Needle in a Haystack
Last night I watched a segment on “60 Minutes” called “Talent on the Spectrum”. It had originally aired last October, but somehow I missed it.
The show highlighted that many individuals on the autism spectrum are either unemployed or underemployed.
One young man stated that he had a college degree and had spent three years after he graduated unemployed even after applying for over 100 positions. As we all can imagine, it is not easy to be rejected time and time again.
Anderson Cooper interviewed Dave Friedman, CEO and founder of AutonomyWorks. He has a son, Matt, on the autism spectrum. Friedman founded Autonomy Works in 2012 to create jobs for people with autism and other disabilities. Friedman spent more than 25 years leading large client and services organizations through major transformations. Matt is the reason he left his career in business to start AutonomyWorks.
During his career Freidman was head of marketing at Sears where he oversaw hundreds of employees. Many of these employees checked the accuracy of advertisements being placed in newspapers. Freidman stated that it may seem like a small thing, but finding errors before printing equated to a cost savings of tens of thousands of dollars per month.
AutonomyWorks employs about 40 people, 80% of whom have autism or similar abilities. It is a tech firm that proofreads digital content, tests websites, processes orders and financial transactions, and manages data. AutonomyWorks monitors over 2300 websites per month for accuracy and quality. The company claims a 90% reduction rate of product and pricing errors.
Employees work in a quiet office environment and are allowed to wear noise cancelling headphones. They take breaks in a quiet room where lights are dimmed to reduce sensory overload.
A few of the people Cooper interviewed work at Autonomy Works. One man shared that doing a repetitive job was good for him. He also shared that working gave him a purpose and much needed structure. Another young man shared that it was nice to have a job because he no longer had to ask his parents for money when he wanted to buy something.
Per their website, www.autonomy.works, “AutonomyWorks frees people from the burden of operations tasks empowering teams to work on more strategic efforts. Mission: AutonomyWorks employs a team of people with autism to deliver exceptional business services, while building independent lives for employees.”
Friedman takes his advocacy role seriously in motivating and educating other organizations to employ those with disabilities.
Their website states, “The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that over five million adult Americans are living on the autism spectrum. Furthermore, the CDC estimates that 1 in 59 children has autism. It is the fastest-growing disability in the country, doubling in the past 15 years.
In the next decade, 500,000 individuals with autism will graduate from the school systems into the work-world. Based on current statistics, nearly 80% of these adults will be unemployed or underemployed. Of the few lucky enough to have jobs, many are stuck in low-skilled, manual labor positions that fail to develop their skills and talents.
Largely as result of these poor employment opportunities, society must bear the cost of supporting these individuals. The cost of supporting a single individual with autism throughout their life is estimated to cost as much as $2.4 million. Given the staggering growth in the number of people with autism, the annual cost is estimated to exceed $125 billion in the US alone.”
These numbers are scary!
Freidman states that the most important accommodation that companies can make is changing the way they interview people with autism.
Cooper then went on to interview Kelly Grier, the U.S. Chairwoman of Ernst & Young, the global accounting and professional services firm. Cooper asked her if there was a corporate responsibility to hire individuals on the autism spectrum.
Per Grier, it makes sense as a business perspective. Employing individuals on the spectrum can help companies save millions of dollars as they look at problems in a different way. They can create algorithm shortcuts that automate processes. Individuals on the spectrum can determine how to use data differently to create competitive advantages and stave off security vulnerability. They are able to analyze complexities inside large data sets.
Grier says that this is a rare skillset that is in high demand. This incredible talent is going unused.
Ernst & Young has changed how they interview individuals on the autism spectrum. They give a group of prospective employees a series of problem solving challenges. These challenges test their aptitude, creativity and teamwork abilities.
Cooper next interviewed Keivan Stassun, the Director of Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, a ground-breaking research center at Vanderbuilt University. Stassun also has a son on the autism spectrum.
Per their website, www.vanderbilt.edu/autismandinnovation/, “The Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, engineering technologies and transforming the workplace – inspired by neurodiversity, at the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering brings engineers, business scholars, and disabilities researchers together with experts in neuroscience and education to understand, maximize, and promote neurodiverse talent. From a strengths-based – as opposed to deficit-based – understanding of autism and neurodiversity, the Center sees opportunities for innovation in technology and in workplace practices.
Primary areas of focus for the Frist Center’s work include:
inventing and commercializing new technologies that enable autistic and other neurodiverse people to gain employment, succeed at work, and achieve their full potential;
studying and understanding neurodiverse capabilities, and inventing and commercializing algorithms and systems that are inspired by those capabilities;
developing policies, tools, trainings, and workplace practices that recognize and enlist neurodiverse people and talents in the workforce;
demonstrating, documenting, and disseminating a community-based approach—including employers, self-advocates, researchers, policy makers, agencies, and organizations—to simultaneously enhance the bottom line for business and the quality of life for autistic individuals.”
One of the technologies developed at the research center to transform workplaces is computer simulated job interiews.
Cooper went on to say that there are 30 large companies actively seeking to employ individuals on the autism spectrum, such as Microsoft, JP Morgan and Ford.
With the numbers growing like they are, more companies are needed to recognize the benefit of hiring individuals on the spectrum.
I am excited to see the gains the world is making in employing individuals on the spectrum. I love learning the stories of parents that took their strengths and put them to good use in starting businesses to not only employ their own children, but many others.
The CDC estimates that one third of individuals on the spectrum have significant intellectual disabilities. Autism impacts people in a wide array of ways. Travis falls into this category. He also has severe mental health issues.
Finding a good job fit for him may be like finding a needle in a haystack.
Doesn’t mean that I am going to give up trying to help him find that needle.
“He who must search a haystack for a needle is likely to end up with the attitude that the needle is not worth the search.” - Robert Jackson