With inclusive recruitment comes accessible and flexible recruitment processes that are free from bias. But how can we customize our hiring and onboarding processes even further, and ensure that talent within the organization is also encouraged to progress?

In this session, we explore how Neurodiversity Programs offer a holistic approach to inclusive recruitment. Gain insights from 3 leaders of such programs. Explore how to create a Neurodiversity Program that promotes success of prospective talent, and empowers thriving careers of existing employees. 

Download the slides here

David Yozzi, Senior Vice President, Texthelp:

Welcome to today's session on Powering Up Inclusive Recruitment. During this session, we'll be uncovering how neurodiversity programs help us to take a holistic approach to inclusive recruitment.

Hi, my name is David Yozzi. I'm the Senior Vice President for our workplace division here at Texthelp and I'm a dyslexic. Joining me is here in Hiren Shukla, Neurodiverse Senator of Excellence Leader to EY, Pierre Escaich, Neurodiversity Talent Program Director of Ubisoft, and Danielle Biddick, Program manager for Diversity Talent Acquisition at Dell. All three are leading hugely successful neurodiversity programs at their organizations, and they're going to share all of their expert insights here with you today. So welcome Hiren, Danielle, and Pierre. It's great to have you here.

Before we get started, I'd like to share some insights into why this topic of this session is so important. First of all, I want to give you a very quick introduction to Texthelp and why we are so invested in neurodiversity inclusion.

Texthelp is a global software company whose mission is to help people understand and be understood. To date, our tools have supported over 200 million people worldwide, mostly people with neurodivergent conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia, but also those with low literacy in English as a second language. And there is no doubt that we all need to be better at supporting our neurodiverse colleagues.

As most of us probably know, research suggests that at least one in five of us has a neurodivergent condition. However, according to research from the Westminster Achievability Commission, 88% of neurodivergent candidates have felt discouraged from applying for a job and 52% have felt discriminated against during the selection process. As a person who has been diagnosed with dyslexia, statistic really hits home for me.

The problem is highlighted further with unemployment rates among the neurodivergent community. Inclusive recruitment is a way forward to breaking down these barriers, but we must also ensure we're welcoming talent into a workplace where they can succeed.

At Texthelp, we surveyed 500 neurodivergent workers on their experiences at work, and we found out that 32% of them have experienced a lack of career progression and 61% of them have experienced stigma in the workplace. During this session, our speakers will share how neurodiversity programs offer a well-rounded solution that promotes the success of prospective talent and also empowers thriving careers. So to kick us off, I'd like to invite Hiren to say a few words.

Hiren Shukla, Neuro-Diverse CoE Leader, EY:

Wonderful. Hey, thank you so much, David, for having me today. As you said, my name is Hiren Shukla. I am EY's founder and global leader of our Neurodiverse Centers of Excellence.

A quick visual description of myself. I am a Indian male, brown skin, black hair, wearing a brown shirt and glasses. And the description that you probably can't see is I'm extremely excited to be here today and to share with you not only EY's journey, but a much broader picture on how we see the inclusive economy creating value in the world.

David, the points that you were making before on stigma and lack of disclosure, I'm going to actually flip the script on the opportunities that exist today. When we are deliberately more inclusive, we're actually creating value for everyone. And so as I have worked in the professional services space for 26 years or so, we always think about how are we creating value for our colleagues, our clients, and our entities?

And I don't think that is a option anymore for any large organization where our brand, our reputational capital, and most importantly our authenticity of who we are, how we recognize differences, and then those organizations that not only want to survive in this extremely volatile environment but want to thrive will not only recognize differences but deliberately tap into the power of thinking differently. That's the perspective today that I'm hoping to leave you all with.

And if I'm going to ask anything of all of you listening today is you're going to tell five people today who are not here, what you've learned, what you've heard, and then as you think about the actions that you're going to take after you've listened to this amazing lineup of speakers at the Festival of Inclusion, how we're going to work together to build a better working world, as we say at EY.

So with that said, let me share a couple of slides with you all that give you some backdrop. What has been EY's journey and experience around this topic of neurodiversity and neuro inclusion? How have we created value and what does this model look like that we are replicating around the world? So if you give me a moment, I'm going to go and share my screen and let's see if this will cooperate. Okay, I'm going to go into presenter mode.

Okay, so hopefully you all are seeing my slide that is titled on the left The EY Neurodiversity 8 Year Journey. We've been on this journey for eight years when we started to think about the intersection of three things. One, what does the future of work look like? This is the workforce and the workplace. And we realized eight years ago that the impact of data technology, the shifting generations, as well as geopolitical disruption and a number of other things would create tremendous transformation, challenges and opportunities in the world.

So A, we were thinking about the future of work. Secondly, how do you increase innovation capacity and how do you accelerate transformations that many organizations unfortunately don't get right? And we realize the skills of the future require the adaptation of consistent application of data and technology.

And today as we're speaking, the impact of artificial intelligence specifically generative AI is more important than ever, which means baseline creativity, baseline curiosity, doesn't cut it anymore. And the power of those that think differently, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, autism, the whole umbrella of neurodivergence is not just a nice to have anymore, but it is a critical component to new innovation capacity and how do you accelerate transformation efforts, new product, new process, challenge, status quo, all of this through the lens of individuals who think differently.

The third item that really prompted EY on this journey is the broad topic of sustainable value creation. You heard me talk a little bit earlier that value is measured on three axis, our colleagues and our organization. So it's our company itself and our people. Two, it's our clients and our customers. And three, it's the communities that we live in. And with EYs presence in over 140 countries and 700 cities around the world, we have tremendous geographical depth and breadth. And the value that we're creating for those communities and with our clients, that opportunity is tremendous.

And so eight years ago, as we're thinking about sustainable growth, meeting business needs, creating new product, accelerating emerging technology, and frankly tapping into the power of solving complex problems through the lens of inclusion, this is the why EY decided to really start investing and double down on how neurodiversity and these cognitive differences could really empower us to create tremendous value again through the platform of inclusive economy.

And so to date, as we have continued to replicate and expand our center of excellence model to today in over 22 cities and 10 countries around the world, we've realized that the ability to tap in to new sources of talent, and this is going to touch on the recruitment process, the ability to start skilling and re-skilling individuals, not just neurodivergent individuals.

The entire workforce is going to need to be much more adapted, constant re-skilling now, as well as the support needed for both neurodivergent individuals, neurotypical individuals, and cutting across every segment and dimension of diversity, race, age, gender, sexual orientation. Cognitive diversity is a massive entry point into the beautiful opportunity of universal design. Which means the changes you make, for example, in your recruitment process then become beneficial to all.

And so we're really proud of two things that I'll point out on this slide. One, 93% retention, career mobility and career progression of individuals who would never have had that opportunity and were severely challenged from entering through the traditional front door of large organizations. But two, the massively growing neurodiversity employee community at EY today, which is one of the world's largest that has been deliberately activated through the power of belonging and psychological safety.

We all know we bring our authentic selves to work when we feel safe and when we feel like we belong. In the neurodiversity community at EY that is massive in nature and getting ready to celebrate neurodiversity in November, which I hope you all are too. Combined with our business strategy, our center of excellence model has created, as you can see on this slide, tremendous value in the world, innovation, purpose, pride, and helping us to transform the way that we think leadership, management and teaming of the future looks like, which means the education for neurotypicals and that change management journey has been a very deliberate aspect of how we see cultural accelerated transformation.

So with all of this said, let me go to something that happened earlier this year as EY was selected for our work in neurodiversity as one of eight global lighthouses by the World Economic Forum. And you can look this up online, and I encourage you to look at the white paper by our friends at McKinsey because through months and months of interview and submission of documentation, what we've been able to do is put together a bit of a robust, scalable, sustainable framework.

I've given you a snapshot of this on this slide. But effectively the reason I'm showing this to you is not only to tell you how proud we are of EY to be recognized as a global lighthouse, specifically the only one in the neurodiversity space and the only lighthouse beyond gender, social, and racial equity that touches the abilities agenda, BEIA, which you'll see highlighted up there, the second bullet on the right hand side.

But this is a blueprint, this is a framework that you could use and think about on how you begin to create sustainable, scalable models that drive the value of inclusion in a very tactical operational manner. This is what we find a lot of organizations struggling with. I think between all of us, we would very readily agree, we all are champions for inclusion. I think where we struggle is how to do this.

Frankly, this is one of the reasons why I am such a big fan of our friends at Texthelp. It's because without the tools, without the processes, without the implementation framework, you don't know how to drive inclusion not just for one or two or a handful of individuals, but for the massive amount of individuals, not only 15% to 20% or one in five in the world, but as we know, most recent data is showing that 53% of the Gen Z population, these are individuals that are currently somewhere between the ages of 11 and 26 years old.

