Digital Workspace

Tapping into neurodiverse talent to tackle the tech skills gap

The UK is suffering from a serious skills shortage, and IT, cyber security and data roles are among some of the hardest hit. The WEF’s Future of Jobs Report 2020 states that tech-related roles account for more than half of the top 20 in-demand roles globally. Similarly, our own research shows that among the most in-demand roles post-pandemic are Data Analysts and Scientists, Cyber Security Experts, Robotics Engineers, Automation Specialists and Software and Application Developers. In the US, the rate of growth for information security jobs is projected at 37% between 2012 and 2022 – much faster than the average for all other occupations.As the market for specialist IT skills tightens and traditional graduate schemes fall short of delivering the volume of talent required, the pool of viable candidates continues to diminish and costs for attracting these workers goes up. In order to close the skills gap, organisations must look outside traditional talent pools. New sources of previously untapped talent need to be identified to help bolster capability and keep organisations ahead of the curve.So, what’s the solution?There are several ways organisations can go about rethinking how to address this, but many do not realise there is an underrepresented pool of candidates with a huge amount of skill and talent to bring to the table.Autistic people often have key strengths that are being frequently overlooked. These strengths include logical thinking and problem-solving, an attention to detail and an ability to see patterns that are not so obvious to others. Studies show that 60% of this population have the same or higher cognitive ability than their neuro-typical (non-autistic) counterparts. Despite this, the unemployment rate of people with autism is shockingly high at 78% – the highest across all disability groups.What is the reason for this high unemployment rate?Many aspects of the world of work have been built with only the neuro-typical in mind. Autistic people often find it difficult to get jobs or stay in them because the way that they think and react to social situations differs from the way that organisations choose to recruit and select employees. They do not fit the management and learning methods that businesses typically use.This does not mean that autistic people can’t perform highly skilled roles or become part of an effective workforce. It simply means that our traditional recruitment methods, management styles and workplace environments need to be adjusted to allow these candidates to demonstrate their potential.Making a few minor changes can open up a fantastically powerful new channel of highly skilled candidates and create real positive change.Skills that bring valueAs with all populations skills and abilities vary tremendously, however within the autistic population there are often some common traits that lend themselves particularly well to cyber security and data roles. These include:Logical and analytical capabilitiesAttention to detailGood visual memory and long-term memoryAbility to see patternsSustained concentration and perseverance even with repetitive tasksPerfectionism, eagerness to pleaseTaking things apart and putting them back togetherAbility to learn routines, adherence to rules and schedulesDetailed knowledge of specific areas of interest and comprehensive technical expertise.In fact, some of these soft skills such as analytical thinking and creativity are some of the most sought-after skills by organisations hiring for tech roles.With the right balance of job type, support and workplace environment, some remarkable performance results and innovation have been achieved by autistic teams – with performance benefits in excess of 25% compared to neuro-typical teams.What can organisations do to enable autistic candidates to succeed in the workplace?We need to be deliberate about reducing the high unemployment rate of autistic people. That’s why Experis, part of ManpowerGroup, has partnered with Untapped, to help employers remove the barriers facing neurodiverse talent.Untapped has created an ecosystem to build, support and deliver leading evidence-based autism employment programs to help corporates and governments accelerate their ability to address critical talent gaps, whilst supporting autistic adults to build the skills and knowledge to establish sustainable careers.Experis and Untapped have teamed up to support the expansion of DXC Technology’s Dandelion Programme into the UK. The programme is designed to recruit people from within the autism community and provide the technical, workplace and life skills required to build a sustainable IT career. In June 2021 we welcomed the first cohort of eight neurodiverse trainees working in Software Testing and User Experience (UX) to the programme.This programme is unique partly due to the support of Autism Spectrum Consultants (ASCs). The ASCs work with the candidates to support them throughout their assessment stage, onboarding, functional, living and social skills, induction weeks and first two years of employment. During the first weeks of the programme the candidates may experience difficulties due to anxiety, transition, sleep difficulties or sensory issues. The ASCs work through these challenges holistically with the candidates and support them through their transition. In addition, the ASCs provide training and mentorship to employers and senior stakeholders, with an emphasis on building an inclusive work environment.Laura Harman and Romeana Gudger, Untapped’s ASCs supporting the DXC team, can see the positive outcomes this type of programme can make, stating: “It was easy to see how the DXC Dandelion Programme differs to other autism employment initiatives. The programme is grounded in research and evidenced-based practice. Having known the programme has run with huge success in Australia since 2014, the opportunity to be employed as an Autism Spectrum Consultant, working alongside the Untapped and DXC team was extremely attractive. The experience has been exciting and enormously rewarding.”The candidate’s perspectiveThe insights that some of the trainees have provided into their journey is testament to the impact the programme has already had:“I was not diagnosed as autistic until January 2018, at the ripe age of 36. Until then I just went about thinking that I had a few quirks, as everybody does. I have had a number of experiences during my life which had also led to me being diagnosed with PTSD, which increases my anxiety amongst other traits.As a British Army Veteran, I am signed up to a few veterans’ charities. A gentleman involved with the charity Walking with the Wounded sent me a link to the Dandelion programme when I asked if he knew of any opportunities for people on the autism spectrum. I had a Teams meeting with Untapped to learn more about the roles and the assessment process. I was already very interested by then, so I applied for the role.This whole experience has been refreshing from the start, from engaging with Untapped and undertaking the assessment phase – which helped to identify people’s strengths, and possibly state weaknesses – right through to interacting with Experis and Paul in relation to the additional application process, clearances, and setting up contracts too. The process was different to what I had ever experienced before. It was very insightful and refreshing as I had not interacted with so many people on the spectrum before, nor with people who were, and are, so very interested in working with autistic people like me.I’ve been openly referred to Access to Work to see what specific equipment they may be able to assist me with. This is a barrier that was put up for me in previous roles and is what forced me to seek employment elsewhere. This support has helped me transition into the role, and I hope that the time and effort put in to assist me can be turned into something that may go on to help other people within the autistic community as well.For me, this is a great opportunity for anybody on the autism spectrum. It is great to be working firstly with a company who already know that I am autistic, understand that I have strengths and weaknesses, are alright with me learning at my own pace, and are also very welcoming too.”With the right support, this is a key talent pool that organisations can access. Employers need to re-evaluate their hiring strategies and how they view the labour market in order to reduce the high unemployment rate of those with autism. This will benefit both organisations who are facing an unprecedented skills gap, as well as providing meaningful work to an underrepresented group who have a huge amount to offer.If you would like to find out more and explore how you can go about hiring people on the autistic spectrum for key roles in your organisation, please contact Ed Price.Written by: Jo Pursaill, Director of Talent at ManpowerGroup, co-authored with Ed Price, Experis and Adam Easterbrook, Untapped

