How Booz Allen and Bank of America are training managers to be more neuro-inclusive
While the state of corporate DEI programs is in flux, more companies are paying attention to a traditionally overlooked group in the workplace — those who are neurodivergent.
Awareness around neurodiversity, which can include conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia, among others, has grown rapidly in the past few years thanks to social media. With more workers identifying as neurodivergent themselves, they’re expecting better support from their employers — and that their supervisors are properly trained to manage them and help with any accommodations they need to do their best work in their roles.
Some major companies like Booz Allen Hamilton and Bank of America rolled out neurodiversity training programs this year.
Booz Allen partnered with Washington, D.C.-based Broad Futures, an organization that helps young neurodivergent people enter the workforce, to help facilitate its training sessions. Hiring managers are required to take the course, along with managers on teams with neurodiverse staff, though it’s available to all staff, said Tom Downs, principal of diversity talent acquisition and talent pipeline programs at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Booz Allen has over 100 employees who have reported being neurodiverse themselves, and they are at all levels of the organization – ranging from entry level to leadership roles, Downs said.
The first section of the training covers disability etiquette and awareness, and the second covers neurodiversity awareness. It includes best practices, testimonials from neurodiverse teammates, and other important topics, like barriers to employment faced by neurodiverse people.
“Typically the biggest barrier for employment for the neurodiverse community is navigating that interview process,” Downs said. “If companies aren’t engaging purposefully with this talent pipeline, why not?”
It’s true that traditional hiring processes often filter out neurodivergent candidates, and better training hiring managers is one step to better support them.
Bank of America also launched a neurodiversity manager training program this year. It partnered with nonprofit Neurodiversity in the Workplace to create its program, which includes six brief training modules. The training is available to all staff, and over 1,000 employees from various roles have taken the training in the last few months, said Jenny Kim Park, chief diversity and inclusion officer at Bank of America.
Some covered topics include defining neurodiversity, understanding common barriers neurodivergent staff face, and the benefits of employee neurodiverse staff. It also covers recognizing employee potential, allyship, disclosure and other tips for managing neuro-inclusive teams.
“We see the enormous contributions they can make to our workforce and communities. We want to ensure that managers have the foundation they need to understand how neurodiversity can play out in the workplace and the tools they need to manage this talent pool.” Kim Park said.
One tip for employers looking to create their own programs is to be mindful of intersectionality, she said.
“Many neurodivergent teammates also experience unconscious bias related to race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Early socioeconomic status can also impact an employee’s journey toward diagnosis and care. It’s important to continue offering programs, training and employee networks that focus on broader inclusion in addition to neuroinclusion,” she said.
Both Bank of America and Booz Allen tapped other organizations to help create their training programs, and suggest other employers do the same when standing up their own programs. BroadFutures is also helping Booz Allen with other initiatives to boost its pipeline of neurodiverse candidates.
“It’s nice to have a bit of a partnership that you can lean on to make sure that you’re successful in this endeavor,” Downs said.