In discussion with auticon Australia and New Zealand CEO, Bodo Mann

Bodo Mann, managing director and CEO of auticon Australia and New Zealand, joined The HR Leader to discuss how the IT consultancy is paving the way for neurodiverse candidates.

Mr Mann outlined how Australia can do better to accommodate for neurodiverse staff, and how auticon prepares its workers for employment.

Shandel McAuliffe, editor at HR Leader: “What do you think Australia can learn from the overseas arms of your business, and what areas do we need to catch up in?”

Mr Mann: “Take France or the UK for example, some of the legislations are much more in favour for disability. Corporates are supported if they invest in the disability sector or in neurodiversity as well. France has a penalty if there’s not a certain quota fulfilled by corporates.”

“In Australia, there’s probably a societal change which has to happen, and we’re catching up, but there’s a fair bit of work still to be done. I believe Australia has probably come a long way when it comes to gender diversity or LGBTQ. Indigenous [support] is picking up a lot, which is fantastic. But it feels like neurodiversity is the next frontier and there’s much more we can do,” explained Mr Mann.

“My ambition is to show the world that we are leading, and if we achieve that, and it creates opportunities for everyone, it’s better for everyone … The holy grail for corporate success is innovation, and the way to get innovation is the ability to think differently. So, form teams with different skills and different ways of approaching a problem. And by definition, neurodiverse talent does that,” he said.

Editor: “How do you set your employees up for success with clients/employers?”

Mr Mann: “As part of the recruitment process, which is very autism-friendly … we prepare them for what might come. Once they’re hired, we put them through additional training. Some is social, some is more technical training, some is behavioural or in terms of what to expect in a client environment.”

He continued: “But we also ask our clients to invest, and that happens probably at least 60 to 70 per cent of the time … We do a lot of cyber security courses. We do some quality assurance certificates which we put individuals through, and we provide sufficient time that they can do that while they’re working for clients.”

“The more they are in real-time and real-world employment, their own confidence grows as well over time which is half of the success. As we all know, success is a mind game. If you feel you contribute, if you feel successful, that is important because it wasn’t the case before where they just didn’t have that support, or they couldn’t build confidence,” said Mr Mann.

The transcript of this podcast episode, when quoted above, was slightly edited for publishing purposes. The full audio conversation with Bodo Mann is below, and the original podcast article with references can be found here.

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.