[Title slide 1. Blue CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo appears in middle of screen. Company website www.cai.io appears at the bottom center of the screen]
[Title slide 2. White background with text centered in the middle of the screen that reads: “Webinar On-Demand. Gain productivity and increase innovation with autism employment”. The blue CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo appears underneath of this text towards the bottom of the screen]
[Presentation slide 1. Slide features the CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo on the top left. The text "Webinar. Gain productivity and increase innovation with autism employment" is displayed below. The background image shows a man in an office environment working on a laptop with headphones on. The name "Anthony Pacilio" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:00:08 - 00:00:25
Anthony Pacilio
Welcome everyone to today's webinar, Gain Productivity and Increase Innovation with Autism Employment. My name's Anthony Pacilio, former Vice President of Neurodiverse Solutions at CAI. We definitely have the best intro music ever. It always gets me pumped up.
00:00:26 - 00:00:48
Anthony
A little bit about me. My responsibilities here are to help organizations build neurodiversity programs and lead our expansion efforts of CAI Neurodiverse Solutions. My expertise lies in managing neurodiversity recruiting efforts, developing candidate pipelines, and ensuring best practices for onboarding, support, training, and organizational success.
00:00:49 - 00:01:24
Anthony
A few things before we begin today, I'd like to take a moment to go over some housekeeping items, so if you have any questions to submit during the discussion, we ask that you use the Q and A feature found at the bottom of your bar on your Zoom app. There's going to be a time at the end where we'll discuss and address as many questions as we can. In addition, you're going to find more information on the event in the chat box, so be sure to follow along with that as well. Lastly, I want to let you know, as always, we are recording this session today for future viewing.
[Presentation slide 2. The slide is titled "Today's agenda.”. The agenda is divided into four parts, numbered and listed in the center as follows: "1. 5 min. | Introduction," "2. 35 min. | Discussion," "3. 15 min. | Audience Q&A," and "4. 5 min. | Wrap up." The CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is in the bottom left corner. The name "Anthony Pacilio" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
So first, let's take a look at today's agenda. And as you can see, we got a few things we're going to be talking about. We're also going to be sharing with you each question visually as well.
[Presentation slide 3. The slide is titled “Meet our guests,” featuring three circular speaker photos below. From left to right: “Danielle Biddick, Global Program Manager, Disability Hiring and Accommodations, Talent Acquisition, Dell Technologies" with the Dell Technologies logo below: “Melissa Stefanyszyn, Director of Information Technology Services, enGen" with the enGen logo below: and “Anthony Pacilio, Former Vice President, Neurodiverse Solutions at CAI" with a "Moderator" button design below. The CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is in the bottom left corner. The name "Anthony Pacilio" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:01:35 - 00:02:14
Anthony
And now, onto our awesome guests. So first, let's meet Danielle Biddick. Danielle leads Dell's global recruitment strategy for hiring individuals with disabilities on the Talent Acquisition Center of Excellence team. Easy for me to say. In her role, she's responsible for managing the neurodiversity of Dell Hiring program and driving partnerships and initiatives that foster a more inclusive workforce for neurodivergent and disabled individuals. In addition to her role in talent acquisition, Danielle serves as the global engagement strategy lead for Dell's Employee Resource group, True Ability. Welcome my friend, Danielle.
00:02:15 - 00:02:15
Danielle Biddick
Thanks for having me.
00:02:16 - 00:03:12
Anthony
You are quite welcome. And next, meet my next friend, Melissa Stefanyszyn. Melissa is a 20 plus year IT professional, worked in all phases of the application development life cycle. Currently, as IT director of testing services for enGen, she supports Highmark and its subsidiaries in delivering the highest quality in healthtech solutions. Melissa specializes in non-functional testing including test automation, application security testing, performance testing, test data management, test cycles management and data integration testing. Is there something that you do not do, Melissa, in the testing world? In addition to her IT accountabilities, Melissa also sponsors Highmark's Neurodiverse Solutions program. She's the recruit and retain lead for Highmark's Abilities Business Resource Group and she is a diversity equity inclusion champion for our organization. Welcome, Melissa.
00:03:13 - 00:03:13
Melissa Stefanyszyn
Thank you.
00:03:14 - 00:04:00
Anthony
And thank you both for being here with us today. We're going to get started. In today's fast-paced business world, productivity and innovation aren't just really buzzwords. They're necessities. As organizations look to accelerate the digital transformation forward, autism employment can serve as a competitive advantage to do so, making it a focus of major global corporations such as technology organizations like Dell and healthtech Company, enGen. So Dell Technologies commitment to inclusion extents to fostering a culture that embraces differences by improving access, emphasizing support and education in promoting a welcoming workplace for all employees.
00:04:01 - 00:04:56
Anthony
Having a similar commitment to workplace inclusion, enGen deployed an associate project management team of individuals with autism spectrum disorder into the workforce. The result, I'm sure we all know, exceptional productivity and efficiency gains through processing hundreds of work requests weekly. In this 60 minute webinar, you'll hear from Danielle, Melissa as they discuss the true business value of embracing autism employment as well as topics regarding the benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace, including ways individuals with autism spectrum disorder can improve the workplace leading to increased retention, loyalty and morale for all employees, the speed of implementation and scalability of teams with neurodiversity talent and perspectives of business leaders when it comes to integrating neurodiversity into their workplaces.
