (6,7). This is a big deal and not to be undervalued. These are some of the benefits that come when giving autistic people a fair go… in the right way!

So if the benefits of employing autistic people is increasingly evident – some argue the cause for significant competitive advantage – how can employers enable inclusion of autistic people in their workforce and leverage the value of a neurodiverse workforce?

 Tips and ideas for enhancing employers ability to be inclusive and embrace the value of autistic people in the workplace

• It starts with you

Inclusion is a culture and culture building starts at the top. This needs true leadership! Start by challenging your own fears, perceptions, understanding (or lack of), and barriers and in so doing help remove barriers for people with autism in the work place. If you are a business owner or leader then you have the opportunity to make the difference, open the door, and help harness the value of autistic people in your workplace. If it’s important and of value to you, then it will be important and of value to your people.

• You are not alone

There is an increasing number of organisations that are seeing and experiencing the benefits of employing autistic people. These include employers such as JP Morgan Chase & Co, Auticon, ANZ, DXC Technology, SunPork, Westpac and IBM to name a few.

Asperger Services Australia (ASA) is currently developing their expertise with the goal to assist organisations like you to attract and enable the value of autistic people in your workplace.

• How you attract and recruit makes all the difference

Conventional candidate attraction and interviewing methods are often inappropriate for candidates with autism because their communication styles are different and traditional recruitment is all about communication, rapport building and engagement. This does not mean they are not the right person for the job!

Consider tapping into alternative candidate referral pathways such as career fairs, non-profit and school/TAFE/university recruiting and outreach, and employee referrals.

Seek advice or expertise on how you can enable interview and assessment processes that support people with autism being able to demonstrate their strengths and suitability for the job, not how to ‘perform’ at an interview.

Ask an autistic person and get their perspective on how you can do this in an effective and inclusive way that removes barriers and allows them to share their strengths.

Work trials and practical assessments are two examples of different ways to assess autistic people’s skills and fit for the role.

• Be ready to value and enable difference when it comes

Consider starting a job in a new place when your experience tells you that most people may not understand you or how you think, or why you do some things in a certain way, and being unique and different hasn’t always been a celebrated experience. Daunting right! Set up your workplace to respect and embrace diversity.

Provide training to managers on how to understand autistic communication as well as understanding the practicalities and mindset of inclusion.

Identify and empower sponsors or champions to help promote and enable inclusion practices in your work place.

Develop a buddy system of mentors and help create a network to foster inclusivity and support. This could include a buddy within the team and a mentor that is outside of their direct team. These may be other autistic people and/or people who have training/understanding of autism.

Get to know the person and who they are – autism is a part of the person, its not the person. Take a person-centred approach in establishing an understanding, appreciation and relationship with an autistic person just as you would with anyone. Learn about their strengths and perspectives, likes and dislikes, and how to harness the value they bring.

• Invite the conversation and be willing to listen

Ask your autistic employees what they think needs to change to support inclusive practices that enable them to bring their strengths to their role and be prepared to listen, respond and take action. Be sure to communicate back when actions are being taken.

Ask them what communication format they are most comfortable to have this ongoing dialogue, so they feel comfortable and empowered to articulate their thoughts in a constructive manner. Keep the conversation and feedback going through regular, structured discussions in the agreed format.

•  Be adaptive and make adjustments

Adjustments in practice and processes to create a more inclusive workplace for autistic people often does not come with much or any expense to the bottom line. The most common adjustments include flexible hours, sensory considerations (ie. lighting, noise), providing clarity around roles and expectations, providing regular assurance, offering direct but sensitive feedback and providing clear routine (7). Learn and respond to the things that make the difference so your people feel supported and valued.

People who thrive bring the business alive!

• It’s a journey

Start with defining your ‘why’ and your vision for supporting autistic people in your workplace. Create a plan that will help you start to bring this vision to life, involve your people in the process, and get the right help and expertise to ensure you are planning for success. Create an environment of talking, listening, learning, and improving along the way and understand this is a journey that will evolve. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step – so take the first step!