How to build a digital workspace for today’s challenges

As the UK employment market goes from strength to strength, we are seeing the needs of digital talent, as well as companies, change. After a tougher market through the depths of the pandemic, now is the time to secure the best talent as their faith in the UK economy and employment market is restored.But how teams and solutions are built has changed, and the priorities companies should keep in mind have also been altered in light of the pandemic, so how can companies prepare for the future and build the digital workspace they need to succeed?Trends in the market – increasing salaries and the importance of learnabilityDue to the shortage of candidates available in the market, and how competitive the market currently is, companies are now acknowledging that they can only recruit for the skills that they absolutelyneed. It is no longer possible to have a ‘wish list’ of skills on a job spec; lists of experience of 15-20 technologies being required are a thing of the past. Instead, recruiting for learnability is now equally as important as the actual skills a candidate presently has.Furthermore, clients aren’t getting traction with adverts. Whilst this has been the case for some time, clients are really having to sell themselves more than asking for a long list of requirements. Additionally, with some reports of technical vacancies being open for a number of months, employers need to remember not to always think what they need now, but what they will need in three months’ time.With remote working firmly a norm now for many organisations across the UK, candidates can apply for roles anywhere in the UK, including major hubs such as London which previously were too far away when office-based work was required. With digital skills being so heavily in demand, salaries are increasing at an alarming rate and companies that are based in cities like Manchester and Glasgow are now consistently competing with companies in London, who typically have higher salaries and are in turn raising the expectations of candidates from a salary perspective. By lowering experience expectations, focusing on a candidate’s learnability and highlighting what a company can offer to talent, it is still possible to stand apart in the crowded market.Implementing cross functional teams to increase collaborationWithin the tech industry, we’re accustomed to seeing teams structured based on function, with members sharing technical expertise. Increasingly, however, this siloed approach is becoming outdated, and business are shifting towards cross-function collaboration.Cross-functional teams often consist of groups of employees from various functions across a business who work together to achieve organisational goals. By having team members such as Developers, Testers, DevOps Engineers, UX Designers and Product Owners collaborating closely on projects, a greater level of synergy, communication and a clearly defined common goal are afforded.Experis have a lot of experience in recruiting for these team structures. Our vertically/technically aligned recruiters are equipped with the experience to qualify candidates around their experience in these kinds of teams. Having also worked with a number of clients who have built out these kinds of teams, Experis can advise on what has proven successful in the past, as well as potential pitfalls and how to avoid these.The benefits of approaching projects from a technology agnostic perspectiveRather than building a solution based on what technology skills your organisation already possesses in-house, approaching a project from a technology agnostic perspective means developing a solution without a particular technology in mind, but rather based on what technology would best compliment it.This approach carries with it multiple benefits for organisations. As teams are constantly learning new technologies and in turn feeling empowered to contribute to conversations around what technology they believe would best suit a solution or project, taking a technology agnostic approach can help improve staff retention. It also carries the added benefit of helping a company remain at the cutting edge of technology, by encouraging consistent research and training within the team.Make technology choices based on access to talentMoving forward, making technology choices based on access to talent will help organisations to attract talent and can also offer cost saving benefits. As mentioned earlier, gone are the days of creating job specs with a requirement of experience with innumerable technologies. Instead, companies interested in attracting and retaining top talent should make technology decisions based on talent, as opposed to talent decisions based on technology.If an organisation is to select a software solution or choose to complete a project in a certain language or technology that has an extremely small talent pool, this can have a detrimental impact on the organisation as these talent pools are very often very highly paid, due to the scarcity of their skills within the market.As the past eighteen months has demonstrated, technology requirements can shift quickly, and what a company is currently using may not be what is best for business needs in a year or two. Increasingly, the priority should be on the learnability of a candidate, as this will demonstrate their ability to adapt and learn new skills as and when it is required.The talent market has changed considerably in the last year, and we are not anticipating a return to pre-pandemic methods of working. Instead, organisations need to take the learnings of the past eighteen months on board to rethink their talent strategies in order to be in a strong position to build the workforce they require to meet the post-pandemic challenges of today and tomorrow. By putting the priorities of candidates first, being flexible and taking a technology agnostic approach to projects, companies can ensure they stand out from the crowd as an employer of choice to top talent, and are well on their way to building structures and processes fit for the future.To learn more about how Experis can help your organisation build a digital workspace ready to meet the challenges of today, contact our team here.

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