CII Says Firms are Overlooking Neurodivergent Talent, amid Skills Shortages
Strategic Priority
(Copyright, CII, reproduced with kind permission)
Employers risk excluding precisely the talent they need to address growing skills gaps in technology, data, analysis and risk, the Chartered Insurance Institute has warned.
The membership body, representing 120,000 insurance and personal finance professionals, argued that unlocking neurodivergent talent should be made a strategic priority in a digital and data-driven economy.
The CII has published a guide for firms to do just that, setting out how neurodivergent professionals can bring vital strengths to meet the desperate need for skills in technology and risk.
Pattern recognition, systems thinking, attention to detail and problem-solving are highly relevant to roles across insurance and personal finance. Yet traditional recruitment and management practices can prevent neurodivergent candidates from demonstrating these strengths, with automated CV reviews, timed assessments, personality tests and unnecessarily complex application processes.
Produced in collaboration with GAIN (Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity), the guide points to research that half of neurodivergent adults surveyed had experienced discrimination when looking for a job. More than a quarter had been rejected for subjective reasons such as their communication style or perceived “team fit”.
CII Chief Executive Matthew Hill said: "The best employers in the insurance and personal finance sectors reach into talent pools that traditional recruitment processes miss. They actively seek out people who communicate, process information or solve problems differently. In short, they value neurodiversity. Our professions can and should be a beacon for the wider economy because they depend so intimately on people."
The guide, published during the CII’s Disability Access Symposium week, recommends straightforward changes. These include clearer job descriptions, sharing interview questions in advance, offering alternative skills-based assessments, allowing additional processing time and asking candidates about their communication and sensory preferences.
