Leveraging Unique Talents of People with Autism

Objective

To find a creative solution to capacity, job satisfaction and career development issues in administrative and other support functions by recruiting individuals with autism who possess particularly suited skills to manage certain repetitive and structured, detail-oriented tasks.

Overview and Main Activities

Oliver Wyman’s Executive Assistant (EA) team was spending too much time on highly repetitive administrative tasks taking away from supporting the revenue generating activities of the client-facing Partners they support. Some people were also accruing significant overtime.

A creative solution was sought to identify, recruit and retain individuals particularly well-suited for data management and other detail-oriented jobs. Individuals with autism often excel in such areas. Although precise global figures are not available, sources estimate that one percent of the world’s population is affected by autism (Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD). To recruit and leverage members of this underleveraged talent pool, Oliver Wyman worked with Specialisterne to employ individuals with autism to perform data management and other jobs.

Specialisterne (which translates from Danish as “the Specialists”) is an internationally recognized leader in enabling high-functioning people with autism to be effectively included in society and provide valuable, high-quality services to employers. Originally founded in Denmark, Specialisterne has operations around the world.

Work with Specialisterne began in 2014 with a pilot. By March 2015, the firm employed five people with autism as Specialists in two departments. Specialisterne provides job coaching not only to the Specialists, but also to the individuals who manage them and the teams that work with them. Specialisterne’s approach creates a support system for the Specialists and for Oliver Wyman, facilitating their integration in the workplace and optimizing the programme’s value.

As a result of this partnership, the Specialists have successfully been integrated and improved the efficiency of business processes via a continuous feedback loop. The team is now working more effectively and productively, and capacity issues have been mitigated, as have employee morale and engagement issues associated with the intensive, repetitive work now handled by the Specialists. Impact was almost immediate and Oliver Wyman now plans to expand the programme into other countries and potentially to cover further tasks.

As the firm counts among its core values the commitment to harnessing the power of individuality and differences, recruiting people with autism exemplifies inclusion and diversity at Oliver Wyman. Working with Specialisterne allows the firm to change the way it manages diverse talent and therefore aligns with a broad strategic goal to create an inclusive workplace and diverse workforce.

Success Factors and Challenges

Most critical success factors:

• Support provided by Specialisterne, especially to those who directly manage the Specialists
• Continuous effort to improve and clarify the tasks and processes performed by the Specialists
• Team appreciation for the Specialists

Main challenges:

• Working with Specialists and Specialisterne job coaches to manage social and personal challenges affecting day-to-day work
• Streamlining the processes themselves, e.g. determining what can make the process of expense entry more efficient overall, as well as for the Specialist assigned to the job
• Matching the individual and his or her skills carefully with the task at hand

Recommendations for Others

Part of the success of working with Specialisterne can be attributed to the fact that inclusion and diversity in this instance is not simply a matter of corporate social responsibility or moral/societal commitment, but rather a specific solution to a business imperative.

Allowing people with autism to excel at tasks where they are strongly suited requires manager commitment towards continuous examination of processes and an eye towards improvement and clarification for the individual and for the business. The value of such a programme is immediately measurable but the programme must be actively and regularly managed, not merely passively committed to.

Replicability and Scalability

How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Easy: If the business need exists, implementation is moderately easy, assuming there are resources to manage the assessment and identification of people with autism and match them with the job at hand, and to continually provide coaching and support for the Specialists and existing teams.

How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Easy: Once the right model is in place, i.e. training, support and work processes, the programme can be scaled to meet the business need.

About the Organization

Website: www.oliverwyman.com
Sector: Professional Services
Size (number of employees): 1,000 – 10,000
Headquarters: New York, United States

For Further Engagement

Contact name: Nathalie Vanheusden
Contact position: Global Executive Assistant Manager
Email: [email protected]