So effectively the workforce that we will be hiring for the next 10 years and your leaders, your future managers, 53% of Gen Z identify as neurodivergent. We find this extremely fascinating that the terms that are currently used, the neuro majority as we know today, we would think about the majority of cognitive variation or cognitive style to be the neurotypical, those that converge in social thinking, communication, and learning style. And when we think about the neuro minority, this is the ADHD, dyslexic, dyspraxic, dyscalculate, autistic, and other population that we would today label the neuro minority.

What you will see happening over the 10 years is going to be a switch, a literal flip of inherent cognitive difference becoming the neuro majority. Now, if that is not enough for large organizations to start thinking about talent strategy, workforce strategy, how do you support those in your organization? How do you create authentic spaces of belonging and psychological safety? This is a burning platform.

So with all of this being said, I'm going to stop sharing and I'm going to double click for a moment onto... Once I get back to my slides. Here I go. All right, let me click double into not just the recruiting process, but let me very briefly touch what happens after recruiting.

And so the big aha moment for us at EY as we began deconstructing the problem statement is why aren't neurodivergent individuals getting through the traditional front door? And the light bulb moment was most of the interview assessment candidate process is a behavioral based process. We are looking for ad hoc behaviors from individuals where we're expecting to create instant rapport and are they thinking on their feet? These are not necessarily attributes that are indicative of performance.

And so the obvious answer for us is why wouldn't we move to a recruitment process that was more focused on performance and observation over a period of time? This takes us a week to do at EY. We call it super week. But all of this being said, one week upfront of assessment of an individual simulating the work environment, looking for three key items, aptitude, acumen, and interest.

You're probably noticing I've not mentioned education, I've not mentioned previous experience. I've mentioned the three things, acumen, aptitude, and interest. When we know those three align for a candidate, they will be a good fit for a role, particularly successful if we simulate the work environment and provide them the tools like read, write by Texthelp, which we use extensively at EY.

When we provide these levels of support, we are ensuring the highest degree of success. And so post the recruitment process that I've just given you a snapshot of, we then move into what does supportive onboarding, how do we set the environment, how are we creating what we call the highest belonging teams?

I work with some of my amazing colleagues at EY that have developed this concept around high belonging teams. And as you could probably imagine, high belonging teams would infer and basically drive higher performing teams. And so everything that I'm talking to you about today is not necessarily just because it is the right thing to do. I'm really calling out the business value and why you want to drive inclusion.

And this concept of high belonging teams, which really sets upon the managers, the leaders, and the team members in creating the psychological safety for all of us regardless of our differences such that we're bringing our authentic selves to work. This is where we see new product creation IE innovation, where we see process optimization, thereby driving tremendous efficiencies, increasing our bottom line margin, and lastly, creating much higher levels of pride and purpose that are driving employee engagement and frankly, customer and client service.

And so I say all of these things to you, not because they are new concepts, but because there is really specific tactical ways that you drive a deliberate intentional process for your candidate pool and your employee base.

And again, the alignment of purpose between EY and Texthelp on how we think about the world and deliberately unlocking the power of thinking differently, not only for new candidates coming through a recruitment process, but frankly for the thousands of existing employees that you already have in your workplace, this is a business imperative and an amazing opportunity for you to create value for your colleagues, your clients, and your communities.

David, I couldn't be more proud to be here today and hopefully some of the information I shared is helpful to those that are listening. But without further ado, I will hand back to you.

David Yozzi, Senior Vice President, Texthelp:

I have one word. Wow. That was fantastic, Hiren. I'm like, I want to stand up on my chair and start cheering, particularly given the fact that I am dyslexic and hearing someone describe the opportunity, not just to sort of say it's something, a good thing to do, but it's an opportunity to move us all forward in a way that is significant to our businesses, our communities, and the people we're close to. There's so many great takeaways here. I wrote a lot of things down, but I love acumen, interest, and aptitudes specifically as it relates to recruitment. Incredibly insightful. And thank you. Those words were inspiring, to say the least.

Hiren Shukla, Neuro-Diverse CoE Leader, EY:

All right, thanks for having me, David.

David Yozzi, Senior Vice President, Texthelp:

Yeah. So now we're going to hear from Pierre about all the wonderful things that he's working on at Ubisoft. So Pierre, over to you.

Pierre Escaich, Ubisoft:

Thank you very much, David. Thanks for the invite. Thank you Hiren also for sharing EY who is clearly one of the pioneer of bringing no diversity at work.

Very pleased to be with you today. My name is Pierre Escaich. I'm 51, a father of three children. And as you can here, I am also French. To describe myself quickly, I'm a white male with no air and today I'm wearing a purple shirt.

I'm working as a neurodiversity talent program director for Ubisoft. So it's a pretty typical title, but in fact there is a strong link between neurodiversity and video game.

Last year a survey has been done in UK by UK's trade body of the video game industry in UK and more than 18% of video game developer self-identify as neurodivergent. Among them two condition are especially overrepresented, ADHD with more than 10%, it's twice more than in the general population, and autism with 4%, which is not only twice more than in the general population, but in UK for example, it's at least six times more than in any other industry.

So why this link? Well, if you know who did create the industry, geeks, nerds, techies, who are they? Well, most of them are neurodivergent. And when you look at our work, creating video games requires lots of talent and it appears that the talent we need fit extremely well with the strength of neurodivergent individuals.

Myself, I'm an ADHDer I discovered through my children who've been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. And you'll find lots of people with ADHD in the industry. At Ubisoft for example, you might find a lot in project coordination role because they tend to be excellent in emergency mode for example, or with their hyper focus. Of course, we have a large pool of programmer to develop our game. Among our programmer you will often meet people on the spectrum.

We have also people dyslexic, and as you might know, people with dyslexia might have a much stronger 3D visualization capacity and among our artists we'll find a lot of dyslexic.

And what about Ubisoft today? So we indeed created a program more than two years ago, and it started with an employee resource group that I had the honor to create and which is no strong of 500 members across 20 countries. So Ubisoft is a 20,000 people company and now a dedicated neurodiversity talent program, which is part of our HR, but which is also supported by our diversity and inclusion department.

So let me tell you a little bit more. According to us, what are the keys to set up and to create neurodiversity talent program? I would say that what is really important, and it's to realize that each of you, you probably have a lot of neurodivergent employees in your staff, but there is a chance and it was said in the introduction that majority of them are hiding or masking.

So the very first thing I would say if you are interested to create a program on neurodiversity is that you need to take care of yourself first. And that's the road we wanted to follow at Ubisoft first by creating an employer resource group, providing raising awareness, but also providing community support internally. And then our program, we decided to focus first on training. So we recently completed the training of all our recruiters and we're going soon to start the training of all our HR followed by our managers.

And we think that before trying to recruit more divergent profile, you need first to be sure that your organization is really neuro inclusive and ready to welcome those profile. And you need to take care of yourself first. You know that oxygen mask analogy, you need to take care of yourself first before taking care of the other. So that's the very first thing. I think one of our recommendation would be start internally, look after people would be keen to stand up and share their experience as neurodivergent. And from that point, you can start something.

Then of course what is really important and Hiren mentioned it, is to create strong link with the business objective of your organization. And I think that there is a business case for neurodiversity at work that helps you to switch from, to travel from neurodiversity to neuro inclusion network. The business case is simple, adopt neuro inclusive practice means optimize the return on investment in your employee talent.

Why am I saying this? Very often? I'm using the following analogy. Let's say that your organization need to recruit the best singer in the world.

I'm living in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Copenhagen, Denmark, it's famous for the Little Mermaid. So you all know that the Little Mermaid is an excellent singer. So let's say that your recruiter interviews the Little Mermaid, job interview is happening fine, you have found the right candidate. And then you say to her, "You know what? I'm going to send you to our center where we develop our games." And this center is let's say in Austin, Texas, in the middle of the desert.

If you go there six months after, you will notice that The Little Mermaid lost her voice, that she's not performing. What did happen? There is no seawater in Austin, Texas and The Little Mermaid to be able to sing needs seawater.

So no inclusion means to realize first and foremost, the very same principle of neurodiversity, which is every human brain is as unique as your fingerprint and you as a company and especially modern companies, we're facing a very uncertain world, right? So it's key for us to develop the ability to gather around the table the maximum number of different ways of solving problem, different ways of thinking, different ways of communicating, because that will help us to solve unknown issues and to be successful.

