Blog: Focus on Neurodiversity
Here at Onward we believe that it is important to bring your whole self to work. If we all thought the same, looked the same, behaved the same and shared the same skills and interests, where would we find our inspiration to create new things? A diverse workplace is an important asset and fundamental for maximum productivity and overall business success. So, for Onward it makes business sense.
Neurodiversity and our commitment
This week we would like to shine a light on Neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is a word used to explain the unique ways people’s brains work. While everyone’s brain develops similarly, no two brains function are alike. Being neurodivergent means having a brain that works differently from the average or “neurotypical” person.
- Worldwide prevalence: 15% to 20% of the population is considered to be neurodiverse.
- Neurodiversity by gender: Men present more neurodiversity than women worldwide and at minor scales as well.
- Special abilities: Research shows that conditions such as autism and dyslexia can bestow special skills in pattern recognition, memory, or mathematics.
- Intelligence: Autism presents higher IQ scores than average.
- Work performance: Studies found that neurodiverse teams are 30% more productive than neurotypical ones and made fewer errors.
- Employment: neurodiverse people are more likely to be unemployed than people with any other disability. Unemployment for neurodivergent adults runs at least as high as 30-40% which is three times the rate for people with disability, and eight times the rate for people without disabilities.
Here at Onward, we’re all united by #The Onward Difference. Our 3 Values; Creativity, Excellence and Respectful are key in enabling people to be their very best.
Our colleagues have access to the ‘Celebrate Neurodiversity’ e-learning module which is available through Our Learning (our internal Learning platform). This module allows the learner to understand what the neurodiversity spectrum is, and to understand more about the different neurodiverse elements. In addition to the Neurodiversity module, our colleagues are also able to access the following training modules:
- Definitions of Diversity
- Diversity & Inclusion Overview
- Neurodiversity at Work
- Unconscious Bias
Final thoughts
At Onward we have an on-going commitment to support Diversity & Inclusion and celebrating difference across the workplace. We have a D&I Forum who meet on a monthly basis to discuss how we can continuously improve our D&I offering, as well as celebrating