00:04:57 - 00:05:23
Anthony
So, we're going to get into it. All of that introduction leads to Danielle and the first question. So Danielle, in what ways do you believe inclusive employment practices that support neurodivergent individuals contribute to a robust and loyal workforce? And how does it reflect in morale and retention rates?
[Presentation slide 4. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "In what ways do you believe inclusive employment practices that support neurodivergent individuals contribute to a more robust and loyal workforce, and how does this reflect in overall employee morale and retention rates?" Below, Danielle Biddick is credited with her title, and logo for Dell Technologies. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Danielle Biddick" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:05:24 - 00:06:29
Danielle
Well, I think that the easy answer to this is that inclusive employment practices that support neurodivergent people, support the entire business. We know that neurodiversity refers to a really wide range of differences in how our brains work and the way that we learn and process information. And we need those kinds of differences in the workplace to really drive innovation and problem solving capabilities. And so having those different perspectives and creative thinking styles are what really help us stay competitive in the marketplace. And if we aren't including those different ways of thinking and learning and communicating, then we're missing out on not only great talent but on innovative opportunities. And so especially right now, in this really unique time, where we're seeing things like talent shortages and modernization efforts and new technology like artificial intelligence really changing the way that we work, I think it's incredibly important for us to have that skill diversity within our organizations.
00:06:30 - 00:07:38
Danielle
And we often see that some of those success enabling support resources that we offer to neurodivergent team members through things like neurodiversity support programs, those are really just good resources for everyone in the organization. And so when we offer experiences like skill-based interviews, we do that through our neurodiversity at Dell Program and it's essentially just a slightly different interview experience that's a little bit more structured and predictable to ideally mitigate anxiety. And we give candidates the opportunity to do things like skill demonstrations and projects that they then present to hiring managers. Those types of practices we're finding, are actually really helpful ways to assess all talent. And so as a result, we're seeing that hiring managers are utilizing some of those practices more broadly. And with that, making better hiring decisions. And that's really only just one example of how some of these best practices or accommodations and supports can go a long way to help the entire organization more broadly.
00:07:39 - 00:08:50
Danielle
And when it comes to overall employee morale and retention, I think that team members stay with companies where they feel like they're valued and where they're cared for, and where they can get their needs met. So when we give people those types of support resources and when we show them that we value their work and we want them to do their best and be their best selves at work, that's exactly what these types of support programs or these neuro inclusive practices are doing. And those principles are really what I think HR organizations are trying to drive across an entire company. And so with that, neurodivergence touches everyone. If you work on a team of anywhere from 10 to 15 people, odds are that your team's already neurodiverse. And so therefore, when we recognize that neurodiversity is an asset and when we offer the right tools and resources and cultivate a culture where differences are celebrated, I think everyone wins. And as a result, it increases loyalty and it makes people want to stay at your company.
00:08:51 - 00:08:56
Anthony
Yeah. So I have a question. I told you there was going to be curve balls.
00:08:56 - 00:08:57
Danielle
Always.
00:08:58 - 00:09:15
Anthony
Yeah, I know. The skills-based interview, and we are totally believers in that as well. Has that morphed over the past couple of years? You started out by asking X, and now it's gone to, "Oh, now we have a whole rubric that we can..." How does that work?
00:09:16 - 00:10:01
Danielle
Yeah, we take an approach of looking at what the core skills or the core competencies needed for the role is. So that skill-based interview looks different depending on the role that someone's applying for. We could have someone applying for marketing position and the type of work that they would be doing in demonstrating to managers is completely different to what someone who's applying for a software engineering position. And so at Dell, we've hired people all across the company and we're finding that if we really try to understand, what are the core skills that are needed for this role? And then we utilize a process that allows candidates to demonstrate those skills, it really gives managers all of the information, and more, that they need to make calculated decision.
00:10:02 - 00:10:42
Danielle
And so it looks different depending on what the role is. And our goal is really to also give the candidate tools and resources that allow them to speak to their skills in a way that's more predictable and structured. I think we always pose the question of, "Tell me about yourself." And everyone hates that question, so why don't we tell candidates more of what you're looking for when a manager asks that question? So we do a little bit of that and we have them put together portfolios that they can use so that they can walk managers through telling them about themselves without getting overwhelmed by that very open-ended question.
00:10:43 - 00:11:05
Anthony
So I'm assuming the way that you've changed that particular process has garnered you candidates, and now employees, that are... No one's... I mean, there's a perfect fit, but I mean 99%, you're hiring the right person for the right job, typically. And is that really streamlined that for you guys?
00:11:06 - 00:11:46
Danielle
Absolutely. We're seeing that, like I said, a lot of managers are saying, "Wait a minute, I should be doing this with so many other hiring experiences." And we're using different tools now so that we can assess talent through technical assessments and things like that more widely, because we're learning that that's really how you get to the nitty-gritty of how someone might show up on your team rather than just relying on them to be able to verbally explain what they can do. Why don't you show us what you can do? And so we're definitely seeing that leaders are having a light bulb moment and wanting to emulate some of these practices into their hiring, not just for neurodivergent candidates but for everyone.
00:11:47 - 00:12:39
Anthony
And I love the light bulb moment. I think that happens more often than not. When you introduce a practice that again, it's not good for just one specific community of people, it's good for everybody, people take a step back and go, "Oh, maybe we should be doing that across the board instead of just with one group." So I love that. I appreciate that. More curve balls coming for you, Danielle. But I'm going to switch to Melissa here. So from your experience, how's the integration of talent within your teams affected the speed of project implementation and what have you found that's harnessing their abilities? What strategies?
