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Specialisterne Ireland has over a decade of experience in providing specialised employment support and services to neurodivergent individuals, which in turn directly benefits business, workforce productivity and ensures an employee feels supported in their role. Our services centre around the retention and development of your workforce.
Neurodivergent people often have unique and valuable skills, talents and perspectives to enrich your team and your workforce. We understand that questions can still arise about how well-suited a candidate may be to the working environment, and how appropriate your working processes are for them. The services we provide will help guide your organisation towards a meaningful shift in culture, and empower you to support neurodivergent employees by maximising their talents and managing their challenges in a mutually beneficial way.
At Specialisterne Ireland, we have neurodivergent trainers and mentors. This lived experience provides a training environment that encourages participation, and open and honest communication.
To ensure the highest quality, our training is grounded in current research and shaped by direct input from neurodivergent candidates, reflecting the real insights and priorities they believe employers need to understand.
Our goal is a long-term vision where the right candidate is matched to the right role and then supported within that role. We provide that ongoing support. We have the experience to coach and problem-solve any challenges that arise: you are not expected to have all the answers. We bring this expertise with us.
We know from over ten years of experience in neurodiverse recruitment that onboarding is just one step on the journey to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. The candidates we support in our partner companies have longer retention rates and are afforded the opportunity to develop and thrive. Our model allows managers and employees to see the supports available and the successful hires, building trust and confidence.
What are the steps?
We will meet with you to understand your company, your needs and importantly any anxieties you may have. Open and honest conversations are the cornerstone of diverse hiring.
What open roles do you have? Together we can discuss and guide you to identify a role, or roles, that would potentially be a good match for a neurodivergent candidate.
If we have a match, we will provide CVs for you to consider. This is not a tokenistic hire: our candidate must be a good match for your business needs.
We will brief and coach your hiring manager on how to make accommodations to the interview process to ensure a positive experience is had by both the manager and the interviewee.
If the candidate is successful at interview, we can discuss hiring options and types of contracts that suit your business. We will assess the work environment, discuss accommodations where needed and brief the manager. We are there to guide you through each and every step of the process.
This is often when a manager and a new hire really need guidance and support. While other recruitment companies usually step away at this point, this is where our expertise comes into play. We provide an ongoing support service whereby we connect regularly with the new hire and hiring manager. These meetings build trust and enable the hire and their manager to be open with us about any challenges that might arise, preventing small issues potentially becoming bigger and allowing both parties to get on with the job at hand.
Our tailored training services can be delivered via video conference or in person, to a large cohort or a small defined group. All of our training is created using interviews and study circles with neurodivergent individuals, ensuring our content reflects lived experience. In addition, we provide trainers who are neurodivergent and can talk about their own challenges, creating an opportunity for open and honest discussion.
We all learn in different ways, and to accommodate this we provide a resource pack to all participants after the session. Participants are also provided with trainer contact details and are encouraged to reach out for a follow-up call if they wish to discuss their personal circumstances in a more confidential and discreet way.
We currently offer the following training options:
A one-hour online session for all employees, which covers:
A two-hour online session for managers, which covers:
A 30 to 40-minute online session for HR and/or line managers.
This training session covers providing reasonable accommodations in an interview. It provides support to any person carrying out an interview with a neurodivergent candidate. The goal is to foster a positive interview experience for all, regardless of the hiring outcome.
An in-person or online workshop with a focus on providing specialist support and knowledge to HR teams.
An in-person or online training providing guidance on inclusive hiring processes, plus additional preparation work from us. This includes a review of your:
We can help you design or update your HR materials in an online, back and forth process. This includes:
Our pop-ups are an opportunity for your staff to meet with Specialisterne, either on-site or online, and discuss any concerns, get advice on next steps or seek out supports. It is an opportunity to show your organisation’s investment in a culture of openness and support. Disclosures require employees to feel safe and to know there is a benefit in sharing their disability.
We can come to your premises to meet with your staff in person. We would advise informing staff via internal communications that they can either drop by or make an appointment for a 1:1 chat with a member of our team.
A pop-up can also take place virtually, whereby we allocate a time block for your staff to make an online Teams appointment with Specialisterne.
Leading a truly neurodiverse team requires planning and training, both of which we provide. Over our years of experience we have seen a strong growth in the demand for individual coaching for managers and employees. In response to this we now provide coaching sessions for both.
Our Executive Coaching involves professional and personal development of managers. Our coaches provide a safe and structured environment in which to support managers to explore their skills and their leadership style. The coach also helps the leader to understand how they are perceived by others, and to focus on identifying and clarifying current goals as well as the appropriate action steps to reach those goals.
Our Employee coaching sessions are informed by our years of working directly with neurodivergent people, supporting them to achieve their goals and to thrive, not just survive, in the workplace.
Importantly, all our Facilitators have a Diploma in Life Coaching and extensive experience in working with individuals who are neurodivergent.
This assessment can identify reasonable adjustments that can be implemented to support a neurodivergent employee who is experiencing challenges in their role.
Examples of reasonable adjustments may include adaptations to the working environment, assistive technology provision, communication style changes or awareness training.
What does the assessment involve?
It is carried out by an experienced assessor. It involves a meeting with the employee to discuss any challenges they may be experiencing at work and explore their work environment, specific work tasks and current coping strategies.
A meeting is also held with the manager to discuss challenges and provide neurodiversity awareness information. The manager will be provided with a comprehensive report detailing our recommendations.
We offer a package where in-work support by a Specialisterne Ireland employee is provided for a year.
This involves regular check-ins every 2 weeks or as needed over phone or via video call. These check-ins are supplemented by regular connections with managers to ensure that lines of communication stay open between manager and employee.
Mentors are managers that are willing to share some of their learning and lived experience with our neurodivergent candidates. We have had amazing feedback from both mentors and mentees involved in our programmes.
Benefits for mentors include the opportunity to learn and enhance their leadership skills while learning about the strengths, skills and talents offered by neurodivergent individuals.
Benefits for mentees will include gaining valuable advice to enable them to reach their goals and/or build relevant skills for their area of interest.
This is a short programme with a limited number of sessions, incorporating pre-programme mentor coaching and follow-up joint mentor sessions for managers, to allow for peer learning.
If you want to find out how diverse hiring practices can strengthen your workforce, we can help. To become one of our trusted partners contact us by email and we will arrange a call to see how we can work with you.
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