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Reasonable Adjustments

Adjustments in the workplace for individuals with ADHD

Background and Legal Position

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 sets out the legal requirement for employers to make reasonable adjustments in the workplace for employees or job applicants who have a disability or long-term health condition. ADHD qualifies for both. It also not uncommon for individuals with ADHD to have co-existing conditions – notably Anxiety and Depression.

Under the Act, a disability is defined as “a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” It includes conditions such as physical disabilities, mental health conditions, learning disabilities, and chronic illnesses.

Employers are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled employees and job applicants are not placed at a disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. In broad terms this can include:

    1. Adjusting the working environment: This could involve making physical changes to the workplace, such as installing wheelchair ramps or adapting workstations to make them accessible for people with mobility difficulties.
    2. Changing work patterns: This could involve altering the hours or location of work to accommodate an employee’s disability.
    3. Providing additional support: This could include providing additional training or supervision to help an employee with a disability perform their job effectively.
    4. Adjusting recruitment processes: This could include allowing job applicants with disabilities to take part in the recruitment process in a different way, such as using a different format for interviews or providing additional time to complete assessments.

The adjustment must be reasonable. What is considered reasonable will depend on various factors, such as the size and resources of the employer, the nature of the work and the adjustment required, and the impact on the business. An employer is not required to make adjustments that would cause undue hardship, which would significantly impact the business’s operation or incur disproportionate costs.

If an employer fails to make reasonable adjustments, an employee may be able to bring a claim for discrimination under the Equality Act.

The ADHD at Work Welfare Pack

We have created a welfare pack to help help managers learn quickly about ADHD to enable them to help their employees. It is designed to educate on what it means to have ADHD in the workplace, and to aid the conversation between an employer and an employee with ADHD, with the aim of increasing mutual understanding and to help identify helpful reasonable accommodations.

This deals with the very important issue of people’s jobs and careers in the workplace, so we must issue a disclaimer that whilst every effort has been made with it, that it is used at your own risk.

The welfare pack is constructed of three sections :

  • An introduction to ADHD from the perspective of the employer. For the conversation to be impactful it is essential that the employer has a good understanding of ADHD.
  • A structured conversation. This aims to ensure a well-rounded, disability-focused conversation between the employer and the person with ADHD. Without structure we’ve found the conversation can often be too short and focused on “problems ” rather than traits.
  •  A short list of ideas for workplace adjustments. Reasonable adjustments that have come out of our own research. We name it “Ideas” so as not to close off any adjustments that might come out of your meeting. A more detailed list is below.

You can download the pack here.

Welfare Pack Front Page

Ideas for Reasonable Adjustments

The almost infinite number of combinations of unique individuals and different work and personal situations means that no list of ideas for recommendations can be exhaustive or should be taken as containing every option. In many situations the best solution comes from a discussion between the individual with ADHD and the relevant inividual(s) in their company. To help with that discussion we outline a number of ideas below.

