ADHD in recruitment
ADHD isn't just a buzz word.
October is ADHD awareness, so I sat down with our Marketing Coordinator Sam to talk through my experience of working in recruitment as someone with ADHD, as well as my hopes for the future of work for people who are diagnosed.
Sam - So Grace, why are we having this chat today?
Grace -With it being ADHD awareness month, I wanted to talk through my experience and how we can make recruitment a more inclusive space for neurodivergent people. ADHD is something that everyone knows and talks about, but do we actually know what it is? Do we know if the support in place for both work and the interview process are enough? I’m hoping we can raise a bit more awareness around this and get a bigger conversation started about what can be done. ADHD is more commonly diagnosed in men than women, with a ratio of about 3:1. As a woman, my thinking is if this conversation can get even a few more women - or anyone really - to seek out support if they feel they have undiagnosed ADHD, then that would be great.
Sam - What has been done so far to help the workplace be more inclusive for people with ADHD?
Grace - Speaking from my personal experience, having one to ones with the HR team helped a lot to lay out a plan moving forward. We also have our monthly development meetings with our line managers where we talk through issues that might crop up. Throughout my first months at FMC I realised that time management was going to be a real struggle, and not being able to focus on tasks and getting sidetracked was something I could see becoming a problem.
Thankfully, my line manager Joe supported me with this method called the Pomodoro technique. It’s basically a way to help break down your day as well as giving you time to walk away for a few minutes and come back to the task which has really helped me to stay focused.
Sam – So I guess what’s been a big help for you is the openness of talking about how your mind works, as well as the flexibility from your line manager to try different ways of working to suit your needs.
Grace – Yeah, my day doesn’t look like a lot of other people’s days because I just can’t sit at my desk all day and stay focused for that long, and Joe’s been aware of that and been really great. As you said, it was that open communication that I have with Joe and with the People team that has allowed for these accommodations to be made so I can work in the way that’s most productive for me.
Sam - What do you want the future of work to look like?
Grace – I’d say that the future of work should look even more supportive of everyone’s specific needs. There have been really great strides to making the workplace a more inclusive and supportive environment in recent years, but there’s definitely more that can be done as well. For neurodivergent people, mental health support is a big one as the 2 kind of come hand in hand a lot of the time. I’m really glad that FMC sees the value in offering mental health support, and it would be a great step for this to become the norm.
I also think removing the stigma around the phrase ‘ADHD’ will go a long way in the workplace as well. Around 65% of workers with ADHD worry about facing discrimination from their managers, and this comes from the stigma around the phrase. There’s no one way that ADHD affects someone, there’s a wide spectrum of behaviours that people with ADHD can exhibit and once that becomes more common knowledge, then I think the level of support available will get to where it needs to be overall. People need their own tools to go about their day the way that works best for them, so again that openness from managers to try new ways of working that fits to individual needs will help not just those with ADHD and are neurodivergent, but the wider workforce as well.
Sam - How do you think recruitment processes could support candidates more?
Grace – I think that when companies are advertising for a role that adding the benefits package into the job advert is obviously a big thing. Making it clear in the benefits package that your company does offer support for neurodivergent people and will be flexible to talk about working arrangements will go a long way to making those candidates feel comfortable moving forward with the process.
There also is a bit of uncertainty around whether candidates should feel the need to disclose if they have ADHD during the interview process, again I think part of that comes with the stigma surrounding the word. I don’t believe people should have to disclose that information unless they feel comfortable to or they feel they need accommodations to be made during the process. An example would be if there was a task to complete between interviews, accommodating maybe an increased timeline to allow for the candidate to properly process what the task is asking for. That’s one of the big things that affects a lot of people with ADHD, processing speed can be a lot slower than those considered neurotypical which is why tasks can take us a bit longer than most.
Conclusion
We hope this chat was both informative and got you to think more about workers with ADHD. If you are someone looking for your own working strategies, or even a line manager looking to help employees with ADHD, we’ve found some useful tools to help below including more about the Pomodoro technique previously mentioned!
https://adhduk.co.uk/interview-adjustments/
https://adhduk.co.uk/reasonable-adjustments/
https://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
References
https://augmentive.io/blog/workplace-adhd-statistics-uk
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder/background-information/prevalence/#:~:text=In%20the%20UK%2C%20the%20prevalence,and%20in%20people%20with%20disabilities