According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 160 children worldwide has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and in some studies, the proportion of people with autism is higher and is on the rise globally.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that has no exact cause, and is accompanied by a degree of impaired social skills, communication skills, and language skills, as well as stereotypical behaviors.
At present, the global help and support for autistic patients is obviously insufficient, which includes employment, so about half of autistic people are unemployed, one-third of them have a degree certificate, the intelligence level of autistic people varies greatly, and some autistic people even show higher skills and levels than the general population in perception and attention.
Knowing the unique abilities of people with autism and their difficulties in finding and maintaining employment, Dirk Müller-Remus himself is the son of an autistic person who founded Audiocon in Berlin in 2011.
Auticon's vision is to provide equal employment opportunities for people with autism by directly hiring people on the autism spectrum, often information and communication technology (ICT) consultants. Some people with autism typically have strong pattern recognition, logic, precision, continuous focus, and the ability to visually spot errors, and have special value in areas such as quality management, security, compliance, and business intelligence (Auticon's portfolio of services).
Founder Remus Müller-Remus came up with a new idea for Auticon after attending a workshop called "Autism and Work" in 2007, which featured 20 people with autism between the ages of 25 and 50 who presented their careers (or lack of careers).
Remus Müller-Remus saw that despite their good education, these autistic people were all unemployed, which was the impetus for his creation of Audiocon, which also allowed the social enterprise to receive a €500,000 investment from the Munich-based Ananda Social Venture Fund.
Ray Coyle, CHIEF Executive officer of Auticon UK, said: "One of our missions is to change the perception of autism in general by providing exceptional service. The impact we hope will be that when clients see the benefits of working with AnAuticon consultant, they will also bring them more willingness to hire neurodiversity, as evidenced by client feedback. If the client team works remotely or geographically, our consultants will work at the client's location, or sometimes remotely. In practice, each consultant is assigned a work coach, and one of the key roles of the work coach is to provide training on autism to the client and how to structure the work environment to make that particular consultant do his or her best.
Auticon's business model is based on the traditional IT consulting model, Auticon employs highly qualified IT experts on a long-term basis and then matches each person's skills to specific customer projects. Professional work coaches and project managers support employees in their day-to-day work, and they also become members of client teams and interact with colleagues and team leaders.
To ensure that Auticon's IT consultants are on the autism spectrum, applicants must present their autism diagnosis certificate in addition to their resume and cover letter. The position review process is then carried out in three steps:
1. Informal chat 2. Skills assessment 3. Preliminary seminar
The entire process, from informal chat to onboarding, can take up to two months and includes a self-assessment of the consultant's IT knowledge, competency analysis, and comprehensive pre-job preparation. Auticon's business model and the practice of implementing it is designed to influence not only the client, but more importantly the consultants themselves, enabling them to work in an environment in which they excel.
Data analyst James Neely, who is autistic, said he was relieved when he took on a new role at Autoticon because he often struggled and collapsed in his previous job, working in an open office with too much noise and too much distraction around. Working at Autoticon, supported by project managers and work coaches, can reduce some of the stress. If difficult situations arise, work coaches encourage consultants to take time off to avoid anxiety or sensory overload, and they assist IT consultants in prioritizing tasks and ensuring a comfortable work environment.
Another Audicon consultant, Martin Neumann, also autistic, was a columnist for the Financial Times and a programmer for a civil engineering planning company. But when his business partner fell ill, Neumann found that he couldn't cope with the pressures of running the company alone, including dealing with non-technical issues. So he went to work for the German company Auticon. Auticon allows me to work the way I work, he says, I can focus entirely on the quality of my work without worrying about the factors that might get in the way, and the best thing about working at Auticon is that I can do what I'm good at.
Auticon's consultants work primarily on business analytics, test automation and complex software development projects. Auticon offers four main service offerings:
1. Quality assurance and testing 2. Analysis tools 3. Software development and migration 4. Compliance and reporting
In addition to the required technical skills, all of these service offerings require attention to detail, a systematic way of working, logical analysis, pattern recognition, error detection, and a constant focus on day-to-day activities.
Many large and medium-sized companies already collaborate on IT projects through Auticon, which includes Siemens, Infineon, Allianz, KPMG, Direct Line Group and more.
Among them, Nick Frost, head of audit technology and innovation at KPMG, praised the value of Autoticon employees, saying: "By letting Audion's consultants focus on their strengths, they have achieved great things and become important members of our team.
After four years of operation and six branches in Germany in December 2015, In 2018 Auticon acquired MindSpark to leverage the demand for outsourced IT services to drive social change and create high-tech careers for people with specialized skills, thereby improving their self-sufficiency and quality of life. Today, Auticon has offices in 15 offices in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, the USA and Canada, and has more than 270 employees worldwide, of whom around 190 are consultants for people with autism. By 2018, Auticon was involved in more than 270 projects, with annual revenue growth of more than 50%. In July, Auticon and Meticulon formed the first technology company in Calgary, Canada, focused on hiring people with autism.
Among the many recognitions, Rebecca Beam, Auticon's U.S. representative, received the Visionary Employer Award for Milestones from Milesstones Autism Resources in 2019. In the UK, Auticon won the British Social Enterprise Awards – People to Watch – in 2017.
Auticon's team of autism consultants has gained international recognition, and even showcased Auticaon's model of hiring autistic people as ICT consultants at the G8 Social Impact Investing Forum in London on June 6, 2013, which was attended by 150 social impact investment leaders.
Such a business model is seen as a way for businesses to attract talent from neurodiversity, a new term adopted in the late 1990s by Australian sociologist Judy Singer and American journalist Harvey Blume, referring to mutations in the human brain that are nonpathologically related to social, learning, attention, mood, and other mental functions.
Ray Coyle, CHIEF Executive Of Auticon UK, said: "Over the next five years, our goal is to continue to impact employment opportunities for adults with autism, allowing them to be catalysts for neurodiversity teams across the workforce.
The right people, put in the right position, can play their characteristics and expertise, the editor also hopes that in the near future, such enterprises as China will slowly increase, which is not only good for special people, the average person can also learn from special people different ways of thinking and doing things, for the team to collide with different sparks.
Image source: Photoshop's genuine gallery Editor-in-Charge: Mi Jianxing Xiaobian Article Typesetting: Mijian Carotene Bibliographic reference: Maricel Sanchez - Auticon: the social enterprise employing people on the autism spectrum