Undiscovered Workforce and Aspergers On The Job

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I have been working in the last few months on the subject of employment issues for people with Aspergers Syndrome.

On 31st May I will be hosting a seminar in London with American writer Rudy Simone (who herself has Aspergers) on the subject of "Aspergers On The Job". I am not here specifically to advertise this event, which is primarily intended for employers / human resources managers, recruitment consultants (i.e. agencies) and careers advisers. (These people will pay for their ticket). There are a few places for people with Aspergers, the priority going to those who have helped out in some way in organising the event (including getting the invite list together).

Last week on 20th March, the NAS launched their campaign "The Undiscovered Workforce" in parliament. I was actually invited to be one of the guests to that event. The NAS do have a service called "Prospects" which helps people with Aspergers, but it is under-funded and their resources are very much stretched.

The Autism Act is not very clear really when it comes to employment issues but it does suggest that the local services need to have some knowledge of it and address the issue as part of the autism strategy.

How do people here think we can actually make a difference to the conditions to make things better for people with Aspergers applying for jobs. I will come up with some answers of my own, but I'd like to see what others have to say.

Which of these could actually be put into training. What can be made into law?

I would like disability employment companies to be more aware of Aspergers. While looking for a job, I contacted a disability employment company to see if they could do anything for me. They told me that "I was capable enough", I don't think they took me seriously.......

If you can tell me who the company is and if they are based near London, we can add them to our invite list.

They're not a huge concern, just a bit annoyed about the way they handled the situation. They are based around Sydney I think. Either way I'm currently looking for a better disability employment company. It would help if this kind of help was better advertised, it would be benefical for aspies everywhere

It's a long way to come from Australia. Whoever is your advocacy movement over there should deal with it.

I think employers need to become less judgemental, HR need to be less "safe" in their selections, and as a whole the organisation should accept differences and not see them as inferior or as a problem.

My issue with the recruitment process is that employers seem to expect a specific uniform personality in their applicants. It is as though they are scared of employing anyone a bit different.

Also for certain jobs like software development the employer should expect people with aspergers syndrome to be applying and not try to avoid them in those roles, which require a lot of focus, attention to detail, and problem soloving capacity. They should overlook the fact that the candidate may not be a great guy to have a laugh with in the pub.

I think we often question why they don't employ us when we could help them be more profitable. But then we're probably disillusioned into thinking that companies we work for what to be as profitable as possible.

Well in a sense they do, at the top level. However at the individual level, people are after themselves and not the profitability of the company. After all they are probably paid a fixed wage.

What they want is an easy time at work. They also want, when they hire someone, a person who can do the job but not better than them, as that would threaten their promotion.

And of course they are very resistant to change. After all, change might make them feel less useful than they were before or might even make their job redundant (except it won't, because they'll steal ours and make us redundant instead).