5.6 Decision-making and onboarding

The final step to evaluate when hiring dyslexic thinking talent is decision-making and onboarding. If you've evolved all the steps in your recruitment process up until now, you're already leading the way in hiring dyslexic thinking talent.

Switching to a skills-based hiring approach ensures you are breaking down the barriers that keep dyslexic talent hidden. It also allows you to access the very group who are hardwired with the skills our new Industrial Revolution needs.

From job ads that feature skills, not qualifications; application processes that offer different ways to apply; screening methods to filter in dyslexic talent, not filter it out; ways to interview that allow dyslexic thinkers to show their best selves; and new models of assessment and testing that take a skills-first approach – all of these vital elements work together to ensure your talent pool includes dyslexic thinkers rather than excluding them.

Now it's decision time. When it comes to deciding who to offer the role to, your evolved recruitment process should have helped to build an accurate picture of each candidate's pattern of strengths, challenges, and human potential. This allows you to align each candidate to the needs of the role.

The next step is to create a tailored onboarding plan and to ensure that managers and teammates are trained to understand and empower dyslexic thinkers so the whole team is set up to thrive. Here's Matt to explain more.

When it comes to deciding who's best for the job, focus on the candidate's potential and unique strengths rather than a set of standardised criteria. Remember that dyslexic candidates have a spiky profile. This makes them exceptionally good at some things like creative thinking, communication, and complex problem-solving.

In these skills, they will often outperform other candidates. They will also have equally spiky challenges relative to other candidates. These may relate to organisation, reading vast amounts of information, or managing competing priorities.

As each dyslexic has a different pattern of strengths and challenges, your recruitment process so far will have helped you to build up an accurate picture for that candidate. It's then about looking closely at how much the strengths can turbocharge the candidate in their new role and how the challenges can be accommodated in a supportive work environment.

This should feed into a tailored onboarding plan. Start by working out what they need to work at their best. Dyslexics don't need huge changes to create workplaces that empower dyslexic thinking. Simple things can make a big difference.

Customise onboarding with self-paced training that allows for pauses and replays, setting up dyslexic employees for success. Prioritise key tasks that must be completed in longer, realistic timeframes rather than overwhelming new starters with a multitude of demands.

Allow them to put in place assistive technology that works for them, whether that's speech-to-text, AI, or organisation, productivity, and project management tools. And most importantly, put in place dyslexic thinking awareness training for managers and teams.

Made By Dyslexia offers a free one-hour training course on LinkedIn Learning, which equips everyone with the knowledge they need to understand and empower dyslexic thinkers. Remember, the most successful teams are those that empower everyone to work to their strengths. How you onboard a dyslexic thinker and help them to lean into their dyslexic thinking will really turbocharge a team, so empower them. Here's one organisation who is doing great work in this space.

At Cisco, we don't view the differences, such as dyslexic thinking, as challenges to overcome but rather as valuable assets that enrich our workplace. What truly sets Cisco apart is our strengths-based philosophy. As leaders, we're laser focused on identifying what our talent excels at naturally, and then we intentionally lean into those strengths.

For example, we asked all new employees to complete a strengths-based assessment so the employee and the manager can better understand the employees' strengths. We encourage our leaders to talk about employee strengths and how we can help maximise those strengths in their positions and day-to-day contributions.

Additionally, as we onboarded new employees, we provide different modes of learning, including self-paced learning, which provides employees with flexibility as they get started. Our goal is to align responsibilities with the natural strengths that dyslexic thinkers bring to the table, ensuring our hiring and onboarding processes fully support these unique capabilities.

But hiring and onboarding, they're just the beginning. We're committed to retaining our diverse thinkers by placing them in positions where their strengths can truly shine. At Cisco, we live by the philosophy, "One company, many careers."

By equipping our leaders with the skills needed to create a neuro-inclusive culture, we strengthen our approach to internal movement so everyone can grow their careers across various roles within the organisation. The best part of this approach is that practises that benefit dyslexic thinkers during onboarding typically benefit many other employees as well.

It's amazing to hear the strides global organisations are making in empowering dyslexic thinkers. So to summarise, when it comes to evaluating your decision-making and onboarding stage, here are three key takeaways. One, make sure the decision-making process takes a skills-based hiring approach, emphasising the candidate's potential and unique strengths rather than standardised criteria.

Two, provide tailored onboarding plans that identify what dyslexics need to work at their best and empower their dyslexic thinking. And three, put in place dyslexic thinking awareness training for managers and teams, which equips everyone with the knowledge they need to understand and empower dyslexic thinkers.