Most businesses treat neurodiversity as something that becomes relevant after an employee discloses a diagnosis. By then, they may already have lost the candidate, the employee may be masking or burning out, and managers are reacting rather than enabling performance. Michael Jakubiak explores a different approach: design recruitment, management and support around how people actually work best — turning neurodiversity from an EDI conversation into a talent, productivity and retention strategy.

Twice in my career I was fired — not because I was bad at my job, but because I worked and processed information differently.

That is uncomfortable to say. It is also why I understand this problem from both sides.

Before ND Axon, I built my career in financial services, recruitment and cybersecurity. I managed teams, broke recruitment records and helped organisations access difficult-to-recruit talent. Yet I did not discover that I was ADHD and dyslexic until later.

That experience taught me something important:

Many businesses do not have a shortage of talent. They have systems that are too narrow to recognise it.

Traditional recruitment often rewards familiarity — the familiar CV, confident interview style, quick verbal answer or socially expected behaviour.

But the candidate who pauses before answering may be the strongest analyst in the room. The employee who struggles in a noisy office may solve problems others cannot. The person who appears inconsistent may simply be working in an environment designed for somebody else’s brain.

So what should employers do differently?

First, stop waiting for diagnosis or disclosure.

You do not need someone’s medical history to ask how they communicate best, what environment helps them focus, or what makes it easier for them to perform.

Second, recruit for strengths, not performance theatre.

Make expectations explicit, provide questions in advance where appropriate, test the skills the job actually requires and give candidates more than one way to demonstrate capability.

Third, treat adjustments as productivity tools.

Written instructions, quieter environments, flexible communication or clearer priorities can be inexpensive, but transformative.

Fourth, equip managers.

Inclusion fails when it lives only in policy documents. Managers need practical information they can use on Monday morning.

This thinking became part of why I built ND Axon. Our technology helps people understand their strengths, communication preferences and support needs, while giving organisations practical insight without requiring individuals to disclose a condition.

But technology is only part of the answer.

The bigger shift is cultural: moving from labels to logic, stigma to strengths, and reacting when somebody struggles to designing environments where more people succeed from day one.

For business leaders, this is not simply an EDI issue. It affects recruitment, retention, sickness absence, productivity, innovation and access to talent your competitors may be missing.

My own career changed when I stopped seeing my brain only through the things it made difficult and started understanding what it made possible.

The future will belong to organisations that design for difference.

And some of your best talent may already be hiding in plain sight.