Being neuro inclusive at work means of course, as it was said before, to establish psychological safety. And beyond that it's to develop your capacity to understand, to welcome, manage, and leverage difference. And this is what a neuro inclusive approach can bring you.

And as a benefit, as a business benefit being and deploying neuro inclusive good practice in terms of communication, performance, evaluation, or work organization, it'll allow you to boost your creativity and innovation. For us, that's something extremely important, but it'll also allow you to boost employee performance just like The Little Mermaid.

If you don't provide her with seawater, she won't be able to perform. If you recruit a very talented programmer who is telling you they are on the spectrum and they are very sensitive to noise and you place them on a very noisy open space, well they won't perform at their full capacity.

So our best interest as an employer is to focus not on fixing people, but on fixing the work environment. And that's the third principle, I would say. The third key to create a neuro diversity program in your company is let's grab the idea of fixing people. Let's focus really on what we are in charge, what we can control. It's a work environment and by work environment, it's not only the physical space, it's also the processes of where we communicate.

And then in terms of program, as I was saying earlier, there is a good chance that you have a large number of neuro divergent people working in your company. Both they're hiding today. And David shared the statistic earlier about why, because people are afraid. People are afraid to be stigmatized because we've been stigmatized previously.

So the ultimate elements I would share about potential keys for a neuro diversity program is to then as a company, focus on training. Training your recruiter of course, but not only, training your HR, training your manager, and help them to become neuro inclusive, then facilitate their work, providing them with tools, information, how they can be effectively neuro inclusive. And of course apply everything in recruitment, but also in the onboarding process and in the day-to-day work.

If I had to give you a very practical example and a very practical tip that everyone could start applying from tomorrow, it'll be the following one. We are all organizing meeting in our respective organization, right? And here is neuro inclusive tips.

You should organize your meeting like you organize your dinner party at home. If you organize a dinner party at home, I'm sure you're going to check the food preference of your guests because you certainly do not want to serve meat to a vegetarian friend or family member. And if you do so and they eat meat, well they turn sick the day after.

So when we organize a meeting, we should ask at the beginning of every meeting if everyone is comfortable with public speaking. If some people are preferring to express their ID through text message, we should offer the possibility to use voice to use text. We should also offer the possibility to the participant to answer after the meeting because not everyone is able to process the information so quickly, many, many time.

So this is something we can try to do and we're trying to do in our organization to be more inclusive. And by doing this, instead of having access to only maybe 50% of the opinion around the table, because you force the usage of voice, you'll get access to 100% of the option.

Something we wanted to share also today that we have one specificity that should be serve. We started first with an employer resource group, and today we try to partner between the employee resource group and the neurodiversity talent program. And that dual approach and partnership is quite interesting because on the one hand, the ERG is focusing first and foremost on raising awareness.

This week currently we're organizing our first neurodiversity internal awareness week with many conferences, speakers, putting the focus this year on the testimony of our neurodivergent colleague about what it's like to be our divergent network. So ENG is focusing on raising awareness, but also on providing community support.

They did set up an amazing online private space, which is a secure space where people are supporting each other. It's a kind of peer support, so they exchange information, tips. It's a very benevolent space that contributes greatly to the establishment of psychological safety.

That ERG is also a source of potential feedback, expertise about what it's like to be no divergent network like I was saying. And on the other hand, setting up an official program, an HR program means that you can do your job to provide training, to provide inclusive tools and practice and to adapt and perform excellent recruitment with no bias.

And that dual approach is very interesting because it nurtures each other. It's not the responsibility of one individual, but it's a common responsibility where everyone is contributing and that gives many opportunity. Currently, we've been releasing some one pager for our HR and manager on a neurodivergent condition network, and those documents has been checked, reviewed, and enriched by the community member of the employee resource group.

One question we had while we were preparing this panel was how an ERG can potentially support recruitment. Well, as I was saying, first and foremost, raising awareness, but also helping the organization to become really neuro inclusive because there is not only the recruitment, you need to be able to welcome and onboard properly the people you recruit.

And for this, if you have the chance to have an existing community on board, you can potentially tap into it to provide mentors, buddies. And it's not enough to do a recruitment program. You need absolutely to be sure that the manager, the team who will welcome the neurodivergent candidates are ready to welcome them and to work with them. So that's something which is really essential.

And if we're talking about recruitment, there is also a good chance that among your recruiter, you might have some neurodivergent folks, so those are your expert. You may call for their support.

So that's the journey we're making at Ubisoft in terms of neurodiversity. And we try really to go from neurodiversity to neuro inclusion network. We do believe in the concept of neuro inclusion, which is trying to adapt the work environment so that every staff member can reach their full potential in terms of talent and skill while still respecting each and everyone's singularity. And this is what is at stake.

An analogy to conclude we're using sometimes. We take reference to the Star Wars universe, which is well known, right? So you know that in Star Wars you have the clones and you have the robots. So in every organization, once you have success, you might be tempted to create an army of clones.

An army of clones is people who are thinking the same way, working the same way, expressing the same idea. But if you know the movie, it's not ending very well for them. The people who are winning is the rebellion. And what is the strengths, the major characteristic of the rebellion? The ability of that group and their leader to be able to understand, welcome and manage difference, to get people together, neurotypical, as well as neurotypical for around the common goal and make them work and interact together and be extremely successful. And this is what we want to try to do. We still have some work to do. The journey is long, but we're happy to be on that road. Thank you.

David Yozzi, Senior Vice President, Texthelp:

Wow, that was fantastic, Pierre. There's again, so many pearls of wisdom. I love your comment about not focusing on fixing people versus serving them in creating inclusive environments that adapt to them versus forcing them to adapt to the work environment. What a powerful message and incredibly powerful in terms of what it must make your employees feel to be part of the Ubisoft community. Thank you for those words. Very inspiring.

Pierre Escaich, Ubisoft:

Thank you, David.

David Yozzi, Senior Vice President, Texthelp:

So now we're going to hear from Danielle about some of the initiatives she's been championing at Dell. Danielle couldn't make it today, but she's recorded her presentation for us. So I'll pass it over to Danielle for now.

Danielle Biddick:

Hello everyone. My name is Danielle Biddick. I'm with Dell Technologies and in my role at Dell, I lead our hiring strategy for individuals with disabilities. My pride and joy is that I have the privilege of also managing our neurodiversity at Dell hiring program. So that's what I'm here to talk with you a little bit about today, and I'll just provide a high-level overview of what the program looks like, some of those key factors and the bread and butter of how we hire and how we support individuals throughout their lifecycle at Dell. I welcome any questions or follow-up conversations, but just to kick things off, we launched the program in 2018 in partnership with a couple of local nonprofit organizations, and the program was created with the intent to provide career readiness training, an altered interview experience and a variety of on-the-job support resources for neurodivergent jobseekers.

We currently offer the program in both the United States and Canada for internships and full-time career opportunities, and we place individuals into a variety of role types across the business. We're actually currently recruiting for summer internship opportunities in several different business functions, including finance, cybersecurity, supply chain management, business administration, software development, marketing, data analytics, and HR. I believe that's all of them. But as you can see from that long list, we definitely don't try to pigeonhole candidates into one specific role type. We understand that neurodivergent talent is out there and interested in so many different types of roles and really skilled at those different types of roles. So we try to offer opportunities across all different sides of our business. So if you're interested in an internship opportunity, please visit our career site at jobs.dell.com/neurodiversity. Just a quick plug for the program there. But there are a number of reasons why we launched the program, specifically centered around the prevalence of neurodivergent and the high unemployment rates associated.

We have all heard the spiel of the business case, but at Dell we recognize that those were very troubling statistics, considering a lot of the time neurodivergent individuals possess the types of skills that we're looking for and that we need at Dell. I'm talking about traits like strong observational skills, attention to detail, out of the box thinking and problem-solving styles, and the ability to hyper-focus for a long period of time. So with that, we recognized that we were really missing out on this impactful talent pool, and we attributed it to the traditional interview process sometimes being very limiting for some individuals and not allowing them to fully showcase their skills or qualifications for the role. Because for many neurodivergent candidates, typical interviews rely too heavily on verbal communication skills or unwritten social cues, which can occasionally cause a disadvantage for candidates who process or communicate differently.

So in order to solve for that, we partnered with Neurodiversity in the Workplace to offer an alternative interview experience by using a skill-based hiring model. And that skill-based hiring model is really designed to remove biases and barriers by focusing solely on the candidate's core competencies for the role. It's important for me to also call out that prior to conducting these interviews, we also provide neurodiversity awareness training to hiring managers who participate. That training really just breaks down different characteristics of neurodivergence, demystifies some stereotypes along the way, and ultimately offers a variety of practical tips for how to create a more inclusive environment for different ways of learning and thinking and socializing. And we also offer an online training for any Dell team member who is interested in learning more about some of those experiences or characteristics. And all of our training content is provided by the neurodivergent team members both in the community and that we've hired on at Dell.

