The built environment is rife with sensory stimuli that can pose barriers to people who could be valuable contributors in the workplace. An estimated 15 to 20% of people in North America identify as neurodivergent, but this figure likely underestimates the true scope.

All people fall somewhere along a sensory continuum, from those who are hypersensitive (sensory avoiders) to those who are hyposensitive (sensory seekers), with neurotypicals (sensory neutral) in the middle. Neurodivergence refers to natural variations in thinking, feeling, communicating and interacting that deviate from conventional expectations, including in ways that can upend entrenched outlooks and expand organizational skill sets.

A recent webinar sponsored by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) explored approaches to design, facilities management and human resources that can better accommodate that range of dispositions in order to enhance workers’ experience and workplace productivity.

“Our spaces, policies, processes and organizations should be fluid to allow people to be in a space that makes them feel comfortable and bring their best self to work,” maintained Tara Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer of the consulting firm, Beyond-Impact.

That’s a perspective Kay Sargent, Senior Principal and Director of thought leadership with the design firm, HOK, also embraces. “This is about everyone,” she asserted. “I don’t know anybody that is immune to being impacted by light, sound, temperature, proximity — all of those things in the built environment.”

Nor are people rigidly affixed in the sensory continuum. “We are all operating on different brainwaves at any given moment,” Cunningham said. “There is no neurotypical; there is no normal. Every day we come into the world differently.”

Design considerations

Some fairly simple, cost-effective features can mitigate sensory overload. For example, uncertainty about policies, unspoken rules and how things operate can be intimidating for people entering unfamiliar environments, but some basic design elements — like wayfinding signage or windows with adjustable blinds — can make expectations more visible and help people feel comfortable and confident in their surroundings.

HOK has identified 13 design considerations, which were devised with design professionals’ input and further refined through surveys and research initiatives, for creating human-centred space. These emphasize the importance of offering choice — including space to move and fidget and for solitary concentration. Environments with little visual clutter, acoustic controls, adjustable lighting, ergonomic furniture and natural elements rank highly.

While it’s next to impossible for organizations to truly understand the perceptions and experiences of everyone coming into their facilities, Janet Roche, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of the Trauma-Informed Design Society, argued that they do need to recognize the responses a space can trigger, which could be rooted in neurodivergence or trauma. Her team has developed some guidelines to provide the flexibility to support a range of needs.

That’s based on a variety of spaces tied to the “six modal modalities of work”— deep concentration; contemplation; communal solo work; creation; congregation; and socializing — each incorporating considerations for hyper- and hyposensitive individuals.

“Someone who is hyposensitive might not want to go into a small box to concentrate,” she observed.

Similarly, hypersensitive workers don’t need every space to be subdued. Quiet spaces should truly feel quiet with lower lighting, calming tones and structure, but social spaces can be vibrant and lively with pops of colour.

“Even if you’re hypersensitive, nobody wants boring spaces,” Sargent reasoned. “They just want structure and control. They want those pops in their day, of interest and delight, but just don’t want to be subjected to it all day long.”

The configuration of spaces is equally important. Sargent cited the common bad example of a gathering area located at the centre of an open-plan office, thus creating conditions for the resulting hubbub to reverberate outward to alleged quiet zones at the outer edges.

“The open plan often gets a bad rap,” she said. “Done well, it can be really effective. Done poorly; it’s a disaster.”

Policies and procedures

Space configuration and design are only part of an inclusive workplace. Culture, processes, policies and everyday practices also play into it.

For example, job descriptions riddled with corporate jargon and acronyms impart an insiders’ insularity that can discourage neurodivergent women, people of colour and individuals from underrepresented groups from applying. Cunningham recommends clear, concise prose that focuses on what the job requires and how that role complements the company’s larger mission.

Once hired, new employees will need the key to what she calls “the hidden curriculum of workplace norms” that are rarely explicitly communicated. A commonly accessible glossary of acronyms, posted on the company’s intranet, can help solve some of those mysteries.

Policies and procedures should be formally spelled out. If someone works late, they should know they can start later the next morning. Similarly, work-from-home policies should be clearly communicated to all staff to circumvent resentment that might be directed toward people who have been accommodated.

Internal performance metrics should also be considered. For example, people on the autism spectrum may not be comfortable communicators so performance evaluators may need to weigh communications-related skills differently.

Ideally, it should all come together in what Sargent characterizes as a “three-legged stool” underpinned by environment, operations and personal adjustments. Space design and configuration create the environment. Operations involve recruiting, onboarding and training. Personal adjustments respond to preferences and needs and provide access to tools like noise-cancelling headphones.

“One leg of a stool isn’t going to keep you standing or sitting up,” Cunningham reiterated. “We need to really revise the way things work.”