為什麼越來越多的公司正在招聘自閉症患者

: By 卡羅爾·亞當斯

感謝造訪 InnerSelf.com，哪裡有 20,000+ 宣傳“新態度和新可能性”的改變生活的文章。所有文章均翻譯為 超過30種語言. 訂閱每週出版的《內在自我》雜誌和瑪麗·T·拉塞爾的《每日靈感》。 InnerSelf雜誌 自 1985 年起出版。

多樣性採取不同的形式。 安德烈·波波夫/ Shutterstock

Some of my favourite fictional characters include Spock and Seven of Nine from Star Trek, Dr Martin Ellingham from Doc Martin and Shaun Murphy from The Good Doctor.我最喜歡的小說角色包括《星際迷航》中的Spock和《九點七》，Doc Martin中的Martin Ellingham博士和The Good Doctor中的Shaun Murphy。 Apart from being brilliant at their jobs, they are all considered to be autistic by the autism community.除了在工作上表現出色外，自閉症社區還認為他們都是自閉症。

It is no coincidence that what makes these characters so good at their jobs are characteristics associated with autistic or non-neurotypical people.使這些角色如此出色地工作的絕非偶然，是與自閉症或非神經型人群相關的特徵。 Leaving aside The Good Doctor's and Seven's savant abilities, they are all logical thinkers, curious, evidence-based decision makers, tenacious, persistent at solving problems and focused.撇開好醫生和七人制的才能，他們都是邏輯思維者，好奇心強，基於證據的決策者，頑強，堅持解決問題的能力和專注力。 They offer different perspectives and don't succumb to the sort of group-think or non-evidence based decision making that lands many companies in trouble.它們提供了不同的觀點，並且不屈服於使許多公司陷入困境的那種基於小組思考或基於非證據的決策。

Their tendency to be direct and honest in social interactions can sometimes get these characters into hot water.他們在社交活動中表現出直接和誠實的傾向有時會使這些角色陷入困境。 But it also stops them getting bogged down in office politics.但這也阻止了他們陷入辦公室政治的泥潭。 And it's for all these reasons that, in the real world, a growing number of companies are seeing the value of hiring autistic people.出於所有這些原因，在現實世界中，越來越多的公司看到了僱用自閉症患者的價值。

科技公司如 Microsoft微軟和戴爾 have autism hiring programmes.有自閉症的招募計劃。 The hiring process tends to focus on the technical abilities of candidate and includes observing team-building exercises.招聘過程往往側重於候選人的技術能力，包括觀察團隊建設活動。

Other organisations are going further, aiming to change perceptions and highlight the benefits that hiring people with different ways of thinking can bring.其他組織則走得更遠，旨在改變人們的觀念，並強調以不同思維方式僱用人所能帶來的好處。 German software company SAP德國軟件公司SAP 發起了一項倡議 in 2013 to recruit more people on the autism spectrum and showcase the benefits they bring to the company.在XNUMX年招募了更多自閉症患者，並展示了他們為公司帶來的收益。 Their chief executive, Christian Klein,他們的首席執行官克里斯汀·克萊恩（Christian Klein）說:

有自閉症同事的SAP團隊報告專利申請增加，產品創新以及管理技能和同理心增加。

This is due to the curiosity of autistic people, an ability to memorise large amounts of information, see patterns as well as detail and a determination to get the job done.這是由於自閉症患者的好奇心，記憶大量信息，查看模式和細節以及完成工作的決心的能力。 New ways of seeing problems have led to innovations for the company.解決問題的新方法為公司帶來了創新。 These successes have thrilled managers and encouraged them to look beyond the neurotypical skill set.這些成功使管理人員激動不已，並鼓勵他們超越神經型技能。

改進的餘地

Despite these clear benefits, participation rates of autistic people in the workforce is low.儘管有這些明顯的好處，但自閉症患者的勞動力參與率仍然很低。 It's它的企業排放佔全球 32% 在英國（16％全日制）和企業排放佔全球 38% in Australia, despite the vast majority of unemployed autistic adults wanting employment and having skills to offer.在澳大利亞，儘管絕大多數失業的自閉症成年人都希望獲得就業並提供技能。 In many other countries, there is no data – autistic people of working age are invisible.在許多其他國家，沒有數據-勞動年齡的自閉症患者是看不見的。