[Presentation slide 5. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "How has the integration of neurodiverse talent within your teams affected the speed of project implementation, and what strategies have you found most effective for harnessing their abilities?” Below, Melissa Stefanyszyn is credited with her title, and logo for enGen. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Melissa Stefanyszyn" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:12:40 - 00:13:48
Melissa
So I think when it comes to the speed of implementation, one of the things that we found is by having neurodivergent participation, we anticipate issues much earlier in the process. By those individuals having a different perspective, a different way that they internalize information, their problem solving skills, we're able to plan for that a lot earlier in the process. So if you think about the implementation of something, you have your requirements and all of the processes and then you get to where you're implementing. And typically, when you roll something out to a greater audience, much like enGen has a very big customer base, both internal and external, the minute you hit send or the minute that you get done with a training program, you get a thousand questions, what about this? What about this? How am I supposed to do this? We found that when we are inclusive in those teams, those rollout teams, we anticipate all of those questions ahead of time.
00:13:49 - 00:14:53
Melissa
We get that information to say, hey, if we have somebody review our training materials, as an example, training materials is a really good example, ahead of an implementation, you will get the questions back from every individual that just thinks differently than every other individual. And again, I'll go back to like what you guys, you'll hear me say it a lot, all of the things, all the success that we see is our whole community. It's not just our neurodivergent community, it's everybody benefits from this. So some of the strategies that we found effective is, to Danielle's point, again, when you match an individual with the work they're doing, be them neurodiverse or any person, when you match the person with the passion and the work that they're doing, that always has the most successful outcome.
00:14:54 - 00:15:34
Anthony
So from expediting a project, because you're already asking the thousand questions beforehand, I mean every company loves metrics and you have to report KPIs. Have you been able to say, "Hey leaders, because we are doing this and because we're asking these questions upfront, because we have a diverse set of answers to this..." Can you actually literally pinpoint to a speed increase like getting it to market quicker? And by market, I could say internally or externally?
00:15:35 - 00:16:11
Melissa
Yeah, I would say at this point, I don't think that we're reporting that increase in speed up. However, I think, and it's an amazing metric to be able to focus on for our leaders, especially in the areas where we have projects running with a big neurodiverse community. I've got actually a really good implementation that we're going to be going through. So while we don't do that, I think that that would be a really good metric to be able to capture.
00:16:12 - 00:16:46
Anthony
That's awesome. Well, I appreciate that answer and I love that you're asking upfront so that you can get through it quicker and that there's probably less errors and challenges that go along with that as well. Well, all right. Back to Danielle here. So scalability challenges, when you have those, how does diversity build the team's adaptability to changing the business needs?
[Presentation slide 6. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "Could you discuss the scalability challenges and opportunities that arise when building teams with neurodiverse talent, and how does this diversity enhance the team’s adaptability to changing business needs?" Below, Danielle Biddick is credited with her title, and logo for Dell Technologies. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Danielle Biddick" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:16:47 - 00:18:01
Danielle
Yeah, that's a great question that I think a lot of large organizations like Dell and many others in the Neurodiversity at Work Employer Roundtable grapple with. From a programmatic perspective, I think when we start these Capital P programs, these grassroot initiatives that really promote the idea of hiring neurodivergent talent and supporting them, this is a really great way to start the conversation. However, when it comes to scaling those lighthouse programs, there needs to be an ecosystem of support resources in place that will allow for adequate growth and expansion and needs to recognize that there are a lot more neurodivergent people in the company who already are there or who will continue to come in who maybe don't go through that Capital P program. And so in order to really scale, I think what we need to do is understand what are the threads of really important best practices that we can offer more widely so that we don't have to only provide it to people that come through these programs.
00:18:02 - 00:18:58
Danielle
For example, a career coach, we often offer program participants at Dell, and I know at many other organizations, a coach to work with who's typically external to the company, and they support people in a variety of different ways. They also might even support their leader and it's a really valuable and beneficial resource. However, we need to also be prepared to offer that resource more broadly to people who may not have come through that program. So it's like, what comes first? The chicken or the egg type of thing. Do you start the conversation by starting a program or do you introduce neurodiversity awareness training and establish a really clear accommodation request process to ensure that everyone gets what they need to do their best work? It's hard for me to know. I think the latter is probably your best bet, but there are so many different variables at play in organizations and their ability to start something like this and scale it.
00:18:59 - 00:19:50
Danielle
And so, I think it's important to go beyond something as simple as how do we hire people who identify as neurodivergent and consider that as a form of scaling, but rather we should be looking through the lens of building that culture and that system to embrace and uplift neurodivergent team members. And I think we do that by shifting the power dynamic away from requiring employees to ask up, or disclose to their leader or at the start of an interview to get their needs met. Instead, we should be offering that down so that team members don't have to take the onus of disclosing or of asking for things, because that can feel really tough when you don't want to be a burden or you don't want to feel punished for asking for something.
00:19:51 - 00:20:39
Danielle
An example of how we do that at Dell is we have an assistive technology center of excellence. This team that has done really great work to create a catalog of different tools and softwares that any team member at Dell can request and then they move through a privatized process so that the cost of this tool or resource that they're requesting, it's not going to come out of their manager's budget. Their manager doesn't even need to know that they use it. And so I think that's a really good example of how we offer down instead of requiring the employee to ask up, we ensure that we have some of those resources in place so that people can take advantage of them and do their best work without feeling like they're different or being punished for asking for what they need.
