DisruptHR guest writer: Stop trying to fix neurodivergent employees, start fixing the workplace instead
Carly Jones is a neurodivergent coach, advocate, and speaker who helps organisations turn awareness into action through smart design, not special treatment.
Neurodivergent employees are too often expected to adapt to environments that weren’t designed with them in mind. My work challenges the long-standing belief that inclusion is about helping neurodivergent individuals fit in, and calls on business leaders to rethink how spaces, systems, and cultures can be redesigned to work for everyone.
Neurodivergent employees still face pressure to conform
For decades, workplaces have been built around a narrow idea of what a good employee looks and sounds like: smartly dressed, verbally articulate, productive in loud open spaces… the list goes on. But for many neurodivergent people (and plenty of others too), these things don’t come easily.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard talented people say they mask their true selves just to get through the working day. They learn to force false confidence, push through sensory discomfort, or even suppress stimming because that’s what they’re expected to do, and because the alternative is to be seen as difficult.
Small gestures aren’t enough
While neurodivergent team members need suitable adjustments, individual allowances simply aren’t enough. Not everyone feels comfortable discussing neurodivergence with their employer, meaning many will miss out on support. What’s more, ad hoc alterations are rarely as effective as building accessibility into the fabric of the workplace.
Rather than waiting for struggling employees to speak up, workplaces should cater to a wide range of needs from the start. That way, everyone can excel without awkward conversations or office modifications that weren’t in the budget.
The truth is, neuroinclusion isn’t about special treatment or endless adjustments. It’s about designing environments and ways of working that don’t automatically exclude people.
Inclusion is a strategic advantage
You might be wondering how you can justify the expense of major changes to keep a few employees happy. But as you’ll see, removing performance barriers doesn’t mean tearing down the office in the process; small, well-thought-out adjustments are often enough to release untapped potential.
On top of this, neurodivergence affects more than one or two employees in an organisation; around 1 in 7 people in the UK is neurodivergent, and when a significant portion of your team is struggling to reach peak performance or burning out with the stress of fitting in, productivity and innovation suffer. That’s not to mention the cost of soaring absences and staff turnover. Failing to support neurodivergent employees goes beyond morale and takes a toll on the bottom line.
With the right support, neurodivergent employees can contribute just as much, if not more, than their colleagues. Not only are neurodiverse teams 30% more productive, but some companies have found their neurodivergent employees are almost 50% more productive than their peers.
At the same time, neuroinclusive organisations are twice as likely to exceed financial targets, three times more likely to be high-performing, and six times more likely to be innovative and agile. According to Acas, proactive support for neurodivergent employees also helps employers hold on to talent; one small business cut its staff turnover to just 8%, compared to a UK national average of 34%.
Making your workplace neuroinclusive is clearly well worth the effort. Not only will neurodivergent employees and teamwork thrive, but everyone benefits from an environment that nurtures different ways of thinking and gives employees more control over how they work.
Making the workplace neuroinclusive
With all of this in mind, let’s explore how you can start creating a workplace that helps everyone reach their potential.
1. Designing for sensory balance
Open-plan offices are the default in so many organisations, yet they can be a minefield for sensory overload. For some people, fluorescent lights, constant chatter, and the clatter of keyboards are background noise. For others, it’s a full-blown assault on the senses.
In one organisation I worked with, some team members found the noise so overwhelming that it stopped them from focusing on tasks and disrupted vital workflows. But instead of asking them to toughen up or wear noise-cancelling headphones all day, the company rethought its entire layout.
They introduced sensory variety zones – quiet pods with low lighting and soft furnishings alongside more stimulating collaboration areas. Within weeks, these zones were used by everyone, with team members naturally gravitating towards the space that best supported their current task. As stress subsided and focus improved, productivity shot up.
2. Offering flexible communication channels
Communication is another area where one size absolutely doesn’t fit all. Many workplaces still treat fast-paced meetings as the default way of sharing information. But not everyone thinks or processes at that speed, and not everyone excels at verbal communication.
