On 29 October 2026, I talked with Rebekka Hänggi from JobCloud about what ADHD, autism and dyslexia mean for HR, from the job ad to onboarding. 376 people took part. Below you will find the recording and the seven points I consider most important, each with a link to the matching moment in the video. The webinar is in German.
The key points in 30 seconds:
→ Neurodivergent does not mean ill. Roughly 15 to 20 percent of people are neurodivergent, so there is very likely someone on your team.
→ Many selection methods measure similarity instead of performance. Structured interviews and work samples help everyone, and neurodivergent candidates in particular.
→ What helps neurodivergent people helps almost everyone: clear priorities, explicit expectations, questions in advance.
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1. Neurodivergent does not mean ill
No two brains are alike. Put simply, many traits are distributed like a bell curve: in the middle, most people think in similar ways; to the left and right lies the range of neurodivergence. Only at the far ends do professionals speak of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder or dyslexia. So many people are neurodivergent without having a diagnosis.
And those who do have one are not ill in the way you are ill with a cold. ADHD does not go away; I have it myself. Whether it becomes a problem depends heavily on the environment, including at work.
2. There is very likely someone on your team
Roughly 15 to 20 percent of people are neurodivergent in some form. There are no precise figures for Switzerland. In women and girls, ADHD more often goes unrecognized, because the restlessness tends to turn inward.
That leads to a simple question for any organization: who said «this is how I work better» in the past year, or asked for a small adjustment? If nobody did, that is more of a warning sign than a good sign. As a father, I know the feeling: when the kids are completely quiet, something is usually up.
3. Hiring often measures similarity instead of performance
▶ from 16:22 ▶ from 31:56 ▶ from 36:30
Many selection methods check whether someone is like us: eye contact, small talk, appearance. Unstructured interviews almost always end up being about likability. That is human, but it says little about later performance. And it hits neurodivergent candidates especially hard, for example people on the autism spectrum who communicate differently.
The research is clear here: structured interviews predict job performance more than twice as well as unstructured ones (validity .42 instead of .19; Sackett et al., 2022). The number of years of experience, by contrast, barely predicts it at all. How well which methods predict →
What came up concretely in the webinar:
- A clear requirements profile in the job ad instead of buzzwords
- Show the steps of the application process early and name a contact person for adjustments
- Share the topics of the interview in advance
- An interview guide, few assessors, a work sample
- Content over form: only assess spelling where it matters for the job, and do not penalize gaps in the CV
A note on AI in pre-selection: it takes on the biases in its data. More on that in the article Disability bias in AI recruiting.
4. What helps neurodivergent people helps almost everyone
Write down tasks and priorities. Fewer meetings, but with a clear agenda. Make expectations and deadlines explicit. Give feedback promptly. It sounds trivial, and that is exactly the point: anyone who thought after the webinar «what was so special about that?» has understood it.
I grouped this into four levels: a foundation of awareness and confidentiality, then processes and leadership with clear communication, and finally development. The NRI self-test is built the same way.
5. Not a social project, but culture work and performance
Many management teams fear expensive programmes when it comes to diversity. Yet most adjustments are small: a standing desk for someone who cannot sit for long. Noise-cancelling headphones in an open-plan office. AI for spelling with dyslexia.
What matters is being able to talk about it without having to justify yourself. That is culture work. And it belongs together with performance: people who are allowed to work the way they work well can also deliver better.
6. ADHD explains, but it does not excuse
A question from the audience: an employee with ADHD keeps arriving late despite warnings. My answer: first, look together at how it can work. Making mistakes is fine; repeating them indefinitely is not. At some point, a serious conversation is needed.
This also takes pressure off leaders. They are not diagnosticians and do not need to know a diagnosis. They can set goals, offer support and, if it does not work out over time, say honestly: in this combination, it is not working right now.
7. More time is often the wrong answer for ADHD
At schools and universities, the usual accommodation is more time. With ADHD, in my experience, more time often does not lead to more results. What works better is splitting the work into smaller packages, setting for each package what needs to be done by when, and making the criteria transparent. That too helps almost everyone in the end.
Where does your organization stand?
The NRI self-test shows in seven minutes where your organization stands on the four levels. Anonymous, free, currently being validated (in German, French and Italian).
For teams there is the awareness workshop (2.5 hours on site, CHF 2'800), for HR and line managers the recruiting module “Hire on Target” (CHF 3'500).
Sources
JobCloud (2026). Webinar: Neurodivergenz am Arbeitsplatz – Was ADHS, Autismus & Co. für HR bedeuten [in German]. With Dr. Tobias Heilmann, hosted by Rebekka Hänggi. 29 October 2026. youtube.com/watch?v=0ZrnlDAYZ3k
Sackett, P. R., Zhang, C., Berry, C. M., & Lievens, F. (2022). Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: Addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(11), 2040–2068. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000994
How does your organization handle this?
30 minutes, no sales pitch. You tell me where it's stuck. I listen, then give it to you straight.