Practical guidance for hiring and supporting neurodivergent talent
Launching Bank of Ireland’s Neuroinclusion Employer Toolkit: Helen MacNamara, head of cyber engagement, Bank of Ireland; Claire Murray, head of inclusion and diversity, Bank of Ireland; Joanne Healy, head of employee relations, Bank of Ireland; and Aoife Ogden, cybersecurity awareness specialist. Picture: Naoise Culhane
For a long time, neurodivergence in the workplace was a subject people tiptoed around or ignored entirely. But the conversation is shifting, slowly but surely. Awareness of neurodivergence – ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and more – is increasing, research is deepening, and adult diagnoses are on the rise. A better understanding of the breadth of human cognitive function can only be a good thing, and employers who welcome and accommodate differences only stand to gain. Taking practical steps towards fostering an inclusive workplace is a win for all – but it’s not always obvious where to start.
That’s why, in October 2025, Bank of Ireland launched a free Neuroinclusion Employer Toolkit, developed in partnership with auticon – a global social enterprise specialising in neuroinclusion services. The toolkit is available to any organisation in Ireland, of any size, at no cost.
I recently spoke with Eimear Harty, a HR director and head of inclusion and diversity at Bank of Ireland, to find out what drove it, what's actually in it, and whether it can make a real difference to your business.
Eimear describes neuro-inclusivity as a gap in a strategy that, over the past number of years, had already built strong networks around areas including gender, ethnicity, intergenerational issues and LGBTQ+ inclusion. "As we reviewed our strategy, we identified this as an area that we just hadn’t tapped into yet," she told me. "And I understood that there was perhaps a limiting of potential through not operating neuro-inclusively."
It started, correctly, with listening. Bank of Ireland worked with sixteen colleagues who volunteered to give frank feedback – in partnership with auticon – on what it was actually like to work there as a neurodivergent person. That process informed a neuroinclusion strategy launched in 2024, with a stated ambition to become one of the most neuroinclusive companies in Ireland.
The results came quickly. A 2024 staff survey found that approximately 100 more employees self-identified as neurodivergent compared to the previous year. That is a striking number, indicating how many more people now feel safe enough to discuss their unique experiences and perspectives.
"Once you start to talk about something," Eimear said, "the volume gets louder – and that naturally starts to contribute to psychological safety."
She also pointed to something many of us will recognise: the growing number of people going for adult diagnosis, often after their own children were assessed. With the broader increase of awareness and research comes enhanced diagnostic tools and support interventions, and an increase in diagnoses is a result.
Bank of Ireland partnered with auticon to document the success of this strategy in the admirably practical Neuroinclusion Employer Toolkit. The toolkit covers ten areas, including inclusive recruitment, workplace accommodations, policy guidelines, and what the bank calls an "inclusion passport" – an idea I found particularly compelling when I read through the document.
The inclusion passport is a living record of whatever an employee needs to do their job well. It travels with them as they move through an organisation, so they don't have to explain themselves from scratch every time they move roles or get a new manager. It can cover medical conditions, caring responsibilities, or simply the conditions that help someone work at their best. And critically, it does not require a formal diagnosis.
That last point matters enormously in an Irish context. Getting an ADHD or autism diagnosis, for example, can take years and cost thousands of euros through the private system. The more effective reality, which many Irish employers don't fully grasp, is that reasonable accommodations can and should be made without one. In fact, accommodations may often be tied to a stage of life and don’t have any diagnosis at all. "It's about removing barriers," Eimear told me. "Not about labels."
The toolkit's definition of reasonable accommodations is refreshingly practical and largely free to implement. We are talking about things like sending a meeting agenda in advance, providing written instructions alongside verbal ones, designating quiet spaces for focused work, and offering flexible hours. These are not radical interventions. In fact, many of them would benefit every employee in an organisation, neurodivergent or not.
“All these small but tangible effects support us as a high-performing organisation.” The three-pillar approach The toolkit is structured around what auticon and Bank of Ireland call a three-pillar framework: infrastructure, awareness & education, and embedding change. I asked Eimear which of the three proved hardest to get right.
Her answer was revealing. The awareness and training piece, which might seem the most daunting, was actually the one that flew. Within the first three months of launching internally, 65 per cent of Bank of Ireland's staff voluntarily completed a training programme on neurodivergence. Not because it was mandatory - simply because people were genuinely curious and eager to understand.
The heavier lift was infrastructure. For a bank the size of Bank of Ireland, that meant everything from reviewing sensory lighting across 161 branches to redesigning recruitment processes to putting coaching supports in place. "It's about picking it off piece by piece," Eimear said. "Not everybody's going to take the same journey in one go."
That is exactly why the toolkit was designed to be modular. You do not have to overhaul everything at once. You can start with one or two changes – rewriting a job advertisement to remove unnecessary jargon, introducing a simple meeting agenda policy, creating a quiet corner in your office – and build from there.
I asked Eimear whether there had been any hesitancy about releasing something so carefully developed to the wider market, including competitors. Her answer was immediate: “It was a very, very simple decision for us.” Bank of Ireland's stated purpose is “to help customers, colleagues, society and shareholders to thrive.” The bank had already published its neuroinclusion policy and hiring charter publicly before the toolkit launched. And as Eimear pointed out, many of the organisations that stand to benefit most are SMEs, which are, in many cases, Bank of Ireland's own customers.
To bring the conversation back to brass tacks, taking steps to build inclusive workplaces is not just the right thing to do – it’s good for business. That’s an important point to remember when trying to encourage small, time-poor, cash-strapped businesses to implement these changes. Many of them are free, and everyone will benefit.
What this means in practice According to a 2024 Red C survey, 26 per cent of Irish adults are neurodivergent or have an immediate family member who is. And yet 48 per cent of neurodivergent workers have not disclosed this to their employer. That is a significant gap between the reality of people's daily lives and the conditions they are working in.
The Bank of Ireland toolkit won't close that gap on its own. But it is a serious, practical, free resource that addresses a key barrier that many Irish employers face: not knowing where to start.
The toolkit is titled Helping You Thrive – Celebrating Neurodivergent Talent at Work and you can access it at bankofireland.com. Whether you run a team of five or five hundred, there is something in it for you.
