Neurodiversity has been in the spotlight over recent years, with society becoming more aware, accepting and understanding of the needs of others. As a result, many firms now include neurodiversity within their DEI strategies, and even actively promote their neurodiversity initiatives. But when it comes to actually speaking about the topic outside the bounds of press releases and pre-approved statements, Global Trading has discovered an industry-wide reluctance to engage.

Neurodiversity is a sensitive subject. A 2024 study from The Diversity Project found that 57% of those polled, employees within the investment and savings industry, had disclosed their neurodiversity to their employer. It’s not necessarily a low figure, but as co-chair of The Diversity Project’s neurodiversity workstream Tim Edmans points out, “you have to consider the kind of people who are completing the survey. There’s a sample bias here”. In reality, the figure is likely far lower; stigma around neurodiversity remains prevalent.

Among those who disclosed, the majority (two thirds) reported a supportive response from their employer – demonstrative of the progress the industry, and society has made. An additional 10%, however, stated that they received an “unhelpful response” from their employers, and a quarter recalled a neutral response – arguably also unhelpful.

Among those who chose not to disclose their neurodiversity, reasons included concerns that it would limit their job prospects and fears that responses from colleagues would be less than desirable. It’s no surprise, given the fact that 55% of survey participants said that their neurodiversity had caused difficulties around finding work earlier in their careers.

What is neurodiversity?

Neurodiversity is a concept used to understand the different ways that people cognitively process, experience and interact with the world around them. It aims to take a positive approach to the neurological differences between individuals, rather than seeing divergence from the norm as a deficit.

Depending on which figures you follow, between 15 and 30% of the population are estimated to be neurodivergent. This isn’t a fringe issue, and it’s something that affects people, directly or indirectly, more than the majority may assume.

Although generally associated with autism, ADHD and learning difficulties like dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, the term ‘neurodiverse’ covers a wide remit and has permeable borders; OCD and bipolar disorder also often fit under the umbrella. In addition to some mental health conditions also being categorised as neurodivergence, neurodiverse individuals are often more likely to deal with conditions such as anxiety and depression, issues likely worsened by a lack of understanding from those around them and the requirement to work in environments that are actively hostile to their needs.

Duncan Higgins, CEO of Sustainable Trading, told Global Trading that early results from the firm’s Workplace Experience Survey have included feedback that employees’ neurodiversity has affected their experience in the trading industry. It’s not that nothing is being done to support neurodiverse individuals in trading, but clearly there’s a long way to go before people are fully comfortable to be their ‘true selves’ in the workplace. And while a majority of firms include neurodiversity in their DEI policies, Vic Mazonas, general manager of the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity (GAIN), points out that, “an individual’s experience of a company comes not from the policies on paper, but how they’re applied”.

Many firms are vocal about their work to be actively neuroinclusive in the workplace, promoting their provisions across websites, social media and conference panels. JP Morgan’s Office for Disability states its intention to “lead strategy and initiatives aimed at driving an inclusive workplace while helping the firm aspire to be a bank of choice for people with disabilities”, and runs the ‘Autism at Work’ programme to support autistic employees across nine countries – although the focus here is on technology-oriented roles rather than the trading floor.

Goldman Sachs made headlines when it launched its Neurodiversity Hiring Initiative in 2019. The programme offers a 10-week paid internship for neurodiverse individuals, developed in partnership with Specialisterne – a non-profit organisation working to integrate neurodiverse people into the workplace. The programme offers training and mentorship, with the goal of preparing participants for long-term careers.

But when contacted directly by Global Trading, these firms and others declined to participate in this article. Although awareness and vocal support is a crucial step in becoming more inclusive, a reluctance to engage in direct discussions about the topic suggests that there is still work to be done.

While firms may frame their neuroinclusivity efforts as successful, Manjinder Mann, a day trader and former proprietary trader, presents a different reality. “Put it this way,” he told Global Trading: “the situation is so bad that I ended up starting a company to end this mess of discrimination and exclusion.”

Mann explains that he typically struggled to get past the HireVue stage of big companies’ recruitment processes, despite personal trading success. In a new venture, Bren, he aims to create a consultancy and small investment bank with the goal of “kickstarting a neurodivergent economy”. The venture is backed by four co-founders and 11 autistic CEOs, he shared, and is advised by City of London Corporation’s start-up trust and an ex-McKinsey consultant.

