Workers with developmental differences are constantly underestimated, say the CEOs of Autism Speaks, Best Buddies, and the Special Olympics - so they're launching an initiative to get 1 million neurodiverse Americans hired

• Record low national unemployment has made the job market extraordinarily tight for recruiters, but more than 80% of adults with developmental disabilities is in the US can't find work.
• Individuals with developmental differences match neurotypical workers' performance in many cases, and sometimes outperform them, according to several reports.
• Autism Speaks, Best Buddies, and Special Olympics have teamed up to expand the business world's definition of diversity to include cognitive differences and connect one million neurodiverse people with good jobs.
• The organizations' CEOs told Business Insider how their initiative could help businesses attract talented workers, improve company culture, and boost the bottom line.
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During this season of giving, three leading nonprofits are asking business leaders for something other than donations.

Autism Speaks, Best Buddies, and Special Olympics have teamed up to expand the business world's definition of diversity and connect 1 million neurodiverse people with good jobs by 2025. Starting in January, their joint Delivering Jobs initiative aims to match people who have cognitive or developmental differences with companies who have open employment and leadership opportunities.

Participating companies pledge to specifically consider candidates with intellectual or developmental disabilities for 1% of their workforce. There are currently around 7 million job openings in the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which would yield 700,000 placements if every employer adopted the pledge. International hiring is expected to round out the million.

"It's not an unreasonable ask," said Best Buddies CEO and founder Anthony Shriver. "If you've got a hundred employees, can you look at one position in your entire company that you will make open for people with intellectual disabilities."

The Delivering Jobs pledge doesn't even require companies to hire neurodiverse candidates, but the three organizations' CEOs are confident that the people they represent will get the job.

"I promise you that if you find those 1% jobs and you put our people in it, they're going to do that job better than the people you have in it right now," Shiver said.

Shriver, as well as Angela Geiger of Autism Speaks and Mary Davis of Special Olympics, told Business Insider how their initiative could help businesses attract talented workers, improve company culture, and boost the bottom line.

Attracting talent

Record low national unemployment has made the job market extraordinarily tight for recruiters, but approximately 6.5 million adults with developmental disabilities is in the US can't find work.

In percentage terms, the unemployment rate for this group is over 80%, while the national rate is below 4%.

Recruiting from such a large pool of job-seekers could help companies who have struggled to fill roles across a wide range of organizational responsibilities.

"If you want to be a smart small business owner, you have to recognize you can't get a damn thing done without great people. That's the hardest thing to find in any business," Shriver said.

The hiring process may require some adjustment, Geiger says, recommending that interviews emphasize demonstration of skills rather than the usual question-and-answer format.

Davis noted that several Special Olympians who struggled in the job market have gone on to start their own businesses.

One such Olympian-turned-entrepreneur is Collette Divitto, who founded a bakery after repeatedly being rejected by employers for being not "a good fit." She now employs 13 people and is working to raise awareness about employment issues for people with disabilities.

Improving culture

When matched with the right job and reasonable supports, studies from the Institute for Corporate Productivity show that workers with cognitive differences have a real impact on their team and company culture. Inclusivity efforts lead to better cultural competence across the organization, and more attractive positioning for new talent.

And yet for all the emphasis companies put on diversity in recent years, the mainstream definition often neglects neurodiversity and true inclusion is sometimes treated as an afterthought.

"Bringing different perspectives, different energy types, different spirits, different emotional sensitivities to the workforce makes business more successful," Shriver said. "That makes a business more profitable and makes employees feel purposeful."

When businesses expand their definition of diversity - and make sure that people feel included - the benefits go beyond specific individuals or groups.

"I think that energy spreads throughout the culture of a company," Shriver said. "The companies that we work with do better than their competitors who aren't as welcoming and inclusive and don't always make a place at the table for everybody."

Geiger says businesses can be more inclusive of cognitive diversity by providing workplace support resources, getting their employees involved, and sharing their company story with the public.

Workforce diversity may mean some employees are treated differently, Davis says, but that's alright as long as they're treated fairly.

"It's more about equity than equality," she said.

Making business sense

The Institute for Corporate Productivity study also shows that tapping into a more neurodiverse talent pool yields real economic benefits in terms of higher productivity and lower error rates.

A report in the Harvard Business Review bears those findings out. The report found that individuals with developmental differences match - and sometimes outperform - neurotypical workers in many cases, especially in clerical or knowledge worker positions.

"A lot of people can share their talent in different ways, they don't all have to be Bill Gates and have a brain like him," Shriver said. "I think for Microsoft to be successful you can't have everybody be like Bill Gates."

Ultranauts, a software testing startup founded by two MIT engineers, categorically recruits individuals on the autism spectrum because of their abilities with pattern recognition and logical reasoning.

Meanwhile, several Fortune 500 firms have set their own hiring targets for neurodiverse candidates, including Bank of America, Microsoft, TJX, and Walgreens.

Davis says employers she's worked with find these workers to be exceptionally loyal employees and thoughtful customer representatives, which yields other benefits.

"Customers are more willing to shop with companies that support their communities," she said.

Economic impact

Shriver estimates the public cost is roughly $25,000 per year when a person with intellectual disabilities is unemployed, when accounting for foregone income taxes, supplemental security income, and Medicaid expenses.

That adds up to over a million dollars if someone is unemployed for 40 years or more, but if that person earns annual wages of $30,000, Shriver says, that expense becomes a gain for the economy.

"They pay taxes and they get insurance through their employer - just in gross revenue on a 30-year career is almost a million dollars in gross revenue to the employee," he said. "The dynamic of the economic impact on that is enormous."

That impact is even greater for higher-paid skilled work such as tech jobs, not to mention the fact that US employers make almost 2 dollars for each one they pay to workers, as measured by the labor share of GDP.

Davis, Shriver, and Geiger each emphasized that their corporate partners don't see these workforce development efforts as charity.

"It's just good business sense," Geiger said. "The biggest hurdle is just deciding to do it."