Buckland Review of Autism provides useful insight for employers

The Government has published a report designed to help employers provide better support for people with autism to both start and remain in work. The Buckland Review, Commissioned by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, and led by Sir Robert Buckland KC, looked at how employers recruit, retain and develop autistic people, identifying barriers to this happening and developing effective ways to overcome those barriers, with the aim of significantly improving the autism employment rate over the next 5 years.  

The report highlights that:
- Only three in ten working age autistic people are in employment compared to five in ten for all disabled people
- Autistic people face the largest pay gap of all the disability groups, receiving a third less than non-disabled people on average; and
- Only about 35% of autistic employees are fully open about being autistic, with 10% keeping it entirely secret
The Review outlines 19 recommendations for workplaces to become more inclusive of neurodiversity so more autistic people can start and stay in work. It includes the views of hundreds of autistic people and employers.
This is an area which is attracting a lot more media attention and political interest than years gone by and it is definitely on the radar of many more of our clients. Amy Hextell is a diversity specialist who has seen this for herself and earlier she joined me by video-link to discuss the report and its recommendations:

Amy Hextell: “I’m really impressed by this report that's come out from the government. It's really nice to see a report that is detailed, but actually offers some practical hints and tips for employers. There was lots in the report that I thought was really, really useful as a guide and although there's some fairly obvious things in there that quite often these reports talk about, such as raising awareness and training for managers and things, in particular there were some really good practical tips around recruitment and creating an inclusive process for those with autism. As an example, quite often job descriptions can be vague, or they're very focused around social skills. Quite often in interviews there's a question around whether the person is a team player which, of course, lots of people with autism are but, actually, if you were to ask them that direct question they may interact with people in a different way so that can immediately put people off, or cause them difficulty in getting through interview stages. The other thing, and what we are trying to encourage employers to do at the moment and you don't often see, is actually sharing interview questions in advance. I think it has just been accepted that the way that you do an interview is you put people on the spot as part of the interview and, of course, there may be roles where part of the assessment, and legitimate assessment, is assessing how people deal in pressurised situations but actually sending the questions in advance and giving somebody the best opportunity, whether they have autism or not, is something we would recommend. So, really good to see some helpful hints and tips from the government in this report.”

Joe Glavina: “What comes across in the report, Amy, is how managers are being encouraged to look at adapting the way they do things and change up their managerial style to be generally more accommodating.”

Amy Hextell: “Something that really brought this home to me that the report mentions was a quote that had been received from one of the people that had input to the report which was, if you were to imagine somebody that plays the violin going for an interview to be part of an orchestra, it's unlikely that they'd be asked to describe a time that they played the violin. Instead, they would be actually asked to play the violin and that really brought it home to me because, quite often, those with autism would find it quite difficult to respond to a question of ‘tell me about a time when’ because of the context whereas, actually, if they were asked to demonstrate the practical skill instead, they would pass with flying colours. So, I thought that was a really useful example to bring it home to employers and actually something that we've seen at Pinsents in the way that we approach our assessment centres now for our trainee intake is to ask them to complete some practical exercises, as opposed to simply an interview with contextual questions and we've seen some really great results to that. So, that's something that we would really encourage and I thought that that was a nice example in the report.”

Joe Glavina: “The report talks about supporting autistic people who are already in the workplace by reviewing the suitability of their immediate surroundings, the equipment they use and even the furnishings. What did you make of that?” 

Amy Hextell: “The report encourages employers to think about creating these ‘autism design guides’ and I think that the idea behind those is that an employer assesses its physical environment but also the processes that it has in place and looks at it through the lens of somebody with autism, or making adjustments that might make the workplace more inclusive. So for example, dealing with flexible working requests, quite often those with autism may find it challenging to work in an open plan environment with lots of noise, bright lights, and that sort of sensory overload all of the time. So, that's something that could be built into the autism design guide that actually the workplace has quiet spaces, or it has dim lighting, or the way that an employer's flexible working application process works is to not completely rule out homeworking altogether, albeit that there is still that push at the moment, I think, from some employers to have people back in the office. So, I think the idea behind these autism design guides is that they act as a bit of a roadmap really for employers in supporting not just those with autism but everybody. Something that really comes through from the report is that, really, there shouldn't be a need for those with autism to either disclose that, or have particular special adjustments made for them. There are lots of things that are quite easy to do, and quite cheap to do, or even free - and that really comes through in the report as well, that this doesn't require a big investment of money - that would actually be beneficial for everyone. So, we're creating an inclusive environment that by its nature supports those with autism.”

Joe Glavina: “One of the recommendations I noticed, Amy, is that firms should look at their IT software and check its suitability for use by autistic people. What’s your message to HR on that?” 

Amy Hextell: “I think really, the message to HR is to try and get involved in developing these processes from the outset. So, where software is being developed as part of either assessing people in a recruitment exercise, or any software that's used, IT systems that are used, by the employer for its day-to-day work, if HR can be involved in developing those system and, not just HR, but actually if you have those with autism working for your organisation who are open and want to be involved. Of course, not everybody does, but it's really important that those with autism have their voice heard as part of this so developing software with that input is really useful. One word of caution, and something that comes out in the report which I thought, again, was really topical, and interesting, was that sometimes the use of AI can actually cause discrimination against those with autism. So, some employers are using software and AI as part of recruitment processes, for example, that assess the level of eye contact somebody makes, or the mannerisms that they have and, again, that can cause almost an indirect disadvantage, or indirect discrimination, against those with autism. So, just a word of caution there, but all the more reason, really, for HR to be involved in these decisions about software that's been used because they can guard against that kind of thing.”

Joe Glavina: “I see the report recommends employers sign up to the Autistica Neurodiversity Employers Index to access guidance on designing inclusive processes and procedures. That’s a new one to me. Is it something you have come across?”

Amy Hextell: “I had  a look at the index that’s mentioned in the report on the Autistica website and it is something that's new. I think it's in development at the moment so I wasn't able to get too much detail when I looked on the website about that index but my understanding is that it's in development and the idea is that it's almost a compilation really. It brings together all of the good practice, and all of the good examples, that employers are using or that are recommended by charities or, indeed, by this report, into one place so it can act as a bit of a toolkit for employers which I think would be really useful because there is lots of information out there but it's quite disparate and I think that bringing it together in an index such as this could be a really helpful step and certainly for us as employment and equality law advisors it would be something that we'd be looking at in conjunction with the advice we're providing to employers as well.”

The Buckland Review was published by the Government on 28 February and comprises 56 pages of very useful guidance and suggestions for employers. We have included a link to it in the transcript of this programme.

LINKS
- Link to Buckland Review of Autism