National Disability Employment Awareness Month's theme this year is “Access to Good Jobs for All” and HR leaders can use this occasion to make workplaces more accepting and hospitable towards autistic people.
Autistic employees can be up to 140% more productive than average workers when they are matched with the right position.
However, autistic employees often face discrimination and are even fired for autism-related problems and thus, organizations miss out on their valuable contributions.
Autistic employees may have difficulty with non-verbal behavior, comprehension of another point of view, change, sensory issues, among other difficulties.
10 best practices for working with autistic employees include celebrations of individuality, training for neurotypical individuals, understanding and providing reasonable accommodations, respecting their privacy, tailoring communication standards according to their needs, encouraging questions among others.
HR leaders should stay tuned in to potential problems such as managers directly discriminating against workers based on disability, rooting out retaliation against autistic employees who have raised issues and ensuring performance management removes disability from performance considerations.
HR leaders can train managers and staff about how to work with autistic workers, which can prevent costly lawsuits and help foster a more nurturing and accepting workplace.