Welcome to the first edition of Front of Mind for 2020. I am very excited about the employment opportunities in the year ahead for Australia’s neurodiverse community. I am also pleased to see that autism is moving more into the public domain, with shows like Love on the Spectrum and Employable Me enjoying huge popularity. Whilst these shows are telling a particular type of story, they do a good job of demystifying what it is to live with autism. This is very helpful for employers who are interested in increasing the types of diversity in their workforce.
At the event Clicks held in partnership with Specialisterne and Jobs Victoria a few months ago, we heard from an IBM manager who had supplied neurodiverse talent to a Victorian Government Department. The Department had an ongoing challenge to do with precise block and section mapping – where an error of even a centimetre or two can have a major impact.
This problem had persisted unsolved for around six months, with the team of people tasked with finding a solution as yet unsuccessful. The decision was taken to let a couple of the neurodiverse workers take a look, and the problem was fully resolved in a matter of days.
This is yet another example of how neurodiverse workers can add serious commercial punch to your organisation’s efficiency and productivity. You can read more about how IBM partnered with Specialisterne to hire that particular intake of neurodiverse workers in the featured article in this edition of Front of Mind.
Clicks and Specialisterne are very excited to be progressing in discussions with a State Government Department that has a vast amount of data from public records, going back many decades. This data needs to be digitised; a mammoth project that requires a high degree of accuracy as well as exceptional attention to detail. This project is perfectly suited to neurodiverse workers, where the Department can fully expect the project to be completed more quickly and accurately than if it were to be completed by neurotypical workers. Watch this space!
If you have any projects coming up, please call your Clicks Account Manager or 1300 CLICKS to find out whether you can get a competitive advantage through hiring neurodiverse workers.
Sam Micich
General Manager, Operations
