Neurodiverse IT Company Auticon Finds Autism an Asset During Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the workforce landscape. Overnight companies have had to switch from bustling office spaces to remote work. IT companies that employ individuals on the spectrum are finding that their neurodiverse team members are adapting exceptionally well to working from home.
Auticon is a global IT consulting and social enterprise firm where 200 of their 300 global employees have autism. The company is quick to recognize that individuals with autism often excel at business intelligence, quality-assurance test automation and complex software development projects. Their unique cognitive strengths such as attention to detail, a systematic way of working, logical analysis, pattern recognition, error detection and sustainable concentration for routine activities make them ideal employees. Knowing that up to 90% of autistic adults are underemployed or unemployed, they tapped into this pool as an overlooked source of talent, creating a win/win situation for employer and employee.
Prior to the pandemic, Auticon employed job coaches in Los Angeles, Columbus and Salt Lake City to set their autistic team members up for success and serve as a liaison for them to communicate their needs. They also had on-site support for ASD individuals in their regional offices.
When the virus struck in March, the company converted to remote work with only three days notice. The transition for their neurodiverse workers went much more easily than expected. The company enlisted the job coaches to check in daily and reached out to family members as well, to help their autistic workers create a distraction-free work-at-home environment.
Auticon found that their neurodiverse workers were utterly honest and direct about how much and how hard they were working. The tech tools the company used for remote communication, such as Slack, Jira and Microsoft Teams proved seamless for them. People with autism find verbal or face-to-face conversations involving body language and emotional expression more subjective and challenging than in email and precise text formats. Those who aren’t comfortable making eye contact in person discovered that they were able to do so on Zoom calls, giving them a new way to connect. The company threw a Zoom celebration of Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month.
Auticon has found a silver lining in the coronavirus. Working remotely has made them a more nimble company and actually accelerated their success. After the coronavirus is over, they will be among those companies who maintain a permanent remote work force presence. They see hiring more autistic individuals not only as a way to bring more diverse thinking to a team, but also as a way to ensure they are staffed with people who naturally excel at working from home.
Auticon is certainly not the only company to recognize the strength of hiring individuals on the autism spectrum, especially given their affinity for remote work. Because COVID-19 is forcing companies to adopt more flexible practices and to be more transparent, the glass ceiling holding back neurodivergent workers is being shattered. More and more companies are developing a symbiotic relationship with their neurodivergent workforce, creating change and opportunity that will outlast the coronavirus pandemic.
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