So, with that being said, back to the interview experience. We give candidates the opportunity to create professional portfolios, and those portfolios are used as a tool for candidates to talk about their skills and interests. It kind of solves for that question of tell me about yourself. And so, it gives candidates a tool that's much more structured and predictable. They can practice how they want to present it in advance, and we often hear from candidates that it's a much less anxiety-provoking experience if they know what to expect going into it. So we find that those portfolios are really great tools, not only for them to use in this interview process, but for them to take with them. And in addition to those portfolios, we also have candidates work on projects throughout the course of a week. These are low-volume projects. They're not Dell-related projects, but rather opportunities for candidates to showcase their skills.

And so, if they're applying for a role where they're required to be proficient in a specific programming language, then we'll have them demonstrate that skill directly to hiring managers. So it gives managers a firsthand look at how they approach problems, ways that they troubleshoot along the way, and then ultimately what conclusions they come up with and potentially what they would even do next. And so, managers really get a firsthand look at how this person would work and show up on their team. And, in addition to that, we are meeting with the candidates on a regular basis, answering questions, getting to know them, and offering other sessions so that they can learn more about Dell and set expectations for what an internship or a full-time role at Dell may look like. Through that process, we bring in past program hires so that they can share more about their experience, and we often find that that's a really great way to educate the candidates that come through the program on what to expect.

And then, once candidates are hired on, we offer a variety of support resources for them to take advantage of. I'll just review a couple of them, but first of all, all of our new hires are partnered with an external career coach. These career coaches work with a variety of different partner organizations. The Arc of the Capital Area and HMEA are two main career coaching partners, and their role is very dynamic in that they take a very person-centered approach in understanding what the candidate may need, what types of accommodations might be useful or would help them be more successful in their role. And then they also work with managers to ensure that the manager understands how to best support the individual. So again, their role looks different from person to person, and we don't require that candidates necessarily work with these coaches, but we find more often than not that they are a very valuable resource and candidates take advantage of it.

Additionally, we align all of our new team members to a TrueAbility mentor. So TrueAbility is an employee resource group. At Dell, we have 12 different ERGs. We call them ERGs, and these team members that are mentors for our neurodivergent interns or new hires are really there to provide more of that cultural perspective for life at Dell. They can answer questions that the individual might not always want to go to their manager or team members about. They can also introduce them to other ERGs or their own personal network and essentially just help them get acclimated to life at Dell from that company culture perspective. I hear a lot of great stories about team members who have maintained those relationships with their ERG mentors and that they've been lasting friends or even gone to Thanksgiving dinner with them. So, in addition to those TrueAbility mentors, we also offer several professional development resources for team members to take advantage of.

We identify those topics in partnership with our neurodiversity advisory committee. Our advisory committee is a group of, I would say anywhere from 15 to 20 team members who have been hired through the program. They all have raised their hands to stay in touch with us, offer feedback. They're always my go-to if I'm ever thinking about making changes to our approach. And we often work with them to identify what else they might need to continue to grow and develop in their roles. So these professional development sessions are actually chosen by our advisory committee and by the greater group of neurodivergent employees as a whole. We often just send out surveys to understand what they'd like to focus on. Some of the more recent topics that we've covered have been on things like time management, prioritization, networking and branding or presentation skills and self-advocacy or empowerment in your role. And we partner with our internal education services and learning development teams to deliver those sessions to our team members.

Lastly, we provide several networking opportunities for new team members to meet other people within the organization. We've seen great connections or other small subgroups develop out of those. For example, I know of a couple of team members that do a regular gaming night as a result of those avenues for networking and some sessions that we've led so that folks can get to know each other as they come on board. So that should give you a high level understanding of the key components of the program, and you might be wondering what's next? Where else is Dell going to go from here? So we're in the process of building out our strategy to grow this program to other regions across the globe, and we've seen a really great appetite from team members in other regions.

For example, we're looking at a team in Bangalore, India who's building out the framework for a program right now. We have a couple of team members in Taiwan who are looking at starting a program and in the UK, and we've really been focusing on building out internal resources that all Dell team members can access and use, whether they're looking to grow a program or if they're just a manager that wants to offer a skill-based interview experience. So, we actually recently created an internal centralized resource site that has those types of toolkits and information on different types of accommodations or strategies for neurodivergent team members. And we found that to be a really great way to not only evangelize the program, but also just to educate all team members on what is neurodiversity, how do I become a more supportive team member or an even more inclusive manager?

And with that, I want to thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you today. I welcome any questions or follow-up conversations that you may be interested in having, so please don't hesitate to reach out. But once again, thank you. Happy endeem, and we'll be in touch soon, I'm sure. Thanks again.

David Yozzi, Senior Vice President, Texthelp:

Fantastic words of wisdom there from Danielle. Thanks for sharing some of your takeaways for creating a successful neurodivergent hiring program at Dell.

That brings us to the end of the session already. Huge thank you to Danielle, Hiren, and Pierre for sharing all of your experiences and expertise. Truly inspiring. I hope that you've taken some valuable pearls of wisdom away and given you some insights into how to strengthen inclusion in your workplace.

If you'd like to share your learnings from this session with your social followers, we'd love for you to include the festival hashtag TexthelpFest23. If you'd like to learn more about supporting your neurodiverse team, head over to our booths and check out all of the free resources. Or if you'd like to book a chat with one of our inclusive technology specialists, just pop the words let's chat into the chat box and we'll reach out to you.

Next up we'll be hosting a neurodiversity hackathon where the panel will work together to hack common challenges to neuro inclusion in the workplace. So head there now by clicking the live tab at the top of your screen and hear from Dan Harris of neurodiversity in business, Joseph Riddle of neurodiversity in work.

Enjoy the rest of your festival everyone. It's been a pleasure hosting this. And for now, it's goodbye from us. Thank you. 

With an elevated talent and culture agenda in the boardroom, today's people and DEI leaders are being looked to now more than ever. In this session we explore how neurodiversity and disability inclusion can help address talent shortages and strengthen company culture.

Join us and gain practical tips and advice on successfully leading an inclusive HR and DEI agenda, while meeting the demands of a more strategic and influential role.

Download the slides here

Lisa Smyth (00:00):

Hi everybody. Welcome to today's session where we're going to be exploring the topic of inclusive leadership, the strategies for HR and DEI success.

(00:08):

So I'm Lisa Smyth, I'm head of marketing here at Workplace and Texthelp, and with me today are my colleague Cathy Donnelly, Chief People Officer for Texthelp, Miranda McCarthy, who's the DEI lead at MassMutual and Melissa Bosch, the DEI Country Lead at EY Ireland.

(00:26):

So over the next hour, our presenters are going to showcase how disability and neurodiversity inclusion can help us address some really critical business objectives. They'll share advice on how to successfully lead an inclusive agenda at a company, as well as presenting some examples from their own organization. So it's going to be super interesting and hopefully super inspirational for everybody that's attending today.

(00:47):

So Cathy is going to kick us off today with a bit of theme setting around the changing landscape for DEI and HR leaders and to talk a wee bit about the impact and the results that can be achieved when we get inclusion really right. So over to you Cathy, if you want to kick things off.

Cathy Donnelly (01:04):

Thank you, Lisa. So hello everyone. I'm going to start just by introducing myself. So as Lisa said, my name is Cathy Donnelly. I'm the Chief People Officer here at Texthelp, and I'm based in Northern Ireland where Texthelp began 27 years ago.

(01:19):

So my role as chief people officer involves crafting and leading the Texthelp people agenda and ensuring that our workplace is inclusive for our 370 plus people who are working in 11 offices in seven countries today.

(01:33):

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a big focus within our people strategy. We have established a DEI leadership council and employee resource groups, and they're all in place with the goal of creating a sense of belonging amongst employees and making it possible for people to be their authentic selves at work.

(01:51):

We want our workplace to be places where employees feel psychologically safe and they feel comfortable and confident that they're valued and accepted for who they are; a community, which is one of our Texthelp values where Difference is celebrated.

(02:06):

When it comes to Texthelp, inclusion is at the heart of everything that we do. We are an inclusive technology company providing tools that help people to understand and be understood. Our tools are beneficial for those with neurodiverse conditions, whether that's dyslexia, ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, and we also help those with low levels of literacy or those for whom English is not their first language. Our read and write tool has helped 50 million people, but we want to do more and we have this ambitious goal of advancing the literacy and understanding of one billion people by 2030.