00:20:40 - 00:21:08
Anthony
All right, so you talked about the ecosystem. So I have 2 questions there. So your ecosystem is probably evergreen as everybody's ecosystem should be, but you want to get to a certain place in the ecosystem where everybody feels supported. Are you there yet? Are you a hundred percent there yet or are you close to having that perfect ecosystem?
00:21:09 - 00:22:14
Danielle
In an organization of Dell size, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to answer the question of whether we're there yet because we're a global company. When you have over a hundred thousand team members across the globe, it's hard to tell if we've made it. I don't think that it would be fair to say that we ever will have fully made it because there's always going to be [inaudible 00:21:35] continue to improve. And that's something that I think we should be proud of by continuing to look for those ways to improve. That said, we're looking at growing our program in other regions across the globe and with that comes other challenges in access and sourcing and all kinds of things that play into it. And so I think my long-winded answer is I don't necessarily think we're there yet, but we are well on our way and I think if we can continue to lift and shift what we're doing, where it's working, then there's a lot of potential and we're excited for it.
00:22:15 - 00:22:49
Anthony
Yeah, I mean I wouldn't have expected you to say that you're a hundred percent there. I don't think with how the times change, how people change, how the environments change, the global perspective, you probably can never get there. You want to be to a good place where you're semi comfortable with what you're doing, but you never want to be too comfortable because that's when you're complacent. So I agree that in the magnitude of your company, it's going to be a bit of a challenge to get to that semi comfortable place, but I think you're intentional of what you're describing.
00:22:50 - 00:23:39
Anthony
So you went back and said this should be a top down approach in the interviewing process and asking for people's needs. I am of the same thought that we should be asking upfront. So that disclosure is not based upon what the person is... You're making it their deal versus giving them the openness to say, "What do you need to be your authentic self at work?" So I applaud you in that space, as always. All right, so let's go to enGen, and Melissa. So the initial challenges that you faced when embracing neurodiversity, how have they changed into, or evolved into opportunities for growth?
[Presentation slide 7. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "Could you describe the initial challenges your company faced when embracing neurodiversity, and how have these challenges evolved into opportunities for growth and innovation in your business practices?” Below, Melissa Stefanyszyn is credited with her title, and logo for enGen. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Melissa Stefanyszyn" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:23:40 - 00:24:50
Melissa
So we started our program in 2018. That was our first cohort of resources. And I think the challenges at that time were the investment of time and the resources, much like when you bring on an intern or a new employee, you know that you're going to have to devote some amount of time to getting folks up to speed, being able to provide them a lot of support. So I think that was the biggest challenge. I think the comfort level of our people leaders was also a challenge, understanding how bringing on neurodivergent talent would be different. What would they have to experience, what kind of knowledge or skillset or training would they have to do? I think communication was probably a big challenge on the resource side, not on the people leader side. Being able to bring on folks, and again, I'll go back to, much like an intern or any other new person to a company.
00:24:51 - 00:26:20
Melissa
When you have a new role and you have expectations for yourself and you assume a leader has certain expectations of you, people are not as open to communicating if they don't understand something or if they need reiteration of direction or they need extra guidance in what they're doing. I think those were the biggest challenges. Some of those we still have. So between 2018 and 2024, we've grown from 6 individuals and a lead to, at one point we had over 80 individuals across the organization. And so we've done some best practices and some lessons learned, and some kind of getting everybody together and really working hard to address those challenges. And so when it comes to the opportunities for growth, that collaboration, that constant feedback loop that we have with individuals, being able to get them engaged, the biggest opportunities really are the... Well, first of all, the impacts of the leads. I don't know if you guys are going to talk about that at all, but this program specifically has an implementation where not only do you have the resources, but you also have access to a lead that helps that.
00:26:21 - 00:27:33
Melissa
So those challenges are much less with the lead because the lead has a personal responsibility and a communication plan with each individual. So that makes them so much more comfortable in a space where somebody needs to speak up or somebody needs to say like, "Hey, I need you to reiterate this or help me document this." That's a huge thing. And then, really just a period of time, so if you have a resource on your team that you are still trying to understand if this is the right role for them, if they have the right skillsets, if it's something that we're doing that really isn't conducive to being able to learn, setting yourself a period of time by which you're going to really look at this situation, go back and understand, "Have I given this individual everything they need to be successful? Have I made them comfortable enough? Am I providing them enough support?" I think that that has really helped us alleviate most of those challenges.
00:27:34 - 00:28:19
Anthony
Yeah, I do think having that lead is critical to the success typically. And Danielle talked about job coaches, kind of the same thing, different terminology, but making sure that everybody has somebody that they can talk to. Sometimes it's work, sometimes it could be outside of work, but it's trying to make everybody successful. And I think that's the growth itself, is when that person maybe doesn't need the next question reiterated like, "Yeah, I remember. I got it. This is what we're doing." And that lead or job coach is there to solidify that.
00:28:20 - 00:28:55
Melissa
Yeah, it's really crucial. I mean if you think about, I don't know of any other companies, we did the Gallup questions, and one of the questions that is critical is, do you have a best friend at work? And that doesn't necessarily mean do you have a travel buddy, do you have somebody that you hang out with during happy hours? When you have a question, when you need support, when you need to bounce something off of somebody, do you have somebody at work that's available for you to have that relationship with? And so that is just as critical in this program as well.