Diversity in the workplace is not simply a social aspiration. It’s fast becoming a strategic necessity that underpins innovation, progress and growth. There are a number of social and commercial reasons why employing autistic people is an important and valuable step in an organisation’s journey of inclusion. There are more inclusive ways to recruit, support, empower and retain autistic people in the work place, enabling access to skilled talent from a virtually untapped talent pool of neurodiverse thinkers, that will give your business that competitive edge.

You are not on your own as an employer. There are organisations that specialise in helping and guiding this culturally and strategically important step towards an autism-inclusive workplace as well as accessible resources available to help you take those first steps.

Start thinking today about how this might fit in your business and how you can make a difference, be the difference, and leverage the difference of engaging autistic people in your business.

If you would like to have a conversation or explore your options you can contact Asperger Services Australia (ASA ) on 07 3865 2911 or office@asperger.asn.au.

We would love to help you on your journey!

 Cameron Thayer

ASA Board Director

References

1. Autism CRC response to the National Disability Employment Strategy consultation paper (dss.gov.au)

2. How Our Autism at Work Program is Helping to Win the War for Top Tech Talent (jpmorganchase.com)

3. Employment-Community-Attitudes-and-Lived-Experiences-Research-Report_FINAL.pdf (amaze.org.au)

4. Home | Specialisterne Australia

5. Services | Specialisterne Australia

6.  Neurodiverse Hiring Brings Social and Business Benefits (jpmorganchase.com)

7. AMZ_11134_2019_FACTSHEET_A4_6pp_FA_screen.pdf (amaze.org.au)

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People with an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, that includes those with Asperger’s Syndrome are highly skilled and talented people but are grossly under utilised in the workplace. This needs to change.

Some of the key strategies and management practices that support people with an ASD at work shall be shared which will enable a more inclusive and diverse workforce to be employed across most business sectors.

In the UK only 16% of people with an ASD are in full time employment. A further 16% have part time work. This compares to a national average of 47% of disabled people who have some form of employment and 80% of abled bodied people who have jobs.

Some of the key skills that people with an ASD possess are:-

·      Innovative approaches

·      Attention to detail

·      High levels of expertise

·      Integrity and honesty

·      Methodical approach

·      Deep focus

In Australia and elsewhere across the world, there is an IT company that exclusively employs people with an ASD as their technical specialists with 75% of all staff having an ASD. More can be found about auticon below.

https://auticon.com/auticon-arrives-in-australia/

Imagine the benefits to your company if you employed people with an ASD.

However, having talented employees is only part of the story. To get the best from any employee, particularly one with an ASD, they need to be managed so that their skills are encouraged and developed allowing the individual to flourish and the business excel.

Three of these techniques are the brief, the safe space and feedback.

The brief.

In taking on any new task, it is essential that the person doing the work is given a full and thorough brief setting out in clear and precise steps what is expected of them.

The safe space.

Sometimes, someone with an ASD can become overwhelmed which might lead to an incident at work. By allowing them to go to a safe space away from the hullabaloo of the work environment they will be able to calm down and relax so that they can return to work after a short while.

Feedback.

It is important to have an honest review of the work done with the person who has a ASD so that lessons can be learnt, good practices reinforced and areas where improvement is necessary be identified and implemented.

Those who have an ASD, including those with Asperger’s Syndrome are highly skilled, under utilised and eager for work. There are many simple, effective and low cost techniques that can be employed to get the best from them allowing the individual and the business to thrive.

See more here https://lnkd.in/enR3qETD

Instead of focussing on the LABEL, focus on what someone is ABLE to do.

If you would like to know more about the author and how he can help you identify and better manage those with Asperger’s Syndrome at work, please get in touch at http://www.andrewmarsh.co or email him at info@andrewmarsh.co

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