Today we're joined by some of our friends at Health Assured, a multiple award-winning independent health and wellbeing provider who have made a huge positive difference in over 15 million lives to date with mental health, wellbeing and EAP support. You can find out more about Health Assured and what they do at HealthAssured.org.
So many employees have dyslexia. Around 10% of the UK’s population is directly affected by the condition, according to the British Dyslexia Association.
Every employer has a legal duty to support employees affected by dyslexia in the workplace. This can range from offering reasonable changes to eliminating unlawful discrimination. And if you fail to support these colleagues, you could face hefty detriments for you and your business, like decreased retention, compensation penalties, and serious reputational impacts.
Let’s take a look at what workplace dyslexia and supporting colleagues with dyslexia looks like, and how to support colleagues working with the condition.
Dyslexia is a condition can affect a person’s ability to read, spell, or even listen, remember and absorb information.
People may struggle when trying to process words. Other times, they can feel completely paralysed at the thought of reading anything,.
It’s important to note that dyslexia holds no connection to one’s intellect, capability, or skill-set. People with dyslexia are incredibly capable and creative – and make fantastic employees.
Some of hardships dyslexic people suffer from are phonological awareness, verbal memory, and speech processing.
In the workplace, some common signs of dyslexia include:
Dyslexia in adults is often hard to identify, let alone support. Many employees choose to hide their condition from fellow colleagues and managers. That’s because they can feel ashamed or worried about being labelled as ‘different’. Negative stigma, unconscious bias, and associative discrimination are all too common. In the end, a lack of training, development, and promotional opportunities then becomes linked to disadvantage – and employees with dyslexia fall by the wayside in recruitment, support and progression.
When it comes to words, numbers, and movement, there are other conditions that look similar- and indeed, can occur at the same time as- dyslexia.
Dyspraxia is a condition that affects one’s movement skills in everyday life. It’s also known as ‘development co-ordination disorder’. People often struggle with tasks that require balance (like sports) or fine motoring skills (like writing).
Dyscalculia is a condition that affects one’s mathematical skills. Some people face difficulties with the basic aspect of numbers and arithmetic. Other symptoms include a poor sense of estimation, slow calculations, and memory issues (even after hours of practice).
Anyone can have these conditions, and in varying degrees of severity. In the workplace, you can offer tools or amend practices so employees become accustomed to working with dyslexia, and everybody can succeed and achieve.
Many employees fear disclosing medical issues to their managers. The risk of being singled out or ‘other’-ed is rife in the workplace. Too often, these become deciding factors for workplace competence and capability – which in itself is a form of discrimination.
All employers need to promote work environments where staff are treated fairly– regardless of any kinds of differences. By championing fair opportunities and equality, you can grow a cohesive and comfortable organisation.
Here are a couple of ways to support your colleagues working with dyslexia:
In some cases, dyslexia can dominate every aspect of a person’s life. It becomes a hefty anchor on everyday tasks and activities. Whether employees suffer small problems with certain things or have to face regular struggles, offer to amend their working conditions. These ‘reasonable changes’ allow employees to accomplish work similar to the standards of their fellow colleagues.
For example, offer dyslexic employees extended deadlines for projects that include written tasks. This additional time allows them to provide quality work in less stressful conditions.
Any new work conditions can be added to employee handbooks, policies, and contracts.
As an employer, it’s your responsibility to understand what dyslexia is and how it affects your employees. Through research and investigation, you’ll be able to help employees by the best means possible. A great move to make is providing employees with digital support systems which help them during everyday work-life. These can include things like software and tools which are designed to support writing efficiency.
Some tools allow ‘text-to-audio’ conversion which is favoured amongst dyslexic people. Through audible sounds, employees can hear how the text reads. In the long run, this allows them to work comfortably, protecting time and morale.
Employees with dyslexia often suffer hurdles on a daily basis. It can affect any part of their working life– resulting in feelings of remorse and demotivation. An easy workplace change you can implement is using ‘easy-to-read’ typefaces. Make this a standard for all business correspondence, like emails and letters. Some fonts are considered more legible in comparison to overly ‘fanciful’ ones – try ones without serifs, like Monserrat, Arial or Calibri.
So, ensure this becomes a standard across your company. And determine whether these are acceptable for your employees with dyslexia or if amendments are needed – there are also dyslexia-friendly fonts you can download which some colleagues might prefer.
Supporting employees with dyslexia can be a complicated matter. But you need to take an active approach towards helping them. A great way to achieve this is by managing your communication style. Management methods must be inclusive and fair, so employees don’t feel disadvantaged compared to their peers.
For example, a researcher presents their findings for an ongoing project via a digital presentation. The slides are full of written context which is being noted down by those at the meeting. This type of written representation of words and context will probably be difficult for a dyslexic employee to absorb. Instead, encourage communication through visual elements and graphics so it’s easier for people to process vast amounts of context.
As a business, it’s important to hold every individual with care and respect. Employers need to promote a supportive culture that values employees who are differently abled. Those with dyslexia may be hesitant to share their condition or talk openly about struggles. They might fear being treated differently or ridiculed for it.
The best way to promote workplace culture and employee retention is to be open-minded and accepting of others. Encourage employees to share what difficulties they’re facing at work. And discuss support options that are available for them – implementing them as best as you reasonably can.