Cultivate a thriving workplace

Mental health and neurodiversity (including autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other learning difficulties) are prevalent in the workforce: as many as one-in-four people will experience a mental health difficulty at any one time; as many as one-in-five will be neurodivergent in some way; and many people experience work-related stress in a given week.

Compassionate cultures

We know that human relationships heal: being able to share struggles with someone who listens, validates and seeks to understand and improve the situation can reduce our (dis)stress. Having supportive, emotionally and neurodiversity-aware managers helps people speak up, allowing problems to be identified and addressed swiftly. A review by Paterson and colleagues (2024) found that organisational cultures of silence and judgement around mental health pose barriers to addressing it. They found the following helpful for businesses to consider when promoting an open culture:

• Business owners and leaders are role models: how open, accepting and communicative are they about stress and mental health in the workplace, and people’s differences in processing and working through these issues?
• How is time protected for attendance at initiatives, how are they disseminated and by whom?
• How routine is asking about emotions and stress at work, and how are responded to?

The charity Mind has a range of practical resources about how to have helpful conversations about mental health and stress in the workplace on its website.

Policies

The vast majority of clients I see for therapy through their workplace report little to no adaptations being made for their neurodivergence, which contributes to their ongoing stress. Ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to adapt to diverse needs is key. Here are some common examples:

• Allowing breaks and movement throughout meetings/the day to aid concentration
• Ensuring access to quiet, private workspaces or at least (noise cancelling) headphones
• Provision of extra time to process information, which should be given in chunks
• Providing written and visual information rather than verbal alone to support processing
• Regular check-ins with managers to identify any challenges
• Ensure diary management is flexible and collaborative for hyper-focusing, difficulties with switching between tasks and/or finding multiple tasks helpful
• Access to tech, for example, AI transcribing and diary/task management software

The NHS has a Reasonable adjustments checklist available as a guide for business owners to help make health appointments, training sessions and employment meetings comfortable and accessible for neurodivergent people on their staff.

Individual support

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the front-line, evidence-based approach for treating mental health and stress. Research shows that for individuals, CBT can reduce sick days by 82 on average and improve productivity by up to 15%. This can be accessed through an employee assistance programme (EAP), private health insurance, or via self-referral to a local NHS talking therapies service. Group-based therapeutic or skills workshops (such as mindfulness or anxiety/stress management), pre-recorded, skills-focused webinars or information can be equally impactful but cost-effective ways of disseminating CBT-based skills to your workforce. Using listening events can reduce work-related stress, leading to targeted needs-led interventions, such as CBT for sleep, which can improve productivity by up to four hours per week, per employee.