Twenty-eight companies have already taken advantage of no-cost workshops held in New York City and Nashville to guide large employers in the design and implementation plan for neurodiversity initiatives within their organizations, offered through a partnership between UConn and Wells Fargo announced last year.

Employers in the greater-Boston area will have the next opportunity to join in on the program, presented by the Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at UConn, during the center’s upcoming workshop scheduled for Feb. 5, 2025 in Boston.

The workshop will be hosted by Loomis, Sayles & Company, the global asset manager headquartered at One Financial Center in Boston.

“We can’t wait to bring this groundbreaking program to companies in Boston and the Northeast,” says Judy Reilly, the executive director of UConn’s center. “Companies that have been struggling to get traction with neurodiversity initiatives are now mid-launch with their first neurodiversity internship program, engaging in company-wide education about autism and neurodivergence, and securing executive sponsorship with their workshop-developed business cases. They tell us that without the workshop, they would not have had access to the information they needed to make this kind of progress.”

“We’re delighted to host fellow Boston-area employers for this innovative workshop,” says Melissa Partridge, director of community investments at Loomis Sayles. “Learning how to create an environment that attracts and supports talented teams, including neurodivergent jobseekers and colleagues, enriches workplace culture by fostering diverse perspectives, creativity and problem-solving that drives success for everyone.”

This series of one-day workshops – supported by a $3.75 million grant from Wells Fargo – aims to provide instruction to key leaders from Fortune 500 companies to help design neurodiversity initiatives end-to-end.

The goal is to help leaders understand what neuroinclusion in the workplace looks like, and then apply that knowledge as they map out a plan for hiring and employment practice changes for their companies that enabled them to better support people who communicate, behave, think, and work differently.

The workshops are relevant to any company that has 1,000 or more employees, according to the center. Participants can expect to develop a clear understanding of the barriers that many highly skilled autistic and neurodivergent individuals face in obtaining and keeping employment, to draft the business case to secure executive leadership support for this work, and to actually begin designing the components of their neurodiversity employment ecosystem within their organization.

Established in 2021 with three initial industry partners – including Wells Fargo – the Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at UConn quickly distinguished itself as a national leader on neuroinclusivity in employment. The center was renamed the Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at UConn in October 2024 in response to Wells Fargo’s shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration, expertise, and generous financial support.

For neurodivergent jobseekers – people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other cognitive differences – traditional hiring processes and a general lack of knowledge about neurodiversity on employers’ parts can create obstacles to demonstrating their talents. They often experience higher rates of unemployment and underemployment.

The center’s overall focus is on improving career outcomes for neurodivergent individuals, providing innovative employer education, and fostering better connections between job seekers and companies.

The center also leads a University and Community Council that helps other higher educational institutions support neurodivergent individuals and connects them with resources and tools to help support their employment goals as well as a Neuroinclusive Candidate Network that helps individuals connect with companies, mentors, peers, events, and resources to support their career journeys.

“We have had overwhelmingly positive response from the companies that have participated in our workshops so far,” Reilly says. “These group workshops offer organizations across the country an actionable, no-cost pathway to design their own practices that tap into the strengths of current and future employees with cognitive differences. What’s really cool is that companies learn directly from the Wells Fargo team, whose award-winning neurodiversity program informs the workshop curriculum and whose lived experience provides invaluable insight and guidance to companies in a structured, sequential format they would not otherwise be able to access.”

Additional employer workshops are currently being planned for later this spring, to be held in Houston, Texas; London; Washington, D.C.; St. Louis, Missouri; and Columbus, Ohio.

Companies interested in participating in the upcoming Boston workshop are encouraged to email  neurodiversity.employment@uconn.edu.

For more information about employer training and workshops and other opportunities available through the Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at UConn, please visit neurodiversity-employment.org.