How to Understand, Support & Harness ADHD at Work

Did you know that the insurance giant AXA have started offering neurodiversity assessments for employees?

This is incredible news. Finding out you are neurodivergent is like being handed a treasure map to your full potential. You're not lazy, stupid, or broken - you've just got a different operating system to 'most' people.

However... you quickly discover that you don't know how to read the map. Neither does anyone else, including your employer. So, I'm launching a new course to help everybody learn this language.

As ADHD has only been diagnosable in adults since 2008, waiting lists are up to 7 years long for NHS assessments. There's also been a 30 per cent increase in employment tribunal claims relating to discrimination and neurodiverse conditions at work - for which the maximum damages are uncapped.

The Equality Act requires employers to make reasonable adjustments to level up the playing field for employees with disabilities, regardless of formal diagnosis status.

In reality, this means that employers who have no neurodiversity training (i.e three quarters of HR professionals) or relevant policies in place are going to struggle. As people suddenly get diagnosed with lifelong disabilities impacting them at work, their managers and HR won't know what to do.

Unfortunately, the diagnosis doesn't come with an instruction manual - for us or our employers. If you've met one person with ADHD, you've met one person with ADHD: it's highly situational, and everybody will have unique needs.

The government’s Access to Work scheme can fund support like training and support workers, but this is additional to legally required adjustments – not instead of. It also doesn't help that it takes about 6 months to process applications, and is a bureaucratic minefield.

So what are employers supposed to do next?

You can take action by training your employees in ADHD coaching skills to help people make ADHD work for them. Whether people are diagnosed or not, the reality is that neurodiversity is not going away, and your organisation needs to adapt, or get left behind.

Here's what you'll get to do as a result:

1) Understand what ADHD is

By learning the foundations of ADHD, and how the 30 per cent developmental delay of executive functioning skills can show up at work, you can support others to understand how ADHD impacts them individually.

By understanding what ADHD actually is, professionals can learn how this isn't just 'something everyone has these days'. We're 'not all a bit on the spectrum'. We don't 'all have a little bit of ADHD'. They can learn how to spot symptoms impacting work, and understand how to support someone effectively, without even having to discuss ADHD itself. We move past the label to focus on how it manifests in reality.

What we don't know, we fear. Our society's understanding of neurodiversity is evolving, and we're collectively learning how it can appear differently in adults, especially for traditional underrepresented groups like women and girls. By helping managers, leaders & HR to 'name' ADHD in a range of situations, they can tame it.

2) Support ADHD at work

ADHD is not a 'HR thing': it's a 'life thing'. It's the way we think - it's not something that can be tick-boxed away. People with ADHD have different motivational systems to neurotypical people, making them very different to manage.

They might be able to do a months' work of work in 1 day, but spend a week on the task that takes everybody else 5 minutes. By training professionals on how to support ADHD at work, with tried-and-tested strategies that work with our brains, a more inclusive and effective workplace is created for everybody.

This is crucial: there's a significant risk factor for mental health challenges for neurodivergent people, which can be exacerbated by not receiving the support they need at work. Understanding how to effectively help people to 'do what they know' has benefits above and beyond increased productivity levels.

3) Harness ADHD at work

ADHD is comprised of qualities you 'can't buy and can't teach', according to Ned Hallowell. By supporting people to understand how their brains work and to mitigate the challenges, they can achieve their limitless potential. Giving constructive feedback to someone who experiences Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is an untraditional management skill - but in 2023, it's priceless.

If you know how to coach someone with ADHD, every conversation becomes an opportunity for action and reflection. Asking the right questions helps us to harness our own ADHD in a working environment where we feel safe and supported to be our whole selves. This podcast we recorded with a manager Leanne Scaletta & employee Kimi Wright demonstrates the endless value of harnessing ADHD in the workplace: we make excellent employees.

ADHD coaching is highly effective to achieve this, because it’s rooted in action and tangibility, which is great for brains seeking dopamine - especially at work!

4) Confidently talk about ADHD at work

Talking about ADHD at work can understandably be scary for everybody. What if you say the wrong thing?

I created this course to give people the opportunity to ask every question they're scared to ask in a judgement-free, psychologically safe space. Empowering them to do so, and preparing them with skills to have conversations where issues like medication, assessment and psychiatrists may come up, is one of the best things an employer can do.

The ability to compassionately and confidently filter conversations to focus on relevant challenges, whilst drawing boundaries yet ensuring people are appropriately signposted to relevant support, is a crucial skill for employers overwhelmed by conversations about medical issues. Shame evaporates when we shine a light on it, and are reminded that we're not expected to have all the answers.

5) Make ADHD coaching accessible

If one person within an organisation is trained in ADHD coaching, they can help others to do the same. Having an accessible way of replicating this has enormous potential to mitigate serious (extremely expensive!) challenges. For example, HR training a manager to know how to support an employee disclosing ADHD at work.

Instead of automatically reacting, employees can be empowered to be prepared and pro-active. When I wrote ADHD: an A to Z 5 years ago, nobody was talking about neurodiversity at work. Now, it feels like everybody is, but they're not sure what to do next.

Here's the answer: come and learn how to break the barriers down and empower everybody in your organisation to thrive in an ADHD world. It's not going away, so are you going to sink or swim?

Join the 'Harness Your ADHD at Work' course here.

Here's a template to ask your employer for funding!

You can also join a Personnel Today webinar I'm in next week on 'How to make the workplace more inclusive' here.