Selection processes for jobs often emphasises eye contact, small talk and rapport, which can lead to employers missing out on autistic candidates.職位的甄選過程通常強調眼神交流，閒聊和融洽關係，這可能導致雇主錯過自閉症候補者。 So-called soft skills may be sought and judged when they are not required or not an integral part of the job, even where they are trumped by work ethic, technical and perception skills.當不需要或不是工作中不可或缺的部分時，即使在工作道德，技術和感知技能的幫助下，也可以尋求和判斷所謂的軟技能。

自閉症患者並不總是適合現有的辦公室動態。 fizkes / Shutterstock.com

Some consider people on the autism spectrum to be refreshingly direct and honest.一些人認為自閉症譜系中的人清新而又坦率。 But autistic people can be considered rude for their direct way of communicating.但是自閉症患者因直接交流方式而被認為是粗魯的。 This isn't because they do not care about others, they just might not respond to people in the way that neurotypical people expect.這不是因為他們不關心他人，而是可能不會以神經質患者期望的方式對人們做出反應。

最近研究 by Catherine Crompton and Sue Fletcher-Watson “found that autistic research participants communicated more effectively with one another than mixed groups of autistic and non-autistic people”.由凱瑟琳·克朗普頓（Catherine Crompton）和蘇·弗萊徹-沃森（Sue Fletcher-Watson）撰寫的論文“發現自閉症研究參與者之間的交流比自閉症和非自閉症人群的交流更為有效”。 This shows that autistic and non-autistic people have different expectations about communication and social interactions.這表明自閉症和非自閉症患者對溝通和社交互動的期望不同。 They think, feel and communicate differently.他們以不同的方式思考，感受和交流。

報告和問責制

To avoid missing out on the skills autistic people bring, companies can learn from the experience of improving gender and race diversity, where both direct and indirect discrimination act as a barrier.為了避免錯過自閉症患者帶來的技能，公司可以藉鑑改善性別和種族多樣性的經驗，直接和間接歧視都是障礙。 There is still a long way to go when it comes to gender and race equality in the workplace and the road ahead for the neurodiverse is no less arduous.在工作場所實現性別平等和種族平等方面，還有很長的路要走，神經多樣化的道路也同樣艱鉅。

Over many years of reviewing corporate reports, including their equal opportunities policies and disclosures on gender, race and “disability”, I can count on one hand the mention of the benefits of neurodiverse teams, the successes of autistic individuals or the measures taken to accommodate them.多年來，在審查公司報告（包括其平等機會政策以及有關性別，種族和“殘疾”的信息披露）方面，我一方面可以提及神經多樣性團隊的好處，自閉症患者的成功或為適應這些問題所採取的措施他們。 My research shows how the banking and retail sectors have changed the way they hold themselves accountable for the employment of我的研究表明，銀行和零售業如何改變了他們對自己的就業負責的方式婦女和少數民族 over the last century, in line with changing views of society.在上個世紀，符合社會觀念的變化。 This also reflects changes in government policy.這也反映了政府政策的變化。

Greater awareness of neurodiversity is needed and will hopefully lead to similar changes for people who think differently to the majority.需要提高對神經多樣性的認識，並希望對大多數人持不同看法的人也會發生類似的變化。 We need all kinds of people – women, different races, cultures, sexual orientations and neurodiversity – at all levels of our organisations to create our future.我們需要組織各個層面的各種人員（婦女，不同種族，文化，性取向和神經多樣性）來創造我們的未來。 Whether that's activist Greta Thunberg daring to confront political leaders on climate change, an academic challenging practice and policy through evidence, or an employee finding an innovative solution to a problem.無論是激進主義者格里塔·圖恩伯格（Greta Thunberg）敢於在氣候變化，政治挑戰性實踐和政策上通過證據與政治領導人面對面，還是員工找到解決問題的創新方法。