One global tech firm I worked with decided to experiment. They gave staff three ways to share project updates: live meetings, written summaries, or short recorded videos. As a result, an autistic project manager who’d always struggled to jump into rapid-fire discussions began submitting beautifully clear written briefs instead.
As meetings became shorter and decisions and processes were better documented, the whole team benefited from more time and clearer communication. Empowering employees to engage on their own terms deepens collaboration rather than harming it.
3. Redefining professionalism
I still hear leaders describe professionalism in a way that sounds more like social rituals than legitimate values, from firm handshakes and good eye contact to keeping cameras on in meetings. It’s a narrow, culturally loaded definition that can exclude neurodivergent people before they’ve even opened their mouths.
A creative agency I supported decided to scrap these worn-out norms in favour of more meaningful measures. Instead of worrying about who looked the most respectable or engaged, they focused on what employees actually achieved.
Once rigid rules and dress codes disappeared, those who had been masking their natural tendencies became far more engaged. Funnily enough, people tend to do their best work when they feel safe to be themselves.
4. Rethinking recruitment
Recruitment can be a hotbed for hidden bias. Things like fielding unpredictable questions, navigating noisy waiting rooms, and building quick rapport with strangers all favour certain neurotypes, yet those are the conditions most job applicants are faced with. And then we wonder why our talent pool looks so similar year after year.
A finance firm I advised rewrote the rules by overhauling its entire hiring process. Instead of forcing all candidates through the same old process, interview questions were now shared in advance, candidates could respond verbally or in writing, and the waiting area was redesigned for calm and privacy.
The results were striking: neurodivergent applicants’ success rate tripled, and the firm gained analytical thinkers and creative problem-solvers who’d previously been filtered out by an unnecessarily overwhelming process.
5. Making meetings inclusive
If you ever feel like your days are eaten up by needless back-to-back meetings, you’re not alone. I’ve seen so many HR teams reach burnout from unstructured, never-ending discussions that leave no time to think and be productive.
One department I advised made three simple changes. Rather than letting meetings spiral out of control, they:
- Sent agendas 24 hours in advance
- Capped them at 25 minutes
- Followed up with written summaries
The outcome was less cognitive fatigue, fewer repeat conversations, and more decisive action. When we give people time to prepare and process information, we allow those who think differently to flourish, while saving the whole team time in the process.
6. Creating safety for disclosure
You can’t expect neurodivergent employees to share their needs if they don’t trust what will happen next. Too often, disclosure feels like a risk, as people worry they’ll be seen as a problem and sidelined for opportunities.
A retail company I worked with tackled this by building a network of neuroinclusion champions – trained peers who confidentially supported colleagues to request adjustments like predictable shifts or written feedback.
These champions weren’t HR gatekeepers, but trusted colleagues there to advocate for those who needed support. As psychological safety grew, more neurodivergent employees came forward with their challenges. And as critical changes were made, both morale and retention improved.
7. Thinking with a universal design mindset
In my experience, the most forward-thinking organisations don’t make isolated fixes. They embed accessibility and flexibility into the workplace at a fundamental level.
One manufacturing firm I worked with is a great example of this. Instead of building a token “quiet room”, they audited every workspace for lighting, sound, and layout, using accessibility as a core design principle. Spaces were no longer dictated by convention but were designed to accommodate the whole workforce. The ripple effect was remarkable: lower turnover, fewer sick days, and a calmer, more focused atmosphere.
The shift from awareness to action
Most leaders I meet genuinely want to do the right thing. They attend neurodiversity training, celebrate awareness weeks, and update their policies regularly. But awareness alone doesn’t change lives and transform organisations.
If you’re wondering where to start, try asking a different question. Instead of “How can we help neurodivergent employees fit in?”, ask “What can we change to help everyone thrive?” This will shift your focus from fixing people to fixing systems and help you move from inclusion by exception to inclusion by design.
When we treat neuroinclusion as strategy rather than charity or compliance, it stops being an initiative and becomes business as usual. It’s the key to unlocking a level of productivity, innovation, and loyalty no recruitment drive can buy.
