What Helps Neurodivergent Employees Thrive? New Research Points to Three Things

Neurodiversity has become a much more prominent workplace conversation in recent years. More organisations are investing in awareness, reasonable adjustments and neuroinclusive management, which is encouraging to see.

But an interesting new study published in the British Journal of Psychology asks us to look a little deeper. Rather than focusing only on diagnosis or individual differences, the researchers explored how neurodivergence relates to wellbeing through three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness.

For employers, these three areas offer a useful way of thinking about what neuroinclusion actually feels like in practice.

Because perhaps the question isn’t simply, “Do we support neurodivergent employees?”

It is also: Have we created the conditions in which different people can thrive?

What does the research tell us about neurodivergence and wellbeing?

The research, conducted by Jan van Rijswijk and Petru Lucian Curșeu, brought together two complementary studies.

The first analysed survey data from 2,157 people with work experience from a representative sample of Dutch households. The researchers found that experiences differed across forms of neurodivergence, but respondents with Autism and ADHD reported significantly lower life satisfaction and higher levels of stress and psychological maladjustment than neurotypical participants.

The second study analysed 2,214 life stories shared by neurodivergent people on Reddit, using large language models to explore relationships between neurodivergence, wellbeing and psychological need fulfilment.

The findings weren’t uniform across neurodivergent groups, which is important. Neurodivergent people are not a homogeneous population, and we should be wary of assuming that everyone with a particular diagnosis will experience work in the same way.

However, the researchers found that, with the exception of ADD in their analysis, the fulfilment of three psychological needs – autonomy, competence and relatedness – accounted for the association between neurodivergence and both life satisfaction and stress.

These concepts come from Self-Determination Theory, an established psychological theory of human motivation and wellbeing.

And they give employers some interesting questions to consider.

1. Autonomy: Can I work in a way that works for me?

Autonomy is our need to experience choice, agency and an appropriate level of control.

Think about how this might translate into everyday working life.

Can someone choose to receive complex information in writing rather than relying entirely on verbal instructions? Can they use headphones when they need to concentrate? Is there flexibility around how they structure focused work? Do they have some control over aspects of their environment that affect sensory load, attention or energy?

Small workplace norms can sometimes have a disproportionate impact on neurodivergent employees.

Someone might know exactly what helps them work effectively but avoid doing it because they worry that wearing headphones looks antisocial, asking for written instructions makes them appear less capable, or opting out of an unnecessary meeting will be interpreted as disengagement.

Neuroinclusion isn’t about removing expectations. It is about questioning whether there genuinely needs to be only one way of meeting them.

2. Competence: Do I have the conditions I need to succeed?

Competence is our ability to be effective.

This is particularly relevant to neurodiversity because someone’s environment can significantly affect their ability to demonstrate what they are capable of.

Consider an employee who receives vague instructions, works with constantly changing priorities and only receives feedback when something has gone wrong.

For someone experiencing executive functioning or information-processing differences, that environment may create considerable additional cognitive demand. Over time, repeatedly struggling with unclear expectations can affect someone’s confidence and sense of competence, even when they have significant strengths and capability.

Clear expectations, structured communication, constructive feedback and appropriate adjustments aren’t complicated interventions. Nor are they exclusively “neurodiversity adjustments”.

They are often simply good management.

But they may make a particularly important difference to someone who is otherwise spending considerable energy trying to interpret ambiguity or work around unnecessary barriers.

3. Relatedness: Do I feel safe and accepted here?

Relatedness is our need to feel connected to, accepted by and valued by others.

This takes us beyond having an inclusion policy or training and into someone’s everyday experience of belonging.

For some neurodivergent employees, navigating work can involve masking or camouflaging: adapting aspects of their natural behaviour in an attempt to meet neurotypical expectations.

That might mean monitoring eye contact, suppressing natural behaviours, rehearsing conversations, trying to interpret unwritten social rules or avoiding asking questions for fear of appearing difficult.

The research discusses how this misalignment between people’s natural behaviour and the expectations of their environment can contribute to masking and exhaustion.

