Methodology

The study was conducted by For Business Sake Consulting Ltd, working in partnership with the IET’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team.

The project was overseen by an Advisory Group comprising engineers and technicians drawn from the IET’s Neurodiversity member network and EDI Working Party. Each of the partners in the project was represented by both neurodivergent and neurotypical people.

Desk review

The project began with a desk review exploring the five questions above, which drew material from two sources: internal (provided by IET relating to neurodiversity) and external (publicly available material on neurodiversity in engineering and technology, including insights from lived experience, trade publications, academia, consulting and support providers).

Sources included documents, reports, web pages and online articles. The review was conducted in January 2023, with the scope of external sources limited in the main to those published since January 2020. In total, the desk review considered almost 70 separate sources and produced a report summarising its key findings.

Focus groups

An invitation to contribute to the study through participation in a series of online focus groups was sent to all IET members by email, and shared openly across social media with further stakeholders. Ten focus groups were planned and advertised, of which one specifically welcomed minority ethnic engineers and technicians, and one specifically women.

Thirty-eight engineers and technicians (46% of those who had registered in response to the invitation) took part in the focus groups. Participants all self-selected; some had a formal diagnosis of neurodiversity, others did not. There were ten groups in total, and the majority had two facilitators to allow for small breakout discussions. All were hosted using the Microsoft Teams online meeting platform and lasted around two hours, with a break halfway through.

Drawing on the lived experience of neurodiversity amongst staff, the Advisory Group and the external consultants, steps were taken to create an inclusive environment for focus group participants. Use of cameras was optional, and a range of alternatives were offered to contributing verbally, including typing in chat, adding text to a virtual whiteboard and posting pictures. There was one group where participants responded entirely with written contributions.

Focus group participants were sent the discussion questions in advance, giving them time to prepare if they wanted to do so.

The questions were:

1. What do you need right now to help you feel safe and participate fully in the focus group?
2. To what extent have you felt able to be open about your neurodiversity with your colleagues (team, manager), your organisation? Why?
3. What strengths do you bring to your role that you specifically connect to your neurodiversity?
4. What are the challenges that you’ve faced as neurodiverse engineering and technology professionals?
5. What needs to change to create a more inclusive environment for neurodiverse engineers and technicians where you work?
6. What can the IET do to create more inclusive environments for neurodiverse engineers and technicians?
7. How did this process work for you? What might we do differently with the other groups?

Each group included at least one external consultant as facilitator and note-taker, and one member of the IET EDI team. Notes were taken in Word and using the Mural application, according to the preferences of the note-taker.

Sense-making and report-writing

As a first step in making sense of the insights gathered through the focus groups Mural boards were used, then a joint board mapping key insights. Joint boards were shared and discussed amongst the IET EDI team and with the project Advisory Group. Mural boards provided the basis for the structure and content of the final project report.