The Neurodiversity Movement Led by Auticon: Shifting Perspectives and Breaking Barriers

Steve is a commercial director at Auticon UK, a unique multinational IT consultancy and social enterprise with a little bit of a difference that exclusively employs autistic adults as IT consultants.

In our conversation, we talked about his career as an amazing mixture of huge multinational organizations, IBM, Samsung, and most recently McLaren.

For those of you who are into Formula One what prompted the change from formula one racing and performance to Auticon and employing autistic adults? What drove that change?

 "So I guess that there's been a consistent thread and, yes, my career's been a little bit off piece at times, but I, I guess I've always been kind of in and around tech, whether it's been serving the tech industry from, from my own business perspective or actually being right in the middle of the tech industry.

Obviously with the names that you mentioned, but I guess it's very much about you know, being in the heart of cloud security data analytics, and actually from an Auticon perspective that that thread runs through. 

So, you know, we've grown up as an IT consulting firm, so part of my role is actually to really lift the lid on some of the projects that we get involved in and to understand the technicals. I wouldn't necessarily say, I'm. Techy, but  I know enough to actually be able to understand and to be able to make sure that we translate those technical requirements in a way that makes sure that we put our best consultants into the right environment." -  Steve Hill

 I think that's so interesting.  That bridging of people and technology is something that I think keeps coming up in the modern age, especially with obviously all the things that are going on and all the ai and technology developments that we're seeing happen right now.

What was it that prompted you to move into Auticon? What was it that attracted you to the business and what was the compelling reason to shift?

So I could probably answer that with one word, actually, Jimmy. And that being the purpose, I think, you know, certainly as you go through your career and you work for different organizations, whether they're big companies, small companies. I think as an individual, you gain that experience, and some of the things that you are looking for in your career they change. And I think for me, it's purpose. It's making sure that some of the things that I was able to contribute and create value was around other people, the social aspect and actually being able to make a positive difference to the lives of others, which may sound a little bit cliche.

But actually, you know, when you are working in a social enterprise environment and you're doing. The work that certainly we do at Auticon, you see that on a daily basis, and it's extremely humbling at times, but overriding, it's amazingly rewarding and it's, it, you know, for, for the people that you are working with and for in the organization, but also, you know, for the, for the clients that we work with as well, it's just fantastic." -  Steve Hill

 I'm passionate as you know about that area of purpose and the idea of supporting people who need it. So let's dig into that a little bit more.

Tell us about the types of people that you work with and how you support clients using the teams that you create.

So we've been around for 11 years and I guess the reason I mentioned that is that the company, quite unusually, I think, was founded really out of a parent's anxiety for their child and what I mean by that is that everyone that we employ from a technologist, drug consultant perspective is autistic. And so there is a huge chasm between the end of education and the start of the workplace, and that link is really filled with anxiety. 

And so we were founded on exactly that principle. And so what we try to do is to make sure that we don't necessarily bridge it a hundred percent, but that we can make sure we provide a destination for those autistic adults who have a STEM background where we can actually help by taking them on as full-time employees. And looking for the right consulting engagement such that we can augment client projects.

And I think there is definitely, you know, a commercial advantage to that in the first instance because we tend to specialize in data-related projects, whether it be data analysis, data engineering, visualization, or maybe the more complex data science requirements, but also things like security analysis and, and software design.

So those areas where we tend to specialize is where there is a skills gap, not just in the UK, but moreover, it's globally. And so that's one aspect of what we do. But this is about creating a case study. This is the layer on top, which is much more important or equally as important because what we're doing is showing the organization that it isn't a big scary thing to be working with someone with autism. If it was super easy, then we wouldn't be required clearly, but it's also about making sure that we can take that and use it as a way to show the organization of not only that it isn't a big scary thing. So we're mitigating fear and risk, but also to try and highlight the fact that there are some unconscious biases that have baked into hiring practices which maybe stop organizations unknowingly being able to tap into a rich seam of talent. 

