Dealing with Aspergers Employees: What Employers Need to Know

Your new Aspergers employee has the skills you were looking for and is dedicated to doing the job well. The challenging part for an individual with Aspergers is the less structured, more social aspects of office culture. Small talk, picking up what others are thinking, and being imaginative about solving problems are challenging for individuals with Aspergers. Following are seven straightforward tips to help them thrive:

1. Be open to someone who may be a support person in the personal life of your Aspergers employee with Aspergers. Some moms and dads stay involved a little longer in the life of their adult child, as an advocate in the background. Until your Aspergers employee initiates the conversation about bringing in his advocate, remember to build trust through messages that convey you value his work. Some young people with Aspergers want to do it on their own while others would welcome their support person to coach or help them get independent with some of the more interpersonal aspects of being on the job.

2. Be precise and specific with your instructions. Slang and expressions of speech may not translate to what you want to communicate. Details and examples help. "This is how it should look when it is done."

3. Don’t let the diagnosis ‘aspergers’ or 'autism' be a defining characteristic of your Aspergers employee; it is one aspect of who this person is. The diagnosis becomes important for you to know when it helps you to help your Aspergers employee shine on the job.

4. Encourage co-workers to have a collaborative office culture when it comes to helping out each other. Your Aspergers employee will have strengths that will be an asset to your team. Helping others in the office by lending a hand with one’s own talents helps him connect socially with office mates.

5. Encourage your Aspergers employee to come up with some process strategies for doing his job. For example, he might work well by recording tasks on a template he creates with visuals, spacing or organization that makes good sense to him.

6. Help her relax about asking for help on the job. Disability acts encourage individuals to discuss the modifications they need in the work place. However, there is often hesitation because of the fear that disclosure will be a stigma or put the job in jeopardy. You want to be receptive, should your Aspergers employee want to ask for an accommodation that will help her work better.

7. Try to give a personal heads up if there is a schedule or routine type change that he may not pick up on automatically. An individual with Aspergers will need some extra cueing at times. Keep the focus on the gifts, which brought this person to your work place and motivated you to hire him or her!

Practical Tips to Help Your Aspergers Employee Get Established in Your Office

You have just hired someone who has Aspergers, or perhaps you suspect so, and indeed he or she has very strong skills to match the job description. It is likely that you will be very pleased because individuals with Aspergers tend to have strong focus and commitment to a job well done.

To set up for office place success, you will find it pays off to invest in some training time, early on in some of those skills unrelated to the primary job, but fundamentally important to navigating the day at the office.

Here are seven straightforward strategies to help your new Aspergers employee prosper and produce for your business:

1. Be prepared to give your input with some of the smaller steps you may not typically think of stating. Gradually transfer responsibility and accountability to your Aspergers employee, withdrawing your level of involvement as you see him catching on to the rhythms of your office place.

2. Be very specific about what you expect in general office matters. Help her to know where more and less flexibility is in order and appropriate in the daily flow of the work place. What routines must be done one way only? Observe, make notes and plan for periodic feedback time.

3. Create a ‘cheat sheet’ for phone coverage. If want your Aspergers employee to pinch hit on the phones, have a few generic phrases that work for your workplace, for example, “Can I have someone get back to you with that information?”

4. Don’t be afraid to be blunt. It will be helpful. There is a distinction between ‘blunt’ and ‘rude.’ He will appreciate and understand directness and clarity. If you are finding yourself repeating requests, you can say, “What plan can we come up with to help you establish routines that I have been reminding you about?”

5. Have a set routine for evaluation and feedback sessions. Start the meeting by talking about the qualities you see in your new Aspergers employee. “Here’s where your work is very well done.” Be sensitive to feelings of past failure with social and organizational issues. Your Aspergers employee is probably quite familiar with his weaknesses, having heard about them and struggled with them in some other past setting. You can say “ Here’s where we will work together:”

6. Help her become comfortable with the social culture of your workplace. Individuals with Aspergers tend to want to stay focused on tasks they enjoy. Being specific about when to go for breaks and lunch will be a guide for opportunities to personally connect with co-workers.

7. Logical lists. As you see a routine or task that requires daily attention, log it on a list. Explaining the purpose behind the task may help it to become automatic. Individuals with Aspergers like to make sense out of things.

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