Success in the Workplace: Strategies from Autistic Employees is a user-friendly toolkit to help employers and HR professionals meet the needs of autistic employees while still meeting the business needs of the organization or company they represent. The ultimate goal is to increase the odds of successful and sustained employment for autistic adults.
The Employer Toolkit was authored by an Autistic self-advocate, and development of the full resource involved extensive engagement with autistic employees, employers and human resources professionals across Canada.
You can view the toolkit in sections by accessing the accordian menu below. The individual PDF’s in each section below are universally accessible. If you do not already have screen reader software, you can access NVDA screen reader software from the NV Access website. As you are using the tools, if a link does not work or you notice an error, please send a quick email to info@worktopia.ca and we will make an update.
A printable PDF of the entire Toolkit is also available for download.
Success in the Workplace Employer Toolkit: Strategies from Autistic Employees is designed to be an easy to read, user-friendly toolkit to help employers and HR professionals meet the needs of autistic employees while still meeting the business needs of the organization or company they represent. The ultimate goal is to increase the odds of successful and sustained employment for autistic adults.
The Autistic Workers Survey, developed in collaboration with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration in Autism, gathered input directly from autistic people about what they feel makes an inclusive, welcoming and supportive work environment. The goal is to contribute insights that support successful and sustained employment for autistic adults. This resource provides a high-level summary of what we learned from the Autistic Workers Survey.
The Inclusive Employer Survey asked companies to share what they are and are not doing to create autism inclusive workplaces. The ultimate goal is to increase the odds of successful and sustained employment for autistic adults. This resource provides a high-level summary of preliminary results from the Inclusive Employer Survey.
Responses from autistic workers and inclusive employer surveys are supporting the development of tools and the identification of resources that specifically meet the needs of autistic adults and the businesses that hire them. This resource summarizes opportunities for autism employment support networks (i.e. employment agencies, human resource managers, etc.).
This section provides an overview of what an inclusive workforce is and why shifting from awareness to acceptance is important for inclusion.
This resource provides an introduction to neurodiversity and a definition of autism from the perspective of the autistic author. Additionally, autism and neurodiversity in the workplace is discussed.
This section provides high-level information about adjustments for autistic workers. Specific worksheets related to adjustments are in Sections 11 and 13 of the Toolkit.
This section provides a high-level overview of how to incorporate autism inclusive practices throughout the employee life cycle. Autism specific strategies for each phase of the employee life cycle make up the next six sections of the toolkit.
Specific strategies on how to attract autistic employees.
Specific strategies on how to recruit autistic employees.
Specific strategies on how to onboard autistic employees.
Specific strategies to support learning and development of autistic employees.
Specific strategies to support retention of autistic employees.
Specific strategies for when an autistic employee leaves an organization.
The author hopes that the tools in Success in the Workplace: Strategies from Autistic Employees will help empower employers to advance employment and career opportunities for autistic individuals.