Promoting allyship and neuro-inclusion during Neurodiversity Celebration Week

To mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Marsh McLennan's Rachel Wheeler shares how the company is improving the working environment for neurodiverse professionals, as well as creating employment opportunities for autistic young people.

Hi Rachel, can you introduce yourself and describe your role at your workplace?

I work for professional services firm Marsh McLennan where I’m the Senior Social Impact Programme Manager in the UK. In my role, I lead our Social Impact efforts for 12,000 colleagues across the UK, including an award-winning partnership with Ambitious about Autism.

Over the past three years, I have been trailblazing the area of neurodiversity within the insurance sector to help drive systemic change, create employment opportunities for autistic young people and improve the working environment for other neurodiverse colleagues. This work has resulted in Marsh McLennan becoming the first within the insurance and risk sector to achieve ‘autism confidence’ status.

How have you been involved in promoting allyship and inclusivity for neurodiverse individuals in your workplace, particularly during Neurodiversity Week?

I am a proud neurodiversity ally and change-maker in my organisation. I believe in raising awareness, promoting inclusivity and providing a safe and supportive environment for other neurodiverse colleagues to feel comfortable and be able to thrive at work.

My role provides me with an opportunity to make a difference within my organization every day. I feel passionately about elevating the voices of neurodiverse colleagues and last year, launched our first-ever lived experience advisory group for neurodiverse colleagues to provide a dedicated forum and safe space to share experiences and connect with like-minded colleagues. This group provides insights on our UK partnership with Ambitious about Autism, consulting on key areas for change. I have learnt so much from listening to the experiences of our colleagues, they help keep me accountable and drive change!

Neurodiversity Week and World Autism Acceptance Month are big awareness dates in our Social Impact calendar at Marsh McLennan, providing fantastic opportunities to celebrate the unique talents neurodiverse colleagues can bring, empower colleagues to share stories, educate colleagues and signpost key resources and information.

This year, we’re celebrating our company-wide achievement of ‘autism confidence’ and the final year of partnership with Ambitious about Autism by launching a ‘Standing Together’ allyship artwork mosaic. We’ll be inviting our 12,000 UK colleagues and allies to show their support by submitting a selfie to our collage, which will create an infinity symbol, symbolising our support for neurodiverse colleagues that will be hung in offices across the UK.

Why is it important to highlight and celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of neurodiverse people, both during Neurodiversity Week and throughout the year?

Whilst we mark neurodiversity week, it’s also important to celebrate neurodiversity throughout the year and think about opportunities to highlight intersectionality. For example, through conversations with colleagues, we identified a correlation between our neurodiverse and LGBTQ+ colleagues. This has opened up wider and ongoing conversations around the multiple marginalization of LGBTQ+ neurodiverse individuals and their workplace experiences, and we teamed up with the PRIDE network (LGBTQ+ colleague resource group) to host a panel discussion and promote allyship during their PRIDE celebrations in June.

Similarly, when looking to celebrate, we also identify moments where neurodiverse people may be typically underrepresented in the media. For example, we ran a campaign called ‘Love is Neurodiverse’ for Valentine’s Day, inviting our neurodiverse colleagues to share stories on love, self-acceptance, and love for special interests!

Here are just some examples of events and activities that have successfully raised awareness of the challenges and strengths of the neurodiverse community at Marsh McLennan:

1.           Awareness sessions – running monthly awareness sessions to reduce stigma, challenge misconceptions and provide practical tips on how to support neurodiverse colleagues in the workplace.

2.           Senior leadership sponsorship – our Regional People Partner Steve Woodhouse has been the Executive Sponsor for the partnership which has helped bring great focus and role modelling to the HR community.

3.           Identifying neurodiversity communities within Marsh McLennan – connecting parents and carers, training mental health first aiders, specialist training for Talent Acquisition teams, People Managers and providing dedicated support.

4.           Lived experience advisory group – providing a safe space for neurodiverse colleagues to connect.

5.           Mentoring Talent – we have been able to launch a Mentoring Talent program to train colleagues as mentors and pair them with autistic young people at the beginning of their employability journey to build 1:1 relationships.

What are some nuances and unique experiences that neurodiverse people may face in comparison to others in the workplace, and how can we ensure that all individuals are heard and supported during Neurodiversity Week?

I’ve had the privilege of working with neurodiverse colleagues throughout my career and time at Marsh McLennan. My biggest learning is, ‘if you’ve met one neurodiverse person, you’ve met one neurodiverse person’. Like everyone else, neurodiverse colleagues have unique sets of preferences and ways of working. Some neurodiverse colleagues can face differences in communication, sensory and executive functioning – the best way is to ask colleagues rather than assume.

To help take an inclusive approach when planning events for Neurodiversity, my advice is to account for people’s strengths, provide clear and direct instructions and briefings and offer a range of ways that neurodiverse colleagues can get involved (e.g. speaking opportunities, written stories, podcasts) and, most importantly, engage neurodiverse colleagues for input into ideas for celebrations surrounding their identities.