ADHD in the Workplace: 7 Facts Employers Need to Know

An estimated 1.9 million adults have a condition with the potential to significantly impact their experience of working and the workplace – many of them undiagnosed. That can have broad implications on everything in a company, from recruitment and retention strategies through to productivity and company culture.

The condition we’re talking about is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.

Supporting employees with neurodiversity like this at work is essential when it comes to fulfilling your statutory responsibilities as an employer and when helping your employees reach their full potential.

In this blog, we’ll explore 7 key facts that employers need to know about ADHD to ensure that they’re fulfilling their responsibilities and helping their organisations bring the best out of their employees.

What is ADHD?

As this article by ADHD Aware succinctly outlines, ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects your behaviour. It’s something that develops before birth or during early childhood and it reflects the natural differences that exist in the way that our brains are wired – the normal neurodiversity that we find in the human brain. According to the NHS, the general symptoms of ADHD in adults include things like:

• organisation and time management
• following instructions
• focusing and completing tasks
• coping with stress
• feeling restless or impatient
• impulsiveness and risk-taking

1.  ADHD is a natural part of humanity and neurodiversity

There is no such thing as ‘normal’ when it comes to the mind. ADHD and conditions like it reflect the natural diversity and differences that come with the human brain.

The term ‘neurodiversity’ was created by Judy Singer way back in the 1990s to describe this set of differences and how our brains ultimately experience the world in unique ways.

In neurodiverse individuals, the brain is wired and structured a little differently. Some research has suggested particular areas of the brain might be different in people with ADHD as opposed to those without it.

These are just theories though. The exact cause of ADHD is unknown. Some research has suggested that ADHD can run in families and scientists believe that DNA and the genes you inherit from your parents play a key role in whether or not you develop the condition. Some studies have suggested that

A fascinating article by Ralph Lewis in Psychology Today provides a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about ADHD: from attitudes towards it over the last century through to possible reasons behind its development and what we currently know about the condition.

The important takeaway is that ADHD has also been part of the natural diversity that we find in human minds. It isn’t wrong and it isn’t ‘not normal’. As the workplace can often seem like a microcosm of society, you’ll inevitably come across at least one employee with ADHD in the course of your HR career.

2.  Diagnoses of ADHD are rising as stigma falls

Over the last couple of years, there’s been an increasing concern in some parts of the media and society about the number of ADHD diagnoses in adults and children.

Some prominent voices argue that ADHD is overdiagnosed and that people are wrongly being told they have the condition when they don’t.

So, are more people just simply following the latest trend and declaring themselves to have ADHD for the sake of it? Or is the truth much more complicated than that?

Rather than reflecting more people developing the condition, many scientists and researchers argue that the rise in ADHD diagnoses can be attributed to more people coming forward and getting tested for the condition nowadays than in the past. That’s been a direct result of how the social stigma associated with ADHD has faded and how awareness of the condition has risen in society as attitudes towards mental health and neurodiversity have changed.

Employers should be prepared to see similar trends play out in the workplace.

3.  Not everyone with ADHD is the same

ADHD can affect people in a myriad of different ways. One person’s experience with it can be entirely different from someone else’s. This is important to bear in mind when it comes to devising strategies to support people with ADHD in the workplace.

Whilst ADHD has a set of core behaviours that can be identified, not everyone with ADHD will have the same behaviours as each other.

Helping employees with ADHD in the workplace is more than a simple case of devising a blanket policy of support. The fact that symptoms can vary from person to person means that one-size-fits-all approaches won’t work. Instead, it can be more effective to create tailored, individual support packages that are designed to meet the specific and unique needs of employees with ADHD.

4.  People with ADHD have unique strengths

In his article in Psychology Today, Ralph Lewis uses the example of ancient human societies to illustrate how ADHD could have been a useful trait for members of hunter-gatherer societies to have, with ‘quick-thinking exploratory risk-takers’ allowing communities to respond faster to potential threats, and giving them better flexibility to take advantage of opportunities. He argues that, speaking in terms of evolution, the genes for ADHD are still with us because they gave our ancestors specific survival advantages that allowed those genes to be passed on through the ages.

