Providing Performance Feedback to Support Neurodiverse Employees
Performance feedback can improve job commitment and engagement and ultimately build a more inclusive culture.
There are more neurodiverse people in the workforce than ever before.1 Improved diagnosis, better interventions, and greater education and workforce accommodations have meant new opportunities for people with neurodiverse conditions such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia. Research suggests that many neurodiverse people have a strong work ethic, are resilient, and are determined to do well.2 But many function differently when it comes to social interactions, communication, executive attention, working memory, language learning, and sensory processing. Some also suffer from anxiety and depression.
Given a supportive environment, neurodiverse employees can meet or exceed performance expectations.3 Poor management practices, however, such as unsupportive supervision, unclear communication, and inflexible work policies, as well as office politics, noise, and clutter, can compromise their performance. Organizations should promote practices to support and encourage neurodiverse staff members.
Effective feedback, which is data-driven, specific, and tailored to individual employee needs, is one good tool. Used correctly, well-formulated feedback can dramatically improve work relationships, job commitment, and engagement and can ultimately help create a more inclusive work culture, in addition to enhancing job performance. Here, we provide guidelines based on our research that can help managers use performance feedback as a transformative tool.
1. Build rapport, and focus on the individual.
A trusting relationship is required for performance feedback to be meaningful and effective.4 Compassion for employees’ needs — or individualized consideration — works particularly well with neurodiverse employees.5 Prominent companies with neurodiversity programs, such as Microsoft, JP Morgan, and SAP, use peer mentors, job coaches, and work buddies to develop rich feedback channels between neurodiverse employees and other team members to foster a supportive work environment.6 The point is to be sensitive to the needs of neurodiverse individuals while also empowering them.
We developed a survey to help managers tailor individualized support and empower all employees, not just the neurodiverse. (See the downloadable PDF, “Working Style and Feedback Preference Form.”) Employees can use it to explain their needs and particular challenges, and managers can gain valuable insights into how best to support employees in meeting the organization’s goals.
References (21)
1. Neurodiversity proponents prefer identity-first language (such as “autistic person”) rather than person-first language (such as “individual with autism”). We have used this terminology throughout the article. See A.E. Hurley-Hanson, C.M. Giannantonio, and A.J. Griffiths, “Autism in the Workplace: Creating Positive Employment and Career Outcomes for Generation A” (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020); and J.L. Chen, G. Leader, C. Sung, et al., “Trends in Employment for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of the Research Literature,” Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 2, no. 2 (June 2015): 115-127.
2. A. Remington and E. Pellicano, “‘Sometimes You Just Need Someone to Take a Chance on You’: An Internship Programme for Autistic Graduates at Deutsche Bank, U.K.,” Journal of Management & Organization 25, no. 4 (July 2019): 516-534.
