Everyone has unconscious bias because it’s an inherent part of how our brain works. Unconscious bias stems from our brain’s natural tendency to categorize and make quick decisions based on our experiences, culture, and upbringing. Mature companies know about unconscious bias and draw attention to it in their staff training programmes, especially those relating to the interviewing, management, and leadership of people. They know that awareness of unconscious bias is important to ensuring that individuals make good, properly objective, decisions. Unconscious bias often raises its head during the interviewing and recruitment of new staff, but most companies emphasise their fair treatment of people with a disability during these processes. But is that actually the reality?
The son of one of the Badger’s long-standing friends was made redundant 8 months ago and they are still working hard to find new employment. They have Asperger Syndrome, a development disorder considered to be on the mild end of the autism spectrum. Before redundancy, they worked for more than a decade at their employer’s data centre as a software developer, technical whiz, and go-to technical problem-solver. They were made redundant as a result of a takeover by a bigger company. This led to the closure of the data centre which was on a small business park now to be developed for housing. What’s made the Badger’s nose twitch is the difficulty that someone with Asperger’s, excellent IT skills, a good work record, great experience, and a strong desire to continue working is having because, as they describe it, ‘I never seem to get through the front-end recruitment processes to talk to anyone who can appreciate my IT technical skills and experience’.
One of many powerful points in last year’s Buckland Review of Autism Employment is ‘Despite their wish to work, the latest official statistics show that only around 3 in 10 working age autistic disabled people are in employment, compared with 5 in 10 for all disabled people and 8 in 10 for non-disabled people’. Unless you are Elon Musk, who revealed in 2021 that he has Asperger Syndrome, the odds of getting employed when you have the condition are not high. Unconscious bias in companies or individuals will never be fully eradicated, but the Badger senses that there’s something in modern recruitment processes that don’t give those with Asperger a proper chance. For all the positive messaging from companies about diversity and fairness, the reality seems different.
Today’s world needs those with proven IT skills and a strong work ethic whether they have Asperger’s or not. Something seems amiss, and the Badger has the words uttered by a speaker at a training course he attended many years ago rattling around in his mind, namely ‘A disability isn’t a barrier to working, discrimination is’. The words seem as true today as they were then.
The Information Badger 