A Methodology for Estimating the Financial Gains for Employers

There are concerning statistics around the UK workforce with low levels of productivity and significant numbers of people thinking about leaving their role or being absent due to long term sickness. There are also indications that these negative work outcomes can be more extreme for neurodivergent employees.

Disparate pieces of evidence suggest employers could financially gain from supporting their neurodivergent workforce, but there is a lack of clarity on precisely what these gains could be. Bringing together our understanding of how a neuroinclusive workplace could positively impact businesses and data from a range of sources, this paper outlines a methodology and the resulting predictions of what employers could gain financially from becoming neuroinclusive.

About the research

Our approach to developing a predictive model on potential financial gains to employers was (1) to focus in on three work place outcomes which are frequently measured in studies assessing employees and have tangible financial costs associated with them (productivity, retention and long-term sickness absence);

(2) to review data sources to establish and quantify a pathway from being neuroinclusive (being supportive of neurodivergent employees) and these three work outcomes;

and (3) to build these key variables into an interactive model which would enable both sensitivity analysis and employers to explore gains for their specific contexts.

To better understand the perspectives of employers, Brain in Hand (BiH) in collaboration with Markettiers also surveyed 1,000 employers on a range of aspects related to neuroinclusion in their workplace.

Key findings

The survey of over 1,000 employers found that there is a strong appetite for changing the workplace environment with half of organisations stating they are eager to become a more neuroinclusive workplace, but 45% reported that the budget for reasonable adjustments is lacking.

Our model suggests that a neuroinclusive workplace environment could increase productivity by 45%, retention by 24% and avoid 11 days of long-term absence per employee per year for those that are autistic and/or are ADHD.

The financial implications for organisations can be significant with an estimated annual financial gain per employee of £21,404 based on the average Uk salary of £37,430.

What this means

A 200% return on investment would mean more than £7,000 per employee could be spent on making the organisation more neuroinclusive.

With a 33% reported improvement in productivity, Brain in Hand delivers approximately 73% of the gains associated with a shift from minimal to high levels of neuroinclusion (estimated at 45%), highlighting its potential as a key enabling intervention.