Is setting up an entirely new ecosystem the best way to create a neurodivergent-friendly space within trading? Aside from lip service and inclusivity-washing, what do mainstream firms need to do to truly change the industry?

What’s out there?

Beyond firms’ internal efforts, a number of industry participants have taken the issue of neuroinclusivity into their own hands. One such group is Genius Within, a UK specialist firm that supports neurodiverse individuals in the workplace. Established in 2011, the company began with coaching programmes and now offers diagnosis services, consultancy, training for businesses and various other support mechanisms.

“There’s a lot of support we provide within the financial sector already, and many [firms] were quite open to it,” says customer services director Royston Collins. “Initially there was a lot of reluctance; people thought neurodiversity was just a buzzword. But now a lot of firms have realised that they’ve got a lot of talented people who are neurodivergent on their teams – probably more than the national average.”

In the last few years, Collins has noted an uptick in the number of referrals for one-to-one coaching support from firms, who refer their employees to the organisation when they need support and recognise the value that it can bring. Coaching is a relatively cheap, low-intervention service that doesn’t require receivers to go through lengthy assessment and diagnostic processes. It doesn’t even count as a reasonable adjustment; people learn different ways to work or communicate, and are then able – in theory, at least – to implement the practices into their working life.

The champions and mentors in this programme are often higher-ranking employees in the industry, Collins explains, which not only has the benefit of sector-specific advice but also allows those looking for guidance to see that they are not alone in the industry.

This is something that Nalini Solanki, Edmans’ co-chair at The Diversity Project, agrees is a crucial part of improving the experiences of neurodiverse traders. Change needs to come from the top, the pair say, with members of C-suites disclosing their diagnoses and building a culture that accepts and supports neurodiversity.

Over recent years, “the biggest change has been being able to talk about [neurodiversity],” Solanki says. But even though progress is being made, she reports that the financial industry “still [has] a sense that ‘it’s not us’”. Many advocacy groups see awareness as one of the first steps that businesses can take to become more neuroinclusive, and most businesses are at this first stage of change, explains GAIN committee member Liselle Appleby. Once the ball starts rolling, people are more likely to understand neurodiversity and the adjustments that can, and should, be made to allow everyone to work to the best of their ability. “When you start raising awareness, your perspective changes,” Solanki adds, with a significant realisation being that neuroinclusive initiatives tend to benefit neurotypical employees, too.

Benefits to the firm

While it might be easy to disregard neuro inclusivity as a virtue signalling activity, evidence suggests that from a purely results-driven perspective it’s equally as beneficial for firms to take a more active approach to neurodiversity as it is to their employees.

“Tailored support helps create an inclusive environment where employees feel understood and supported and are more likely to be engaged and motivated while contributing to improved wellbeing,” Higgins explains. “It’s important for recruitment, retention, and advancement that the specific needs of individuals, such as those with neurodivergence, is discussed and communicated to create a truly inclusive and supportive workplace.”

The fact that there are differences between neurotypical and neurodiverse brains and thought patterns has often carries negative connotations – particularly in the recent past, when ideas of neurodiversity were based firmly in stereotype-ridden fiction rather than fact – but the advantages of hiring neurodiverse employees are now actively being championed. Whether it’s an ability to ‘think outside the box’ or identify patterns and make connections in ways that others miss, having people who think differently on a trading floor can be a huge advantage.

“Autistic people tend to be more process driven and oriented; ADHDers tend to react very quickly and can stay focused on something they love for a long time,” Mann explains. “This can lead to quick reactions, a strong theory of mind when it comes to understanding yourself and strong process following.” He brings up perhaps the most famous case of how neurodivergence can benefit traders: Michael Burry, the famously autistic founder of hedge fund Scion Capital who predicted (and profited from) the US sub-prime crisis, and was immortalised on film by Christian Bale in The Big Short (2015).

Although examples like these highlight the myriad benefits that neurodivergence can have for traders and trading firms, it’s important to avoid the stereotype of the ‘autistic savant’ –the assumption that neurodivergent individuals all hold special, almost mystical abilities. These kinds of preconceptions, although often framed as ‘positives’, can have a distinctly negative impact on mental health by ‘othering’ neurodivergent individuals and creating the sense that their worth is measured by extraordinary intelligence.

