Articles

“It’s that time of the year again when end-of-year parties and New Year’s receptions at work or privately fill our calendars. Organising these events has become a tradition and an opportunity for many companies to connect and bond among employees. To achieve this, it’s crucial everyone can be their authentic selves and feel welcome at the event. This often raises the question: how can we ensure our events are inclusive and welcoming to everyone? We often think about avoiding religious aspects, food and drinks, and yet neurodiversity is often overlooked in the organisation. This article provides tips on organising your event to be neurodiverse-friendly and inclusive.

Too often, the added value, talents and unique perspectives of colleagues with ADHD are overshadowed by prejudices and incorrect assumptions, such as people with ADHD cannot sit still or are lazy. The study ‘Workplace Neurodiversity: The Power Of Difference’ conducted by the ‘Institute of Leadership & Management’ showed that ADHD has the most stigma in the workplace and that 32% of the companies surveyed would not hire employees with that neurotype. That is why we believe that ADHD deserves a place in the spotlight, and there is no better time to do this than during ‘ADHD Awareness Month’. Discover the added value of this neurotype in this article and how colleagues with ADHD enrich your team and organization with their contributions.

We previously discussed autism in the workplace in the context of autism day. The first week of October 2023 was all about dyslexia. And just like with autism, dyslexic colleagues are an enormous added value within the team and the organisation thanks to the talents and new perspectives they contribute. These talents are often overshadowed by an overfocus on the challenges of or prejudices about people with dyslexia in the workplace, such as being lazy or stupid. Read on to discover more about this neurotype and its positive impact in the workplace.

When discussing diversity, we often consider age, gender, migration background, sexual orientation, religion, etc. But we rarely talk about neurodiversity. It is also literally invisible. Nevertheless, every company comes into contact with this form of diversity without even realising it, and it has an enormous impact on the productivity, team dynamics and returns of organisations.

In recent years, there has been increased attention to neurodivergencies such as ADHD, hyper-sensitivity, autism, dyslexia, etc. More people seem to self-identify as being neurodivergent, and companies are starting to pay attention to becoming more neuro-inclusive and fostering the strengths of neurodiversity.

In this article, I’m telling my own story with ADHD while working as a software developer and becoming a team lead, what I learned, and what I found to be working well to help people with ADHD and more to thrive in their teams and companies.