EY are setting the standard for inclusive workplaces, having opened their first UK Neuro-Diverse Centre of Excellence in Manchester.

On this week’s episode of the Northern Power Women podcast, Simone Roche MBE chats to Catriona Campbell, UK&I Client Technology & Innovation Officer at EY, as they discuss technology for good, the importance of empathy and authenticity, as well as EY’s exciting Neuro-Diverse Centre of Excellence announcement.   

From both EY’s collective experience as well as what Catriona has witnessed throughout her career, it is clear that the organisation will yield huge benefits from creating inclusive workplaces for neuro-diverse employees.

“In the US, we measured the impact on innovation, by comparing the work generated by neurodivergent and neurotypical professionals. Quality, efficiency and productivity were comparable, but the neurodivergent employees excelled at innovation. The diversity of thought and creativity they brought was a differentiator.” Describing the difference that including neuro-diverse employees made to the innovation function in particular, she stated we found that “when we recruited [Neuro-diverse individuals] we started to think differently. Five years in, we have a 95% retention rate of Neuro-diverse individuals in the EY NCoE network.”  

Particularly thinking outside the box and looking for creative solutions to problems, being able to bring an entirely new perspective was of a huge benefit to the team:

“The neuro-diverse individuals were so much more innovative, it’s just a different line of reasoning and thought!”  

Throughout the episode, Catriona highlighted that the creation of supportive working environments is “the right thing to do, to make sure that our teams are really diverse, because that makes us better, but also because there’s some incredible untapped talent out there”. 

To find out more about EY’s first Neuro-Diverse Centre of Excellence in the UK, make sure you check out this press release.