00:28:56 - 00:29:15
Anthony
I agree. And so Danielle, what did Dell have to do in perspective or strategy shifts that you had to figure out how to successfully integrate those, and what impact has this had on the culture at Dell?
[Presentation slide 8. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "What shifts in perspective or strategy were necessary within your organization to successfully integrate and support neurodivergent employees, and what impact has this had on your company culture?" Below, Danielle Biddick is credited with her title, and logo for Dell Technologies. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Danielle Biddick" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:29:16 - 00:30:22
Danielle
To be honest with you, when I came into Dell a little over 4 years ago, I didn't necessarily feel like there needed to be this massive shift in perspectives. It really felt like leaders and team members embraced the idea of neuro inclusion. But I think that very well could have been because we have an excellent executive sponsorship and leaders all the way up to the C-suite who are saying, "This is not only a valuable talent pool that we should be considering, but also we should be supporting in a variety of ways once they're in the door." And so I think first and foremost that that was helpful in setting the stage and not feeling like there was this huge need for a massive perspective shift. However, I think a key driver in promoting some of that understanding and openness is education. And when we started the program, we hosted trainings for hiring leaders who participated. So that's a small group of people.
00:30:23 - 00:31:23
Danielle
And that's a great way to introduce them to what neurodivergence is, different characteristics, really help them understand what it looks like to be a more inclusive and supportive leader for people who might think or communicate or process information differently. And again, I have to put my, in parentheses here, those types of practices help everyone on the team, not just the neurodivergent person, but we've since now taken that training and launched it across the board, so anyone at the company can access it. It's available online for people to run through on their own time. We've had a really great engagement with it. And so I think that education and awareness has really helped us expand that cultural shift and helped us expand knowledge and understanding and therefore made people feel more included. Another way that I think people feel that that cultural investment, is through things like employee resource groups.
00:31:24 - 00:32:08
Danielle
In addition to that training that we host, ERGs often, we have a employee research group called True Ability and it's a really great resource for people to get together with like-minded people with similar backgrounds and interests and to come together for a specific cause. And so for True Ability, a lot of it is around increasing awareness and championing the voices of neurodivergent and disabled team members at the company. It gives people that avenue to connect, share their stories, and to ultimately promote things like awareness days. So we'll have big events for something like Autism Acceptance Day or Neurodiversity Pride Day or Month or what have you.
00:32:09 - 00:33:03
Danielle
So, I think especially in really big companies, the culture is driven by the people and being able to create those groups and those places where people can feel like they can connect with people who are like-minded and have similar backgrounds, is a really great way to drive that culture and also to increase awareness and socialize some of the great things that your company's doing. So one more thing I just remembered. Mentorships are another good way to do that. We often look to our ERG to offer mentorship opportunities for our team members that come through the neurodiversity program. And so I think being able to build out larger groups and use them to support the work that you're doing and also to continue to spread the message is a great way to shift that culture.
00:33:04 - 00:34:18
Anthony
Well, so I'm going to go and... Yes, mentorship, key. I'm going to go back to one thing you said there. There's an alignment in companies, large or small, between their communications, their PR, people who do their social media, the intranet, all that good stuff. Having stories, telling success stories, building that promotability of that, that seems to be, in my estimation, huge. And I think, and listen, we all have like-minded friends and friends that do this. Part of that is talking about having those days, but also talking about the people who do the job every day. But the alignment of all of the pieces within your company to get that message out can sometimes be a bit challenging and everybody is working for the same purpose and we're going down that strategic road. But do you find it sometimes difficult to get everybody on the same page from comms, to PR, to the media team, to get that story out there, to make sure that the company understands what you're trying to accomplish?
00:34:19 - 00:35:25
Danielle
I can see how that would be a challenge, especially in a really large organization. With that said, we've had a lot of just pride across the company for the work that we do in neurodivergent hiring. And through the program, there are so many leaders that will come to me and not only talk about how much they've loved hiring this person through the program, but also that they have a child who's neurodivergent. And being able to go through this experience, relieves a lot of anxiety that they have about their child's future and what might be out there for them. And so I think being able to work with your large organization to share some of those stories is another key component in driving that cultural change. Making sure that people understand that this is a lot more common than just the group of people that we've hired through the program, but this really touches everyone across the organization and that goes a long way.
00:35:26 - 00:36:14
Anthony
Yeah, commonalities between people at your organization, you're talking about parents, caregivers, guardians who might know somebody, that really puts everybody in the same space and keeps the momentum moving forward. So I can appreciate that, that's for sure. So turning to Melissa, so the economics, let's talk about that real quick. So the employment of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and aligning with financial goals, what advice would you give to other businesses looking to understand those economics and the impact of having an amazing, talented, neurodiverse workforce?
[Presentation slide 9. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "How does the employment of individuals with ASD align with your company’s financial goals, and what advice would you give to other businesses looking to understand the economic impact of a neurodiverse workforce?” Below, Melissa Stefanyszyn is credited with her title, and logo for enGen. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Melissa Stefanyszyn" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:36:15 - 00:37:25
Melissa
So I think the advice that I would give is the impact that I have seen both personally and across all of enGen, really is around I think turnover. So as we look at all of the industry trends and specialized skills in all of that what's going on. We talked about gen AI and cybersecurity and all these for our space, it's the IT space, so all of these niche skillsets, once you find an individual that is in the right role, doing the best work of their career, the thing that they're passionate about, they do not typically look to leave. In other spaces, really, there's a time in your life where money is the motivating factor for you to have a job. You got married, like small children, you look to build your resume, build your career, make as much money as you can.
