Hiring More People With Autism, Google’s Initiative

One of Google’s goals is to have more neurodivergent employees on its staff. Conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are now viewed with particular interest, as does recruiting more people with autism. Silicon Valley office managers know the potential of these young people.

However, for their recruitment and recruitment, they have had to reformulate their approaches. The selection mechanisms for this population group cannot be the same as for the “neurotypical”  (neologism used for non-autistic people). It is necessary to make use of other approaches that adjust to the characteristics of people who are within the autism spectrum.

Thus, let us remember the high unemployment rate existing in these groups, being valid, competent and endowed (mostly) people with particular skills. Therefore, it is necessary to take advantage of this potential and also favor their inclusion.

It is important to consider that in a job interview many people with autism will avoid eye contact.

Hiring more people with autism: a goal we should keep in mind

Autism spectrum disorder manifests itself in each person in a particular way. There are functional people who surely do not know that they suffer from this condition and there are children, young people and dependent adults who have not developed their communication skills. Therefore, we are facing a very diverse population group.

If we turn now to study rates and employability, the data are interesting. Research works, such as those carried out at the University of Washington (United States), indicate, for example, that 34.7% of young people with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) have gone to university. The employability data after training is very low.

Also, those who do not obtain higher education can take years to find a job. The figures in other countries are very similar. It is not easy for people with a neurodevelopmental problem to integrate into our society. In this way, if it is already difficult for many to get a job in the current context, there are invisible groups that have it even more complicated.

The empowerment of neurodivergent people

Google has started a campaign that has already gone viral and that aims to hire more people with autism. The goal is to collaborate with the Stanford Neurodiversity Project to empower neurodivergent people. That is to say, to all those young people who are within the spectrum and who, due to various prejudices and barriers, cannot have access to a job and demonstrate their potential.

According to the managers of the great American multinational, it is time to create more humane and diverse work environments. What does this mean? It means that we have long promoted corporations dominated by people with the same ways of doing things. We have focused on maintaining a culture in which to hide vulnerabilities and peculiarities.

Disabilities, like neurodiversity in all its forms, were hitherto taboo. Now we know that the more ways of working, of conceiving and thinking, the richer an environment is. Google wants to take advantage of this and that is why it seeks to hire more people with autism.

New forms of personnel selection

A person with autism will not seek eye contact with the interviewer. Nor will you know how to answer questions loaded with irony and contradiction. Moreover, if there is something we know about Google’s selection processes, it is that they are challenging and that in interviews it is key to demonstrate resolution, innovation and reaction capacity.

Those recruits were, until not long ago, focused on neurotypical people. Now, in that goal of hiring more people with autism, the landscape has changed.

• Interviewers have been trained to understand how a person with ASD copes and acts. It is important that they do not mistrust things like your unusual movements, your lack of eye contact or your tone of voice. However, there is a lot of variability in the spectrum.
• The times in the interviews will be extended. They will have more time.
• They will be informed of all the steps to follow in the selection procedures so that everything is highly structured for them.
• They may express themselves in writing if they need it.

On the other hand, there is another objective: and that is that once hired, they find a welcoming work environment. Feeling accepted and integrated is key so that they can demonstrate their potential. This also means training neurotypical employees to know what autism is.

Hiring more people with autism is promoting inclusion

Authentic inclusion is what normalizes and does not differentiate ; However, for this, mechanisms must be created to make this possible. In other words, it is true that people with autism will have more appropriate strategies on Google for their selection based on their particularities. However, they will have the same challenges as anyone who wants to access a job at this tech giant.

The idea is to create an optimal culture and settings for people with ASD to reveal their capabilities. Neurodiversity is a disorder that manifests itself in multiple ways, but everyone needs and deserves a chance.

To make visible and create mechanisms for their access to the labor market is to create a more inclusive world in which to understand that we are all important.