(02:41):

I think the expectations of us as senior HR leaders has changed significantly over the last few years. Deloitte conducted some research recently into the elevated talent and culture agenda in the boardroom. What they found was that COVID-19 amplified workforce issues at the board level and businesses are now re-imagining how they operate in the face of economic shifts, geopolitical and social justice issues, climate impacts, societal expectations, and a changing talent landscape.

(03:13):

They find that chief people officers are being called on by the board more frequently and more directly for their input and guidance. They also found that leadership capability models are being infused with more human behaviors, which I think is really positive. We've got to treat our employees with dignity and respect and build that trust through our everyday interactions.

(03:33):

So just reflecting for a few seconds, in the last few years, we have seen the pandemic, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, the cost of living crisis, and more recently we're hearing about loud layoffs, career cushioning and grumpy staying. All of these situations have shed a light on the need for businesses to review the employee experience.

(03:53):

We are in a war for talent and probably the most competitive that I have seen in my 25 plus years in human resources. So we need to build strategies that allow us to access the full employment market, ensuring we provide an environment that supports everyone to thrive.

(04:10):

As a chief people officer, we need to focus on the business case for neuro-inclusion with our peers. We need to talk about the value neurodiverse people bring to the business. For example, research shows that companies with neurodiverse teams benefit from 28% increased revenue, 30% better profit, decision-making is 87% better in neurodiverse teams. 81% of employees who believe their company culture is inclusive are happy in their job. And we all know the high levels of employee engagement in turn improves business results and performance.

(04:43):

We also have to debunk the myth that neurodiverse employees can't deal with change. I don't think any of us really likes change, and in reality, the only constant has been changed in the last few years. Our role as leaders in the talent space is to ensure that all of our leaders and all of our employees have the tools in the toolbox to help them navigate change, creating certainty where we can, which again, in turn builds trust.

(05:06):

And finally, as businesses, we need to be human and we need to do the right thing, offering opportunities to diverse applicants. My experience has been that this elevated talent and culture agenda in the boardroom today has resulted in us as people leaders being looked to now more than ever to provide that human side of leadership, while also addressing talent shortages, strengthening our company cultures, and meeting the demands of a more strategic and influential role.

(05:32):

So looking at neuro-inclusion, it's really great that HR professionals recognize that disability and neuro-inclusion are key elements of their people strategies. In fact, we did some research back in 2022 and we find that 94% of HR professionals have established best practices to support neurodiversity and disability inclusion in their workplaces.

(05:51):

And why is that? Because they know that disability and neuro-inclusion practices help us to tap into an untapped talent base, improve our brand reputations, create a culture where people feel accepted and valued for who they are, to list just a few reasons. And when you consider this with the backdrop of one in four people being disabled and one in five of us being neurodivergent, it becomes even more significant.

(06:17):

That said, I would encourage all of us to check in with our employees and make sure that what we're doing to support them is actually making a difference. In our recent research, we heard that while 75% of organizations thought they were offering support to their neurodivergent employees, 64% of neurodivergent employees thought their organizations could be doing more.

(06:38):

So what I'll do now is just share some examples of what we've done at Texthelp to be more inclusive. I would say we don't always get it right, we don't have all the answers, but I'm keen to share some of what we have done that has worked. So we've been addressing talent shortages through inclusive hiring. So we advertise our read and write for work software on our careers page, making it available to anyone who needs it before they apply, and therefore making that application process that much easier.

(07:05):

We also encourage people at the outset to ask for support at interview if needed. We've had people ask for the interview questions in advance as they have autism and they find it difficult to respond to interview questions in the moment. Offering read and write at this stage, it's beneficial for everyone, but particularly helpful for neurodivergent people or those with English as a second language or those with a condition that affects their reading and writing.

(07:29):

We also ensure our job advertisements are inclusive and don't contain any language that may be off-putting. So we're currently reviewing all of our job descriptions to make sure they are inclusive. So for example, do we really need a first class honors degree for that role? Must you really have excellent communication skills? Or what does it mean to be a guru or a superstar? These types of statements put people off applying the first instance, so important that we remove them.

(07:55):

We're also reviewing inclusive job boards to see which might support our diverse hiring efforts. And we've worked with Specialisterne and they're a specialist organization that recruits and supports neurodivergent people.

(08:05):

When it comes to your employer brand, I would encourage you to take time to talk openly about inclusion, be transparent about your initiatives and activities, share how far you've come, but also be comfortable to share how far you still have to go. And if you're in doubt about sharing externally, I'm going to share a few more statistics. 93% of neurodivergent employees and 63% of neurotypical said they would be more likely to apply or continue to work for a company that was supporting neurodivergent employees well.

(08:37):

We've also focused on retaining our employees by recognizing and valuing them. What's interesting here is that 76% of people with a disability or a neurodiverse condition don't fully disclose this at work. So I think it's safe for us to assume that we aren't getting the best from all of our employees at work as they are not getting the support that they need to perform at their best.

(08:59):

I mentioned our research earlier. We also conducted some research with disability, starting with Disability:IN, and we asked 500 neurodivergent people about their experiences at work. 61% have experienced stigma in the workplace, 56% have experienced communication barriers at work, and 32% have experienced a lack of career progression. And for those that didn't disclose their condition at work, why not? Well, 44% felt it would negatively impact their career, 42% were concerned that their managers and/or colleagues would view them differently, 19% aren't sure how to raise it with their manager, and 19% had a previous negative experience when they did disclose it.

(09:43):

So again, going back to the previous statistic, one in five of us is neurodivergent. When we consider this, this is an issue that we as HR leaders need to use our power to change, creating environments where people feel comfortable and confident to be themselves.

(09:59):

We need to be flexible. We need to meet people where they are. Employees should be allowed to thrive in their own way. At Texthelp, we provide our inclusive technology as standard. There's no need to self-identify. There's no need to raise a hand. You're given instructions from day one on how do you install the software, and we encourage all of our employees to use our software, particularly in this current time of information overload.

(10:22):

We survey our employees regularly and we act on what they tell us to improve the working environment. So we ensure that they know how they've influenced our actions by publishing a, you said, we did after every survey. We're currently refurbishing one of our offices and we're thinking about how we make it neuro-inclusive. We have enlisted the help of our enable employee resource group, which focuses on disability to really think about accessibility. So for example, the introduction of quiet spaces throughout the office.

(10:51):

And we work with our employees to help them develop their resilience, helping them to transition through change. We've developed a professional skills' curriculum to ensure everyone has the skills needed to navigate the very complex world that businesses are now operating in, helping everyone to grow professionally, while also looking after their mental health with the addition of sleep clinics, mindfulness sessions and the like. And our leadership development programs have modules on developing resilience and being the thriving leader. And we also create awareness of disability and neurodiversity through sessions with external providers such as Don't Disable Me, and really building that empathy for others and normalizing and de-stigmatizing disability conversations.

(11:34):

We also then have focused on strengthening our company culture through displaying a human side to your leadership. So being human, being authentic, sharing our own vulnerabilities as a senior leadership team. And what we find is it's the raw storytelling that gives employees the permission to tell their own stories. We're building trust, we're demonstrating empathy, which is super important.

(11:54):

So we did a town hall takeover on mental health on World Mental Health Day, where we had employees and senior leaders talking about their own personal and family experiences with mental health. And these conversations opened doors for others to share their own lived experience, normalizing what has been taboo for way too long. So no longer is there a home me and a work me, it's just me. So it's time to ensure we can bring our full selves to work and be accepted.

(12:23):

We're also getting back to basics and talking about our company values and how we want to live them every day. So last year we revisited our Texthelp values following a number of acquisitions, and I led a global working group to create our Refresh Values. And these were created for employees by employees. Then, in addition to the values, to really bring them to life, we introduced what we call our 31 practices. And it's a set of practices, one for every day of the month that describe the behaviors that bring Texthelp values to life.

(12:54):

Our values are creative, courageous, community, and impactful. And again, our 31 practices were designed by our employees across a set of co-creation workshops. Created by our employees, for our employees, the values and practices motivate our workforce to keep them making Texthelp and our tools the best they can be. And several of our practices focus on inclusion. So we have be inclusive and welcome everyone regardless of their background, celebrate differences and learn from each other or bring your whole self to work by sharing who you are. This impacts our culture as well as also empowering our employees to uphold our company's mission and vision and drive the success of our business.

(13:36):

And finally, we have created our global Texthelp community through our DEI Leadership Council who are responsible for overseeing Texthelp's DEI plans and ensuring employees are heard and represented. Their mission is to build connections and networks that strengthen our global Texthelp community, educating and creating awareness of each other's experiences and perspectives in order to promote that culture of belonging.

