Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Ling Huang Of Technology North Corporation On Why It’s Important To Include Neurodiverse Employees & How To Make Your Workplace More Neuro-Inclusive
An Interview With Eric Pines
Have a Clear Mission, Vision, and Why: Implementing neurodiversity initiatives should be driven by a genuine commitment rather than simply checking a box. Design these initiatives from the perspective of those you aim to include. For example, our Technology North Digital Services (TNDS) was designed with the needs of people like my son Brian in mind, ensuring that our efforts were meaningful and supportive.
Research suggests that up to 15–20% of the U.S. population is neurodivergent. There has been a slow but vitally important rise in companies embracing neurodiversity. How can companies support neurodiversity in the workplace? What are some benefits of including neurodiverse employees? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “Neurodiversity in the Workforce”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ling Huang.
Ling Huang is the dynamic President and CEO of Technology North Corporation, a renowned IT service provider celebrated for its innovative solutions and commitment to inclusivity. Ling’s passion for developing technologies that empower individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other disabilities drives transformative initiatives like TN Digital Services and the RoboCoach Project, which aim to create inclusive employment opportunities and enhance societal impact.
Under Ling’s visionary leadership, Technology North has earned prestigious awards like the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 — Special Citation: Societal Impact, recognizing Ling’s remarkable contributions to advancing inclusivity and leveraging technology for positive change. Ling’s dedication to fostering an inclusive workplace environment and advocating for the success of individuals with ASD continues to inspire and transform lives globally.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?
I am Ling Huang, an IT veteran with over thirty years of experience. In 1998, I co-founded Technology North to deliver cutting-edge and practical technology solutions to the private and public sectors. In addition to my professional life, I am a father to a son on the autism spectrum.
My younger son, Brian Huang, was born in 2000 and diagnosed with autism in 2004. His diagnosis significantly influenced our decision to transform our business from a traditional IT service provider into a mission-driven company. After many years of intervention through the ABA program, Brian became a high-functioning autistic teenager. In 2014, my wife and I began to ponder a crucial question: what will Brian’s life look like after high school? This question sparked a ten-year journey to explore the landscape of life for autistic youth and adults’ post-school. This exploration led to the development of RoboCoach, a purpose-built assistive technology, and the creation of Technology North Digital Services (TNDS), a dedicated autism employment program.
We launched TNDS in December 2019 with four autistic employees, including my son Brian, supported by one job coach. Initially, our primary goal was to create something meaningful and productive for Brian. Our revenue was $1,500 in December 2019, and by February 2020, it had grown to $20,000 monthly. This rapid growth made me realize that autism employment is not only feasible but holds great potential for the future.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Thank you for the compliment. Reflecting on my journey, I believe three character traits have been most instrumental to my success: perseverance, empathy, and innovation.
Perseverance: Building and sustaining a company for over three decades requires a relentless drive to overcome challenges. For example, when we first launched Technology North, we faced fierce competition and a rapidly changing technological landscape. Despite these hurdles, we persevered by constantly learning, adapting, and striving to provide top-notch solutions to our clients. This same perseverance was crucial when we shifted our focus to autism employment, as it required navigating uncharted territory and overcoming societal and logistical challenges.
Empathy: Understanding and valuing the experiences and needs of others has always been at the heart of my leadership approach. This trait was particularly important when my son Brian was diagnosed with autism. Experiencing the challenges and triumphs of raising an autistic child firsthand gave me deep empathy for other families in similar situations. This empathy drove me to create TNDS, an initiative that not only provided employment opportunities for autistic individuals but also aimed to foster an inclusive and supportive work environment.
Innovation: Staying ahead in the IT industry requires continuous innovation. One instance of this is the development of RoboCoach, a purpose-built assistive technology designed to support autistic individuals. This innovation came from recognizing a gap in the traditional competitive employment environment, the needs of autistic youth and adults for a safe and productive work environment, the available resources, and the courage to develop a solution from scratch. RoboCoach and TNDS have not only helped Brian but have become a valuable tool for many others, exemplifying how innovation can drive both business success and social impact.
These traits — perseverance, empathy, and innovation — have been foundational to my success as a leader and have guided me through both professional and personal challenges.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
Sure, I’d be happy to share. One of my greatest work-related struggles was when we first began developing RoboCoach and our autism employment program. We faced significant challenges in finding a suitable business and economic model that could balance the increased costs of supporting autistic employees while remaining competitive in the marketplace.
To overcome these challenges, we developed a three-pronged guideline principle over time:
The Wellbeing and Productivity of Autistic Employees: Ensuring that our autistic employees are supported and productive, enabling them to contribute effectively to our competitive service offerings.
Customer Satisfaction: Focusing on delivering high-quality services that meet our customers’ needs, encouraging them to continue using our services.
Organizational Health: Maintaining the overall health of the organization by ensuring adequate support and sustainable business practices.
