Adam Tardif is our People Success Officer (PSO) Team Leader based in Melbourne. He manages our high-performing PSO team to create a culture of success, transparency, and collaboration, overseeing day-to-day activities to align with our goal of increasing workforce participation for neurodivergent people. In this interview, he details how ASA’s PSO team creates a supportive environment for our neurodivergent data analysts to thrive in their geospatial and engineering careers.
First of all, a PSO might sound like a foreign concept to many people. What does a PSO do at Australian Spatial Analytics?
Our team of PSOs provides each analyst with one-on-one support, guidance, and mentoring support. Our role aims to work on ‘soft skills’ with the analysts, such as building on their self-advocacy and self-esteem, improving their confidence to communicate with others and overcoming barriers to reach personal or professional goals through coaching and support. We have two main areas of influence: ‘Train and Support’ and 'Refer and Transition’.
This is distilled into the three C’s - Community, Comfort and Career Planning.
• Community: link current employees with support or allied health professionals in the community when needed and identify future neurodivergent superstars.
• Comfort: support each junior data analyst employee through recruitment, onboarding, and project delivery to help them feel confident in the workplace.
• Career Planning: co-designing individual goal plans and undertaking regular 1:1 sessions with employees to support them and plan for their future.
It’s great that we have at least one PSO in each ASA office. What are some of the lived experiences they’ve had with our neurodiverse workforce?
Many analysts have either not worked before due to a lack of opportunities or come from hospitality, retail or factory work, which is very different from the office environment, so often, our work helps them adjust and adapt to the corporate environment. The PSOs often support analysts as they work through mental ill-health challenges if they arise and ensure they get the support they need.
We’ve had some fantastic success stories where data analysts have been transformed because they were supported (see our analyst stories). Everyone thrives in the right environment! What has been a heartwarming story you’ve come across?
Honestly, there are so many, and I feel guilty picking just one. However, one of the most heartwarming stories I have come across is one of the analysts in our Melbourne office. She is a classic example of a neurodivergent individual with so much talent and potential to do anything she wants in her career. Still, before arriving at ASA, the workplaces she worked at previously were unsupportive and unaccommodating for her to perform to the best of her ability. In one year at ASA, with the right support centred on her identified needs, she has had two promotions and significantly increased her self-belief.
What are some of the mental health issues that you’ve come across that we’ve helped with?
The most prevalent mental health issues we come across are anxiety and depression, some more acute than others. However, I can share that along with providing ongoing support; our PSO team have assisted many analysts with referrals to mental health support, resulting in significant improvements in their health and well-being overall. The PSOs are experienced in working with anyone, and we can notice when team members go through low moods, disengage and isolate themselves, so we can quickly provide support. It is so satisfying when they start to feel better, and you see them smile, laugh and socialise with others again in the office; it's a special feeling that our team celebrates.
Some organisations want to bring on neurodivergent people right now but don’t know where to start. What are some of the things they should know about?
I'll start by saying that although statistics are believed to be higher due to many who are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, research shows that 1 in 20 Australians have ADHD, 10% have dyslexia, and 1 in 70 people have autism. Employers should write their job advertisements with neurodivergent people in mind. When it comes to calling or emailing potential employees for an interview, ask them if they require any adjustments that would help them; you're not giving them an upper advantage; consider it as levelling the playing field. It is essential to understand that you may not know you are interviewing a neurodivergent person as they may not wish to disclose that to you during the recruitment process. Providing reasonable adjustments during recruitment simply gives neurodivergent people the opportunity to put their best foot forward from the start.
A critical thing organisations should do is work on increasing their awareness of neurodiversity, beginning with autism, ADHD and dyslexia as a starting point. For those who are aware of neurodivergent people within their workplace, it's good practice to ask them if they need any adjustments or accommodations to their work area that would help them perform. Most adjustments are simple to implement, low cost, and highly effective for the team members; you just need to ask.
How do you think other organisations can embrace neurodiversity in the workplace?
Organisations can embrace neurodiversity by implementing awareness training for all staff as it can improve workplace culture immensely, actively creating a comfortable workplace environment for neurodivergent people to work in and creating a culture where the focus is on the individual person and their strengths. After that, having neuroinclusive work practices help immensely. For example, we provide questions to candidates 48 hours in advance so they can prepare adequately. We also cater for individual learning styles and needs so they can excel.
Finally, what are the benefits of having a neurodiverse workforce?
When given the right support, neurodivergent people can be the top performers of any organisation as they tend to be highly driven to provide the best results, very determined, refreshingly honest and a lot of fun. When you put everything together, you've got yourself a great workplace. You don’t know what you’re missing out on if you don’t enable neurodiversity in the workplace. We’ve done it, and any organisation can too!