(14:02):

We have our six employee resource groups.

(14:03):

With that culture of belonging. We have our six employee resource groups, which are run by Texthelp employees and sponsored by our senior leadership team. We have Thrive, who focus on our mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. Alphabet Allies, who represent our LGBTQ+ community, Alter Eco, who focus on the environment, Empowered, focusing on gender, Enable, who are taking care of disability and neurodiversity, and Represent who focus on race and ethnicity. Then we have a DEI training plan, which consists of a set of workshops which are being delivered to senior leadership managers and employees. We also have a culture club, sharing experiences and stories from different cultures around the world, having fun through storytelling, recipe sharing, for example. Everything we've talked about today has enabled us to truly unleash the potential of our employees. Our engagement is high, our attrition is low. Our brand is attracting top talent in the market, and our business is benefiting from our world-class people, and this is showing up in our overall business results. What we have learned is that disabled and neurodivergent talent bring diversity of thought, and with that comes creativity and innovation. Neurodivergent talent is such an untapped talent pool, but neurodivergent people have so much to offer. They often aren't the best at identifying their skills and talents, and they can find it difficult to communicate and sell these skills and talents. It's on us as senior leaders in the talent space to ensure neurodiversity and neuroinclusion are on our agendas, because ultimately we will drive business performance as a result of the skills a diverse workforce brings. That's it from me. Lisa, back over to you. Thank you.

Lisa Smyth (15:51):

Thank you so much, Cathy. It was really great to hear you talking so enthusiastically. Just about a few of the things and the few initiatives we've gone on here at Texthelp to improve inclusion. I know it's a subject you're really, really passionate about and I'm glad that came across so well for everybody and came across so clearly. If anybody has any questions for Cathy, just pop them into the chat now while you're watching. But up next is Miranda. I'd like to pass over to Miranda who's going to be exploring MassMutual's changing approach to disability inclusion over the past few years. Over to you, Miranda. Take it away.

Miranda McCarthy (16:25):

Great. Thank you so much for having me and for having MassMutual on this esteemed panel. My name is Miranda McCarthy. I am a DEI consultant at MassMutual. I oversee our eight different business resource groups and I also am responsible for our individuals with disabilities strategy. I'm just so incredibly thrilled to be included on this panel. A little bit about MassMutual, for those of you who might not be aware. MassMutual is a financial services company. We're here to help you secure your future and protect the ones that you love. You might have seen us on various NHL commercials or Red Sox commercials, whether it's life insurance, disability insurance, wealth management products, et cetera. That's who MassMutual is. When it comes to DEI and diversity, equity and inclusion, MassMutual is extremely committed to our DEI values, including disability inclusion and neuro inclusion.

(17:33):

We have been on quite the journey over the last few years to really recognize the contributions of our neurodivergent talent in the workforce and to create a better space for them. We're just so thankful for Texthelp and Disability:In and some of the other thought leaders in the industry. I'll be giving you a little bit of an overview about MassMutual, some of the changes that we've made over the past few years, and some of the things that we have in the works, and some of the plans that we have to help foster disability inclusion. From a MassMutual perspective, our DEI strategy is really around seeking and valuing those diverse perspectives. We know that these diverse perspectives reflect the markets that we serve, so we really remain committed to advocating for that fairness, whether it's in the marketplace, whether it's in our workplace, or whether it's in the community.

(18:32):

We really value people being able to show up as their whole selves and bring their whole thoughts to our community and to our culture. We're just really thrilled about that. Over the past 15 years, this commitment has really been making us stronger. It's really been creating a workforce where everyone feels like they belong, they're respected, they're valued, and that they can make a meaningful contribution. That's really where the equity comes into. Since 2017, actually, MassMutual has done something pretty radical. We've actually built our DEI measures into our annual incentive program. We set annual goals to diversify our workforce, and we share that progress. We provide a level of transparency that is actually considered to be a best practice among inclusive companies. Every year we re-examine that workforce demographic. Something that I've noticed over the past few years as I've self disclosed and self IDed myself, is our self ID rate has actually increased since we have added these metrics into our annual incentive goals.

(19:49):

Since we have fostered a deeper commitment, and I think a more tangible commitment from our senior leadership team, the conversations that they're having in these town halls, and in these panel discussions, and in these boardrooms really has completely changed because what you measure is what you care about, right? Ever since we started measuring that, we've seen some pretty impactful changes. For example, we've seen a 50% increase in our individual with disability self ID rates since 2019. We've started a neurodiversity and allies Slack channel where we can share resources, where we can discuss things like burnout and imposter syndrome. Over the past 10 years, we've transitioned from an ERG model, an employee resource group model, to a business resource group model. When we choose and appoint the chairs and the vice chairs of our various eight BRGs, that really helps us fulfill the company's DEI strategy in a multi-pronged way. First, we have the top talent in these communities helping to influence the company's decisions, so those decisions that we make in the community, in the workforce, and in the marketplace. We have these incredible chairs and vice chairs who help us influence that company and that DEI strategy. Then we also use these chairs and vice chairs' chair positions as incredible talent development. When we look at our demographics and when we look at the underrepresented talent or the marginalized talent that we seek to develop, we are hand in hand between our talent development organization and our DEI organization, and we actively use our BRGs to not only create that business impact on MassMutual, but to create that human impact on those individuals. I'm someone who has directly benefited from that here at MassMutual, and that has just been an incredible story for myself to experience.

(22:07):

Something else that we do with these BRG leaders is we really focus on intersectionality. Believe it or not, we have members of our pride BRG that are super passionate about neurodivergence. We have members of our Latino and Asian BRGs that are having their own inclusion sessions, or they're having their own mental health sessions because so many of our communities realize that if 20% of us are neurodivergent, then that really means 20 plus percent in any other BRG at the company as well. We've really focused on the intersectional experience of neuro inclusion and what it's like to come out as neurodivergent in different cultures and what it's like to get a diagnosis if you're a woman, or if you are Asian, or if you're African-American. It can be very different. It can be very difficult to seek those diagnoses.

(23:07):

That's why I really loved the Deloitte research and the Texthelp research where whether you are diagnosed or not or whether you're disclosed or not, neuroinclusion is really about all of us showing up and just getting what we need. I just think that that's so powerful and that is really our focus here at MassMutual, is being humanistic people leaders. We have campuses in Boston and Springfield. We have a pretty robust remote workforce as well. Our entire strategy, I think just like everyone else, was upended during the Covid-19 pandemic. We had to once again look at inclusion and look at the workforce very differently. We actually took that couple of years as a unique opportunity for ourselves.

(24:05):

We really focused on employee development and mental health during those years when we felt, "Okay, could we take our foot off the pedal? Could we focus on only the basics?" We actually doubled down. We decided to do even more. We curated some digital pathways. We had more virtual events than we've ever had before, and we actually did a lot of collaborative events. These were not just specifically disability inclusion events, but these were intersectional events with our other BRG meters. That, plus the additional learning platforms, just this has really encouraged several different types of learning, and I think has really weaved a lot of the conversations together. Then that transitioned really well into this flexible workplace approach as we figure out how do we all work together post Covid pandemic.

(25:06):

I think that it's really important when you think about change management. I think I heard us talk about change management earlier for neurodivergent colleagues. Our BRGs were able to actually work with our talent and HR organization on their communication and their deployment approach for some of these flexible workplace policies and changes. I think when you really lean on your BRG leaders when it comes to communication and deployment and that readiness support, you're just so much more effective. Your BRG leaders, whether they're paid positions or volunteered positions at your company, those are your stakeholders. Those are your thought leaders. Those are really the champions in those communities. Whether it's a virtual event, whether it's something fun that you're just trying to get everybody to attend, or whether it's this business outcome that you're really trying to drive, like neuroinclusion, if you are leaning on your BRG leaders as your ambassadors, your readiness strategy is really going to be just that much more effective.

(26:19):

That's really what we've found at MassMutual, is using your BRG leaders to really be those people leaders and to really be ambassadors in their community. I think I heard earlier, listening to them, implementing some of their ideas and then communicating that back out. We use our BRG leaders to help us communicate that out. To say, "Hey, look." For example, the adapt BRG did a focus group to say, "What is it like for employees with disabilities or employees who are neurodivergent who currently work here, whether you are out or not, whether you're disclosing or not, can you tell us good, bad, and ugly? What are your experiences in getting hired, and getting onboarded, and getting trained, and in being retained at our company?"

