Dear Reader,
This week, I traced back through the history of workplace neurodiversity programmes, trying to pinpoint when everything shifted. What I found surprised me: it wasn't policy changes or new legislation that reset expectations. It was social media - and it happened faster than most organisations realised.
Your recruitment team is confused. Candidates are asking questions that didn't exist five years ago. "What adjustments do you offer during the interview process?" "Can I have questions in advance?" "Is the role suitable for neurodivergent professionals?"
Your line managers are stuck. Someone's requested noise-cancelling headphones, but HR isn't sure if that's reasonable. Another team member wants meeting agendas sent 24 hours ahead - is that a preference or a requirement? The language around neurodiversity keeps shifting, and no one's quite sure what they're allowed to ask.
Meanwhile, your talent competitors are advertising neurodiversity-confident employer status on their websites, your employee survey shows rising disclosure rates, and that LinkedIn post from your graduate scheme just got torn apart in the comments for using outdated language about "fitting in."
This isn't a compliance problem you can solve with a policy update. It's a fundamental reset of what employees expect - and it happened faster than most HR teams realised
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How we got here
For most of the twentieth century, workplace support for neurodivergent people required a diagnosis, a deficit model, and a lot of fear. You had to decide if it was safe enough to request adjustments. The social model of disability began to challenge this decades ago, but it remained largely theoretical until three things converged in the last ten years.
First, workplace programmes at organisations such as EY, GCHQ, and JPMorgan have shown that neurodivergent talent delivers a competitive advantage when systems adapt. I was part of the team that built EY's Neuro-Diverse Centre of Excellence in the UK - recruiting across autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia into data analyst roles, not as CSR but as business strategy. We won awards not for being kind, but for focusing on how recruitment actually worked for a neurodivergent brain - highlighting simple changes that, when implemented, were useful for everyone.
Second, these pioneers multiplied. Other organisations followed, focusing on Neurodiversity across the organisation. Lloyds Banking Group took it one step further, thinking not only about those who worked for them, but also their customers. Government panels started focusing on closing employment gaps. Job adverts explicitly mentioning neurodiversity went from rare to routine. The narrative has started to shift from "special accommodation" to "smart talent strategy."
But neither of these changed who controlled that narrative. Medical professionals, HR specialists, and charities still mediated how neurodivergent experiences were understood and discussed.
Then the third force arrived: social media at scale.
What changed
Over the last five years, platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram enabled neurodivergent professionals to speak directly to each other and to employers - at volume, in public, without mediation.
Three dynamics now shape what your organisation faces, whether you've noticed or not.
First, first-person storytelling made abstract DEI language concrete. Autistic, ADHD, and dyslexic professionals share what poorly designed workplaces actually cost them - and what good support actually looks like. They describe thriving in senior roles, building careers, and succeeding when given the right conditions. This created powerful social proof that disclosure and advocacy are possible.
Second, online communities developed a collective language and identity. Terms like "spiky profile," "AuDHD," and "rejection sensitive dysphoria" emerged from neurodivergent communities, not medical textbooks. Many employees now encounter the neurodiversity paradigm through social media, and then expect their employers' practices to reflect that understanding. Your policies might still reference "disabilities" and "reasonable adjustments." Your candidates are talking about "unmasking" and "baseline expectation for adjustments."
Third, social media blurred the boundary between internal practice and external reputation. Stories travel. Both excellent and poor experiences with recruitment, adjustment requests, performance management, disclosure conversations - they're no longer contained inside your organisation. They shape employer brand, talent pipelines, and even customer perception.
The practical implication for HR is clear: even if your internal policies haven't caught up, your employees' expectations were reset by what they see and share online every day. Silence or token gestures are now read as choices, not oversights.
What this actually costs
Neurodivergent candidates who self-select out before applying. Talented employees who leave rather than disclose. Innovation you're screening out by prioritising "cultural fit" over cognitive diversity.
Meanwhile, your competitors are hiring the people you rejected, building reputations as places where neurodivergent professionals actually succeed, and learning that the adjustments neurodivergent employees request - clear communication, advance agendas, flexible working, outcome-focused management - improve performance for everyone.
This isn't academic. When job adverts don't mention adjustments, candidates assume you don't offer them. When managers aren't trained to respond to disclosure or normalise the neurodiversity conversation, employees stay silent. When recruitment processes can't define what "cultural fit" actually means, you're losing the cognitive diversity that drives innovation.
You don't need to become neurodiversity specialists. You need to recognise that the frame shifted from individual deficit to organisational design. Early workplace programmes proved that adapted systems work. Social media ensured that knowledge isn't confined to case studies anymore - it's live, public, and shaping candidate decisions right now.
One change, immediate action
Have a think about how Neuro-Inclusion has changed in your business over the last five years. What has made the biggest difference? Where is there still resistance to change? What needs to be your next focus? If you google - your company and neurodiversity what will candidates see? What do you think you need to do next?
I usually give you a solution to implement, but I think the solution differs depending on where you are in your Neuro-inclusion journey. If you'd like help working through any of these questions, or would like an insight into the work I do and how I help organisations, I am always happy to chat.
Often, it is the smallest, simplest, low-cost options that can make a real difference.
And finally, a question for you?
Where do your employees and candidates encounter neurodiversity narratives - your internal policies or their social media feeds? And which source do you think shapes their expectations more powerfully?
See you next week.
Tania
P.S One of the simplest ways to signpost commitment to Neurodiversity is to plan an event during Neurodiversity Celebration Week. This year it is the 16th-20th March. Last year, some of the events I was privileged to be part of included chairing panels on neuro-inclusive communication, delivering keynotes on Neurodiversity as a strategic advantage, training teams on practical, quick wins we could all implement immediately, and participating in a fireside chat that shared both personal and professional insights. If you would like to find out how I can support your organisation, reply to this email.
FIVE ways you can work with me:
- Neuro-inclusive Recruitment Audit: Understand what practical steps you can take to ensure your recruitment process is inclusive for all.
- Training: From line managers to leaders, global HR teams to recruitment, awareness sessions to champion training.
- Consultancy: Policy writing, process redesign, reviewing neurodiversity materials, data, ERG launches - anything neurodiversity at work related!
- Coaching: One-to-one coaching to help support an individual navigate the world of work as someone who is neurodivergent
- Speaking: From a fireside chat to a keynote, podcast guest to panellist
Reply to this email to find out more!
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