Speaking with my colleague, Senior HR Business Partner, Sinead Borgersen, on Veritas’ May 16th collaboration with Autism Advantage, I was enlightened considering the seemingly small details she shared that have the potential to greatly impact someone with autism in the interview process.
“Corporations have a new standard for behavioral interviews, but this process doesn’t account for diverse ways of thinking,” explained @QueenBorg in reference to challenges sometimes encountered by the cohort of Autism Advantage, “And we can amend our approach to interviewing to account for the varying ways people engage the world.”
Borgersen went on to highlight possible points of difficulty in interaction in a behavioral interview question lineup, explaining, “Even the prompt, ‘Describe a situation in which you experienced a problem,’ – while some people understand the prompt is providing an opportunity to showcase an area of excellence, an autistic individual may see the question directly and only respond with a story of a past contentious professional moment.”
During the on-site professional skills sessions with Autism Advantage, Borgersen and others among Veritas’ HR presented on interviewing and resume drafting, as well as professional interaction and presentation tips and tricks – all guided by insights provided by Autism Advantage on improving the company’s approach to hiring for a neurodiverse workplace.
We’re appreciative of the dedication by Autism Advantage leaders to assist Veritas staff in this process and look forward to further supporting Autism Advantage as we identify new opportunities to integrate; we are even in the process of fostering support for an internship program so we may more closely align to those a part of Autism Advantage.
At Veritas, corporate citizenship includes philanthropy, employee activism and engagement, and a commitment to human rights, education, and driving social change. And in 2018, a part of #LifeAtVeritas includes partnering with Autism Advantage.
