Hiring people with autism: “Not because you feel sorry for them!”
Imagine that you hear of model employees who are never late, are accurate, are meticulous, never go on strike and never demand a pay increase. If you’re looking to recruit, that’s something that will immediately grab your attention.
Well these “model employees” exist. They have autistic disorders, and only between 2 and 5% of them have access to the job market.
It should be said that often these autistic adults cannot read, write or verbally communicate. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have skills that could be of interest to the corporate world.
That’s precisely what Jean-François Dufresne, CEO of the Andros group (which notably owns the Bonne Maman, Mamie Nova and Saint-Michel biscuits brands), realised.
Jean-François is directly affected by this issue, as his son Luc is autistic, so he created the Vivre et Travailler Autrement association to help adults access employment.
This resulted in the creation of Maison du Parc, a two-pronged project. On the one hand, it focuses on the work aspect, providing part-time employment to autistic adults in one of the Andros group’s factories in adapted jobs. On the other hand, it focuses on the accommodation aspect, because the very reason these autistic adults have trouble finding and keeping a job is because they need specific support throughout the day.
However, Yenny Gorce, Director of Vivre et Travailler Autrement and Autismcanwork, points out that to carry out the association’s mission, it immediately had to part ways with Andros.
“We didn’t want people to think that it was only possible because the head of the company had a direct connection with autism”, she explains. “Right away, we wanted to be able to help other companies do what had been done at Andros… and show that you don’t need to be concerned about or affected by autism to see that they have genuine skills that can interest all types of company and all types of activity”.
However, it is still a challenge to convince companies to hire autistic people, whose disability is without doubt one of the most stigmatising.
“It is probably the disability that frightens people the most”, says Yenny, “but you shouldn’t hire them just because you feel sorry for them”.
Vivre et Travailler Autrement certainly isn’t looking for charity… quite simply because it wouldn’t work. You have to show companies the advantages of hiring autistic staff.
So now we get to the most controversial part of our conversation with Yenny, who explains that companies appreciate this quiet and compliant workforce. Is there not a risk that these autistic adults could be exploited?
“People don’t want to exploit them… they want to benefit from their skills… show that they have them”. She corrects herself and admits that “there is indeed a risk that they could be exploited by a company. But if you’re exploited, that means you are highly regarded!”
This stance may not be to everyone’s taste, but at least she’s being honest about this issue: is it better to marginalise autistic people, keep them out of mainstream society, or is it better to give them a job, integrate them within society even if there is always a risk of them being exploited by our companies?
“And, when you think about it, aren’t we all exploited to a certain extent by the companies that employ us?”, she says with a little smile.
The full meeting is available on YouTube :
#LePlateau is a third place dedicated to Open Innovation within Societe Generale. It’s a 1,000m² space that hosts, under one roof and for periods of up to 6 months, Societe Generale teams and ecosystem start-ups. Each resident works on their own disruptive or innovative project in large open spaces where teams commingle. #LePlateau provides an environment enabling this work to be undertaken in a single place, but also and more importantly methodological support to accelerate projects, the organising of the residents and premises to enable them to exchange and share their expertise and experience.
