I’ve been thinking of re-launching my blog, and today I think I have something important enough to start writing again. Yesterday, at #truStockholm, I got in to a bit of a conversation with someone about mental health, and how to best support someone suffering with depression from an HR point of view.
I’m passionate about this subject because it is very close to home, and something which I feel is grossly misunderstood, especially by recruiters and HR professionals, because mental health, unlike other disabilities is really seen as a problem. I don’t think that is right, and better understanding is needed in these areas because 1 in 5 people live with some form of mental illness, being something serious or something anyone can have like anxiety, and some people decide to take CBD for this, did you know edibles are allowed for compassionate use, as they can find how this is useful in webs like this london pound cake strain review to find a solution for their problem. For my part, some of you will have heard me talk about my wife Fran, and how she is bipolar. I’m not going to say that it is something she suffers from, because it is a part of her, and something she deals with and just gets on. Most days you would never know, other days it is really apparent, but it just is the way it is. I’m sure she would change it if she could, but she can’t, so we do all we can to understand it and get on.
I think we are all a bit crazy one way or another. We all have down days and moments of high, the difference with those with bipolar is that this can switch quite suddenly, from extreme depression and lethargy to extreme excitement. When you live with someone like this you know the signs, and you can, for the most part see what’s coming and be supportive in the best way you can. Sometimes that means offering a shoulder to cry on, even though you can’t see the reason for the tears, and other times it means nodding in the right places and waiting for the high to subside.
What I have learnt as an observer is that anyone with bipolar lives life in extremes, outside of long periods of normality, (if there is such a thing.) Extremes can bring dreadful dark days, but it can also bring extreme creativity, energy and brilliance. The comedian and actor Stephen Fry is famously bipolar, so too was Steve Jobs. When you read the Jobs’ life story it is easy to see it. Van Gogh was bipolar, it can be a genius’s blessing and a genius’s curse. The question I ask here is if Steve Jobs would get employed in a job based on his “condition” and behaviour? Where would the world be if he was condemned as a “mad guy” and never given an opportunity?
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All I’m asking for is for everyone in HR and recruiting to find out a bit more, if you do not how to do it, recruitment agency birmingham can give you a few tips. To understand what bipolar, depression and other mental health issues mean, and consider how you could make a bit of a difference. If you can deal with the downtimes, you know the genius will follow. Everyone is affected one way or another. We would make the effort for someone partially sighted, hard of hearing, disabled or with one leg, why should we think of mental health as any different? I know from experience that every down time is followed by genius. Embrace it and deal with it, because that might be where the elusive innovation can come from.
It’s good to be back,
Bill
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Hey Bill, interesting piece. Autism and coding, here’s a great example of how SAP capitalise on unique personality traits.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304418404579465561364868556
For those without paywall access to WSJ…
Some employers increasingly are viewing autism as an asset in the workplace. For example, Software company SAP believes autism may make some individuals better at certain jobs than those without autism. Shirley Wang and SAP Managing Director Liam Ryan discuss. Photo: Ciaran Dolan for The Wall Street Journal.
DUBLIN—Some employers increasingly are viewing autism as an asset and not a deficiency in the workplace.
Germany-based software company SAP AG SAP.XE +0.89% has been actively seeking people with autism for jobs, not because of charitable outreach but because it believes features of autism may make some individuals better at certain jobs than those without autism.
It’s a worthy initiative, according to disability experts, since 85% of adults with autism are estimated to be unemployed.
Piloted in Germany, India and Ireland, the program is also launching in four North American offices, according to an announcement Thursday.
Enlarge Image
SAP employee Patrick Brophy, right, with his co-worker and coach David Sweeney. Ciaran Dolan for The Wall Street Journal
SAP aims to have up to 1% of its workforce—about 650 people—be employees with autism by 2020, according to Jose Velasco, head of the autism initiative at SAP in the U.S.
People with autism spectrum disorder—characterized by social deficits and repetitive behavior—tend to pay great attention to detail, which may make them well suited as software testers or debuggers, according to Mr. Velasco, who has two children with the condition.
In addition, these people bring a different perspective to the workplace, which may help with efficiency and creativity as well, he said.
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New Hire With Asperger’s Finds ‘Good Fit’ at Freddie Mac
“They have a very structured nature” and like nonambiguous, precise outcomes, Mr. Velasco said. “We’re looking at those strengths and looking at where those traits would be of value to the organization.”
Autistic employees at SAP take on roles such as identifying software problems, and assigning customer-service queries to members of the team for troubleshooting.
Patrick Brophy, who has Asperger’s, has a degree in multimedia systems, which includes website development. Ciaran Dolan for The Wall Street Journal
One employee works in “talent marketing,” issuing communications to employees internally. The company is looking for someone to produce videos and is considering an applicant with autism who has experience in media arts.
SAP is also considering other positions, such as writing manuals to give clients very precise instructions on how to install software.
Individuals with autism might excel at going step by step, without skipping details that others may miss, said Mr. Velasco. The business procurement process, such as getting invoices or managing the supply chain, is another area in which an individual with autism might shine, he said.
