ADHD Awareness Month: Why employers shouldn’t wait for a diagnosis to offer support

As debate grows over access to ADHD diagnoses, employers should focus less on labels and more on what people need to perform their best, says Nina Parson

As the NHS considers limiting the number of people being formally diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), charities have warned that businesses could be left struggling to know when to put support in place.

Fortunately, employers don’t have to wait for a diagnosis to help. Just as the NHS is exploring a more holistic, ‘needs-based’ approach, employers can look at what someone is struggling with and what support they need to perform well in their role.

So what does support look like in practice? Here are five ways employers can support someone who thinks they might have ADHD, with or without a formal diagnosis.

Five ways to support an employee with ADHD

1. Don’t wait until someone is struggling

One of the biggest issues affecting employees experiencing symptoms of ADHD at work is the time taken to get support. Perhaps they struggle with sitting for long periods, have periods of the day when they find it harder to concentrate than others or need variety and the stimulation of being around other people.

Left unsupported and misunderstood, these symptoms can be perceived as performance issues, leading employees to become so anxious or stressed about struggles they’re having at work that they develop mental health issues or quit work.

Instead, simple adjustments to their role, such as allowing them to do detailed written work when they’re at their most attentive, encouraging them to work alongside others, or providing standing desks or rocking footrests, can be the difference between them continuing to struggle or thriving at work.

2. You don’t need a diagnosis to make an adjustment

Supporting someone with ADHD, or any other neurodiverse or health condition, is about identifying how it’s impacting their ability to do their role and thinking holistically about what reasonable measures can be put in place to help them perform.

If you had an employee with a broken leg, the chances are you wouldn’t think twice about moving their desk downstairs or letting them work from home. If someone on a shop floor was obviously struggling with hot flushes, you would hopefully feel inclined to allow them to access to cool water or a cotton uniform to help.

Similarly, supporting someone with ADHD doesn’t require a formal diagnosis. Employers are legally obliged, under the Equality Act 2010, to support employees whose symptoms have a substantial and long-term impact on their day-to-day activities. This means considering what reasonable measures can be put in place.

3. Look at the environment, not just the individual

There is a strong prevalence of mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, in people who are neurodiverse. Often this can be made worse by individuals having to constantly adapt to an environment that’s working against them.

Neurodevelopmental conditions stem from childhood. Individuals are born autistic or with dyslexia or ADHD, they are not born with anxiety or depression. Lack of support can cause mental health conditions to develop when someone is struggling.

Even when support is available, the individual may still have to climb a mountain to access it. They might obtain funding for assistive technology through Access to Work, only to find out isn’t compatible with the company software or be given no support on how to use it. Or they may be given adjustments only for their employer to consider them impractical, meaning effective support must take the environment into account. 

4. Find out what someone actually needs

Just as the NHS is now moving towards a needs-based approach, the true value of support lies in tailoring it to what the individual actually needs to thrive. In the workplace, that means looking at the specific demands of their role.

A Workplace Needs Assessment (WPNA) looks at what someone is required to do within their particular role, where they are struggling and identifies adjustments and   strategies that could help. For example, we recently helped a young woman with ADHD who was struggling to write complex reports in the morning.

People with ADHD often find it easier to concentrate at particular times of the day, in her case later in the day, so we suggested she start work a little later, and carry out her site visits in the morning, so she could create a working pattern that played to her strengths and ability to focus.

5. Give people tools they can use for life

Sometimes people with ADHD don’t fully understand their symptoms or have the insights needed to figure out for themselves how best to succeed at work. They may have developed coping strategies that worked in education or a previous role, but the demands of a new role can mean these no longer work and they suddenly start to struggle.

If diagnosed, medication may be offered, but it can take up to six months to get the dosage right and not everyone wants to go down that route. Coaching can therefore be a valuable way to help people understand and manage their symptoms.

I recently supported a young apprentice who had been given the opportunity to work across all areas of his business. He wanted to work in design but a placement requiring months of working alone with spreadsheets on a computer by himself left him struggling to absorb information, leading to difficulties with focus, concentration and task initiation. His performance was impacted, attracting the attention of the department manager and led to increasing anxiety about going into work.

ADHD coaching helped him understand he was a creative thinker and practical learner who needed the stimulation of being around other people and found it hard to focus on tasks that held little interest for him. Armed with that understanding he felt able to ask to be moved back into a role that allowed him to learn from working alongside others once more.

Ultimately, when it comes to supporting neurodiverse employees, the goal shouldn’t be to take a tick box approach to legal compliance, wait for a diagnosis or simply put an adjustment in place. It’s about helping people understand what they need to thrive at work and creating an environment that plays to their strengths.

As an independent review has found, neurodivergent people can thrive in the workplace when given tailored employment support that responds to individual strengths and challenges, based on need rather than diagnosis.

For employees with ADHD, those strengths often include outside-the-box thinking, exceptional people skills, an ability to work in fast-paced environments and problem solve under pressure. The right support can help unlock that potential.

Nina Parson is a principal occupational psychologist for Insight Workplace Health

How can we help?

Insight Workplace Health can support individuals with ADHD in the following ways. If you would like a free call-back to discuss a challenging case, please email info@insightworkplacehealth.co.uk and let us know a good time to call.

Workplace Needs Assessment: Identifies where someone is struggling within their role and recommends practical adjustments to help them perform at their best.

ADHD Screening: Explores an individual’s past challenges, from education to current role to identify patterns that may, or may not be, indicative of ADHD.

ADHD Coaching: 4-6 sessions to help individuals understand their symptoms and build practical strategies to thrive at work and reduce stress and anxiety.