By adhering to these principles, we created a safe and supportive work environment. This allowed us to provide top-quality services to our customers, stay competitive in the market, and ensure the sustainability of Technology North.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Once the public and private sectors discovered the top-quality and speedy delivery of our digitization services, more businesses and public sector entities began approaching us with their challenges. For instance, many government agencies rely on petitions and surveys from citizens for policy and decision-making. Typically, these surveys and petitions are handwritten on printed forms, and processing 1,000 sheets of petition forms can cost around $30,000 for address validation and duplicate elimination.
We address this issue by combining document digitization handled by our A-Team, OCR/ICR processing, data scripting, address validation APIs, and AI. This approach allows us to perform the same work at just 5% to 10% of the cost and time compared to the traditional model.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about neurodiversity in the workforce. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to include neurodiverse employees? Can you share a story with us?
Absolutely. Our journey towards embracing neurodiversity in the workforce began with a deeply personal motivation — supporting my son, Brian, who is on the autism spectrum. This experience has been incredibly rewarding and has profoundly influenced our company culture and operations.
One story that stands out involves our launch of Technology North Digital Services (TNDS) in December 2019. We started with four autistic employees, including Brian, supported by one job coach. Initially, our goal was to create a meaningful and productive environment for Brian. However, we quickly realized the broader potential and impact of our initiative.
One of our early projects involved a complex document digitization task for a law firm. Traditionally, this type of work requires meticulous attention to detail, which can be challenging for many, but our neurodiverse team excelled. Their unique abilities, such as high levels of concentration and pattern recognition, allowed them to perform the task with remarkable accuracy and efficiency. This not only impressed our client but also highlighted the strengths and capabilities of neurodiverse employees.
This experience reinforced our commitment to neurodiversity. We developed tailored assistive technology and workflow management systems and created a work environment that plays to the strengths of our neurodiverse team members. The success of this project led to increased confidence within our team and paved the way for more opportunities, proving that inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also incredibly beneficial for business.
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?
Many businesses today face labor shortages and high turnover, particularly in fields like document digitization, data management, and legal document redaction. These roles require meticulous attention to detail, deep focus, and exceptional pattern recognition skills. By fostering an inclusive work environment and hiring talented autistic youth and adults, businesses can benefit in several significant ways:
Increased Retention Rates: Neurodiverse employees often demonstrate exceptional loyalty and stability. Our own experience with TNDS has shown nearly 100% retention rates, significantly reducing the costs and disruptions associated with high turnover.
Enhanced Quality and Efficiency: Autistic individuals often possess unique strengths such as intense focus and excellent pattern recognition. These traits lead to high-quality, efficient work, which in turn boosts overall productivity and service delivery speed.
Mission-Driven Appeal: An inclusive work environment attracts both talent and customers who value diversity and social responsibility. This can enhance the company’s reputation, leading to increased revenue and a stronger societal image.
At TNDS, our inclusive approach has resulted in record-breaking staff retention rates and significant revenue growth, reinforcing the value of inclusivity in building a successful and sustainable business.
Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help include neurodiverse employees? Can you share with us how the work culture was affected as a result?
The standard HR processes and practices in mainstream businesses often aren’t suitable for neurodiverse employees. We’ve had to carefully reengineer or redesign every aspect to create a more inclusive environment. Here are a few examples:
Interview Process: Many autistic individuals face verbal communication barriers, struggle with eye contact, and have difficulty clearly expressing their ideas. Traditional interviews are ineffective in these cases. For example, one of our top employees, during his interview a few years ago, couldn’t sit straight, avoided eye contact, and only responded with two words throughout. To address this, we reinvented our interview process by inviting a family member, such as a parent, to accompany the candidate. We call this approach “Let’s Have a Chat,” which softens the process. This way, we observe the candidate’s communication abilities within a trusted environment, allowing them to express themselves more comfortably.
Training: Traditional onboarding training, where employees sit through days of instruction, doesn’t work well for many autistic individuals. Instead, we break down training into smaller components and embed it into the daily work process. Often, autistic individuals learn faster and more effectively from their peers in a hands-on work environment.
Family Involvement: Unlike most businesses that avoid involving employees’ families, we embrace it. Families know the individuals best, and we leverage these existing relationships as trusted channels to help employees learn and overcome barriers. Family involvement has proven to be a valuable resource in supporting our neurodiverse workforce.
These changes have profoundly impacted our work culture. By adapting our processes to suit neurodiverse employees better, we’ve created a more inclusive, supportive, and productive work environment. This approach has led to high retention rates, improved employee satisfaction, and increased overall productivity and profitability.
What are some of the challenges or obstacles to including neurodivergent employees? What needs to be done to address those obstacles?
The main obstacles to including neurodivergent employees are communication barriers, work environment sensitivity, training and support needs, social integration, and stigma. However, in our experience, the two most significant challenges are the top management’s philosophy and the reason behind implementing diversity in the workplace and finding the right business and economic model.
The top obstacle is top management’s philosophy and motivation for implementing neurodiversity. It’s crucial not to adopt neurodiversity employment just for the sake of it, such as checking a box or for appearances. The commitment to the “why” behind the initiative is essential. When management genuinely believes in and supports neurodiversity, it creates a clearer vision and mission. This, in turn, attracts and unites staff around the purpose and motivates them to innovate processes to ensure success.
