ADHD employees are typically bright, innovative, and full of ideas. Yet, they may not always function as well as they could. They may have trouble with deadlines, organization, and prioritization. The following tips are training measures to help human resources or talent professionals guide these potentially high-performing employees.
- Acquaint yourself with the ADHD profile, and keep it handy. This will help you understand the challenges of ADHD employees. It can bring you clarity as to why they act as they do and will inform how you can coach them to live up to their potential.
- Make sure that all-important communication, such as deliverables, deadlines, and instructions, is in writing. The ADHD employee will need to refer back to them because often forget what they hear. Instructions in writing give them a task list.
- Have consistent weekly or bi-weekly meetings with these employees to help avoid small issues becoming bigger issues. It’s also a good time to check in for questions and feedback.
- Ask employees to repeat back to you all instructions and steps. This helps ensure everyone is on the same page. This clears up any misunderstandings from the start.
- Connect ADHD employees with mentors. The mentor should be someone who understands and accepts them. This provides them a larger support system. Set expectations with the employee and mentor about how they should communicate.
- Make sure the employee has agreed to an approved schedule (weekly and monthly) of how they will manage their daily time and tasks. Hold them accountable for maintaining and sharing the schedule with you.
- The more challenging, interesting, and important the work, the better the employee will perform. Repetitious and rote work will bore the worker and cause him/her to find more stimulating work elsewhere.
Learn more at our webinar November 30
These are a few tips that can be very useful in the workplace. If you’re concerned about how ADHD is impacting your workforce, we invite you to our Highly Effective Workplace webinar that addresses ADHD in the workplace. Register today!
