As the second largest employer of Australians, the retail sector should engage in neurodiverse employment strategies to meet the societal expectations of diverse workforces that represent local communities and leverage the benefits of neurodiversity.
Neurodiverse adult workers include those with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette’s Syndrome and depression. Such groups experience unemployment at a rate (40.8%) more than 3 times the rate for people with disability and almost six times the rate of people without disability. The committee has recently funded Queensland University of Technology researchers Dr Kathy Moore and Dr Muhammad Ali, to undertake a study that aims to gain an understanding of the perceived benefits and challenges of managing a neurodiverse workforce and the relationship between neurodiverse HR practices and organisational outcomes from a frontline retail staff perspective.
The knowledge gained will inform HR practices for implementing and managing neurodiverse employment strategies to create sustainable employment for neurodiverse individuals in the sector. The findings will also inform how neurodiverse HR practices can be formulated to improve organisational outcomes such as employee productivity and retention.
Dr Moore said, “there is little knowledge of the actual benefits and day-to-day challenges of managing and working within a neurodiverse workforce from the frontline retail staff perspective”.
“There is also a clear lack of evidence from the ‘shopfloor’ level to inform how HR practices, including recruitment, training and performance management, can be formulated to facilitate sustainable employment for neurodiverse individuals whilst managing workplace challenges that are specific to the retail sector.”
Over the coming 12 weeks, both researchers will be adopting a mixed methods approach to address these research important questions.”
The quantitative research approach aims to test the relationship between perceived neurodiversity in the workplace, perceived effectiveness of HR practices, and perceived employee productivity and turnover. The qualitative data from the open-ended questions will be analysed using the thematic analysis technique to uncover common supportive HR practices and identify common perceived benefits and challenges of a neurodiverse workforce.
The findings of these studies are expected to be finalised and reported by mid-October 2021.
Chair of the Australian Retailers Association Consumer Research Committee, Professor Gary Mortimer said, “I consider it vital to encourage collaboration between the tertiary and business sectors, in order to deliver impactful research outcomes that benefit retailers and consumers”.
“Specifically, in relation to Dr Moore and Dr Ali’s work, we understand that the retail sector is the second largest employer of people in Australia. It is constantly evolving and there is a need to understand the challenges faced by a neurodiverse workforce”.
Completed research
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