Of the many different conditions on the neurodiverse spectrum, autism can be the most obvious one to spot.
Characterized by lack of social skills, unusual behavior, being overly blunt (which some may see as rude); and preferring fixed schedules rather than situations where they have to ‘wing it’, autism is very visible.
As such, it’s one of the disabilities where employability rates still need serious attention, and where discrimination against people with it is rife.
Affecting an estimated 1-in-36 children in the US, a whopping 8% of US young people with autism don’t even finish school, and compared with other types of disability, those with autism have the lowest rate of employment – at just 58% of those being employed in their 20s compared to 74% for those with an intellectual disability or 95% with a learning disability. (Data from the AJ Drexel Autism Institute).
Even those that do find employment typically experience a wage gap of around 30% compared to non-autistic employees.
Legally, employers cannot discriminate against an individual just because they have a disability. Included within this legislation is the fact employers cannot refuse to hire qualified, capable job candidates just because they have autism.
We of course know, however, that despite these protections, autistic people can be overlooked – sometimes being seen as people are not ‘team players’ or who need special treatment.
Studies suggest upwards of 50-75% of the 5.6 million autistic adults in the US are unemployed or underemployed. Nearly 50% of 25-year-olds with autism have never held a paying job, despite having the skill sets and expertise to excel in the workplace.
So what are employers doing to address this?
With many not taking specific measures to look into this, it seemingly falls to some of the more trailblazer organizations to showcase how what they do is different.
One of these employers is bank, Wells Fargo. In 2020 it formerly launched its first Neurodiversity Program – the first cohort of which was initiated in August 2020.
The program seeks to put autistic people into roles including commercial banking, consumer lending, corporate risk, small and business banking, and other areas of the business including HR, wealth management and legal.
With the aim of creating “meaningful employment opportunities for a deeply underserved community,” it’s now something of a case study of how developing people with autism is not as difficult as some CHROs might think.
Around 290 people have now accepted full time offers of employment through the Neurodiversity Program. Additionally, 21 interns will imminently start the program this summer.
A feature often forgotten is that those with autism are incredibly loyal – and Wells Fargo prove this, with a staggering 97% retention rate amongst its neurodiverse hires.
So what is the program all about?
To hear first hand, TLNT spoke to Stephen DeStefani, Wells Fargo’s enterprise neurodiversity program executive – the man responsible for running it:
Q: Tell me a bit about the Wells Fargo Neurodiversity Program and how it started?
A: “As a veteran myself – who knows first-hand about the different ways people demonstrate skills and can participate – the program began because we really wanted to give meaningful employment to those who many describe themselves as neurodivergent. I’ve built a DEI and guidance model that helps provide the access necessary for the neurodivergent community.”
Q: What is its aim?
A: “Our aim is to inspire a new type of culture, and improve uneducated bias – which is basically the result of not knowing better. “We have to accept the fact that social norms have driven hiring decisions in the past, but that now we need to be open to change this.”
Q: Is this the Wells Fargo philosophy now?
A: “Very much so. We say that even though accessibility may only apply to some, it benefits all. Obviously the long-term desire would be to remove the need to have a program like this altogether, but before we can eliminate the need for it, we need to knock down barriers.”
Q: How does the program actually work?
A: “It’s a skills-based competency model, where we aim to modify the hiring process and make it more accessible by design – using, for example, third party partners or employee referrals. Then we move to a hiring model using a skills-based assessment. But even this only comes after looking at candidates, spending lots of time with them, and getting to know them, so that people don’t face the usual stress interviewees do. We tell people how we think about people with cognitive differences. Our model addresses this, and creates a business model that truly values strengths-based hiring.”
Q: How do you feel this improves the selection process?
A: “It’s massive. Often, when soft-skills are misinterpreted or mis-matched, it’s down to alignments of social norms. For instance, we tend to value verbal communication more. Our primary consideration is around understanding what skills people need to perform a role. This is what training of our managers brings to the party – where we say it’s acceptable that people communicate differently.”
Q: Some employers will try and target certain roles as being suitable for autistic people. Is this what you do?
A: “No, and that’s exactly the point we are trying to make. We don’t target roles based on perceived suitability like this. There is no ‘right’ role for neurodivergent people. What makes it more right though, is having the intention of inclusivity from the start. We work with managers to create job description that guarantee this, rather than them looking for some sort of unicorn person that doesn’t exist. We’re intentional about roles, and intentional about not over-embellishing them.”
Q: What type of new hires are making it through the process?
A: “It’s across the board. We have nine areas of business, and we have participants across all these. We genuinely feel we are creating access to a community who have been denied in the past. We’ve partnered specifically with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Neurodiversity and Employment Innovation, to deliver inclusivity training into Wells Fargo. It’s the most broadly-scaled up education of its type existing today. And while other employers have tended to hold any learning they’ve made close to their chest, we’ve taken a different approach, be deciding to share it with others. Accessibility is the key here. Neurodiversity should know no societal bounds.”
Q: What do you feel are the overall strengths of the program?
A: “I feel we create a level of psychological safety where people can now talk to their managers about their needs. We see this mentioned time and again through feedback opportunities or employee testimonials. People feel a level of pride to be part of an organization that has their back. Just having this program has seen other employees want to act as coaches – so now we have 160 volunteer coaches too. We’re also now starting to capture retention rates and net promoter scores.”