00:37:26 - 00:38:16
Melissa
Then there's a time in your career where you just want to be able to gain skillset and build on that resume. And then there's a time in your career where you probably just want to do what you want to do. You want to come to work and do the best work and all of those things. What I have found across all of our space, and even in talking to other people, when you find somebody that's in that right role, their focus is simply coming to work, being part of a community. One of the goals of most of the individuals that report to me is they want to evolve to be a subject matter expert in what they're doing. They want people to come to them for guidance and support in doing the thing they do.
00:38:17 - 00:39:00
Melissa
It's not about how much money you can make, and putting something on your resume, and going out to the next company that's going to offer you more money and doing those things. So I would say for us, the biggest financial impact is not having to have the high rate of turnover. It's also, typically, that these folks are so dedicated to learning more, so you get them in and they learn their thing and then it's always, what's next? What can I learn? How can I grow? But not with the intent to leave. The intent to be a really successful contributing member of a team.
00:39:01 - 00:39:33
Anthony
Yeah. And I think the impacts are a couple of things. Happy employee means typically you're getting more productivity gains. A happy employee also staying means less onboarding costs because you're not having to go back and get somebody new to come in and do that job. So there's impacts for businesses on both respects. The gains from having somebody stay and the gains from not having to go recruit somebody else and bring them in and go through the training process again. Thank you, I appreciate that.
00:39:34 - 00:39:34
Melissa
Sure.
00:39:35 - 00:40:08
Anthony
So Danielle, I know we don't have really a crystal ball per se, but as we've moved the needle a bit on neurodiversity in the workplace, what do you think the path forward is to really put the pedal to the metal as it says on the screen and make it commonplace? I was trying to come up with something different than pedal to the metal, but it didn't flow right when I was trying to say it and read it.
[Presentation slide 10. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "What do you think the path forward is to really put the pedal to the metal and just make what we are doing now commonplace in all companies?" Below, Danielle Biddick is credited with her title, and logo for Dell Technologies. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Danielle Biddick" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:40:09 - 00:41:09
Danielle
No, I think it's a great question. And I wish I had a crystal ball, that sure would be nice, but I also don't have any official stats on, so don't quote me on it, but I've been learning that Gen Z's are identifying as neurodivergent at much higher rates, and they're entering the workforce with expectations to be accommodated. And so if companies aren't recognizing the need to increase access and improve their hiring practices to eliminate bias and to promote psychological safety at work and ultimately to accommodate people so that they can do their best work and reach their full potential, then those companies are going to fall behind. And we need to consider these practices as more than just nice to haves, but really crucial components of talent management and of success.
00:41:10 - 00:42:11
Danielle
And there's really so many resources available to help organizations accomplish this. I mean CAI being one of them, the neurodiversity movement, it's proving that we need to consider these things to effectively guide our talent attraction and employee supports, and ultimately our way of doing business. So when it comes to putting the pedal to the metal, I won't buy any excuses that companies can't do this. Because at the end of the day, it is not taking that much to do other than to listen to the neurodivergent community, and what we know is they already exist within your organization, or use your resources and look to organizations like CAI, like disability, and like neurodiversity in the workplace to help you learn more about how you can not only educate your team more broadly, but also to do things a little bit differently to ensure that people are set up for success. Because at the end of the day, that's what we need so that we can do great business.
00:42:12 - 00:42:53
Anthony
And we hear sometimes, starting a program or finding the resource, it's a risk, and you just want to throw that term right out the window. And again, so what we do is we try to tell businesses, "You should be doing this. If you're not, we're going to help you take whatever risk you've perceived in hiring neurodivergent individuals." Which again, to your point, to everybody's point, they're already there anyways, working to your left and to your right, "We're going to help you get through that."
00:42:54 - 00:43:49
Anthony
But I think once you show why it's necessary to go about it in this particular way, we're very dedicated and very strategic in how we do things, and that goes for Dell, that goes for enGen. You have a vision of how this is supposed to go. Once other businesses realize that you're doing it this way, they're like, "Oh, we too could do that. We already have the infrastructure set up here, here and here. Maybe not so much over there, but we can bring in companies like yourselves to make that happen." It always unnerves me when people hesitate to say, "Yeah, I don't know what the benefits are going to be of having a team of neurodivergent individuals." You just take a step back.
00:43:50 - 00:44:40
Danielle
And there's no one size fits all approach. I mean, I'm looking at this from a perspective of, like I said, a really large global organization and I recognize that there are much smaller or midsize companies that might not have the equivalent amount of resources, but I still believe that there are ways that you can create that ecosystem and promote that culture without necessarily needing to have all of those resources. So I think you take it from whatever perspective or whatever ability your company has to promote neuro inclusion however you can, whether that's a hiring program or just by ensuring that you're setting people up for success with a variety of different tools or supports or just training for leaders.
00:44:41 - 00:45:07
Danielle
There's other things that can be done that isn't, again, a Capital P program, because I don't think that a Capital P program is the end all. I would like to work myself out of a job so that there's not a need for that program, but rather it's just embedded in the DNA of how we hire and support and it can just stand alone as its own function in the greater way of how we do work.
00:45:08 - 00:45:20
Anthony
You will hear zero disagreement of the words that you just uttered. That's awesome. I appreciate that. Well, Melissa, you get the last question of the day, before we turn to the audience questions here.
