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Strengths of neurodivergent engineers and technicians

Research into the strengths of neurodivergent people conducted by Neurodiversity in Business, a business-led forum that helps organisations share industry good practice on recruitment, retention and empowerment, found 80% identified hyper-focus as a strength, 78% cited creativity and 75% reported innovative thinking, with hyper-focus and creativity common across a range of neurotypes.27

Eleven further strengths included authenticity (64%) and long-term memory (55%).

Most neurodivergent engineers and technicians identified more than one strength that they bring to their work.

These fell into five main categories:

  • ‘Technical’ strengths, often related to information processing. Including hyper-focus, multitasking, logical thinking, the ability to acquire technical knowledge, visual processing, problem identification and problem-solving, seeing the detail and the big picture, pattern spotting, and the capacity to summarise.
  • Creativity and innovation. The capacity to generate ideas and come at problems from a different perspective.
  • Interpersonal skills. Honesty and empathy, and listening skills.
  • Resilience. Including the capacity to remain calm in a crisis.
  • Teamworking. “I love teamwork more than anything. I can get stuck in the detail not making progress sometimes, and teamworking helps me with this.”
  • Working independently. “I’m very good at working alone; I’m very self-motivated”.
  • Management and leadership skills. The capacity to clarify the task, “get things done,” and draw others in. “When leading a design team I make a point of finding the quietest people in the group who often have lots to
    say but not the confidence to say it”.

Engineers and technicians described their strengths as, for example:

“Highly stereotypical stuff – finding patterns in huge amounts of data.”

Others described strengths that run counter to stereotypes:

“People often think that autistic people are less empathetic or not as good at communication… but I help people understand each other better.”

They also recognised that what might be a strength in some contexts and circumstances may be considered a weakness in others:

“In my last job my employer appreciated my strengths, asking questions, arguing strongly, finding solutions. It’s a strength in some contexts and in some cultures, but not in others.”

Whilst most neurodivergent engineers and technicians report strengths linked to their neurodiversity, not all neurodivergent people display the same strengths – and this is true even of those who share the same neurotype.

Many don’t recognise their own behaviours as a strength. As one said:

“I struggle to identify the positives – I need them pointing out to me by my colleagues… I notice things but I assumed everybody else could do that.”

It seems clear that many of the strengths of neurodivergent people contribute to both performance and productivity.

One recent study found that neurodivergent employees in certain tech roles are between 90% and 140% more productive than their neurotypical colleagues27; another found that teams which include neurodivergent professionals can be 30% more productive than those which don’t28.

However, the people we spoke with commonly experience that their strengths are undervalued. “I have these skills but it’s the extent to which organisations value them that’s the issue.”

Whatever the talents, skills and abilities of neurodivergent people, it is often the behaviour of others and the nature of the wider environment that enables them to flourish in the workplace, or gets in the way.

References

27 ‘Neurodiversity at Work 2023’, Neurodiversity in Business https://neurodiversityinbusiness.org/research/

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28 ‘Neurodiversity at Work 2023’, Neurodiversity in Business https://neurodiversityinbusiness.org/research/

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