What do entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Elon Musk have in common?  They are neurodiverse, Branson has dyslexia and Musk, autism, and both share a career path in which they have created their own worlds to achieve great things, according to Reframing Autism chairperson Gerard Atkinson.

“Neurodiverse people are in positions of influence that have achieved great things in different domains,” said Atkinson, a management consultant with ARTD Consultants.

Recently diagnosed with autism, Atkinson works with organisations to better incorporate neurodiverse workers – people on the autism spectrum or with dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder (ADHD), Tourette syndrome and more – in workplaces.

Speaking after a Women in Super event, Atkinson said there is untapped potential for sectors like the superannuation industry to better understand neurodiverse workers and allow them to thrive.

“A lot of my best work comes when I’m drawing from information on other sectors and domains and align it with the problem that’s in front of me,” Atkinson said.

One area is the user experience or user interfaced design where feedback from neurodiverse people could make a better user experience for everyone, he said.

An estimated 30 to 40 per cent of the population are neurodiverse with about 34 per cent of Australia’s neurodiverse community unemployed, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Unemployment is higher for neurodiverse people than people with other disabilities, while under-employment is also a problem and “not good for productivity or morale’’ in any organisation, Atkinson said.

“Under-employment relates to the recruitment process which is often not designed to accommodate the needs of neurodiverse individuals despite them being great assets to an organisation,’’ he said.

“There’s a clear precedent with gender, race and sexual orientation, that when you improve the diversity of an organisation and you’re more like the people you represent, you get better outcomes.”

Atkinson pointed to insurer Medibank and its Amplar Health customer insights lead Mark Solonsch, who was diagnosed with Aspergers as an adult, for being a leading neurodiverse-friendly organisation in Australia.

In a 2019 article on Medibank’s website, Solonsch said he did not disclose his condition to his recruiters at the insurer because of the stigma attached to Aspergers but the organisation had been very supportive of his diversity.

The response from his article helped create a 50-strong group within Medibank of neurodiverse workers, and parents of neurodiverse children, who meet monthly to discuss workplace and wider issues.

Solonsch said that work has led to the establishment of charity Believe:Neurodiversity which is currently working to measure awareness of the condition in Australian workplaces.

Its iNDex will measure how well organisations are progressing with understanding, recruitment practices and psychological safety and is working with the Australian Council of Professions. It expects to have its initial findings over the next few months.

Neurodiversity Academy founder Will Wheeler said multinational companies, such as IBM, SAP and EY, have strong neurodiverse-friendly employment practices and are working their way towards integrating neurodiverse people to increase productivity, creativity and innovation. But more work needs to be done in Australia’s employment market, he said.

Wheeler, who has been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, helps train his neurodiverse in a range of skills and qualifications in an environment suited to their learning style.

“We want people to understand and include us and (we want to) develop in our careers,’’ Wheeler said.

“There are probably a lot of people flying under the radar and women have a lot higher change of that … while a lot of higher executives have been able to develop natural skills to problem solve.’’

Wilson Asset Management portfolio manager and Women in Super NSW committee member Dania Zinurova said the pandemic had highlighted the need to increase mental wellbeing in the workplace.

For neurodivergent people working within organisations, many found the adapting to neurotypical environments exhausting, she said. Her eldest son’s autism prompted her to bring the issue of neurodiversity, from those with lived experience, to the super industry.

“The key message that I would like to promote within our industry is that is not about changing, excluding or including neurodivergent people it is about learning, understanding it better and learning how to make adjustments,’’ she said.