00:45:21 - 00:45:22
Melissa
No pressure.
[Presentation slide 11. The slide contains the question in bold at the top, "Could you share how your neurodiversity employment program has influences innovation and problem-solving within enGen? And what practices were implemented to foster this kind of competitive advantage?” Below, Melissa Stefanyszyn is credited with her title, and logo for enGen. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Anthony Pacilio" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:45:23 - 00:45:37
Anthony
Yeah, no pressure whatsoever. Innovation and problem solving at enGen. What did you guys do to get that mindset in there to figure out what that competitive advantage is going to be?
00:45:38 - 00:46:52
Melissa
So I think some of the things we've done, and we talked a little bit about this, we also have within enGen, our BRGs, our resource groups. We have an abilities BRG, that is specific to these groups. We encourage everybody to participate in the BRG regardless of whether you're neurodiverse, you're neurotypical, you have abilities, disabilities, physical, mental, we want everyone to participate in the BRGs because not only do you get information, you also get a bunch of ideas. You can take it back to your individual teams, which is amazing. And we've seen the BRG really have a tremendous impact right now on our company, around in our hospitals where we are creating sensory rooms, where we are training our physicians and our nurses, where we have different things that we're implementing process improvement that comes from our BRGs, it comes from the ideas that are generated within our BRGs.
00:46:53 - 00:48:13
Melissa
To Danielle's point, how we are working with talent acquisition on our hiring practices, on the fact that it is no longer probably a great idea to do interviews the way we've always done interviews. Not only is it not a good idea for our neurodiverse people, there's nobody that really loves waking up in the morning and saying, "Yes, I'm going to go do a panel interview with 12 people throwing questions at me." That that doesn't bring out your best self no matter who you are. The other thing would be expansion of the program into other areas. So like I said, we started in 2018 with one cohort of 6 people. We've grown the program tremendously. We've grown in areas, roles that we never had thought about growing. And the reason for that is simply an individual said, "Hey, why don't we have neurodiverse solutions in the data science space or the program management space?" And the answer was really because nobody asked. Nobody asked. And if you are interested in that space, then we're going to go figure out a way to see if we can make that work.
00:48:14 - 00:49:16
Melissa
To me, the biggest one on my mind, and it's not as fancy as anyone would really think about it, is that having the innovation to influence common sense. So what I mean by that is we tend to make things a lot more difficult than they need to be. When you need to implement something or we need to create a program or whatever the task be, we make it very complicated and sometimes for no good reason. And so I've had a lot of occasions where people will say, "Why are you doing it that way?" Or, "Can you help me understand why I need to go through these 15 steps in order to do this task?" And you sit back and you say, "Nope, I actually don't need to do that at all." So I feel like one of the problem solving and innovation came down to just, are we using common sense and the best way of getting something done?
00:49:17 - 00:49:32
Anthony
You got to love when it gets broken down for you and you have that hmm, oh, aha moment, it's a hmm, and an aha. It's just not an aha. It's like, "Boy, why did we do it that way for so long?"
00:49:33 - 00:49:46
Melissa
It also goes back to the financial impact. What financial impact? Well, we don't have to do things as complicated and as hard as we have to, and we don't need to make it a bigger deal than it needs to be.
[Presentation slide 12. The slide is blue with white text in the center that reads “Audience Q&A”. CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo is shown in the bottom left corner. The name "Anthony Pacilio" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:49:47 - 00:50:48
Anthony
Totally in agreement. Totally in agreement. Now comes the fun part of the last 10 minutes of the session. See, I threw the time in there so that we're all on the same page. So we got a few questions. We're going to start with the first one here, which is how do you balance inclusion? And I think that's a celebration with a fear of disclosure or coming out as neurodivergent, especially since you do not want employees to feel pressured to disclose. So I'm going to read that one more time. There's a lot in there. So this is a question from the audience. How do you balance inclusion and celebration with a fear of disclosure or coming out as neurodivergent, especially since you don't want employees to feel pressured to disclose? So who wants to chime in? Danielle, raising the hand first.
00:50:48 - 00:51:43
Danielle
Sure, I can jump in here because this is personal for me. I understand that disclosure is a very personal thing. I'm ADHD and dyslexic and I approach disclosure depending on who I'm with and who I'm talking to, like audience of people that we have here, "Hey, hi, I'm neurodivergent." But really, I don't think that we ever want to expect people to disclose unless they feel comfortable with it. And there are a lot of ways that we can still get our needs met without disclosing. So I don't necessarily have to say that I'm dyslexic in order for me to request Grammarly or for me to use speech to text software so that I can have my emails read back to me in case I completely spelled something wrong and didn't catch it myself or left a word out.
00:51:44 - 00:52:23
Danielle
And so I think for the piece on disclosure, we shouldn't expect people to "come out" unless they want to. And we can still celebrate neurodivergence and the importance of neuro inclusion without people necessarily disclosing. We can celebrate the strength and we can talk about the importance of different ways of thinking and learning, so that we can be more competitive in our organizations. And so I think we separate the celebration and also cultivate that inclusion without necessarily requiring disclosure to be part of that conversation.
00:52:24 - 00:52:24
Anthony
Well said.
