Inclusive recruitment – neurodiversity

Camden are committed to ensuring we are a truly inclusive organisation that encourages diversity in all respects, including diversity of thinking. Diversity in thinking helps us make better decisions, and leads to a more innovative, impactful organisation.

At Camden, we want to ensure that we are appointing the best candidate for the role. This means ensuring our recruitment process is as accessible and inclusive as possible, so that everyone is able to take part equally. We have been working with colleagues and our staff networks – using feedback, insight and experiences shared with us and we are developing an Adjustments guide to support candidates throughout the recruitment and selection process.

If you have a disability, long term health condition or are neurodiverse, we are committed to providing the adjustments that you need.

David Cohen, Internal Communications Officer, tells us about his recruitment experience...

In January 2011, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s, a Neurodiverse condition, now commonly classed under Autism.

Fast forward a few years and I was starting to look around internally for a change. I got an interview – with a panel of three – some questions I answered quite comfortably, some not so. I didn’t get the job. I decided I wanted some feedback on my interview performance, so I arranged to get this from the panel chair. The outcome was that it was clear, that being asked interview questions on the hoof, without any prior knowledge of them, was challenging for me, and would probably keep holding me back.

Once I told the interview panel chair that I was autistic they suggested that I start to declare my disability in advance, and see what would happen if I requested a copy of the questions in before the interview.

"I can tell you that the difference it made to my performance in interviews was huge – I felt I was now getting much closer to making a career change, and I thought it only a matter of time before this adjustment would really help me secure another role within the Council. I came really close to securing a new role on more than one occasion, and I put this improvement down to requesting making a request for a reasonable adjustment.

The rest, as they say, is history. I started my current secondment in March 2021.

"So, if you feel that you need a similar type of adjustment for job interviews, don’t hesitate in asking for it.