Building an Inclusive Workplace National Inclusion Week 2025

According to research by the National Federation of Builders, construction is a uniquely neurodiverse industry, where 1 in 4 construction workers consider themselves to have a neurodiverse condition. At Murphy, we believe our strength is our people, and by living our Murphy values, we can create a great place to work where our people feel secure and comfortable to be themselves. 

For National Inclusion Week, we are highlighting actionable steps people and organisations can take for the inclusion of neurodiverse colleagues:

• Neurodivergent (also known as NDs) individuals often work better and faster when left on their own, to their own devices, in an environment that they can control. Also, Neurodivergent people relate to others in a different way than Neurotypical (NT) people – for them, being part of a team may mean something entirely different (helping and supporting each other with workload for example – which sometimes doesn’t need them to be present in the office). Often, being in the office may stress them out, overwhelm them and bring on physical symptoms and they will likely be less efficient.  

• The whole approach to managing a Neurodivergent individual needs to be rethought – an ND may become one of the most valuable members of your team if you take the time to learn their needs and their strengths. Did you know that autistics and ADHD’ers often have unparalleled pattern recognition skills? 

• Reasonable adjustments for ND’s will often cost the company a lot less than you think (e.g. noise cancelling headphones or reading assisted software for their computer) for a much greater benefit to the company overall, as they are often loyal and dedicated workers.   

• Rethink how you approach an ND employee – when in hyperfocus mode, where they can get a lot done, interrupting them will bring them incredible frustration. It can, depending on the individual, take an hour to be able to focus again. Their brain is just not built to come in and out of focus like NT’s. Do you need to speak to them immediately or can you send them an email or message asking them to get in touch with you when they are done with their task? 

• ND’s function better when they know what is expected, what is planned, etc. Something like having an assigned desk in the office can mean a lot to them.  

• ND’s often have issues expressing themselves verbally when put on the spot. Instead, leave them time to prepare a response – again, email is beneficial here as, when responding to an email, the ND can take the time to think and formulate an appropriate response.  

A huge thank you to our colleague Marie-Josée Dion for sharing these tips and bringing to light the ways managers and co-workers can support their neurodiverse colleagues. 

Murphy is proud to operate a number of initiatives designed to break down the barriers to employment in the construction and engineering sector. You can read about them here.