ADHD reasonable adjustments

Here are some practical solutions alongside some familiar universal practices that your organisation can put in place to support an individual with ADHD include:

• Give instructions in both writing and verbally. Convey the end goal and the timescale in which work is to be delivered. Break tasks down into smaller step-by-step tasks if it is helpful. Agree check-in points and keep inviting questions. Agree with the individual to use Teach-Back techniques to ensure main messages are understood. Arrange for workplace buddies who can support.
• Encourage breaks to maximise concentration and productivity.
• Set clear and precise deadlines alongside clear priorities. Offer more time for tests.
• Add event reminders to a calendar and task reminders and arrange to share with supervisor if they have agreed to nudge you initially on your organization.
• Support on the administrative or boring tasks where there are omissions or mistakes, including linking your creative ADHD employee with an editor or detail conscious colleague! Provide more training, prompts, extra support and offer feedback in writing.
• Keep reoccurring meetings in a routine. E.g., same day and time each week and arranging last-minute meetings as little as possible.
• Empower your employee to use flexibility to their advantage.EG. Hours worked, mixture of home and office working.
• Help people understand the importance and benefits of working a certain way as otherwise they might shutdown prematurely to that suggestion and their wider creativity won’t be released. Give them time to think about it!
• Encourage Think-Do thinking for administration tasks or mundane tasks and ‘little rules’ of thumb that become embedded.
• Build trust with your employee and let them know you want them to win! Give feedback on what they do well as much as where they could improve and whilst you are not their ‘parent’, create some scaffolding by consent to enable them to embed good habits into their work. Timely, accurate written feedback is really helpful. They may worry about their performance and dwell on elements of work that is going less well so support them and offer reassurance alongside feedback which reflects their strengths too.
• Check in on wellbeing. ‘How are you really?’ Some people with ADHD take a while to tune into their wellbeing and may get over anxious or low so do encourage self- reflection and open communication.

Everyone is different and their situation is different so a needs assessment and an appreciation of the context for reasonable adjustments is required.

What the law says workplaces should do

• Reasonable adjustments are changes that must be made to remove or reduce disadvantages related to disability that a person may experience at work. These could include changes to the workplace, equipment, requirements, or the way things are done.
• Employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for people with a disability or chronic illness at work. ADHD typically meets this criterion.
• A formal medical diagnosis of ADHD resulting from an ADHD assessment is not legally required to trigger this duty. The legal duty of an employer can arise at any point the employer becomes aware of a chronic illness or health needs which typically endures over 12 months, including at interview stage and during probation.(ADHD is life- long and so meets this criterion at whatever point your needs are assessed). If you have a persistent health needs which are warranting professional care and input, that could constitute enough evidence of a requirement for a reasonable adjustment. Ask your employer.
• The Government funds support in the workplace for  reasonable adjustments too. https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work

Employers need to ensure they have inclusive environments and ask the right questions of employees. Many younger adults do not discover their ADHD tendencies until they get into their proper fulltime role after school or college so don’t always expect people to understand their tendencies in terms of ADHD.

Coaching by professionals Masters level practitioners

Your maturity at a cognitive level is typically impaired by three years but focusing on your goals to improve your functioning at work can be really helpful. Many of Atrium’s coaches are clinicians with lived experience too so they understand how to help you with stress, your relationship with your own unique brain wiring and strategies that can help you manage life better. We always start the coaching programme with a screening assessment to understand your difficulties and the impact on your mental health. You will get an outline report on your needs which you can share with an employer or educator but is not a clinical diagnosis. Typically, most employers and educators accept that screening report and implement reasonable adjustments to suit your needs. The rest of the coaching, if you choose to continue, focuses on providing you with a toolkit to understand how your brain works and get the best out of it. Coaching can be undertaken whilst you wait for a clinical diagnosis if you wish.

Coaching provides a context to practice with new strategies and tools such as assistive technology, equipment, ADHD apps and some of this requires persistence before things improve! It’s a journey to growth and ADHD can become your friend!