Recruiting Dyslexics

I n 1997, my business              assessments.                       partner and I formed an                                            international recruitment       Research shows that approximately  company. My partner was in charge     10% of our population suffer from  of the junior recruitment             dyslexia, in varying degrees. The  division. My role was to assess,      UK, which interestingly appeared   select and mentor applicants for      to also reflect trends globally,   senior management roles in            showed 40% success rates in        leading, international companies.     placements of dyslexics. The                                             figure of 40% of senior managers   Our research involved tracking        being dyslexic obviously appears   all of our placements and closely     to be disproportionally high,      following trends within the           against the 90% of non-dyslexic    recruitment market place. For         candidates.                        example, over a ten-year period,                                         we discovered on average that 50%     I started to think about and take  of senior managers didn’t gain        a lot more interest in these       promotion by having a degree;         statistics and concluded that      they were promoted internally.        there were three possibilities                                           behind out findings:               Whilst tracking these results                                            month-by-month, year-by-year we       1.) This was merely a              also started to notice that           coincidence.                       approximately 40% of our              2.) Perhaps, as I treated all      candidates were dyslexic to some      candidates without prejudice, I    degree. In fact, the most             was giving dyslexics more of an    successful candidate for the most     equal chance.                      prestige position ever placed was     3.) Dyslexics actually do make     probably the most dyslexic person     good senior managers.              that we ever came across in our                                          I was convinced that I wasn’t         information at such an early       biased towards fellow dyslexics,      stage. However, I did disclose     but felt that I should put this       this to candidates that I          to the test. Therefore, my            interviewed. When I mentioned      non-dyslexic business partner and     that I was dyslexic, interviewees  I changed roles on a selection; I     quite often stated that they       assessed and interviewed for a        suffered from the condition as     middle-management role and he         well. The best time for a          handled the senior role.              candidate to disclose their                                              dyslexia is upon starting their    We deliberately chose clients who     new role, as they may need to      only used us as consultants and       adopt different strategies to      in both cases the client made the     complete day-to-day tasks.         final choice of applicant. For                                           the middle-management placement       When I was employed I always       there was one dyslexic and one        found employers considerate and    non-dyslexic selected for final       my dyslexia never caused a         interviews. The dyslexic was          problem. In fact in many ways I    offered the job. For the senior       found I was more organized and     role, two dyslexics and one           efficient in my ways of mastering  non-dyslexic achieved the final       daily tasks than non-dyslexic      interview stage. Again the client     co-workers. On many occasions      chose the dyslexic candidate.         these colleagues fostered my                                             inventive ways of doing things.    Interestingly, I don’t ever                                              recall ever seeing an applicant       Only once in my career have I      disclose on their CV that they        ever been exposed to bullying      were dyslexic. To be honest           within a company due to my         neither have I, as I never felt       dyslexia. It was a great           the need to disclose this             disappointment that after being    very successful and even winning      to their dyslexia. Thankfully,     an award for achievement within       now there are systems in place to  this specific company. I was          counteract this.                   victimized relentlessly by a new                                         senior manager. This continued        As a result of my research I now   until I finally resigned. But         include ‘How to deal positively    from there on, I went on to           with dyslexia, for dyslexics and   successfully work for other           also non-dyslexics’ in my          companies and progressed to start     seminars. I also give an           my own business. Unfortunately, I     understanding and material for HR  have been made aware of other         directors to understand the        talented dyslexic individuals         subject.                           receive similar victimization due      About the Author: As a dyslexic in the recruitment industry Genevieve Dawid is the perfect person to help candidates with dyslexia find jobs. Published At: www.Isnare.com