About 1% of the global population suffer from autistic spectrum disorders. Autism is a developmental mental disability, the typical manifestations of which include social alienation, constantly repeating patterns of behaviour and impaired communication skills.
"Because we want to attract the best talent in our industry, Autism at Work was designed to hire skilled colleagues “in spite of autism and because of autism,” bringing different and more diverse perspectives to our creative process," wrote Sarah Loucks, who manages the programme on the global level, at ERE.net.
Loucks adds that thanks to employing autistic people, the company has acquired specific skills typical of people with this disability. These include the visual style of learning, recognition of patterns in certain activities or behaviours, a strong focus on detail, or the ability to find deviations in data, information, and systems. Autistic employees are very conscientious, they don't tolerate mistakes, and work well in predictable and structured environments based on following processes. That is why they are a great asset to the company.
Perspective for the next years
About 150 autistic people at 24 locations in 12 countries are currently working for SAP, the world's leading provider of enterprise information systems. They work primarily in HR, Marketing, Finance, Software Development and Customer Services. Their work is quite diverse, ranging from supporting activities to a more demanding and creative work such as programming.
Each year, SAP celebrates April as Autism Awareness Month, organising various events and activities to refute the existing stereotypes associated with autism.
Within the next five years, some other goals have been set, but these may change in order for autistic people really to feel their authentic selves at work and obtain appropriate recognition for their contribution. SAP plans to employ up to 650 autistic colleagues.
"With our mission statement in mind — to help the world run better and improve people’s lives — we want to create a sustainable programme that challenges assumptions, sparks innovation, and drives change by embracing neurodiversity," Loucks summarised for ERE.net.
Here is a video presenting the Autism at Work programme at the Czech branch of SAP.
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