Part 3 - Onboarding

Establish an understating of the lines of communication:

• Who to go to ask for help or direction.
• When is it a good time to talk to your manager about work load, priorities and tasks that need to be completed.
• Ask a coworker to be a mentor. This mentor is someone who is available to support, work with the new employee, someone to talk to about the lines of communication and unwritten social rules or hidden curriculum in the workplace.

Importance of Manufacturing Company Communication

A Mentor works with the autistic employee to give direction, answer questions not only about the work tasks but about the social interactions, lines of communication and unwritten rules in the workplace that occur daily.  This person should be open to answering questions and being direct about how the autistic employee is communicating and interacting with other employees.  :

• Could be a co-worker or a supervisor
• Is supportive with new employees
• Has an understanding of how to support an autistic co-worker by working with an autism employment specialist and the autistic employee together to establish a plan.
• Is open to talking about what support is needed in clear concrete language.
• Is willing to train and advise a new employee on the unwritten rules within the workplace
• Works with the autistic employee without disclosing their diagnosis to all employees

6 Key Ways to engage employees with disabilities in Workplace Mentoring

Using a tiered check list system ensures that an employee knows at each stage of their starting on the job what is expected and what they need to complete.

This can tie in to an organizations matrix of KPI’s and eliminates any confusion that can happen with verbal only communication.

Checklist culture enhances human performance, causes lasting results

We recommend that a meeting be held with the supervisor to review the expectations listed below, answer any questions that the supervisor is concerned with and express your feeling of confidence in the supervisor and that their experience will be productive for the company and the autistic employee.

Behaviours to be modeled:

• Talk openly with the employee to understand the individual and the supports the individual needs in the workplace.
• Communicates concretely, clearly and concisely with the autistic employee.
• Give regular feedback on work performance, highlighting the successes as well as the skills that need to be improved
• Does not disclose the diagnosis to other employees without the permission of the autistic employee

It can help to have an Autism Employment specialist available for the onboarding process to support the new employee, the supervisor and the mentor.

Consultation should be available as the employee continues to work in your employment, as needed, when there are changes in the workplace.

Examples

• A new supervisor, who needs to understand the autistic employee and their workplace adjustments.
• The employer has concerns or questions and needs a resource person to review these concerns with.
• Assistance advocating or mediating for the employer or employee to understand changes in the workplace.

Provide specific feedback on performance with actionable steps. Managers and coworker’s should:

• Give regular feedback on successes, work well done.
• Use language that clearly and concretely describes the tasks completed and describe the steps required for skills improvement

Examples

• You completed 25 widgets successfully in the time allotted. Well done.
• It would be great if you could focus on mastering the drill press with accuracy