How ADHD-ready is
your organisation?

1. Do candidates see your interview questions before the interview?

Structured storytelling formats like STAR reward rehearsed narrative recall under social pressure - a skill unrelated to most jobs, and one that quietly screens out ADHD candidates who'd excel at the actual work.

2. Does your recruitment process include any alternative to talking-from-memory - work samples, practical tasks, or written responses?

One assessment channel means one kind of brain passes. Multiple channels measure the job, not the performance.

3. Would a candidate disclosing ADHD at interview stage experience zero change in how they're evaluated - and would you be able to evidence that?

If the honest answer is 'we hope so', that's a common and understandable starting point - the opportunity is turning that good intention into a defined, consistent approach you could stand over.

4. Have your people managers had any training on ADHD or different working styles - beyond a general diversity module?

Managers are where policy meets Monday morning. Untrained managers translate difference as difficulty.

5. Can someone ask for instructions in writing without it being read as awkward or demanding?

A written brief - outcome, scope, deadline, decision-maker - costs the writer two minutes and saves the reader days.

6. Are people judged mainly on output and outcomes, rather than visible busyness, hours at a desk, or responsiveness?

Presence-measuring rewards masking. Output-measuring rewards work.

7. Do meetings need a stated purpose to exist, with an async alternative for anything that's really an update?

Back-to-back meetings tax exactly the cognitive functions ADHD makes expensive: switching, waiting, and filtering.

8. Can people structure their working day around their own focus patterns - within reason and by default, not by special request?

ADHD attention is cyclical, not absent. Rigid hours harvest people's worst hours and discard their best.

9. When priorities change, is that communicated in writing with the old priority explicitly cancelled?

Silent re-prioritisation creates invisible task lists - and the people most likely to carry all of them are the ones you least hear from.

10. Can people meaningfully influence where and how they sit - quiet zones, desk position, or moving away from high-traffic areas?

Desk placement is not trivial: a desk beside a walkway or kitchen can cost a distractible brain hours a day. It's the cheapest accommodation that exists.

11. Can someone access adjustments without producing a formal diagnosis?

With assessment waits running one to five years, diagnosis-gated support excludes most of the people who need it - for years.

12. Is there an anonymous, always-open way for employees to tell you how work is actually going?

Disclosure isn't safe in most workplaces, so problems stay silent until resignation letters. Anonymous channels hear what exit interviews hear - two years earlier.

13. Do your employees know what support or process exists for someone with an ADHD diagnosis - or someone awaiting assessment?

Support that people don't know about doesn't function as support. With assessment waits running years, the 'awaiting assessment' group is often the largest - and the least catered for.

14. Would an employee know exactly where to go first for support - and would two different managers give them the same answer?

If the route to support depends on which manager you ask, it isn't a route - it's a lottery. Clear, consistent signposting is one of the fastest wins available.