Apply the social model of disability to reframe reasonable adjustments as removing barriers rather than fixing individuals.
Leadership & Management
Managing Neurodivergent Team Members and Making Reasonable Adjustments
Gives managers a practical toolkit of reasonable adjustments across recruitment, communication, workspace and performance management for autistic, ADHD, dyslexic and dyspraxic team members.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Standard management practice quietly assumes a single way of communicating, concentrating and demonstrating skill, which creates barriers for autistic, ADHD, dyslexic and dyspraxic employees who work differently rather than less capably. This course starts from the social model of disability, which locates difficulty in poorly designed processes and environments rather than in the individual. Participants learn to recognise strengths and challenges across neurodivergent profiles without over-generalising from a diagnostic label, then work through reasonable adjustments: direct, literal communication, sensory audits of the workspace, assistive technology, and executive function support such as task breakdown and visual schedules. The course extends adjustments across the employee lifecycle, covering inclusive recruitment that reduces reliance on unstructured interviews, onboarding that documents unwritten norms explicitly, and performance management that separates genuine job requirements from unstated social expectations. A dedicated module addresses disclosure: creating a voluntary process, protecting confidentiality and responding practically once an employee discloses. Teaching combines case discussion with adjustment-planning exercises based on realistic scenarios. Participants leave with a manager's toolkit of adjustments and a template for an individual adjustment plan.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Recognise common strengths and challenges across autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia without over-generalising from a label.
Design communication, workspace and workflow adjustments suited to an individual employee's stated needs.
Select assistive technology and executive function supports appropriate to specific tasks and roles.
Redesign recruitment and onboarding processes to reduce unnecessary reliance on unstructured social assessment.
Adjust performance management criteria and feedback formats without lowering the standard of work expected.
Handle disclosure conversations confidentially and translate them into a practical, reviewable adjustment plan.
Who Should Attend
Line managers with one or more neurodivergent team members seeking practical, day-to-day adjustment ideas.
HR advisers handling adjustment requests and disclosure conversations.
Recruitment specialists redesigning interview and assessment processes for greater inclusion.
Diversity, equity and inclusion leads building neuroinclusion into existing people policies.
Occupational health and wellbeing practitioners supporting workplace adjustment plans.
Team leads in fast-paced, open-plan environments adapting workflow for sensory and cognitive differences.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Understanding Neurodiversity at Work
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1From Medical Model to Social Model of Disability
- Contrast the medical model, which locates difficulty within the individual, with the social model, which locates it in poorly designed environments and processes.
- Explain how the social model reframes a reasonable adjustment as removing a barrier rather than fixing a person.
- Summarise the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees, noting that legal duties and their scope vary by jurisdiction.
- Distinguish a reasonable adjustment, which changes how work is done, from lowering the standard of work expected.
Session 2Recognising Strengths and Challenges Across Neurodivergent Profiles
- Describe common strengths associated with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, such as pattern recognition, hyperfocus and spatial reasoning.
- Identify common workplace challenges, such as sensory sensitivity, working memory load and difficulty with unstructured social expectations.
- Avoid generalising a single neurodivergent employee's needs from a diagnostic label rather than from a direct conversation with them.
- Recognise that many neurodivergent employees manage more than one condition and that adjustments should address the individual, not the label.
02Making Reasonable Adjustments in Practice
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Adjusting Communication, Workspace and Workflow
- Provide direct, literal instructions and follow up verbal conversations in writing to reduce ambiguity for employees who find inference difficult.
- Conduct a sensory audit of lighting, noise and open-plan layout to identify low-cost changes that reduce sensory overload.
- Offer flexible scheduling and quiet workspace options for employees whose concentration is disrupted by a standard open office.
- Agree meeting norms, such as circulating agendas in advance, that give employees time to process information before contributing.
Session 2Assistive Technology and Executive Function Support
- Introduce assistive technology, such as text-to-speech, speech-to-text and noise-cancelling headphones, matched to specific individual needs.
- Break multi-step tasks into checklists and visual schedules to reduce the executive function load of planning and sequencing work.
- Set up body doubling or scheduled check-ins for employees who focus better with light external structure around a task.
- Review the cost and approval process for assistive technology so managers can act quickly once a need is identified.
03Adjustments Across the Employee Lifecycle
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Inclusive Recruitment and Onboarding
- Redesign interview formats to reduce reliance on unstructured conversation, offering questions in advance where this does not compromise assessment.
- Provide alternative ways to demonstrate a required skill, such as a work sample, alongside or instead of a purely verbal interview.
- Design an onboarding plan that documents workflows, unwritten norms and communication expectations explicitly rather than assuming they will be picked up socially.
- Assign an onboarding buddy briefed on the value of direct, specific feedback during a new starter's first months.
Session 2Performance Management and Career Development
- Review performance criteria to separate genuine job requirements from unstated social expectations that disadvantage neurodivergent employees.
- Give feedback in specific, behavioural terms rather than through broad statements that rely on the recipient inferring what to change.
- Identify career paths that make use of a neurodivergent employee's strengths rather than defaulting to a single promotion route requiring broad generalist skills.
- Adjust appraisal formats, such as offering written preparation time before a verbal review, to reduce anxiety without changing the standard assessed.
04Building Manager Capability and Organisational Support
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Handling Disclosure and Confidentiality
- Create a voluntary, opt-in disclosure process that lets employees decide what to share and with whom.
- Separate information needed to implement an adjustment from a full diagnosis, sharing only what colleagues need to know to support the arrangement.
- Respond to disclosure with a practical adjustments conversation rather than assumptions about what the employee can or cannot do.
- Signpost employees to occupational health or external support schemes where formal assessment would strengthen an adjustment request.
Session 2Training Managers and Sustaining an Inclusive Team Culture
- Train managers to recognise signs that an existing adjustment is no longer working and needs review rather than withdrawal.
- Build a manager's toolkit of low-cost adjustments that can be offered before a formal request or diagnosis is required.
- Address team dynamics where colleagues perceive adjustments as unfair, reframing adjustments as enabling equal contribution.
- Review adjustment plans on a fixed schedule so they evolve with role changes rather than being agreed once and forgotten.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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