Neurodiversity: How to boost PR hiring rates among underrepresented groups

At least 15 per cent of the UK population is living with a neurodivergent condition. Combine that with the growing expectations of PR agencies to hire talent that better reflects the UK’s diverse demographic, and there is a significant demand for recruiters and hiring managers to revise their approaches to attracting, resourcing, assessing and onboarding talent in 2024.

Having largely focused on addressing the lack of ethnic diversity in the industry, PR agencies must additionally drive the conversation on neurodivergence. Given that only 4 per cent of practitioners have disclosed that they live with any type of disability – most of whom work as freelancers – the chances of an employer not providing enough support for current and future neurodivergent employees is high.

So how can PR agencies connect with and accommodate for this untapped talent pool? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to creating and maintaining a neuro-inclusive recruitment process. Like any candidate, neurodivergent individuals exhibit bespoke strengths, traits and development areas to bring to a new role, so regular touch points provide multiple chances to flag any reasonable adjustments they may need to showcase their skills and potential. 

It is crucial to emphasise your desire to accommodate candidates’ varying needs in job descriptions, screening calls, interview preparation guides, and task-based interview briefs. Examples of this include amending the format of all written content, considering alternative ways of presenting tasks to the panel, and showing as much flexibility as possible regarding interview times and locations that best suit candidates. 

By frequently highlighting how processes can be amended, you remove the pressure on neurodivergent individuals to mask or rely on social cues, and instead encourage them to bring their full selves to the recruitment process, and ultimately, the workplace.

Talent recruitment is a team effort 

That said, recruitment is a team effort, and there is no use in the talent team amending their processes if hiring managers are not held accountable to the vital role they play in creating an inclusive candidate experience. 

To give you an example, as part of our training and development programme at PHA Academy, all employees involved in the hiring process have received unconscious bias training, and have an upcoming session specifically focusing on disability and reasonable adjustments. 

Our senior leadership team has undertaken specific training to support neurodivergent candidates and employees. They assess candidates against job description criteria rather than ‘culture fit’, and share information disclosed by candidates relating to neurodivergent traits, conditions, and/or disabilities with the HR team. They also challenge colleagues on anything they overhear that contradicts the agency’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

When it comes to assessing candidates’ suitability for a role in PR, the hiring team is also responsible for providing various opportunities to shine. When sending anonymised CVs to hiring managers, I recommend that recruiters share additional information that strengthens neurodivergent candidates’ applications which may have been discovered verbally or anecdotally, particularly if they have taken a less traditional career path.

It is also helpful to provide candidates with further insight into the types of questions they will be asked to reduce interview anxiety, particularly for those who find social interaction or new environments challenging. At the task-based stage, clear instructions should be shared in the preferred format with plenty of notice, while it’s preferable for the brief to allow room for varying approaches and responses depending on how candidates choose to answer or present, rather than expecting everyone to perform well in the same way. 

Make the interview panel diverse

It is also best practice for the interview panel to be as diverse as possible, taking into account the various underrepresented groups that hiring managers belong to, reducing any risk of unconscious bias and enabling neurodivergent candidates to feel represented at a senior level. This creates a more comfortable space in which they can perform at their best.

But what should interviewers be looking for? While excellent written and verbal communication skills have historically sat at the top of the list of requirements when hiring PR talent, common neurodivergent traits such as high attention to detail, out-of-the-box thinking, and an aptitude for pattern recognition could also prove vital when planning and implementing compelling campaign narratives for clients. 

In the agency world, the need for all team members to share the same strengths can be limiting, so hiring managers should consider what every candidate – neurodivergent or otherwise – can add to their team’s work and culture, rather than focusing on what they may lack in contrast with a neurotypical team.

When the successful candidate has been identified and the recruitment journey concludes, the employee’s lifecycle is just beginning, so talent and HR teams need to work closely together to ensure all candidates continue to feel supported. 

Agencies should continue to look for ways to raise awareness of neurodivergence, prompt employees to inform them of diagnoses later in their employment, and best empower managers to sufficiently support reasonable adjustments within their teams. 

As the industry and world of work continues to evolve, so must the approaches to talent acquisition. By challenging traditional recruitment norms and embracing neurodiversity, PR agencies can break down barriers to entry, help overcome the war for talent, and unleash the full potential of a largely untapped candidate pool.

Ruby Kite is talent lead at The PHA Group