(27:10):

We actually had Deb Dagit from Disability:In come in and facilitate these closed door focus group sessions with our disabled employees. We were able to get the quantitative and the qualitative data from that. Now the BRG and Deb Dagit are consulting with our entire HR and DEI team to say, "Okay, what's the low hanging fruit? What are the top priorities here, because as we seek to bring in more neurodivergent talent, we need to make sure that we have a great supportive culture for the talent that is already here." That's really the MassMutual multi-pronged approach. Step one was really getting our BRG up and running and into a more strategic place. Step two was focus groups and surveys of the talent...

(28:03):

... was focus groups and surveys of the talent that is already here. One in three college educated, working age adults consider themselves disabled, whether they're neurodivergent or not. So we really wanted to understand who's already here crushing our company goals and how could we support them better? So over the next year, we hope that just by implementing some of those changes and suggestions from the focus groups, we might naturally increase our self ID rate, we might naturally recruit more people just by word of mouth.

(28:41):

And then once we're able to really prove that we feel like we know what we're doing, we feel like we can point to a robust supportive culture for our current neurodivergent employees, that's when we'll feel more confident to really open up some sort of cohort or some sort of specific hiring program like we've seen some of the other companies do. So that's really the vision, is nothing is perfect, but how do we make it safe for everyone to be their whole selves at work? And it starts with all of us who are already here being our whole selves at work. So open to questions and feedback, but that's just in a nutshell what MassMutual has been working on over the past few years.

Lisa Smyth (29:29):

Thank you so much, Miranda. That was absolutely wonderful. I know having met some of you guys and MassMutual team and even some of your BRG members over the last few months, you guys are so enthusiastic about this. This is a journey you're embracing and it's just wonderful to watch and wonderful to get time to talk to you. So thank you so much for sharing that today. Again, anybody has any questions from Miranda, pop them into the chat and we will definitely get back to you. So last but not least, of course not least, I want to bring Melissa into the conversation. Melinda is going to... Melissa, not Melinda. Melissa is going to talk to you about some of the wonderful work that is going on inside EY Ireland. So I'm super excited to pass over to you, Melissa.

Melissa Bosch (30:11):

Thank you so much for having me. It was so wonderful listening to Miranda and Cathy speak about the work being done. This is the joy of working in this area. So my name is Melissa Bosch. I'm head of DE&I for EY Ireland. I'm absolutely passionate about what I do, passionate about equity, inclusion, and belonging, and it really stems from my ethos, which is seated in the African philosophy of Ubuntu. So Ubuntu talks about the universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity, I am because you are.

(30:45):

And that's my purpose. Social inclusion, social justice is my why. So absolutely thrilled to be here today. Thrilled to be able to share a little bit about what we are doing in EY for equity, inclusion and belonging. So I'm going to share a few little slides just to give you a sense of what we're talking about. But EY is one of the largest professional services firms in the world, and the business works across various industries. Audit, transactions, tax, et cetera, et cetera. I'm just going to get these slides up really quickly. Okay. Great. So EY is one of the world's largest professional services firms. EY provides a range of services across various industries services that include audits, assurance, tax, consulting, strategy and transaction. We have a 300,000 strong global network of professionals that work with a diverse range of clients, including multinationals, corporations, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and small to medium-sized enterprises. In our day-to-day work, what we do is we want to create a culture where people feel that they belong, feel that they can bring their true selves to work like was mentioned earlier. We want people to be able to do that. We want to be able to leverage different perspectives, fuel innovation, foster collaboration, and strengthen our relationships.

(32:25):

So our vision is to create that inclusive culture. A culture where people leverage those unique perspectives and they bring innovation into the workplace to help us build a better working world. Our focus is on diversity and inclusion and equity, and it's integral into how we develop our people, how we serve our clients, how we disrupt thinking, and how we play leadership roles in our communities. I mean, it was mentioned over the last while it's been really challenging with all the change. The pandemic, it has really brought a range of challenges to our people. And so we really want to help them through our strategy, through what we do and how we influence within our organization.

(33:23):

The pandemic had forced a rapid shift into remote working for organizations and we've had to adapt and address the unique challenges that it's thrown up and the opportunities that it's also brought. So we've taken those lessons and we've brought it with us into this new normal, and we are constantly shaping and reshaping our hybrid ways of working, constantly learning to adapt, work and not to exacerbate the existing inequalities. That was really important for us. Looking at how these changes affect different demographics within our organization the pandemic brought those societal issues to the fore.

(34:13):

It brought societal issues including race, social disparities to the forefront, and it can amplify that urgency of embedding the practice of equity and inclusion within our new hybrid organization. We've been more proactive, engaging with employees and the broader community to ensure our initiatives are aligned to societal expectations and they really reflect the values that we have as an organization. We work really closely with our ERGs, with our networks. We call them networks within EY, and they've really become the voice of the business. So from a strong strategy that really centers around three pillars belonging, representation, and disruptive voice, we've underpinned that with our networks who bring that strategy to life.

(35:09):

I often say that strategies is a piece of paper until people take action and bring it to life within the organization. And that's really important, to take that concept of what you want to do and what you want to achieve and infuse that into individuals within the organization that have the passion, tenacity and drive to make things happen. And listening, listening came through strongly. We need to be able to listen to our people because they know what they need. And it's really important that we as talent leaders listen and understand and put in interventions that are going to help them fulfill their potential. Pandemic also underscored the need for collaboration between HR and talent.

(36:05):

It was so important for us to ensure that the way we implement policies and practices, that it's supportive of the DE&I strategy. Regularly sharing communication, sharing data, being really data driven and data led to have those rich conversations and ensuring that their initiatives are not siloed, that this is a DE&I thing that's happening, but it's integrated into the lived experience of people across the firm and into the HR business as usual practices. And that's become really critical in us achieving our goals. The pandemic and all the changes as a result and all the changes in our world, it's really highlighted the vulnerability of specific communities.

(37:06):

Specific communities that are disproportionately affected, affected by the impact of, and the aftermath of the virus as well. So our DE&I initiatives have expanded to provide supports and resources to these communities throughout our networks. And that's really addressing those unique needs, those unique challenges. Some of those activities that we brought to life over the pandemic and before and over the pandemic was sensory maps of the building. So each floor has a sensory map for our neurodivergent colleagues so they know where they can go if they needed a space where the lighting is better or where there's less odor from the canteen. So they're aware of that and having it up on each floor, it's just helped other colleagues understand that they are these differences and that we have to be open and flexible to those differences to ensure that people can be at their best in the workplace. So these are small things that have a big impact for individuals. Things like assistive technologies guides, they help people in a way and having them accessible, a where you don't need to ask for them becomes a point of dignity that it's there and if you need it you can go and get it. And that's really important. That dignity piece is really important.

(38:56):

Looking at what we're doing and there's so many things that we do across the globe around neurodiversity, but within EY and there's something that I really want to share with you around what we're doing for our individuals with intellectual disabilities. So in Ireland, there's a number of individuals with intellectual disabilities, and that number has grown significantly. It's surpassed 66,000 in recent times across the island of Ireland. And there's been considerable gaps in their participation in the workforce. Only 14.7% of individuals with intellectual disabilities are currently employed in contrast to 26.2 of those with other disabilities and 62.1% of people without any disabilities.

(39:49):

So there's a stark difference there. And this gap represents a missed opportunity. We've heard about it. We've heard that diverse teams they outperform homogenous ones. Greater diversity not only enhances creativity, but there's better decision making and improve financial and employee experience outcomes. Moreover, it just brings about better societal advantages, promoting social mobility, aligning with broader initiatives like the UN SDGs and the convention on the rights of Persons with disabilities. It's a win-win scenario for individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. Over the past five years, EY and the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities have collaborated to create pathways for young individuals with intellectual disabilities to really flourish and embark on meaningful career journeys.

(40:50):

Look, in an era that's marked by ongoing progress in diversity and inclusivity activities, I'm particularly proud to witness and to contribute to a program that really extends from higher education to create meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The profound impact of these efforts, it extends beyond the graduates themselves. It ripples through their families, colleagues, society as a whole, leaving an indelible mark that can't be overstated. You just have to read Margaret's quote there. So in 2017, partnering with Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, we trialed an internship program for people with ID with intellectual disabilities. Our motivation was a deep commitment to really understand and address an often overlooked area. And that came with a strong belief that everyone should have the opportunity to work and make a positive contribution in society. Our experience in working with Trinity to create these opportunities-

(42:01):

... with Trinity to create these opportunities. It really affirmed that belief. These opportunities have directly contributed to our success as a professional services firm. If we look at our Pulse survey, which is in our employee survey, we can see the difference in teams that have colleagues with intellectual disabilities in them. We can see the difference in that employee experience. Adapting to accommodate our candidates, it's really driven us to reassess all our processes and enhance the way we've engaged with everyone regardless of whether they have a disability or not.

