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Published on: November 21, 2024
The Competitive Advantage of a Neurodiverse Creative Sector – by Rosie Higgins, Director of Unquiet Media
Image: Mock-up of the Exceptional Minds handbook – coming soon
By Rosie Higgins, Director of Unquiet Media
Unquiet Media ‘Exceptional Minds’ Media Cymru Project
In 2025, Unquiet Media will launch the ‘Exceptional Minds’ suite for the Creative Industries in Wales to help businesses and employers better recruit and support neurodivergent talent – and help neurodivergent talent to navigate our sometimes tricky sector.
Over the last three years, the Media Cymru project has explored the specific barriers neurodivergent individuals face, what is needed to help tear these down, and how our sector can foster better practices and policies to ensure equity for current and future generations.
Using the evidence collected from our primary and secondary research, the expertise of our psychology and neuroscience consultants, the needs of the many businesses we’ve scoped and, most importantly, the voices of the 100s of neurodivergent contributors we’ve spoken to, we have created a suite of resources that include guidelines, toolkits, videos, and much more, to help make our industry more inclusive, accessible, and safer for all.
Why ‘Exceptional Minds’?
Despite an increasing awareness and understanding of hidden differences, neurodivergent individuals continue to be critically under-served in the world of work.
- Over 70% of autistic people are under or un-employed, despite three quarters wanting to be in work (The Buckland Report, 2024)
- 4 in 10 unemployed people using a Job Centre are dyslexic (Baroness Walmsley, 2010) and only around 5% of supported working-age adults with a learning disability are in paid employment in the UK (NHS, 2022)
- ADHD diagnosis reduces employment by 10%, earnings by 33% (Fletcher, 2014), and makes someone 60% more likely to lose their job (Barley, 2008)
- Unemployment is 5 x higher for people with Tourette’s (Byler, 2015)
- And, tragically, nearly three-quarters (70%) of neurodivergent employees experience mental health issues in the workplace. (WTW, 2022).
More needs to be done to ensure these populations are being sufficiently served in employment.
But this shouldn’t just be considered a box-ticking exercise – one that serves both our moral, and legal, obligation to ensure equal opportunity to neurodivergent individuals. There is an active, competitive advantage to a neurodiverse workforce.
Image: Actors on set for ‘Navigating Neurodiversity and the Media Sector’ short video
A Competitive Advantage
Across the world, we’re beginning to tap into the unearthed potential of the neurodivergent brain. Some of our most important inventions, pieces of art and music, and discoveries in the scientific field have come from neurodivergent minds. Global giants of the worlds of business, science, technology, and the arts are actively seeking and recruiting neurodivergent talent not just because they must, but because they’re desperate to utilise our (often) heightened abilities in innovative thinking, problem solving, persistence, hyper-focus, and pattern recognition*.
Leaders such as NASA, Google, Microsoft, GCHQ, and IBM all have active recruitment and training programmes catered specifically to neurodivergent talent, recognising the unique talents that diverse ways of thinking, of processing information, and of seeing the world bring to the table.
And there’s tangible benefits, too.
Companies that lead in DDN (Deaf, Disabled, and/or Neurodivergent) inclusion are 25% more likely to outperform on productivity. They realise 1.6x more revenue, 2.6x more net income, and 3x more economic profit than their direct competitors (Accenture, 2023). Autistic employees alone, when their access requirements are properly supported, can be up to 140% more productive than their neurotypical peers (JPMorgan Chase, 2022).
Neuro-inclusive workplaces and, thus, happier and healthier employees, also means greater recruitment pools, ability to retain staff, as well as avenues to new markets and audiences.
The Creative Brain
Our specific industry is the perfect place for those of us who think and see the world in different ways, too. Diverse perspectives naturally bring innovation and creativity, but many of us also have great attention to detail, thrive under pressure and in fast-paced environments, work best in non-traditional work spaces and structures, and often have uniquely creative ways of thinking.* In fact, 96% of creative businesses believe that there is a competitive advantage to a neurodivergent workforce (Universal Music, 2020). And there’s huge audience potential, too – by centring neurodivergent stories and voices, both in front of and behind camera, you’re reaching the (at least) 1 in 7 (15%) of neurodivergent people living across the globe.
