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Suggestions and recommendations

In this section, we make a number of recommendations for action, based on the insights from the study, targeted at four different stakeholder groups.

  • Managers and colleagues of neurodivergent engineers and technicians employers
  • External partners (professional engineering institutions and government)
  • Neurodiverse engineers and technicians themselves

We also commit to actions ourselves to make engineering and technology truly inclusive.

We also offer some suggestions for neurodivergent engineers and technicians, to help them navigate the workplace and achieve their potential.

We encourage all stakeholders to read the suggestions and recommendations for all groups.

For the managers and colleagues of neurodivergent engineers and technicians

  • Be intentional about raising your own levels of awareness and understanding, and provide support and encouragement for others to build their own. Take proactive steps to understand neurodiversity, how it might show up, and how neurodivergent engineers and technicians experience the world.
  • Do what you can to create safe spaces for colleagues to talk about their experience of neurodiversity, if they would like to do so. Setting aside time in a peaceful environment and really listening to what is being said are fundamental to a more open conversation. Be honest about sharing where you may lack knowledge.
  • Respect the right of all people to talk about their neurodiversity experience, or not to. Demonstrate your interest, but don’t try to force a conversation. Respect people’s boundaries and stay alert to the signals which say ‘this is enough’.
  • Believe what neurodivergent engineers and technicians share with you. If and when someone wants to talk about their experience, your default should be to believe them, and to state clearly that you believe them. Often, the experiences of neurodivergent people are dismissed or trivialised, sometimes from a well intentioned but misguided perspective. The person talking to you might already have experienced this, so don’t betray the trust they are showing in speaking with you.
  • Remember to treat every neurodivergent person as an individual, even when you are aware of their neurotype and of the strengths and challenges which ‘typically’ face someone with that experience. Neurodiversity shows up differently in different people, and each neurodivergent person will have unique strengths and challenges that may change from moment to moment as well as from day to day.

Specifically for managers

  • Be intentional in developing your skills in managing a mixed neurodivergent-neurotypical team. You may need to revisit some of your basic management practices such as how to host inclusive team meetings so everyone can participate.
  • Be thoughtful about the criteria you are using for recruitment, promotion and performance assessment. To what extent do they embed expectations of neurotypical behaviours? Adapt them where possible to be neuroinclusive, focusing on the desired outputs of the role and allowing flexibility.
  • Take a strengths-based approach to the performance management of neurodivergent colleagues, helping them identify and build on their strengths. You may want to consider this approach for all your colleagues of course. In any case, don’t expect a neurodivergent person to be able to perform in areas they find challenging.
  • Support your team members’ requests for adaptations, even where they don’t have a formal diagnosis. Work with them to ensure that the adaptations they are given are the right ones for their specific experience.

For employers

  • Make an explicit commitment to becoming a neuroinclusive employer. Work with neurodivergent and neurotypical employees to establish clearly what that means in practice for your own organisation, and to develop a strategy for achieving it.
  • Develop a policy on neurodiversity inclusion that makes clear how you will create a neuroinclusive workplace which recognises the rights of employees under the law. Include data collection in your policy, exploring with neurodivergent colleagues how best to maximise response rates.
  • Review your employment policies and practices, starting with job design, recruitment, promotion and performance assessment/management. To what extent do they embed expectations of neurotypical behaviours and may therefore be discriminatory? Work in partnership with neurodivergent and neurotypical colleagues.
  • Provide opportunities for all employees - and managers in particular - to learn about neurodiversity.
  • Provide guidelines for managers and employees on what defines a neuroinclusive working environment and how to achieve it.
  • Ensure your IT systems are neuroinclusive, meeting at least a minimum standard whilst also allowing for specific adaptations. Identify and address any barriers to accessing IT tools such as text-to-speech and transcriptions. Simplify access to the specific adaptations that neurodivergent colleagues may require, and don’t make access conditional on having a formal diagnosis.
  • Develop and make available an evolving suite of adaptations for anyone to access. This could include software, headphones and access to flexible working. Ensure budget is available, including for software licences.
  • Create opportunities for neurodivergent colleagues to meet with others who self-identify as neurodiverse, for instance by supporting the establishment of a neurodiversity employee network. Identify and address any additional networking needs, for people of colour or women, for example. Build and train a network of allies on neurodiversity – especially at senior levels - to help advocate for neurodiverse colleagues and contribute to shifting organisational practice and culture.