Reasonable adjustments

A lot of the measures that firms can take to be more neuroinclusive are relatively easy to implement; providing noise-cancelling headphones, creating ‘sensory maps’ that highlight areas of high sensory stimulation in offices or, perhaps the most widely recognised change over recent years, allowing employees to work more flexibly – whether in terms of schedule or location.

Of course, this final point is a challenge when it comes to trading. As an inherently time-bound business there’s a lot less scope for working at one’s own pace, and technology and security requirements mean that a home-working setup can be difficult to implement. Edmans recalls that traders were “practically the one group that was always in” during the pandemic. While many neurodiverse people realised that a hybrid approach was exactly what they needed during lockdowns, “that revelation couldn’t have happened for traders”, he adds.

Being neuroinclusive does not mean only catering to those who need workplace adjustments, but breaking away from rigid approaches to how a workplace operates. At The Diversity Project, Edmans and Solanki are championing cognitive diversity as one of their focus points in 2024. “It’s about recognising that everyone has a different way of approaching things, thinking and perspectives,” Solanki explains. “When our teams are more balanced in the way that they think and behave, you get far better results – because of that diversity of minds.”

This is something Mann agrees with, and aims to foster at Bren. However, rather than pushing for integration between different styles of thinking, he advocates for a radically different approach.

“I think honestly, neurodivergent people should lead their own teams separate from neurotypical people,” he states. “We think too differently to have effective collaboration if we work directly together.” Groups should work independently, he suggests, before those from each team who have good communication skills share and connect their work. “People will feel a lot more included when surrounded by like-minded people who listen to them,” he says, adding that this strategy extends to “tribes of neurotypicals” too – introverts and extroverts in their own groups, for example.

While it may seem discriminatory to deliberately push different thinking styles apart, “I’ve done a couple trials and done several studies of this model, and so far it’s been very successful,” Mann claims. He reports that the idea transfer is significantly improved in this structure, and that it allows for diverse thinking styles to more effectively coexist.

Exploiting the system

There will always be naysayers – those who believe society is becoming “too sensitive”, and people asking for adjustments are just trying to get special treatment.

But of course, the reality is far more nuanced than that. “You see reports that people are jumping on the bandwagon and there genuinely are some that are performative,” Collins says, noting that Genius Within does deal with, and support, people who sometimes blur the lines between what they want and what they need. That being said, it’s important to note that this does not represent the majority; and for some, this style of work can be genuinely overwhelming and does not play to their strengths.

“It isn’t that there’s overdiagnosis or that there are too many people saying “me too”. That’s simply not the case. We’ve just made it easier to talk about,” says Solanki. The problems that neurodiverse employees are facing are not new, but have for the most part been ignored or suffered in silence by the majority of those affected.

What needs to happen now?

Firms’ internal efforts, the work of advocacy and employee resource groups and changing social attitudes are all making a difference when it comes to neuro inclusivity in the workplace; but it’s clear that there’s still a lot of work to be done before the industry is truly supportive of neurodiverse employees.

Currently, even if firms are trying to offer support to their employees, it’s so poorly signposted that many of those who would benefit from assistance are unaware that it exists, or don’t know how to access it. “Especially in the financial sector, [firms are] quite disparate in what they do,” says Collins. “They have so many different divisions, and one part doesn’t know what the other part is doing. They don’t have somewhere central for people to go if they need help, so people don’t know how to ask or where to go.” Even companies that have been working with Genius Within since its inception have this issue, Collins reports “My advice would be that they consolidate and make it easier for employees to find the help they need internally, perhaps through their employee resource groups or occupational health services”.

One firm that has implemented this approach is Invesco, which runs a neurodiversity business resource group. The group both raises awareness, offers a forum for members to share resources, learnings and literature that have been helpful to them, and discusses how the workplace can be more inclusive for neurodivergent employees.

Devvya Sharma, EMEA diversity and inclusion manager, sees the industry trending towards offering a ‘neurodiversity passport’. This document “captures all [an employee’s] requirements so that every time they change role, or change manager, the passport travels along with them”. Implementing this document “saves the individual from repeating the request again and again,” she explains, reducing stress and streamlining the adjustment process for the company.

Across the board, advocacy groups agree that raising awareness is one of the most important and effective ways to improve the lives of neurodiverse individuals and make society, and the industry, more inclusive. However, this requires real, proactive engagement at both a grassroots and board level. If neurodiversity is only ever spoken about on a theoretical level, can real change ever truly occur?