The second major challenge is finding the right business and economic model. Implementing neurodiversity employment requires careful planning to balance the additional support needs with business sustainability.
By addressing these two fundamental challenges with genuine commitment and thoughtful planning, businesses can overcome obstacles and create a more inclusive and effective workplace for neurodivergent employees.
How do you and your organization educate yourselves and your teams on the concept of neurodiversity and the needs of neurodivergent employees? Are there any resources, training, or workshops that you have found particularly helpful?
We have created an entire set of frameworks for autism employment:
Every process and practice from the traditional work environment has been redesigned and reengineered to meet the needs of autistic employees. We are in uncharted territory, and often, we can’t find references or existing experience to learn from.
In this situation, I often ask my staff: What would you do if the person you are supporting is your son or daughter, your brother or sister? We prioritize people like Brian, and staff will be removed if they don’t respect this principle. As the old saying goes, all you need is a little love.
This is the main question of our interview. Can you please share five best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people who are neurodivergent?
Absolutely. Here are five best practices that can make a workplace more welcoming and inclusive for neurodivergent individuals:
- Have a Clear Mission, Vision, and Why: Implementing neurodiversity initiatives should be driven by a genuine commitment rather than simply checking a box. Design these initiatives from the perspective of those you aim to include. For example, our Technology North Digital Services (TNDS) was designed with the needs of people like my son Brian in mind, ensuring that our efforts were meaningful and supportive.
- Think Outside the Box: Traditional inclusion practices may not always be effective for neurodivergent individuals. Engage with neurodivergent employees and their families to understand their needs and perspectives. For instance, instead of just teaching autistic individuals how to fish (a metaphor for independence), we should also consider building a supportive environment like a fish farm and market. This way, they can thrive in a structured and supportive setting.
- Ensure Sufficient Commitment and Resources: Before starting any neurodiversity initiative, ensure you have the necessary commitment and resources. Neurodiversity efforts often begin as cost centers and require sustained investment to become self-sufficient and profitable. When we started TNDS, our primary goal was to create something meaningful for Brian. We never anticipated it becoming a broader movement, but our commitment saw it through to success.
- Be Flexible and Adaptable: If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to try a different approach. Flexibility and a willingness to adapt are crucial in creating an inclusive environment. Continuous improvement and openness to change can help address challenges more effectively.
- Add Humanity and Love to the Workplace: Creating a genuinely inclusive environment requires more than just policies and procedures. Infusing the workplace with humanity and compassion goes a long way. Show genuine care and understanding for all employees and foster a culture of empathy and support. By following these best practices, businesses can create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for neurodivergent employees, leading to a more diverse, productive, and harmonious workplace.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
My favorite quote is from Allan Key: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it. This is self-evident from my personal and professional experience.”
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
If I could inspire a movement that would bring the best to the most people, it would be the implementation of a meaningful and measurable social procurement policy, starting with the largest buyer in our society — the government sector.
Such a policy would prioritize contracting with businesses that deliver not only high-quality services but also create significant social impact. A recent success story from our experience illustrates this perfectly. We won a significant document digitization contract by highlighting the broader benefits of our approach. In our proposal, we stated, “You can spend $10 million to get the job done, or you can hire us, spend the same $10 million to get the job done in a high-quality and speedy fashion, and simultaneously create hundreds of new jobs for the neurodiverse population.”
This approach not only meets the immediate needs of the government but also contributes to social good by providing employment opportunities for neurodiverse individuals. By adopting social procurement policies, governments and other large organizations can drive positive change, create inclusive work environments, and maximize the societal benefits of their spending.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The best way to reach me is via LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/lingh/, as well as email at ling.huang@technologynorth.net.
Below are some recent media links:
A podcast I did in May 2024 has a lot of detailed information.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7196872052354482177/
An Innovative and Holistic Approach for Autism Employment and IT Labor Shortage
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovative-holistic-approach-autism-employment-labor-shortage-huang/
Document digitization service — Life of A Box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6sbfEjdNlA
A two-minute trailer — Cliff 20 — The Future of the Spectrum Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSMeSG6eHHA
The full feature documentary — Cliff 20 — The Future of the Spectrum Documentary (released in Oct 2023)
https://youtu.be/Zi3Bd4bC_k4?si=I5K9EhF1ZOQ1ey-j
The City of Edmonton Online Publication — The A-Team of Edmonton story (Published in Oct 2023)
https://why.edmonton.ca/stories/TechnologyNorth
Edmonton Journal Oct 21, 2023 — Edmonton tech company helps people with autism find jobs, excel
Technology North is featured in volume 1 of the Innovate Alberta book — page 49 and pages 216 to 219.
https://issuu.com/svengvp/docs/alberta_ebook_-_10?fr=sZDk0YjYyODI3MTI
Our A-Team family feedback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkvLPzkxjD4
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