Issue
Open Plan Office: An ADHD person can find the noise and distraction of an open plan office impossible to effectively work in.
Open Plan Office: An ADHD person can find the noise and distraction of an open plan office impossible to effectively work in.
Open Plan Office: An ADHD person can find the noise and distraction of an open plan office impossible to effectively work in.
Open Plan Office: An ADHD person can find the noise and distraction of an open plan office impossible to effectively work in.
Hot Desking: An ADHD person’s entire workday can be defined by their desk position. Not knowing where they can sit, whether they can work that day, can be a source of significant anxiety. Getting the “best desks” can also be inadvertently discriminatory by over rewarding those able to come in earlier (for instance those with childcare obligations don’t have this option).
Hot Desking: An ADHD person’s entire workday can be defined by their desk position. Not knowing where they can sit, whether they can work that day, can be a source of significant anxiety. Getting the “best desks” can also be inadvertently discriminatory by over rewarding those able to come in earlier (for instance those with childcare obligations don’t have this option).
Hot Desking: An ADHD person’s entire workday can be defined by their desk position. Not knowing where they can sit, whether they can work that day, can be a source of significant anxiety. Getting the “best desks” can also be inadvertently discriminatory by over rewarding those able to come in earlier (for instance those with childcare obligations don’t have this option).
Hot Desking: An ADHD person’s entire workday can be defined by their desk position. Not knowing where they can sit, whether they can work that day, can be a source of significant anxiety. Getting the “best desks” can also be inadvertently discriminatory by over rewarding those able to come in earlier (for instance those with childcare obligations don’t have this option).
Noise (including from colleagues): An ADHD person can find noise distracting to make it impossible to focus.
Noise (including from colleagues): An ADHD person can find noise distracting to make it impossible to focus.
Arrival Timeliness.
Arrival Timeliness.
Arrival Timeliness.
Meeting Timeliness.
Meeting Timeliness.
Meeting Timeliness.
Project Deadlines / Time blindness.
Project Deadlines / Time blindness.
Project Deadlines / Time blindness.
Project Deadlines / Time blindness.
Project Deadlines / Time blindness.
Unscheduled Disturbances from Others.
Unscheduled Disturbances from Others.
Unscheduled Disturbances from Others.
Unscheduled Disturbances from Others.
Perceived stigma of needing adjustments.
Perceived stigma of needing adjustments.
Colleagues undermining, or not accommodating, adjustments.
Colleagues undermining, or not accommodating, adjustments.
Using Positive ADHD traits.
Using Positive ADHD traits.
Using Positive ADHD traits.
Providing ADHD Coaching.
Potential Adjustment(s):
~ Provision of a quiet office with a door that can be closed.
~ Locating in a smaller room with less people
~ Locating away from distractions (E.g. away from corridors, high use areas, meeting tables or rooms, TV screens).
~ Working from home more.
Answers are similar to open plan office but also include:
~ Reserved permanent desk.
~ Allow desks to be booked.
~ Reserved quiet area. This area needs to be adequate enough to always have capacity, to have the lack of disturbance enforced, and provide a way for the ADHD person to be able to make noise if needed, e.g. phone calls).
~ Relocating to somewhere quieter.
~ Noise cancelling headphones (although some report these don’t help enough to stop the distraction).
Start with a discussion to determine if timeliness is critical to the role.
If not: flexible arrival time could be considered, and flexible hours across the week (for instance a longer day compensating for some missed start times), or agree on set tasks that must be completed and allow staff to manage their time accordingly.
If timeliness critical then: discussing ways to make it less critical, including different scheduling, or a partner system.
~ Looking at calendar management and electronic tools.
~ Looking at dedicated reminder systems.
~ Where timeliness is essential building detailed strategies with thought to ADHD traits.
~ Looking at the best number of management check-ins. More may be helpful to ensure individual is on track.
~ Looking at software project management solutions.
~ Looking at increasing clarity on requirements to ensure more efficiency on the work done.
~ Looking at being able to block out significant chunks of time to provide opportunities to hyperfocus.
~ Reducing number of less necessary meetings.
~ Looking to block out time with no disturbances.
~ Look to block out time that allows drop ins.
~ Looking at calendar booking options to force people to book in instead of dropping in.
Enabling and OKing the turning off of reminders and phones
~ Workplace talks to increase understanding and empathy.
~ In larger organisations anonymous surveys can indicate how many more people within the organisation have disabilities but haven’t declared them for fear of discrimination.
~ The issue of “Neurotypical familiarity breeding contempt for ADHD traits” can be significant. ADHD is a disability and no organisation wants to see employees partake in disability discrimination. Workplace education is likely key.
~ HR anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies should be robust and ideally should refer to neurodiversity.
Reviewing the role and/or the organisation to see how positive ADHD traits could be utilised.
~ Opportunities for creative solutions.
~ Opportunities for deep dive research using hyperfocusing.
Coaching allows employees to build their own collection of strategies for success in their workplace for the benefit of themselves and their organisation. Coaching costs are commonly funded by the Access to Work Scheme.

Access to Work

The Access to Work government grant scheme offers the potential for substantial financial assistance where the costs of adjustments fall outside the reasonable costs of the employer. You can learn more about the grant here.