And so it's, it's about showing, not telling. From our perspective and helping organizations on the journey, and it is a journey. This isn't necessarily a quick fix. You know, neurodiversity in the last couple of years has gained tremendous momentum, which is fantastic. But I guess in the DNI space, it is always played sort of runner-up to the likes of gender and ethnicity. And certainly, we've put at this a long time, comparatively speaking, 11 years, you know, neurodiversity was a very.  Kind of unrecognized concept back in the day in terms of, you know, organizations.

And so I think for us it's about that awareness. It's the education, it's the lived experience, but ultimately, our view is that we want to try and make ourselves redundant with that organization as quickly as we can. Because what we want to be able to do and societal change and shift only really comes from enabling our clients to do what we do themselves.

We don't want to be working with organizations ultimately for five or 10 years because if, if we are, you could look at it as a bit of a failing on our part. You know, we want to be able to take them on the journey so they can attract, recruit, retain, and develop their own neurodiverse staff. And there's a long way to go clearly in, in lots of different areas. So hopefully we're not gonna be, you know, making ourselves redundant, you know, anytime soon. But, that's ultimately our goal." - Steve Hill

One of the opportunities in onboarding new staff is to get them productive as quickly as possible and so removing as many barriers as you can through the onboarding journey. Whether they're neurodiverse or not, is clearly gonna be commercially successful. And the other big advantage, I'm guessing you see with the job coaches is your bounce out rate or your attrition rate of consultants not sticking into the business, it's presumably reduced, right?

"A hundred percent. And that's one of the things from, from our client's perspective, that we tend to start with, you know, over, over the last 10, 11 years, a lot of clients have sort of said to us, okay, can, can you help us to, you know, attract our own neurodiverse talent? And the short answer is, is yes, quickly followed by no actually, but not flippantly.

But the point being that it's about the first step for us is that cultural Well, transformation, I guess because looking inside the organization at the existing neurodiverse population has to be really the starting point. You know, it's about creating that culture where individuals feel like they can disclose and very quickly, and in parallel, it's about providing the managers, the HR teams DNI  the senior leaders with the tools to be able to support those individuals. It's only when that stage has been recognized and undertaken. Can you then start to think about how to attract people into the organization? It's got to start with retention, frankly." - Steve Hill

So it sounds like Auticon is doing stealth diversity, inclusion, and leadership training just by being in, in clients and showing them the way and supporting them to find new ways of operating and all of that is contributing to that performance edge that leaders are desperately searching around for. 

How can people work with Auticon, how can they connect with you and how would that engagement look from starting with perhaps the maturity assessments and, and working through that process? 

 "So from a consultant perspective, we're always recruiting. I mean, it's very much aligned to, our kind of social mission to provide those long-term career opportunities for autistic adults. So the best way is to hit our careers page. As I say, we're always recruiting and we have rolling opportunities for, you know, data analysts, data engineers, cybersecurity analysts.

So we'd love to hear from you. We've tried to make the processes as easy and engaging and as neuro inclusive as we possibly can. And from a client's perspective, we'd love to have a chat.  best course is through our website or feel free to contact me directly and we'll maybe share my email in the show notes, but we'd love to have a conversation.

There is never a bad time to start thinking about an organization's pathway to your inclusion. And, we'd love to help you in whatever modest way. Whatever modest form that might take." - Steve Hill

What a great thing to be excited about, something bigger than ourselves. I always think that's the most exciting thing to be excited about because it's contributing to a greater purpose. And as you and I are very aligned on the sense of purpose is important. 

Steve, thank you so much for not only coming on the podcast as a guest, but also for sharing such immense value around the ideas of neurodiversity, the commercial impacts of employing neurodiverse people, the performance edge that businesses can gain, and some practical tips on just get started. I really like that. Thank you so much. 

We genuinely appreciate any comments, feedback and it helps us to continue to deliver practical insights and new innovative ways. If you've got any questions for Steve or myself please reach out using the links in the show notes of this Podcast episode. Other than that please hit us up on Instagram or LinkedIn and we'd love to have a conversation.

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