For external partners

  • Join us in prioritising action to make engineering and technology inclusive to all neurodivergent talent, now and in the future. As a first step, let us continue efforts to make all aspects of our professional registration processes straightforward for neurodivergent as well as neurotypical applicants.
  • Work with us to extend this focus to other professions in the wider engineering and technology community, such as medicine and education. Neurodivergent engineers and technicians interact with many other professions, and together we need to make these interactions enabling rather than disabling.
  • Work collectively to progress research in this area. There is much we don’t yet know and need to understand. Commit to pursuing collaborative learning in this area as a community of practice, and to holding each other to account for progress.
  • Work together with government to make neurodiversity an integral part of government thinking and practice. For example in the work of All-Party Parliamentary Groups.
  • Work together to lobby government to remove barriers of time and access to diagnosis, to improve the experience of the Access to Work scheme39, and to facilitate the process of accessing adjustments tailored to individual needs. It’s clear from the focus groups that changes are needed to enable access to government support, and we all have a significant role to play in terms of advocating for practical and policy change here.

For neurodivergent engineers and technicians

  • Trust your own judgement in deciding if, when and how to get a diagnosis. For some people, getting a diagnosis can be empowering and liberating, especially when you retain the choice about how, when and with whom you share this information. However, not everyone wants a formal diagnosis, preferring instead to trust what they know about themselves, particularly as the process of getting one can be time-consuming, emotionally draining and expensive.
  • Educate yourself about your rights under the Equality Act (2010). The definition of disability under the Act relates to “substantial and long-term adverse effect” on the ability to “carry out day-to-day activities”.40 Being neurodivergent amounts to a disability under this legislation even if a person does not consider themselves to be ’disabled.41 Your workplace should provide any adaptations you need even without a diagnosis, however some employers may require a diagnosis as a condition of providing adaptations. If you have a diagnosis and meet the requirements for disability, your employer is compelled to provide you with reasonable adjustments to help you do your job.
  • Consider carefully who you want to share information about your neurodiversity with, how, and under what conditions. You shouldn’t ever feel under pressure to tell your employer, your manager or your colleagues about your neurodiversity if it doesn’t feel like a safe environment in which to do so. If you do choose to share, make explicit any conditions, for instance around confidentiality. If you share the information with your line manager you may want to check in advance what their obligations are around passing such information onto others (such as your HR team). Consider producing a ‘handbook to me’ that you can share with your manager and colleagues, describing your strengths, challenges, needs and wants in the workplace.
  • Do what you can to build your awareness of and belief in your own strengths, and the contexts in which you are able to best demonstrate them. Be compassionate with yourself about the challenges that your neurodiversity brings, and raise your own awareness of the contexts that magnify – and those that minimise – those challenges. Be clear about how you can support yourself and what you need from others.
  • Look for employers that are proactive and visible in creating neuroinclusive workplaces. Seek out roles and teams where you will be able to utilise your strengths, and avoid those where you may be forced into working in ways that don’t fit who you are or want to be. Where roles exist which may require you to work in ways that you find challenging, share your concerns and explore possible solutions. Line managers and employers may be able to make changes to suit you if you’re clear about your abilities and negotiate with them.
  • Seek out other neurodivergent engineers and technicians for support and guidance. Don’t feel you are on your own. There are many engineers and technicians who are openly neurodivergent, and who you can access in your workplace, via platforms like LinkedIn, or through the IET.
  • Consider talking about your experiences, particularly if you are in a senior position. If you do choose to become a role model in this way, consider how much and under what circumstances you want to share, and what support you might need. Sharing your experiences with others may lead them to be more open with you and their colleagues. If you’re part of an action group or advisory committee you may gain satisfaction from making changes for the whole organisation. However, advocating for change and sharing your story can also be exhausting. Be aware of the emotional and physical symptoms of burnout (such as feeling angry or tearful, struggling to make decisions, or experiencing stress headaches) and support yourself and others around you if you begin to see the signs.42

As a result of this report, across the IET we are committing to:

  • Enhancing neuroinclusion across the IET through improved organisational practices.
  • Ensuring accessibility in our governance processes for increased representation of neurodiverse professionals in leadership roles.
  • Delivering a practical toolkit by Q2 2024 to help foster safe working environments for neurodiverse engineering employees and employers.
  • Offering professional development opportunities to raise awareness of the strengths of neurodiversity within the STEM community.
  • Growing, developing, and supporting our IET neurodiversity network.
  • Advocating for the needs of neurodivergent engineers and technicians; engaging with government and key industry forums to do so.
  • Collaborating with other professional engineering institutions to create a more neuroinclusive profession.

