Removing the barriers for an inclusive workforce

Ian Chapman, Practice Director for the Rail Systems & Infrastructure practice at Atkins, says different perspectives coming together make incredible things happen

Throughout his 25-year career in rail, Ian Chapman has valued and championed the benefits of an inclusive workplace and balanced teams.

The effort of the Leader of the Rail Control Systems Practice in Atkins’ Rail Consulting Business – particularly around the awareness of neurodiverse conditions – is widening the resource pool and bridging the rail industry’s skills gap while helping current employees thrive.

The passion stems from Ian’s own experiences as the father of three children with neurodiverse conditions. His eldest son is autistic, his middle son severely dyslexic and his youngest son has a neurological development disorder.

Having led changes at Atkins, Ian is urging all organisations to harness and nurture the positive attributes associated with neurodiverse conditions, including creativity, hyperfocus, outside-the-box thinking and the development of highly specialised skills.

Removing barriers “Simple changes can make a big difference and I’m passionate to take away blockers and remove barriers to get the best out of workers and to attract the best people to our industry,” said Ian, who is Co-Chair of Atkins’ Neurodiversity Network and part of the Atkins Transportation Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

“There is a personal interest when it comes to neurodiverse conditions and I am keen to raise awareness to ensure working environments in which my three sons will be able to thrive.

“But my passion goes beyond that, as having a community of diverse thought and different perspectives leads to incredible things happening. To make sure that happens it is vital there is a recruitment process and working environment in which everyone feels comfortable.”

The engineering, design and project management consultancy – a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group – aims to weave equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) into everything it does. Twelve staff networks – including Equilibrium, ENABLE, ParentNet, and Empower – ensure it is embedded in its culture and everyone has a voice.

Ian co-chairs the Neurodiversity Network, which represents individuals with ‘spectrum’ conditions including autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) among others.

He said: “The chances are that we sit next to, work with, work for, manage or have family members at home who are neurodiverse. Our Neurodiversity Network, which currently has more than 300 members, brings awareness, support and a chance to normalise conversations around the topic. It also helps staff recognise traits in themselves.

“My three kids have helped me in understanding the issues and solutions. Before my eldest was diagnosed it was quite a tough time and very hard to understand what was going on.

“But having had that training with the National Autistic Society was excellent and all of a sudden a light bulb went on and things with him just changed overnight.

Tools and techniques “We used to have meltdowns and really difficult times and now we have a 17-year-old who is a really pleasant lad, getting on really well at school and for the most part you wouldn’t tell he is autistic at all. We’ve done an awful lot over the years to give him the tools and techniques and what I’ve learned can be translated to the workplace and be shared with other organisations.”

My three kids have helped me in understanding the issues and solutions

Asset Management Specialists

Raising awareness of neurodiversity and encouraging open conversations, Ian has led the way in empowering employees and educating staff. He has been instrumental in designing and implementing the company’s Neurodiversity Network action plan and Terms of Reference, which include:

Employees contributing to the Discover Autism Research and Employment (DARE) survey;

Creating a communications plan which includes team brief cascades, launching a neurodiversity Yammer page, producing an awareness pack for employees and orchestrating an events schedule including joint events with clients and partners;

Engaging allies;

Workplace adjustments;

Training;

Mentoring.

The initiatives include desk booking for workers who want familiarity of the same desk space in a quiet area. Ian is also working with HR on a complete overhaul of policies to ensure inclusivity. This includes making sure documents aren’t just pages and pages of words but are accessible and can be read via an automatic reader or through PowerPoint slides.

Ian, who was recently shortlisted in the Women in Rail’s Inspirational Man of the Year Award in recognition of his efforts, said: “It is about having a culture that celebrates different minds and is always open to being challenged and doing better. We are committed to supporting our people and potential employees who are or may become disabled or may need a reasonable adjustment to address a challenge or difficulty at work.

