How Plan Sponsors Can Best Support Neurodivergent Employees

What’s the best way to communicate with neurodivergent employees?

For Anthony Pacilio, vice president of neurodiverse solutions at CAI, a technology services company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the ideal solution may be as unique as each individual.

“As you craft a communication plan, it’s important to consider that your employees may prefer visual aids over words or vice versa,” Pacilio says. “Including various forms of media to relay information, such as images and videos, will ensure that each employee can digest and understand the message thoroughly.”

Helping employees who are neurodivergent select benefits and plan for retirement often requires both specialized knowledge and some new approaches to encourage sound financial planning within these communities. Some, like Pacilio, see an opportunity for plan sponsors to develop best practices for engaging these populations and addressing their specific planning needs.

Tammy Harper, chief human resources officer at CAI, has found success by communicating frequently and across multiple channels. The firm hosts monthly virtual office hours and what she calls “Power Hours” to present benefit options, discuss topics and answer questions. The benefits director is available for one-on-one meetings, and employees can send questions to a benefits email inbox, she says.

“Always meet your employees where they are by offering them options on how they prefer to engage with you,” Harper says.

Employees are encouraged to ask for one-on-one consultations if they need additional support. CAI has also developed an accommodation request process and created an annual campaign called Count Me In, which is a voluntary, self-identification effort by which employees can identify with affinity groups ranging from people with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions to those representing various ethnicities and veterans, she said.

“By taking inventory, you can adjust your offerings and resources accordingly to provide a personalized and optimal employee experience,” Harper says.

Navigating Social Security and Medicaid

When companies ask Elizabeth Wolleben Yoder to discuss financial planning with a group of neurodivergent employees, she never expects to answer all the questions in one session. Indeed, she anticipates follow-up queries and the need to address topics that can get complex and may be unique to each person.

“It’s not always within the capacity for the plan sponsor to do it themselves,” says Yoder, the director of financial planning for Planning Across the Spectrum, based in Maryland.

Retirement benefits can be especially complicated for those who receive Social Security benefits as a disabled person because some states allow individuals to build retirement plan savings outside of the Medicaid system, but others do not.

“It’s a matter of making sure that that employee knows what they’re eligible for, and if they don’t, finding ways to inform them of their options,” Yoder says.

Those options are particularly important at companies that rely on automatic enrollment to ensure that eligible employees begin saving for retirement right away. While auto-enrollment in a retirement plan is efficient, there might be unintended consequences for those who need to protect their federal benefits. The ability to opt out must be an easy choice for such employees, Yoder says.

“The employee is usually the one who has to stand up for themselves and say, ‘I can’t be enrolled in that,’” Yoder says.

Yoder has seen some success when companies broach these topics in employee resource groups organized for people who are neurodivergent themselves, who are trying to learn more about what neurodiversity means in their family or who are caregivers for a family member with special needs.

Ask the question

Jenny McCosley, a senior wealth adviser at Beacon Pointe Advisors, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, urges plan sponsors to bear in mind they may not even be aware which employees need extra assistance.

“With neurodivergence and disabilities, probably 90% of the disabilities people face are invisible,” McCosley says, since neurodivergent is often used to refer to the autism spectrum but can present as dyslexia, bipolar, epilepsy, ADHD or something even less noticeable. “So you don’t know that a person needs help, necessarily, unless they ask for it.”

Plan sponsors can provide that help in a range of ways to educate or offer additional support. That might include planning one-on-one meetings or group sessions or encouraging employees who want to bring a trusted third party, such as a family member or even a human resources representative, with them to meetings for what she calls two-on-one meetings, McCosley says.

“Very often all that needs to be done is the question needs to be asked to say, ‘Do you need additional resources or time?’ and that gives [them] the opportunity to speak up,” McCosley says. “There’s less of a stigma around it.”

The solution does not have to be complicated to be helpful. McCosley says plan sponsors could adopt what has worked in school settings, where individuals who need more time or test better orally can ask for an option that is tailored to their learning style and needs. McCosley has personal experience, watching her 24-year-old brother, Joey, who has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus, ask for aid with complex problems or paperwork by saying, ‘Can I let my parents make this decision?’ or ‘Can I ask my sister to help me with this?’ as his reasoning skills are not on par with a typical 24-year-old, she explains.

“Having a second person involved in these conversations is not only a better way to translate information so the participant has a better understanding, but it can also act as a bit of a gatekeeper from making a really inappropriate investment decision,” McCosley says.

Focusing on flexibility

Building as much flexibility as possible into a retirement plan should help support neurodivergent employees. One pattern Yoder has seen among clients with autism or ADHD is a fragmented work history, and some diagnoses can necessitate frequent medical appointments or even leaves of absence.

“We’re talking about possible gaps in employment or experiencing microaggressions at work,” she says. “So trying to find a way to build flexibility within a plan can help.”

Yoder also encourages frequent and direct communication highlighting what is available. Some employees may benefit from the greater capacity to create in-plan and sidecar emergency savings accounts permitted under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. In addition, ABLE accounts, allowing people with disabilities to save money from payroll via direct deposit, can also offer additional support for those whose employers do not make a contribution to a defined contribution plan or annuity.

The goal should be to help remind employees of what resources are available to them should an emergency arise, Yoder says.

“If there is a big medical need, people can access their 401(k) if that’s where their savings is,” Yoder says.

In Pacilio’s experience, the best time to help employees understand their options is when they start.

“To support your employees who come from varying work histories, establish a robust onboarding process,” Pacilio says. “With solid procedures in place, employees are introduced to their benefits with plenty of time to make decisions that best suit their needs.”

Harper also urges plan sponsors to adopt a communications strategy that works through multiple channels, ranging from email to text messages to intranet to vendor-hosted webinars and internal virtual forums such as the office hours and “Power Hours” that CAI hosts. By measuring participation rates and click-through rates of company emails, the best options will become clear, she says.

“Everyone has a preferred method of communication,” Harper says. “Our approach provides choices to fit their needs.”