00:52:25 - 00:53:19
Melissa
I would say for me it's an individual discussion. We use a tool here called, within my teams, called The Best Work of your Career Document. We have it with everybody. It really talks about where you want to go in your career. And one of the questions is how do you like to be celebrated? So for some people that's in a staff meeting with all the focus on you, it's in an email and newsletter. Some people that celebration is, I'm with a leader or a smaller just, "Thank you." It's very individual for us. And so we found all of the spectrum, all the sides. Some people love that and some people like it a little bit more private. So I think it's just a more individual.
00:53:20 - 00:53:21
Anthony
No, absolutely. Go ahead.
00:53:22 - 00:54:04
Danielle
I just thought of something that I could add to what Melissa just shared. We also have used tools like a work style profile where it gives team members the opportunity to share a little bit more about what their work style preferences are. So something as simple as letting your manager know through this profile, "Please don't call on me in the middle of a meeting to give an update without giving me a heads-up in advance and telling me what you expect that update to cover." And I don't think that's specific for neurodivergent people. That's really helpful I think for anyone to have that understanding with their leader or their team of what works best for them.
00:54:05 - 00:54:32
Danielle
And again, it doesn't require someone to say, "Hey, I am a very anxious person and I don't like being called on in a meeting." It doesn't have to be about anxiety. It can just be about, "This is what works best for me in the workplace." And so I think there are ways that, again, we can use different tools and resources like a work style profile or something equivalent to give people the opportunity to share what works for them without requiring them to disclose.
00:54:33 - 00:54:54
Anthony
Yeah, no, right. As long as it's not mandatory, then I think you're fine. It's personal choice, personal decision to do that. Another question that just came in, and Danielle, I'm going to start with you on this one, do you find neurotypical employees connect well with neurodivergent individuals at your companies?
00:54:55 - 00:55:47
Danielle
Absolutely. I mean, all of the team members that we hire through the neurodiversity program, again, there are plenty of other neurodivergent people at Dell that weren't hired through the program. They're all placed on teams like anyone else would be. It's not like we're necessarily having them only work together in groups. And I think people really value being able to work with someone who looks at problems in a different way. I have a story from a manager that came to me recently and said, "This is the person that we go to because we know that they can look at the problem and figure it out, like debug something within 5 minutes. And the rest of the team has been banging their head against the wall trying to figure this out." And so if anything, I think they find great value in being able to collaborate with team members who look at problems differently than they do.
00:55:48 - 00:56:03
Anthony
All right. Melissa, I'm going to go to the same question to you. The connection of neurotypical and neurodivergent employees at your company, is it going well? I'm assuming it is.
00:56:04 - 00:56:50
Melissa
It is going incredibly well. Yeah, I think that everyone really takes a lot of pride in having individuals come in and be very successful and achieve their goals. And I also think from a professional development perspective, we learn so much from just the understanding that not everybody learns the same way you do. They don't work the same way you do, they don't communicate the same way you do, and having a greater perspective. They say the more you know, the better you do. I think everybody that works within this program, and again for people that aren't part of this program, it really rounds out a lot of the ways people think.
00:56:51 - 00:58:02
Anthony
No, and I agree with that. And sometimes I think as we go through programs and the introduction of things and all these companies are starting out neurodiversity programs, there's always that fear of the unknown, even though the unknown is already at your company, you just haven't figured it out yet. And I think we all just need to take a step back. We all need to have a kumbaya moment with everyone else and understand that all the cultures that you have at each company are a little bit different in some respects. But they all should be bearing down on one thing, and that's making sure that we are human beings to each other, that we are trying to understand, that we are trying to be empathetic. All of those things can help you gain from productivity, efficiencies, all those other things that come with return on your investment.
00:58:03 - 00:58:41
Anthony
Just think about the people that work for you, try to make them happy, try to give them what they need to do the best job. And I think that's probably some of the advice that I give to companies that we work with on a daily basis. Just be human. So I appreciate both of you coming on today. Unfortunately, our time is over. I'd like to thank Danielle and Melissa for joining us, sharing your insight. It's been an absolute pleasure chatting with both of you. I'd also like to thank our audience for your attention, participation, your questions.
[Presentation slide 13. Slide features the CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo on the top left. The text "Webinar. Gain productivity and increase innovation with autism employment" is displayed below. Below this, the text “Thank you for attending! To learn more, visit www.cai.io/neurodiverse-solutions” is displayed. The background image shows a man in an office environment working on a laptop with headphones on. The name "Anthony Pacilio" appears in the top right corner of the slide, alongside a photo of a talking head, indicating the speaker.]
00:58:42 - 00:59:21
Anthony
Later, we're going to be sending out, everyone that attended, the recording of this event to share with your colleagues and peers. In addition, we're going to be sharing a post event survey for you to share with us your thoughts about today's event, and please fill that out and share back with us. We thank you in advance for that. In the meantime, if you're interested in learning more about CAI Neurodiverse Solutions or know someone that is, visit our website at cai.io, fill out our contact form. Thank you for joining us today and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
00:59:22 - 00:59:22
Danielle
Thanks all.
00:59:23 - 00:59:31
Melissa
Thank you.
[Closing slide 1. Blue CAI Neurodiverse Solutions logo appears in middle of screen. Company website www.cai.io appears at the bottom center of the screen]
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As organizations look to accelerate their digital transformation forward, autism employment can serve as a competitive advantage to do so. Watch this on-demand webinar and learn from 2 experts, from Dell Technologies and enGen, who discuss the true business value and benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace. If your company is interested in working with CA Neurodiverse Solutions, contact us today.