Creating relatedness therefore requires more than telling employees they can “bring their whole selves to work”.

It requires psychological safety: an environment where people can ask questions, communicate differently, discuss their needs and acknowledge when something isn’t working without fearing that their capability or commitment will be questioned.

Why these three areas matter in workplace support

These ideas particularly resonated with us at Mindset because autonomy, competence and relatedness reflect many of the things we already explore when supporting neurodivergent people at work.

During our workplace needs assessments, for example, we don’t simply take a diagnosis and work from a standard list of recommended adjustments.

We consider the individual, their strengths and challenges, the demands of their role and the environment around them. We want to understand where the barriers actually are and what realistic adjustments or support might help.

That naturally involves considering questions around autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Does the person have sufficient flexibility in how they work? Do they have the clarity, tools and support they need to perform effectively? Do they feel understood and able to communicate their needs safely?

Our neurodiversity coaching similarly focuses on helping individuals understand how they work, recognise their strengths and challenges, and develop realistic strategies around areas such as executive functioning, energy, communication, boundaries and self-advocacy.

But individual support is only part of the picture.

An employee can develop excellent self-awareness and strategies, but there is a limit to what they can achieve if their working environment remains inflexible or their manager doesn’t understand how to support different ways of thinking, communicating and working.

This is why neurodiversity training for managers and organisations matters too.

Training can help managers move beyond simply knowing what ADHD, Autism or dyslexia are and towards understanding what inclusive management actually looks like: clearer communication, appropriate flexibility, effective conversations about adjustments, and greater awareness of how different behaviours may be interpreted and supported.

The responsibility for neuroinclusion shouldn’t sit solely with the neurodivergent person.

Neuroinclusion shouldn’t depend on disclosure

There is another important consideration here: employers won’t necessarily know who in their workforce is neurodivergent.

Some people have a formal diagnosis. Others may identify as neurodivergent without one. Some may be exploring the possibility themselves, or not be aware of their neurodivergent traits, and others will simply choose not to disclose at work.

If inclusive practices only begin once someone discloses a diagnosis, we potentially miss a much bigger opportunity.

Clearer communication benefits neurodivergent employees, but it benefits everyone else too.

Flexibility can support different sensory, attention or energy needs, but it can also help employees managing mental health difficulties, health conditions or caring responsibilities.

Psychological safety makes it easier for neurodivergent employees to discuss adjustments, but it also makes it easier for everyone to ask questions, raise concerns and acknowledge mistakes.

Rather than waiting for someone to struggle and then trying to retrofit support, we can design workplaces with human difference in mind from the outset.

How well is your organisation supporting neurodivergent employees?

The three psychological needs highlighted in this research also provide an interesting lens through which to look at your own organisation.

Consider:

Autonomy: How much flexibility do people genuinely have in how they communicate, organise their work and manage their working environment? And where might established ways of working be creating unnecessary barriers?

Competence: Are your management practices helping different people demonstrate what they are capable of? Think about clarity of expectations, feedback, workload, access to adjustments and whether individual strengths are being recognised.

Relatedness: How psychologically safe is it to work differently in your organisation? Would employees feel comfortable discussing their needs, asking for an adjustment or communicating differently without worrying about how they might be perceived?

These sound like relatively simple questions. In practice, the answers can be much more nuanced.

An organisation might offer flexible working, for example, while employees still feel there are unwritten consequences for using it. A reasonable adjustment process might exist, but employees may not feel psychologically safe enough to disclose that they need support. Managers may genuinely want to be inclusive while lacking the confidence or practical knowledge to know what that looks like day to day.

This is why meaningful neuroinclusion involves looking beyond policies or awareness and understanding how people actually experience work.

What might this mean for your organisation?

At Mindset, we look at these issues from an occupational psychology perspective, considering the interaction between the individual, their role, their manager and their wider working environment.

Want to understand what this could mean in practice for your organisation? Contact Mindset to arrange a conversation about where you are now, where the potential gaps might be, and what meaningful neuroinclusive support could look like.