SAP isn’t the only company to have such a program. In the U.S., mortgage lender Freddie Mac FMCC +3.41% has offered career-track internships since 2012, including in IT, finance and research.
The lender hired its first full-time employee from the program in January, according to a Freddie Mac spokeswoman. In IT, the company has found that interns often perform well in testing and data-modeling jobs that require great attention to detail and focus as well as a way of seeing things that might not have been anticipated by the developers.
“Harnessing the unique skills of people on the autism spectrum has the potential to strengthen our business and make us more competitive,” according to the lender’s policy.
To be sure, as with any group, people with autism have a range of interests and abilities. SAP is working with a Danish autism-focused training and consultancy firm, Specialisterne, which carefully screens and interviews the candidates to find the appropriate matches before sending them to SAP to evaluate.
Patrick Brophy, 29 years old, has a bachelor’s degree in computer science in software systems and a master’s in multimedia systems, which includes website development and editing. Mr. Brophy says he has Asperger’s, a term commonly used to describe a milder form of autism spectrum disorder.
He had been looking for full-tine work for a few years but said that in the handful of interviews he went to, he would sometimes stutter or misinterpret questions, which he felt reflected poorly on him in the interviews.
When he arrived at SAP for the screening day, however, he had the technical qualifications and he appeared to have skills to work in a corporate setting, according to Peter Brabazon, Specialisterne program manager. Mr. Brophy was hired by the quality assurance department in July, where he identifies glitches in software prior to it being issued to clients.
“Four weeks before joining, I was steadily more and more nervous,” said Mr. Brophy, who worried about his adjustment to a new environment. “Within a month, [the work] was second nature. I had found myself.”
Mr. Brophy said there have been challenges with his job, particularly when he has to revamp how he does a certain task.
From a social standpoint, he found it easy to integrate into his team, said both Mr. Brophy and David Sweeney, a colleague assigned to be his mentor.
About 1% of the population in the U.S.—or some three million people—is thought to have an autism-spectrum disorder. The latest figures issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that one in 68 children have been identified with an autism-spectrum disorder.
Their lifetime employment rate is extremely low even though many want to work, said disability experts. Among young adults between 21 and 25 years old, only half have ever held a paid job outside the home, according to a study published last year in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Though many people with autism go on to higher education and are qualified for employment, they may have trouble getting in the door of a workplace because of difficulties with networking or interviews, according to Wendy Harbour, executive director of the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, at Syracuse University.
There are a number of companies and outreach efforts that aim to hire people with autism, seeking to tailor work to their abilities.
But SAP and employers like Freddie Mac said their effort is specifically a business decision to take advantage of what they see as unique skill sets.
SAP said that individuals being considered to work there usually have had at least some higher education.
In Dublin, the candidates arrive at the company’s software design center, dubbed the “AppHaus,” which features open spaces, movable desks and whimsical furniture. They are asked to work in pairs on a task building a motorized robot. Candidates are given the instruction manual and brief instructions.
Assessors from Specialisterne look to see if the candidates listen to instructions and pick up on cues, and how they react to challenges such as how the colors of the pieces to the robot look different from the instruction manual. “I want to see how they work together and their technical skills,” said Debbie Merrigan, one of the assessors for Specialisterne.
She wants them to be meticulous, she says. If they aren’t it doesn’t mean they aren’t employable, but they may not be a good fit for working at SAP. Sometimes candidates get overwhelmed and simply leave.
After Specialisterne identifies a candidate as being a good fit, SAP then conducts further interviews, as they would with any other applicant, says Kristen Doran, a program manager in human resources at SAP Dublin. At this facility, 15 candidates were screened and interviewed in order to hire the three who are currently placed as contractors. Mr. Brophy works in the quality assurance department while the other two individuals are in the troubleshooting division.
The candidates are paid market rate and if they succeed on the job, they will be hired as full-time employees after a year, said Liam Ryan, managing director of SAP Labs Ireland.
Difficulties with social interaction and inflexibility can sometimes pose significant problems for individuals with autism, and SAP has a mentoring system and in some cases has made changes to the work schedule to accommodate these new employees. The company also conducts a month of employee-adaptation training to increase employees’ comfort level at working with the team as well as another month or more of job training.
“It’s hard to go into a corporate space if you prefer order to disorder,” says Thorkil Sonne, founder of Specialisterne. “Our biggest effort is to work with them…to define and strengthen their comfort zone,” said Mr. Sonne, who has a son with autism.
Thanks for this piece Bill. I have people who are close to me that suffer from mental health issues, and it is devastating to witness. Unlike an obvious illness or injury (e.g. a broken leg), there is a huge stigma involved and, unless you have experienced it yourself or seen someone else suffering up close, it is really hard to understand or to have empathy. The fact is, many people live with and manage their mental illness, and are very productive and great contributors. They just need to have acceptance and some understanding for when things come unstuck. Thank you for sharing.
Jennifer, I am very similar to yourself. I have a family member who suffers from mental health issues, I agree, it hurts to see them suffer.
Would it be fair to say different societies treat this issue in various ways?
I certainly found this to be more of an issue in the UK than say the States.
But bottom line, most recruiters are not looking to hire front-line staff who admit to the odd bout of depression, unfortunately.
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