Neurodiversity in Business: Corporate Member

NiB is an industry forum to support the participation of neurodivergent individuals in the workplace and ensure greater workplace inclusion for the community. They aim to create awareness as to the benefits and strengths of neurodiversity in the workplace, support and empower the neurodivergent, and educate the neurotypical on the importance of allyship and understanding neurodiverse colleagues.

To kick off our membership with NiB, Head of DEI Dana James-Edwards, alongside Consultant Success Manager Armeena Atwal and Cloud Engineering Consultant Shijo Varghese attended their Annual Conference on the 16th of March to network with industry thought leaders during a full day of celebrations and learning.

Driving workplace inclusion for the neurodiverse community is a key focus of ours. In a recent survey, 10% of our staff that completed the survey self-identified as neurodivergent. This highlighted the vital role we play in creating safe and supportive environments for existing employees and candidates.

We are still at the very start of creating a neuroinclusive environment and there’s a lot of work that we still need to do in this area. Partnerships, like the one we have with NiB are crucial to enabling us to develop our action plan and deliver meaningful change across the organisation.

Here's what Armeena had to say about the conference our commitment to neurodiversity as a whole:

It was incredibly uplifting to be in an environment that normalised and championed difference, and to see the work being done to reduce stigma in many different organisations. I resonated with many people's experiences; such as feeling more productive in hypo-sensory environments or preferring a non-conventional approach to learning and processing new information.

I also learned that creating safe spaces in the workplace that cater to different sensitivities can only lead to positive outcomes - such as enhancing problem solving, reducing fatigue and improving the overall wellbeing and productivity.

The conference reiterated the need to apply an intersectional lens when approaching neuroinclusivity, embodied by this quote: 'There is no such thing a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives' (Audre Lorde). I really look forward to working with NiB to see how we can drive initiatives within Kubrick to promote our mission to create an inclusive space for all."

Kubrick Diversity Champion Shjio Varghese said “One of my favourite quotes from the conference was that “Neurotypical people do not spend years researching if they are different. If you have spent years googling and being unsure if you have Autism/ADHD/Dyslexia/etc. you probably are neurodivergent!”I learnt that a neurodiverse diagnosis is not only a privilege, but new studies have shown that diagnosis can often be unreliable. Hence having a diagnosis should not be a limiting factor in giving help to individuals within the workplace. There are millions of undiagnosed people in our society, so we need to make tailored workplace adjustments to meet each individual's needs.I also learnt that there are billions lost in the economy due to lost productivity from not catering for neurodiverse individuals. Taking action to make workplace adjustments or be inclusive is not just the right thing to do its better for the bottom so there is no reason not to do it.”