Neuroinclusion has moved firmly onto the business agenda. In 2024, 60% of employers said it was a focus for their organisation, while more than 4,350 organisations took part in Neurodiversity Celebration Week. Indeed’s subsequent analysis, published in February 2025, found that mentions of neurodiversity in UK job postings had nearly quadrupled since 2018. (CIPD, 2024; Neurodiversity Celebration Week, 2024; Indeed Hiring Lab, 2025.)
Awareness is certainly growing and more employers are recognising the importance of neurodiversity at work. But recognising the value of neurodivergent talent is only the first step. The real challenge is creating workplaces where people can truly work to their best.
For Cambridge, this matters. The region’s reputation for innovation, research and entrepreneurial thinking is built on people who challenge convention, solve complex problems and bring new ideas to life. Across technology, life sciences, universities and professional services, organisations depend on people thinking differently.
So, are workplaces keeping pace? Are they creating the conditions for people with different ways of thinking to do their best work?
Neurodivergent people, including those with ADHD, autism and dyslexia, bring a diverse range of skills, perspectives and experiences. However, their ability to contribute fully can be affected by workplace practices that do not take account of different needs and working styles.
For Cambridge organisations looking to attract and retain talent, build high-performing teams and encourage innovation, supporting neurodivergent employees is more than an inclusion initiative. It is an opportunity to rethink how work gets done, equip managers to support their teams and create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to reach their potential.
The gap between attracting talent and enabling them to work to their best
Recruiting talented people is only part of the challenge. Organisations also need to create the conditions in which employees can develop, contribute and sustain their performance over time.
Traditional workplace practices often assume that everyone processes information, communicates, organises their workload and responds to their environment in similar ways. In reality, people have different cognitive strengths and different support needs.
For a neurodivergent employee, an unclear brief, frequent interruptions, an unpredictable workload or a meeting-heavy diary might create barriers that have little to do with their ability to perform the role itself.
These barriers can be particularly difficult to identify because they are not always visible. An employee may be meeting expectations while using considerable additional effort to navigate systems and processes that do not work well for them.
The result is a missed opportunity. When organisations focus solely on whether someone is meeting expectations, they can overlook the workplace conditions affecting their performance, confidence and longer-term development.
The question should not simply be whether an employee can do the job. It should also be whether the workplace enables them to do it well.
Moving beyond awareness to practical inclusion
Awareness is really important starting point. Understanding neurodiversity can help challenge misconceptions, encourage more open conversations and enable colleagues to recognise that there is no single way to think, learn or work effectively. But awareness alone does not change the day-to-day experience of work. Our latest Insights Panel explored this and brought together People & Culture professionals, People Managers and Individuals with a lived-experience.
Practical inclusion requires organisations to look at how work actually happens. Are expectations clear? Can employees access information in a format that works for them? Are managers equipped to have constructive conversations about support? Are workplace adjustments implemented effectively, and do they continue to meet an employee’s needs as their role changes - something which often gets overlooked?
These questions shift neuroinclusion from an abstract commitment to something organisations can put into practice.
They also help move away from a model in which employees must repeatedly explain their difficulties or find individual workarounds. Instead, organisations can take a more proactive approach: understanding the person, identifying barriers and finding workable solutions together.
This does not mean creating an entirely different workplace for every individual. Often, small changes to communication, task planning, meeting structures or working environments can make a meaningful difference. Many of these changes can benefit colleagues more broadly, too.
The key is to avoid assumptions. Effective support should be based on understanding the individual and the demands of their role, rather than applying the same solution to everyone.
The managers role
For many employees, their manager has the greatest influence on their everyday experience of work.
A supportive manager can help someone clarify priorities, break down complex tasks, agree realistic expectations and discuss adjustments without judgement. They can also recognise that a person’s strengths and challenges may not always be immediately apparent.
However, managers should not be expected to become neurodiversity specialists overnight. They need the knowledge, confidence and organisational support to respond appropriately when an employee needs help - they need to be able to create the psychologically safe spaces for these inclusive dialogues to take place in the first instance.
That means providing practical awareness training , clear processes for accessing specialist support and a culture in which conversations about working preferences and adjustments are welcomed.
It also means recognising that responsibility cannot sit with individual managers alone. HR teams, occupational health, senior leaders and specialist providers all have a role to play in ensuring that support is accessible, consistent and appropriate.
When these elements work together, inclusion becomes part of how an organisation operates rather than an additional task for an already busy manager.
Building a more joined-up approach to neuroinclusion
For organisations with growing or geographically dispersed workforces, delivering consistent support can be particularly challenging. Employees may have different needs, managers may have varying levels of experience, and recommendations can be difficult to translate into action without clear ownership.
A more joined-up approach connects the different stages of support: understanding an employee’s needs, identifying appropriate adjustments, putting those adjustments in place and providing ongoing support where necessary.
It also recognises that needs can change. A new role, a change in responsibilities or a different working environment may mean that arrangements that once worked well need to be reviewed.
This is where specialist expertise can help organisations move from good intentions to sustainable practice.
At neurobox, we have spent almost a decade supporting neurodivergent employees and the organisations they work for. Based in Cambridge, we work with organisations to develop practical, person-centred approaches to workplace neuroinclusion.
Through our neuroNavigation approach, we bring together the different elements of workplace support, from assessment and adjustments to coaching, assistive technology and manager awareness training. The aim is to help organisations understand what their people need and create the conditions for them to work effectively.
For employers, this means looking beyond individual interventions to consider how support fits into the wider employee experience.
An opportunity for Cambridge employers
Cambridge’s strength lies in its ability to bring together people with different expertise, perspectives and ways of solving problems. Creating workplaces where neurodivergent employees can contribute fully is an important part of making the most of that talent.
There is no single intervention that will make an organisation neuroinclusive. Progress comes from understanding people’s needs, equipping managers to support them and embedding practical approaches into everyday working life.
For employers, a useful starting point is to ask three questions:
- Where might our current ways of working create unnecessary barriers?
- Do our managers feel equipped to have conversations about neurodiversity and workplace support?
- Can employees access the right support easily, and are we confident that it is making a difference?
The answers can help organisations identify where small changes could have a significant impact and where a more structured approach is needed.
Supporting neurodivergent employees is not about lowering expectations or asking people to fit a particular model of work. It is about recognising that people can reach their potential in different ways, and making sure workplace practices allow them to do so.
For Cambridge organisations looking to build resilient teams, retain valuable expertise and create environments where people can do their best work, that is an opportunity worth taking seriously.
Find out more about how neurobox supports organisations to build more inclusive workplaces at neurobox.co.uk.