Autistic people face 'catalogue of barriers' preventing entry to workforce - with only a fifth in employment

Autistic people face a “catalogue” of barriers preventing them from entering the workforce, and only about a fifth of adults with the condition are actually employed, according to a report published today.

Auticon – an IT consulting business and social enterprise that exclusively employs adults on the autism spectrum in permanent roles – has at the start of Autism Acceptance Week unveiled its Neurodiversity in Work survey, polling almost 1,000 autistic workers. The report, which also comes ahead of Autism Awareness Month in April, has identified “discriminatory” recruitment practices, a lack of individual support at work, and poor autism awareness in organisations and employer prejudice as key problems.

The consultancy, which launched an Edinburgh base in 2019 that it was able to expand after receiving a grant from Scottish Enterprise two years later, sees that due to a lack of education amongst the general workforce and reasonable accommodations being made, autistic people are often seen as too direct, literal, or not engaged enough in the social workplace to get and keep the job.

The survey has revealed that 31 per cent of participants cited the traditional recruitment process as the most challenging part of their career. Relevant struggles mentioned include key parts of both the recruitment process and success post-hire being based on “unwritten” rules, picking up on social cues, and generally “playing the corporate game”. Additionally, more than a third of autistic workers said settling into a new organisation has been the most challenging aspect of working life for them, while less than half said felt they could be their authentic selves at work.

Auticon UK says its focus is 'recruiting and retaining talent based on identifying and playing to the strengths of the individual' - and good for businesses. Picture: Kent Smith/Hand Cranked Films Inc.

Whilst 70 per cent of those polled said they had chosen to disclose their autism diagnosis to a trusted colleague, only three in ten felt comfortable sharing it with HR, with older and higher-ranking workers being far more likely to disclose than their junior peers. The latter trend was also reflected in the likelihood of workers to request reasonable adjustments to help support their needs, such as flexible working, and wearing noise cancelling headphones in the workplace, with only half of junior workers and 78 per cent of those in senior roles asking for adaptations like these.

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However, despite “fear and misunderstanding” around asking for reasonable adjustments, only 2 per cent of respondents said they did not get what they had requested, 56 per cent got everything, and 42 per cent got some of what they had said they needed.

Auticon explains that it hires and trains autistic IT consultants and places them at household-name organisations, providing a job coach to help them thrive. Andrea Girlanda, chief executive of Auticon UK, said: “These findings reflect that reasonable adjustments are, usually, relatively straightforward and simple to make… However, more work still needs to be done in terms of making those wider cultural shifts necessary, to ensure that workplaces are more neuroinclusive. Specifically, focusing on the initial ways organisations look to attract, recruit, onboard and retain neurodivergent staff.

“Our aim is to raise awareness, acceptance and understanding of autism, specifically in relation to the workplace, by demystifying the whole concept of neurodiversity. We also want to shine a light on those successfully entering inclusive workplaces, so as to pave the way for more autistic people to thrive in workplaces that are more understanding and accommodating.”