Welcome to the final episode of The Dyspraxic Social Worker. Having explored what self-help tips we can employ during the recruitment process; we will now explore what organisations and employers can do to improve their recruitment process and break away from structures and processes that were designed by neurotypicals for neurotypicals.
As a social worker with dyspraxia and because of my own lived experiences of interviews, I am very passionate about understanding how and advocating that employers create a positive interview environment and experience. I have had basic reasonable adjustments turned down and ignored, I have experienced people in positions of authority assume people’s abilities are the same as their own, I have experienced interviewers believing they are experts as their partner might be neurodivergent, and I have felt scared to disclose I am neurodivergent. However, this was all preventable and not unique to me.
Employers and individuals with Dyspraxia can both make adjustments to enable interviews to be comfortable, and to bring the best out of the interviewer and interview. However, it is not our sole responsibility to change to fit systems.
As an employer, reasonable adjustments should - under the Equality Act 2010- legally be made to create an environment that minimises the impact of the disability, whilst still being “reasonable” for the organisation to implement..... And employers, reasonable adjustments should start before employment.
This legislative framework is very important to enabling equal opportunities. However, recruitment processes and systems should not be a one size model fits all. It shouldn't feel exhausting advocating for our reasonable adjustments and deciphering unwritten and unspoken interview expectations/etiquette.
The barrier to gaining employment for for neurodivergent people, specifically Dyspraxia, is tackling the application process. Although ‘organisations are obliged to review their processes for recruitment for any inherent bias or discrimination’ (ILM), this does not always mitigate the complexity and ambiguity of applying for a job.
During the recruitment process, we all need to plan and write a personal statement, organise documents for the application, communicate verbal and written information during the interview, navigate a new environment, quickly recall information during an interview, and speak clearly.
I mean all of that sounded really easy right?..... Wrong. From my experience of applying for jobs, as a dyspraxic candidate, this is both difficult and exhausting. So, social work managers and employers, please consider the following small adaptions you can make during the application process and within interviews.
Application process
The complexity of social work job applications is underestimated - especially if you are applying for more than one role at a time.
Because of differences in neural messaging, we can struggle with planning and organising. This can make planning personal statements, preparing for interviews and decoding job adverts extremely difficult.
However, there are steps you can take - as an employer - to make the application process accessible and inclusive. After all, we should be changing outdated and neurotypically designed systems, not changing individuals to fit these outdated and predominantly neurotypical systems.
Avoid ambiguity - for example, we all know from our training that having good communication skills are pivotal to good social work practice. Therefore, in social work job adverts, distinguish between written skills and verbal skills – “for some people with dyspraxia the difference is critical to their view of whether the job fits their skills profile”.
Be clear - state on the job advert if there is a written exercises during the interview, this will enable the interviewee to be clear about reasonable adjustments and prepare. Twice I have had written tests during an interview that I was not informed about, therefore I could not state my reasonable adjustment or adequately prepare. What was important was that the content of the written test matched the job role I was interviewing for as I could apply my experience to the test.
Multi-sensory information- provide Multi-sensory information as opposed to the standard PDF role profile. Try using a video with information about the organisation and specific job roles. Presenting information in different and interactive ways makes it more accessible. Some organisations already have promotion videos on their websites (especially Local Authorities) and I would often watch these before fully considering the job adverts as they provided me information about the local area, the organisation's values/expectations and gave me a flavour of how they conduct/present themselves.
Open dialogue- When you ask us to disclose our reasonable adjustments, provide the contact details to the interviewing manager so we can start an open dialogue of support here. Also, let us know what reasonable adjustments you offer, what you’ve done in the past and what you know about neurodiversity.
The Basics - use accessible language, font and font sizes on documents and PDFs.
Use encouraging discourses - Try to use positive language to entice candidates. Critical and ambiguous criteria create massive barriers for candidates with dyspraxia. Moreover, you are more likely to deter applicants who are under-confident rather than unsuitable.
Interviews:
It's your duty to read and inform yourself about Neurodiversity.
Apply your knowledge about experts by experience- If an interviewee has disclosed dyspraxia, avoid considering yourself an expert if you know someone else who has it or if you have it yourself. Only the interviewee is an expert on how dyspraxia affects them. Instead…
… when someone discloses they are neurodivergent, ask them how this looks for them and listen. Neurodiversity is a spectrum and it intersects.
Reasonable adjustment - dyspraxia affects people differently and its severity is on a spectrum; for some, it may not impact their work or day to day life significantly, whilst for others, it may have a significant impact.
Be emotionally intelligent - Do not meet an interviewee with sympathy, this is not as constructive as empathy and acceptance, and it is stigmatising.
Clear and concise – be clear about how long the interview will be at the beginning and explain the structure of the interview. I always found it helpful to know if they were taking turns asking questions or if they would ask randomly, questions as this provided consistency and predictability.
Ask for concrete examples (Tell me an example of xx?) and avoid hypothetical situations (e.g. “what would you do if?”).
Plan plenty of time for the interview - Give the interviewee plenty of time to think about the question, plan their answer and respond. Additionally, provide written and verbal instructions, and repeat the question as needed.
Notes - Allow notes to be brought into the interview session. An interview is not usually a memory game. This is a REASONABLE adjustment and telling a neurodiverse person that it does not create equal opportunities is a breach of law and equality.
Avoid specific questions and answers, the interviewee may find it harder to think about 'other' questions to ask after answering what has been just asked of them. Try and discuss what they wanted from the role and organisation to answer any potential questions.
Provide detailed instructions for arriving at the interview including expectations around timing (weather you ‘should’ arrive 15 minutes early).
Provide explicit guidance on dress codes.
Verbally confirm if the interviewee has answered the question and follow up with probing questions if the interviewee has not answered the question in the way you wanted. For example, did you want them to provide a real life example, explain what something meant to them, a hypothetical scenario.
Be clear and state what you are trying to learn from the question, this will help us formulate our answer and understand why you are asking it.
State at the beginning of the interview that neurodiverse behaviours are ok - such as avoiding eye contact
State if any follow up is expected: are there unwritten rules in your organisation about interviewees following up the interview with a phone call, an email? And a clear timeframe if this is expected of the interviewee.
No surprises: Be clear about how many people will be on the interviewing panel.
If you ask about weaknesses – expect and honest answer.
Ask us to stop if needed – I know I could talk forever about my special interests and some of them are social work related!
Ask about our sensory needs: Just dimming a light or getting a room with no background noise can make a massive difference to how we feel and present in interviews.
Provide a video or picture of the interview room, tour of the building and route to the room and the travel/parking
Avoid trick questions and these interview games like eg. "where do you see yourself in five years".
Being able to get up an move in the interview can be very beneficial – some neurodivergent individuals have stated their preference for a walking interview because of this. Just because it isn’t the current ‘norm’ doesn’t mean we can’t incorporate it into social work recruitment processes.
Verbally let the interviewee know that it's okay to take their time answering a question. And confirm in advance how long the interview will last, not just start time.
What would the typical day would be like – Ask an employee to attend the interview. Let them explain what a workday is like. This can be very different to the role and responsibility profiles.
Let us see where we will be working, it’s not just the job that important but the environment we will be working in. I have worked in a noisy and brightly lit office which exhausted me every day, had I have known what the work pace was like, I may have not taken the role.
Remember that what works for people who are neurodivergent often works best for everyone
Thank you very much for tuning in to this eight part series. We hope you have learnt something new about Dyspraxia and that you are able to change the neurotypical systems and structures that are inaccessible to a number of amazing social workers.
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