Image: Mock-up of the Exceptional Minds handbook – coming soon
Work to Do
Yet traditional conventions of the working world – office spaces, recruitment processes, face-to-face meetings, email communications – are mostly geared to neurotypical brains.
Though we are beginning to recognise that atypical brains are key to the future, there are still few companies in our sector that are actively implementing neurodivergent policies and practice (<25% (Universal Music, 2020)). There is still a lack of tangible support for employers for addressing and accommodating neurodivergence, for neurodivergent individuals hoping to enter and remain in employment, and there are still ongoing misconceptions and stigmas prevalent around these common but hidden conditions.
Employing and retaining a neurodivergent workforce is still viewed as a challenge rather than an opportunity, and the industry is missing out on a myriad of benefits of hiring some of these exceptional minds.
How to Do It
Creating more neuro-inclusive workplaces can feel intimidating. We may be fearful of saying or doing the wrong thing, and, for the many of us running small businesses, may not have resources or budget to be implementing expensive change. But both barriers are shrouded in misconception.
Neurodiversity isn’t scary – yes, sometimes we may get language wrong. But that’s okay! A lot of this vocabulary is new and evolving, and two people with similar experiences may identify in different ways. Change doesn’t come if we’re fearful to approach something – it comes as long as we are making efforts to learn, to check our biases, to correct our mistakes and to listen to what individuals are asking for.
And implementing reasonable adjustments doesn’t need to be daunting, either – many are free to the employer (up to 56%, in fact! (Job Accommodation Network, 2024)) and are actually small, simple alterations such as accepting alternative job application formats, more direct transparency around deadlines, choice in communication preference, providing written meeting notes and agendas, movement breaks to allow self-regulation, and offering flexible working where possible.
Many assistive technological tools are embedded in programmes and systems you may already have (such as Microsoft 365 package), and the rapid emergence of new AI solutions to accessibility challenges is going to revitalise the workplace for many people. Funding such as Access to Work can help cover the costs of any additional support that is needed, too.
Putting in effort to create more inclusive and empathetic practices around recruitment, retention, and work environments will facilitate more accessible opportunities and psychologically safe work spaces and businesses – where neurodivergent talent feel empowered to apply for jobs in our industry, to advocate for their needs within it, and to reach for new heights in our careers previously felt impossible.
Image: Actor on set for ‘Navigating Neurodiversity in the Media Sector’ short video
Key Takeaways for Industry
- Engage in training to better understand neurodiversity.
- Understand the resources, support, and funding already available to help you implement reasonable adjustments.
- Listen to your neurodivergent employees and treat everyone as an individual.
- Reframe the way in which you view difference – focusing on strengths and what an individual can bring to the team, rather than on deficits.
- Be flexible, focusing on outcomes, not processes – just because something is the way we’ve always done it, doesn’t mean it is the right way.
- Be proactive rather than reactive in your support – ask someone what they need, rather than making assumptions or waiting for them to do so. And have regular check ins to ensure support measures are still fit for purpose.
- Reasonable adjustments benefit everyone – regardless of neurotype.
[*note: not all neurodivergent people have special skills, and we shouldn’t have to have a unique talent or skillset just to be thought of as people, deserving of a job and deserving of psychological safety. These experiences are highlighted because they do happen to be common in neurodivergent populations, rather than universal.]
Written by Rosie Higgins, Director of Unquiet Media
Note: what is ‘neurodiversity’?
Neurodiversity is used in this context to describe the natural human variation in the way in which human brains develop. Within this paradigm, neurodivergent differences such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and others are considered simple variations in the way in which we think, learn, communicate, process information, and behave – in the famous words of Temple Grandin – ‘different, not less’.
About Unquiet Media
Unquiet Media is part of Media Cymru’s 22 media consortium. They are a unique consultancy and content production company specialising in all matters of the human mind, rooted in diverse perspectives, lived experience, and expertise in the worlds of media and cognitive science.
About Rosie Higgins
Rosie Higgins is director of Fields Park Productions, film and TV arm of the Fields Park Media Group, and Unquiet Media, a unique production and consultancy company specialising in themes of psychology. Her expertise and experience intersects both media production (where she’s worked for 10+ years) and cognitive science (M.Phil. in Psychoanalysis, MSc in Psychology).