Autistic people are more successful in recruitment processes when employers know their diagnosis.
- Autism is a developmental disorder that affects social interactions, communication and behavior.
- Due to the unique characteristics of autistic people, they often face considerable difficulty finding meaningful employment.
- Researchers have just demonstrated that autistic job candidates are better evaluated when recruiters are aware of their diagnosis.
Autistic candidates applying for jobs are better evaluated when recruiters are aware of their diagnosis, according to a new study.
Recruitment: autistic people in difficulty during the job interview
Autism is a developmental disorder that affects social interactions, communication and behavior. Due to the unique characteristics of autistic people, they often face considerable difficulty finding meaningful employment. In particular, studies have shown that the questions asked during a job interview constitute a major challenge for these individuals.
Aware of these issues, researchers wanted to know more about the recruitment processes of autistic workers. They therefore conducted a study comparing the scores given to autistic people during fictitious job interviews in three different conditions: when the evaluators did not know the diagnosis, when they were informed of the diagnosis and when they were at the were informed of the diagnosis and received additional information about it.
Autism: employers more lenient when they know the diagnosis
The results showed that recruiters who knew the respondents’ autism diagnosis gave them higher ratings on all assessed characteristics, compared to those who did not know. Raters informed of respondents’ autism diagnosis more accurately perceived them as “more confident, motivated, conscientious, competent, intelligent, friendly”, compared to the evaluations of those who were unaware of the diagnosis. The presence of additional information on autism, however, did not modify the notes in a significative way.
This study highlights the importance of raising awareness among recruiters about autism. The article titled “Disclosing an autism diagnosis improves ratings of candidate performance in employment interviews” was written by Jade Eloise Norris, Rachel Prosser, Anna Remington, Laura Crane and Katie Maras.
Nearly 600,000 adults are autistic in France
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) represent between 0.9% and 1.2% of births, or around 7,500 babies each year. The High Authority of Health therefore considers thataround 100,000 young people under the age of 20 and nearly 600,000 adults are autistic in France.
