Neurodiversity in the workplace: Do we need an awareness day?

For World Autism Awareness Day, we explore neurodiversity in the workplace, education and the value of awareness days in this guest blog by Anne Cockayne, Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Business School.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week takes place every March, followed a couple of weeks later by World Autism Awareness Day. Does this make now a good time to write a blog about neurodiversity?

Well, the answer to that question depends on what you think about the value of themed awareness weeks and days. Looking at the United Nations list there are currently 230 International Days and Weeks. 

I’m a keen gardener, so it’s great to look forward to World Bee Day (20 May), although I did miss this year’s World Seagrass Day (1 March). I’m super happy that International Tea Day is up there too (21 May), perhaps because being a Brit, most of my life and work events centre around a cup of tea!

However, I’m feeling very guilty that I didn’t know that a World Tuna Day (2 May) exists – something I let slip during a phone call with a close friend, as we happened to talk on International Women’s Day (8 March). She paused, just ever so slightly, explaining to me that tuna face extinction and so in her household, tuna isn’t bought or eaten. I had hoped her slight pause was down to a signal delay (she’s in Australia and I’m in the UK), rather than my ignorance, but no, it signified her disbelief that I didn’t know this!

At first sight, it can feel that there’s a day or a week for everybody and everything, diluting the impact of aims to share knowledge and promote learning. The first World Autism Awareness Day was held in 2007, putting autism on the map as a hidden disability and seeking equality in treatment and access to services. In 2025, there is still work to be done in dismantling the barriers that prevent autistic people accessing meaningful employment, being accepted, but much more focus and rightly so, upon celebrating the contributions autistic people make as employees, colleagues, entrepreneurs, employers, parents and partners. 

Neurodiversity in business

The launch of the Neurodiversity in Business Report in October 2024 captures the key issues surrounding neurodiversity in the workplace. Neurodivergence brings distinct strengths that are being used in contemporary workplaces, for example Ernst & Young (EY) targeting autistic characteristics and GCHQ acknowledging dyslexic thinkers can be great codebreakers.

Entrepreneurial flair and design skills are common neurodivergent characteristics that have also attracted recruiters seeking top talent in creative industries. Better diagnosis, media profiling of neurodiversity and young people who are well informed about neurodivergence, combine to make neurodiversity and neurodivergence key words in our understanding of human talent and cognitive abilities.

Awareness: What do you know about autism, neurodivergence and workplaces?

• About 1 in 7 people have one or more neurodivergent conditions, including autism.

• About 1 in 100 people are autistic, although clinicians are starting to recognise that narrow diagnostic labels do not fully reflect the complexity of unique strengths and preferences.

• 45% of line managers surveyed say they lack knowledge about neurodiversity, a major reason why 59% are unsure how to support neurodivergent staff.

• Approx. 7 in 10 neurodivergent people do not disclose their needs for reasonable adjustments.

• Neurodivergent employees fare consistently worse than their neurotypical colleagues in access and enjoying meaningful work and career satisfaction.

• Cognitive, sensory or relationship challenges associated with autism are not understood well, contributing to all of the above.

Back to the question, is this a good time to write this blog?

Do we need awareness days and weeks?

Some people feel awareness days are tokenistic. I suspect any species, like the tuna, facing extinction would vote for lifetime awareness, not a day or a week. Reflecting upon the significance of these awareness days has made me realise that the point is to get people thinking, create learning so they can act more positively. I will definitely be shopping more carefully!

I don’t have a known or a disclosed disability but I am known for my clumsiness and complete inability to distinguish between left and right, so I am possibly neurodivergent. If I was, would I want my friends, family and employers to equate just one day in the year to finding out more about my disability (or my difference?) and my skills? Maybe I would or maybe I wouldn’t, it isn’t a straightforward answer.

What if you are autistic and view your condition as a strength, like Greta Thunberg, who back in 2020 proudly linked being autistic to her resilience in climate campaigning. Or, like the many thousands of advocates who campaign every day and every week for their children to access education that enables them to thrive, for the parents who press for health services that recognise and can handle autistic patients and for the employers who know the power of reasonable adjustments to enable autistic employees to get into work. There’s some great examples in health (Paula McGowan) and in employment (Buckland review).

All these groups will have their own and perhaps different reasons for wanting others to understand autism and neurodivergence.

Final thoughts

On balance, it’s a yes from me for World Autism Awareness Day.

Reflecting on all the awareness training I’ve delivered and the conversations with autistic people and their managers, I’m putting people into the broad camps of those who want to know more about the world around them and those who don’t. For me, change starts with knowledge and following my tuna-related phone call, I’m now a level up: informed and able to act differently should I choose to. And that I guess is the heart of awareness days and weeks – the opportunity to learn something new, to change your own views and to take steps to explore something you may or may not have addressed before.

• Exploring Neurodiversity in the Workplace by Nottingham Business School
• Managing Neurodifferences in the Workplace by Nottingham Business School

References

Acas (2025). Acas publishes new advice to raise awareness of neurodiversity at work. Available at https://www.acas.org.uk/acas-publishes-new-advice-to-raise-awareness-of-neurodiversity-at-work 

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). (2024) The Buckland Review of Autism Employment: report and recommendations. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-buckland-review-of-autism-employment-report-and-recommendations/ 

Doyle, N., McDowall, A., Srinivasan, A. 2024. Neurodiversity in Business and Work Academic Research: the perspective of workers, colleagues and employers. Birkbeck College, University of London. Available at https://www.neurodiversityinbusiness.org/research/nib-and-university-of-birkbeck-research-report-2024/

Moore, C. B., McIntyre, N. H., & Lanivich, S. E. (2019). ADHD-Related Neurodiversity and the Entrepreneurial Mindset. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 45(1), 64-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258719890986 (Original work published 2021) NHS England 2025. Workforce, training and education. Available at https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/learning-disability/current-projects/oliver-mcgowan-mandatory-training-learning-disability-autism. Accessed 01/03/25.

United Nations (2025). List of International Days and Weeks. Available at https://www.un.org/en/observances/list-days-weeks. Accessed 01/03/2025.