Richard Branson, Simone Biles and Rory Bremner are just a handful of well-known celebrities who have a diagnosis of ADHD.
But what is ADHD, and how can companies best adjust to help people who have this diagnosis?
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a condition that affects people’s behaviour. People with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.
Dan Harris, founder and chief executive of Neurodiversity in Business, says ADHD "really is simply different brain wiring".
According to charitable organisation ADHD UK, approximately 2.6mn people in Britain have ADHD, broken down into a childhood incidence rate of 5 per cent, and an adult incidence rate of 3-4 per cent.
Harris, who himself has ADHD, says that while people with it have many strengths, they currently experience many challenges “due to executive functioning differences".
His organisation carried out in-depth research together with Birkbeck University into how neurodivergent individuals, including those with ADHD, process information, approach work, and manage tasks, and how companies and other organisations can support them.
The findings, revealed in March this year, suggested that employers should "take steps to understand what makes people stay or likely to leave".
The research team established that employees were far less likely to leave where adjustments are tailored, according to 50 per cent of respondents to the study.
Filling the skills gap
GAIN, the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity, is another organisation working closely with people who are neurodivergent and companies who want to employ them, often to fill the skills gaps that neurodivergent people can match.
Laurie Edmans, co-founder of GAIN and a financial inclusion ambassador, describes how “ADHD is most often diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, but can continue into adulthood.
"Some people with ADHD are hyperactive and very spontaneous. But the same people can also be especially creative and inventive, show great empathy and selflessness, tenacity and resilience, energy and enthusiasm.”
Some strengths of people with ADHD include being able to work under pressure, deep concentration, creative thinking, energy and enthusiasm, multitasking, and task switching.
Edmans says that the work which GAIN has done with psychologists and HR professionals suggests that some roles which benefit significantly from these abilities and attributes include change management, risk management, in general.
In specific instances, candidates with these abilities can lend their skills well to investment businesses, portfolio management, data management and operations.
Similarly, in insurance, people with ADHD can thrive in fields such as loss adjustment, as managing agents and in underwriting.
“In short, many demanding and satisfying roles", Edmans says.
Benefits to financial advice
Financial advice, too, is a great profession for people with ADHD.