Good work environment “As an engineering company, we are likely to have quite a high prevalence of people with neurodiverse conditions– possibly as high as 25 or 26 per cent – so it is vital we ensure we do what we can to reduce anxiety, take away some of the things that trigger issues, and provide the tools for everyone to thrive.

“If we can make it a nice place to work with less anxiety, then we’re going to get more out of people, they are going to want to stay and in a constrained market – where everyone is screaming out for people at the moment – it is a really good way of attracting people to come and join Atkins.

“The second side is a bit of a selfish thing that I want the best for my kids. I want them to be able to work for companies that are much more proactive, so I’ve done quite a lot of work about talking to organisations like Network Rail and different companies about the stuff we are doing.

“It is not a closed shop and I want to spread what we are doing at Atkins and what I’ve learned as wide as possible. There are some really simple things that companies can do to help raise awareness and some changes you can make that will help everybody.”

The work from Ian and the team goes beyond just support for current employees. Atkins’ recruitment process has also been reviewed to be more inclusive and ensure neurodiverse talent is not unintentionally excluded and this is being built into the upcoming update of its recruitment system.

Inclusive recruitment The company guarantees interviews for anyone who identifies as disabled and meets the minimum criteria for the role and provides photographic/ visual information for everyone invited to an interview to help process, and become familiar with, the environment in advance.

Atkins also tailors interview questions and the interviewer approach to accommodate neurodiverse capabilities.

“We are working hard on ensuring our recruitment processes are more inclusive so simple things like when you have your interview set up we are sending photographic directions to the site, here’s a map, here’s a photograph from outside the building, here’s a photograph of the reception etc,” Ian said.

If we can make it a nice place to work with less anxiety, then we’re going to get more out of people

“There’s also guidance for our managers to make sure when you have the meeting room set up it is a quiet space. We’re also changing the way we ask questions as well. A common confidence-based question, ‘can you tell me about a time when you’ve had a difficult problem to solve, what did you do and how did it turn out?’, is three questions in one and some people can find it hard to answer, which can lead to them ‘shutting down’ in the interview, so it is essential that the question is broken down.

Unconscious bias “We’d like to get to the stage in which we are sending these questions out in advance so people have got time to process, and in an ideal, long-term future maybe even move away from doing interviews.

“We are setting our vision on whether we can do written responses, and getting away from that face to face thing. It might never happen, but it is something we are investigating.

“There is that whole unconscious bias with someone who is ADHD or autistic where they are not making eye contact and creating a rapport with that person, but they might be superb at doing the job with good technical skills and hyperfocus on problems. They could be really into it and we’re losing all that value just because of how they come across in an interview.”

Leading numerous initiatives, Ian has also been involved in creating and sharing information, offering suggestions for workplace adjustments and recommendations on maintaining social interactions for neurodiverse employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Training and mentoring He also shares his experiences of the challenging processes he’s had to go through to ensure his sons have the correct education, health and care to help other parents in similar situations.

The campaign is ongoing for Ian, and alongside the focus on recruitment, he is also working on creating more support tools and training for managers, creating unconscious bias training and mentoring processes and working with facilities and estates teams to consider office adjustments to enable all employees to be more productive and reduce associated anxiety.

“I want all colleagues to become more productive, mental health to improve, and the company to become recognised as an attractive employer,” he said.

“But not just Atkins, I want other companies in the rail industry to follow what we are doing and for the whole industry to be inclusive, championing balanced teams and challenging unconscious bias.

Wider spectrum “Simple changes can make a big difference and if you’re not getting the best out of your people and you’re not attracting the best people in the market you need to adopt some of these practices.

“The thing about neurodiversity is that it is a spectrum across many different areas and you can’t generalise. We all need to look at the areas in which we can do better and create environments that help our current workforce thrive, while at the same time inspiring the next generation to want to work in the rail industry.”

Visit https://careers.snclavalin.com/ equality-diversity-and-inclusion-ukeurope for more details about equality, diversity and inclusion at Atkins.

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