Neurodiversity @ FC

Hi there! I’m Tom, I’ve been a member of the Talent Acquisition team at Funding Circle for nearly 2 years.

Here at Funding Circle we have several groups within the business which are run by Circlers. These groups run events, initiatives and aim to make FC a good working environment for the people they represent. These groups are Women@FC, Circle of Pride, Let’s Talk About Heritage, FC Impact, Parents@FC and Neurodiversity@FC.

I’m a part of the last group, as I’m neurodivergent. I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia, also known as developmental coordination disorder, at a young age. It’s an impairment of physical movements caused by messages from the brain not being transmitted correctly to the body. It’s impacted me throughout my entire life at school, university and the world of work. Most people are impacted differently, some struggle with organisational skills, others struggle more with activities that require fine motor skills but for most dyspraxics it’s a combination of physical and mental hindrances.

I was very lucky, since I was diagnosed at such a young age I received assistance during my education, mostly in the form of extra time for exams, and at University I found I was able to cope pretty well with the workload. However, when I entered the world of work I immediately discovered far less understanding and assistance than I’d been used to. Luckily for me my first manager was very patient and because I managed to deliver results he stopped commenting on the unusual ways I organised my day or went about my work pretty quickly. However, throughout the rest of my career I often found myself being pushed to work in a manner which didn’t suit me.

This was until I joined Funding Circle. I joined a welcoming and understanding team who didn’t push me to change how I went about my day and most importantly I found a group of people who’d faced similar challenges in the form of ND@FC. There are over 100 people in the slack channel for the group which is made up of people from across the business in various different roles. We have regular group meetings and also run various events and initiatives throughout the year.

Last year, I was very proud to help run a “Reverse Mentoring” scheme for the group where we had five managers have 1–1 sessions with Neurodivergent Circlers. The aim of this initiative was to inform managers about what it’s like in the workplace as a Neurodiverse person as well as potentially helping them to better understand people in their teams who could be Neurodiverse.

Another, less serious but no less important, initiative we ran recently was the ND@FC Film Club. Each month, the group selects a film which depicts neurodiversity and then we get together to discuss it over lunch. We have plenty more ideas for impactful and fun initiatives for the rest of 2024 as well.

The ultimate goal for the group is to make Funding Circle as accepting and welcoming for our neurodiverse employees as possible, whilst there’s certainly still a long way to go and other things we can improve it feels great to be a part of a team which respects each other’s differences!