This is not an exhaustive list, we will continually review our commitments and report on our progress. We will continue to learn and push ourselves to improve inclusion throughout our Institution.

All of our commitments will be carried out in consultation and collaboration with neurodiverse individuals.

How will we do this?

Enhancing neuroinclusion across the IET through improved organisational practices.

  • We will continue to listen to and learn from professional registrants to improve the professional registration experience for neurodiverse applicants.

  • We will continue to grow our pool of professional registration advisors with lived experience of neurodiversity and provide advice and training for others to better support our applicants.

  • We will continually review our professional registration processes with a particular focus on neuroinclusion.

  • We will continue our collaboration with the Engineering Council to facilitate the registration process for neurodiverse engineers.

  • We will continue to grow our pool of mentors with lived experience
    of neurodiversity and provide advice and training for others.

  • We will seek out new opportunities to learn how to improve our continuing professional development for neurodiverse engineers.

  • We will consider universal design right from the initial stages of new product development.

  • Our user experience architects will listen to and learn from our IET neurodiversity network in how to make our products more accessible for neurodiverse engineers.

  • We will review our events guidelines to improve inclusion for neurodivergent professionals.

  • We will respond promptly and compassionately to requests for adjustments from IET members on grounds of neurodiversity.

Ensuring accessibility in our governance processes for increased representation of neurodiverse professionals in leadership roles.

  • By the end of 2024, we will have reviewed our governance processes, including neurodiverse professionals to advise on changes required to improve accessibility.

  • Review the need for specific training on neurodiversity for our IET Trustees and other senior volunteers.

Delivering a practical toolkit by Q2 2024 to help foster safe working environments for neurodiverse engineering employees and employers.

  • We will work with our neurodiversity member network to deliver a practical toolkit to support neurodiverse employees and employers.

  • We will actively promote and share our toolkit with our members, volunteers, corporate partners and networks to improve inclusion in the wider sector.

Offering professional development opportunities to raise awareness of the strengths of neurodiversity within the STEM community.

  • Throughout 2024 and beyond we will provide opportunities for our colleagues, members, volunteers, partners and networks to learn and improve awareness and understanding of neuroinclusion.

  • We will deliver the first of a series of events to share the findings of this report and practical solutions to improve inclusion in January 2024.

  • We will deliver a specific element of our flagship ‘Inclusive Thinking’ campaign focused on the inclusion of neurodiverse professionals.

  • We will seek out opportunities to better inform our colleagues, members and volunteers about neurodiversity.

Growing, developing, and supporting our IET neurodiversity network.

  • We will continue to support our IET neurodiversity network.

  • We will raise awareness of this network both internally and externally to enable more neurodiverse engineers and technicians to take part.

  • We will provide spaces and opportunities for neurodivergent engineers and technicians to meet with, learn from and connect with other neurodivergent people in the sector.

  • We will invite colleagues to meet and learn from our IET neurodiversity network.

  • We will invite external partners to join network meetings to share good practice.

Advocating for the needs of neurodivergent engineers and technicians; engaging with government and key industry forums to do so.

  • We will share this report and its findings widely, including but not limited to with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Diversity in STEM, the Government, other Professional Engineering Institutions, and relevant stakeholders.

  • We will encourage employers to improve the experience of their employees, create more inclusive workplaces and to facilitate the process of accessing adjustments.

  • We will encourage the Government to remove barriers of time and access to diagnosis, to improve the experience of Access to Work, and to facilitate the process of accessing adjustments tailored to individual needs.

Collaborating with other Professional Engineering Institutions to create a more neuroinclusive profession.

  • We will share this report and its findings widely.

  • We will utilise our existing networks and seek out new opportunities for collaboration.

References

39 Access to Work: Get support if you have a disability or health condition’ https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work

Back to reference 39

40 ‘Disability: Equality Act 2010 - Guidance on matters to be taken into account in determining questions relating to the definition of disability’, Updated March 2013 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-guidance/disability-equality-act-2010-guidance-on-matters-to-be-taken-into-account-in-determining-questions-relating-to-the-definition-of-disability-html

Back to reference 40

41 ‘What Disability Means by Law’, ACAS https://www.acas.org.uk/what-disability-means-by-law

Back to reference 41

42 ‘Dealing with Stress’, NHS advice https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-health-issues/stress/

Back to reference 42