Whilst ADHD it can cause difficulties and challenges when it comes to meeting some expectations and conventions in the modern workplace, it can also provide some unique advantages. These advantages could help enhance the performance of your team.

Whilst everyone with ADHD is different, there are some key strengths that people with ADHD often display when it comes to working. They can include things like:

• Hyperfocus – being able to intensely concentrate on something that they’re interested in
• Creativity – coming up with original ideas to solve challenges
• Resilient – coping well under pressure
• Flexibility – being able to adapt to changing situations

In addition, employees with ADHD often work well with short-term deadlines, are comfortable with taking risks and have high energy levels – useful traits to have in most workplaces.

5.  ADHD affects both men and women

There’s a longstanding myth that many people still believe that only males can have ADHD. In reality, whilst there is an increased prevalence of ADHD in men more generally, women can have ADHD too.

The reason behind this myth lies in the fact that some things typically associated with ADHD (like hyperactivity, risk-taking behaviour, or being impulsive) are more noticeable in men rather than women.

According to ADHD UK, around 3 to 4% of the adult UK population are estimated to have ADHD. In children, boys are around 4 times more likely to have the condition than women.

Research also suggests that women with ADHD are more likely to have symptoms like difficulty maintaining fixed attention on something or remaining focused, rather than the hyperactivity associated with men.

As an employer, don’t just assume that ADHD is something only men suffer with. Remember that women have ADHD too and that you’re likely to find employees from all genders with ADHD.

6.  ADHD-ers face specific workplace challenges

Whilst employees with ADHD can often have unique advantages in the workplace, they can also face specific workplace challenges. These will require employers to make changes to enable employees with ADHD to thrive and to help them reach their full potential.

In their employers guide, the Scottish ADHD Coalition outlines some of the key challenges that people with ADHD are likely to face at work. They typically can include things like:

• Not being able to concentrate for sustained periods of time
• Forgetting things
• Problems with starting a project or planning it
• Getting distracted easily
• Acting impulsively or not thinking through the consequences of actions

7.  Employers have a legal duty to make adjustments

One of the most important things that employers need to remember when it comes to ADHD is that they have a legal obligation to employees to make sure that they aren’t discriminated against.

The Equality Act 2010 is a specific piece of legislation designed to combat discrimination in work and wider society. As the Equality and Human Rights Commission outlines, the Equality Act makes it illegal to discriminate against someone based on specific, ‘protected characteristics’. These are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

If ADHD is severe enough, it could be classed as a disability – a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. This means that employers will have a legal responsibility to ensure that they make ‘reasonable adjustments’, enabling the employee to do their job free of discrimination and making sure that they aren’t at a disadvantage compared to other employees.

The law around this is complex, so it’s best to seek specialist legal advice on this if you’re worried. As a general rule though, employers should work with their employees to make adjustments to working practices to allow them to more comfortably complete day to day activities at work.

The same Scottish ADHD Coalition employers guide we referenced earlier outlines some of the key ways that employers can support employees with ADHD at work:

• Making changes to the working environment to make it more accessible (eg. adding visual reminders, reducing distractions, larger monitors)
• Adapting working patterns (eg. changing hours of work, start/finish times, or break times)
• Making changes to working and management practices (eg. changing the way managers deliver tasks, allowing more time away from desks, offering more supervision)
• Offering dedicated coaching and mentoring

Educating yourself and your organisation is essential

Ultimately, as we hope that this blog article has demonstrated, educating yourself and your organisation is essential when it comes to improving the working experience of employees with ADHD. We hope this blog has given you a few pointers on some of the key things that you need to bear in mind when it comes to supporting affected employees and building a supportive culture.

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