(42:45):

The transformative and overwhelmingly positive impact on our colleagues, it's absolutely evident. And the benefits, it really extends across all aspects of our business. Look, it was a leap into uncharted territory. It came with numerous challenges and more than a few mistakes, but nonetheless, it marked the inception of a long-term transformational endeavor that aligns with our purpose of creating a better working world.

(43:14):

Over the years, the initiative has grown in strengths evolving beyond the initial pilot and moved into our BAU operational approach. Margaret Turley, she's on screen there, she was our first Trinity grad and since then we've had five more grads join and we continue to grow that population and they contribute to various aspects of our organization. The benefits have been far-reaching and the graduates have found a profound sense of purpose and self-belief through meaningful work, but also their families, friends and colleagues across EY Ireland and the business as a whole. You don't need to listen to me. I'd love for you to hear from Stephen Ryan.

Stephen's Mother (44:18):

Well, Stephen as a child was a bit of a nightmare, but one of a kind. He had barely any language at six years of age. I mean, he talked a lot, but nobody understood what he was saying. It was very hard sending him into school. Nobody could see his achievements. He was six, but he acted more like a four-year-old. When he was eight then he acted like six-year-old. He was always improving, but nobody ever saw it.

Stephen Ryan (44:42):

I have dyspraxia coordination disability. When I was in school, they had no support for that. But now in school, they have special chairs for people with this, so they can't fall over or anything. But back when I was in school, nobody knew what there was. Nobody heard of it before. There's so much more supports there for people with disabilities now than there were ever.

Stephen's Mother (45:04):

He was taken out of mainstream schooling. Then he went on to the NLN.

Stephen Ryan (45:09):

At the end of that course, you have to go in the work placement and at the end of the year you would get a job out of it. The work I was in, the job shut down after 11 months of my 12-month contract, and they didn't do anything to replicate it. They just left me without any educational job for two years after.

Stephen's Mother (45:27):

Yeah. And the two years here, that was the hardest part. And then he got very depressed and had to give up work, didn't you? And then we found Trinity College.

Stephen Ryan (45:37):

I had the interview. The interview couldn't have gone better. But it was the next day, actually, I got word I got accepted to Trinity College.

Stephen's Mother (45:46):

The confidence just shot through the roof. You stood up straight. Everything about you changed those two years. Growing up, sorry Steve, you're great, but I never thought you'd make Trinity.

Stephen Ryan (46:01):

That makes two of us. I couldn't have loved Trinity more. It was the first place I actually felt like I belonged.

Stephen's Mother (46:09):

Yeah.

Stephen Ryan (46:09):

It also gave me a route into work. At the end of the two years, I did a work placement in EY. I got accepted after two months for a permanent role in EY. I'm also the fastest person to be employed to work from the Trinity Center for Intellect Disabilities. I rang up Marie, who's the course coordinator when I got the role and she was like, "Are you sure? Are you sure it's not an extension?" "No, no, no. It's permanent. I'm sure." Where I work in EY, I work in the tax department of EY.

Stephen's Mother (46:46):

Well, he tells me he's an accountant, but I mean I don't think he is because I was a bookkeeper. I was never an accountant. He pulls databases and spreadsheets and works like that. He keeps diaries for people and contacts.

Stephen Ryan (47:09):

I've been there for two years now, so I love it. People have come in and gone in that time, but new people have come in and everyone who's come in has been very supportive too.

Stephen's Mother (47:12):

Stephen's never had any friends and these people were genuinely friends. Achieving the school is one thing, but being a part of a community is really special. Now, special Olympics was good for us, but then when he went to EY and the confidence grew, he was just the best.

Stephen Ryan (47:30):

Mom's been immense to me. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been in Trinity to begin with. Them two years on my own were a very low point in my life and very hard for me. Mom's kept on searching for something for me just to do. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be where I am today. And my achievement is her achievement in the way.

Stephen's Mother (47:56):

I'm extremely proud of where Steve has got to. I never thought you would get that far. I really didn't. I'm sorry, but really, I mean, you had so many problems. Your body's not automatic. You have to think about what you're doing. I think the best thing, the Special Olympics, you coach them on a Wednesday night, don't you? The young ones? And the parents look at you and they see hope for their kids. That's so important. I saw no hope for Stephen when he was ... I didn't know where he was going to end up. Where he is now and the man he is now, it's beyond my wildest expectations. So proud.

Melissa Bosch (48:54):

So that was Stephen Ryan, an incredible story, and his mom's reflections as well. Creating meaningful employment for people with intellectual disabilities and people on the neuro-divergent spectrum, it's not only a moral imperative, it's also a strategic advantage. Engaging, enabling, and empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities, with disabilities in general, benefits organizations. It enriches workplaces and fosters a more inclusive society. The first step in this journey and what we've learned, is really to engage the support of the C-suite of leadership. Having a high level sponsor not only boosts visibility, but also holds us accountable for the commitment to inclusion. It sets the tone within the organization. It shows the dedication to a diverse workforce. To ensure that sustainability of our program, we allocated the necessary resources, we ensured that the candidate had a circle of support around them. Sustainability is vital to the development of programs like this.

(50:11):

Remember that internal partners within our organization can be a valuable resource. Collaboration with different line managers and different departments can help us tap into internal expertise, resources, and making a program much more robust and resilient. Sustainable partnerships are absolutely key as well. They allow us to really leverage knowledge and experience outside our organization, so people like the Trinity Center for Intellectual Disabilities, As I am, Specialisterne, Texthelp. It's so important to develop those relationships so you can leverage those capabilities when developing job specifications. Not only looking at the skills and capabilities that are essential for the role, but actually being open to considering alternatives and looking beyond the candidate's CV to get that full picture of what they can bring to the business.

(51:15):

The pandemic, look, it's accelerated DE&I efforts. It's making us more responsive to societal expectations and it's really changed the talent landscape. It's reinforced the importance of collaboration between DE&I and HR, and it's prompted us to really address the challenges of remote working, well-being, and then that intersectional diversity. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion has grown stronger as a result here at EY Ireland.

(51:51):

In the spirit, what we've done is we've designed a guide and we'll soon be launching it. A guide based on the lived experience of our colleagues with intellectual disabilities in the firm. This guide is a product of collective insights from Trinity grads, from Trinity colleagues, family members, EY managers, mentors and more, and it aims to provide an understanding of the lessons that we've acquired and demonstrates the immense value that people on the neuro-divergent spectrum can bring to organizations. We want organizations looking to welcome employees with intellectual disabilities to find this guide not only informative, but inspiring.

(52:39):

If we collectively commit to the principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging and take meaningful action, we will create a more inclusive world for all. I'll leave you with this final question. How will you unlock the transformative power of belonging today? Thank you so much for your time. I'll be delighted to take any questions.

Lisa Smyth (53:08):

Thank you so much, Melissa. That was wonderful. I'm always so inspired to hear what's going on within EY and EY Ireland, particularly. We had Frank O'Keefe on a session earlier in the year, and it's just amazing to hear all this other stuff that we didn't know was going on. I would say to everybody, Melissa's final question, pop your answers into the chat. We want to hear from you guys as well. And the same, if you have any other questions for Melissa or any of the panelists here today, put them into the chat and we will come back to you as soon as possible.

(53:38):

That brings us to the end of this session. Huge thank you to Cathy, Miranda, and Melissa for sharing all your experiences and your expertise. And you know what, I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg. I wish we could all just sit in one room and talk for a whole night. I'm sure we would get all sorts of amazing places. But for everyone watching, if you'd like to learn more about workplace inclusion, creating inclusive culture, all of those great things, head over to our virtual booths. We have so many resources and guides and all sorts of really interesting materials there that will really help you on your way.

(54:11):

If you'd like to book a chat with one of our inclusive workplace specialists, just pop the words, let's chat, into the chat box and we'll reach out to you as soon as the festival is over. So up next, we have one more session today. The next panel is going to explore how inclusive technology offers a small change that can drive huge results company-wide. So you want to join the next session, just click the live tab at the top of your screen and go to hear from other great thinkers and leaders fromCIPD, Deloitte and other organizations.

(54:44):

But from the four of us today, just want to say goodbye. Thank you so much for attending today, and I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the festival. Bye guys. Thank you.

Melissa Bosch (54:56):

Thank you.

Cathy Donnelly (54:57):

Bye.

Miranda McCarthy (54:59):

Take care. Thanks.