October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so in this episode of Honest HR, host Monique Akanbi sits down with Jhillika Kumar, CEO and Founder of Mentra—a neurodiversity employment network—to discuss how HR professionals can support neurodiversity in their workplaces. Jhillika offers insight into the value of hiring neurodiverse employees, as well as common misconceptions around neurodiversity in the workplace.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so in this episode of Honest HR, host Monique Akanbi sits down with Jhillika Kumar, CEO and Founder of Mentra—a neurodiversity employment network—to discuss how HR professionals can support neurodiversity in their workplaces. Jhillika offers insight into the value of hiring neurodiverse employees, as well as common misconceptions around neurodiversity in the workplace.
This podcast is approved for 0.5 PDCs toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Listen to the complete episode to get your activity ID at the end. ID expires Oct. 15, 2025.
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Monique Akanbi:
Welcome to Honest HR, the podcast for informed and aspiring HR professionals intent on transforming workplace challenges into golden opportunities.
Amber Clayton:
Every week, we chat with industry experts to bring you insights, trends, and actionable advice through relatable stories from the real world of HR.
Wendy Fong:
Honest HR is a SHRM podcast, and by listening, you're helping to build a more engaged workforce and drive organizational success. I'm Wendy Fong.
Amber Clayton:
I'm Amber Clayton.
Monique Akanbi:
And I'm Monique Akanbi. Now, let's get honest.
Amber Clayton:
Now, let's get honest.
Wendy Fong:
Now, let's get honest.
Monique Akanbi:
Hello and welcome back to Honest HR. I am Monique Akanbi, membership initiatives director with SHRM. In this episode, we're diving into a topic that has gained well-deserved attention, and that is neurodiversity in the workplace. We'll explore neurodiversity, how it can unlock a wealth of untapped talent, drive innovation, and create a more inclusive and dynamic work environment. We'll discuss some challenges and some opportunities, and also uncover practical strategies for fostering a workplace where everyone's strengths are recognized and valued. So whether you're an employer, HR leader, or someone navigating your own neurodiverse journey, this conversation is definitely for you. Our guest for this podcast is Jhillika Kumar, founder and EEO of Mentra. Welcome to Honest HR, Jhillika.
Jhillika Kumar:
Thank you, Monique. Excited to be here.
Monique Akanbi:
Awesome. I'm excited to have you on our podcast and also to talk about this topic. Just for our audience, share a little bit about yourself and then also your company, Mentra.
Jhillika Kumar:
Sure, yeah. So I am a diversity and inclusion advocate, neurodivergent myself, building Mentra, CEO and founder of this incredible organization of both neurodivergents and non-neurodivergents working together to really build a synergistic workforce and workforce of the future. What inspired Mentra is my story with my brother, Vikram, who's non-speaking or nonverbal, and him using technology at the age of 27 for the first time to learn how to type and express himself and share his first words, unlocked this myriad of potential that had gone overlooked for so long, for all of his life. And realizing that the cognitive potential of humanity right now that is not yet being fully tapped into the workforce was really what drove us to building our technology platform that really understands the brain, the neurotype, and can really match individuals with fulfilling careers.
Monique Akanbi:
Awesome. That makes me think about my bonus grandson, actually, my bonus son. He calls me Gigi. I have a bonus daughter and it makes me think about Kamari. And Kamari is five and is non-verbal, however, the most brilliant person I have ever interacted with. At the age of three he was reading and doing mathematical equations, and so I'm really passionate about this topic and really hearing about your brother as well. So we'll go into the questions. Very first one is, what does neurodiversity mean and why is it important to recognize it specifically in the workplace?
Jhillika Kumar:
Yes. So neurodiversity is quite an umbrella term, and that's intentional because it's recognizing the neurological diversity of all of our human brains. From various life experiences, we develop unique cognitive variations in how we develop, how we learn, how we think, how we process information, how we perceive, and our abilities, physical abilities as well as invisible forms of disabilities, that can either create a challenge in our lives or can allow us to excel in our lives as well.
And so neurodiversity is recognizing the duality of how our brains operate and the variation that comes with different walks of life, so ranging from autism, epilepsy, dyslexia, forms of learning disabilities, to even traumatic brain injury, PTSD, various forms of intellectual disabilities as well, learning... we talked about dyslexia, that really influence how someone can interact with their world and oftentimes presents unique, yet sometimes subtle, challenges that oftentimes a lot of individuals in society might question or wonder, "Why are they behaving differently?" And only through understanding and empathy can we then reach a place where neurodivergents can feel empowered and don't have to mask those challenges or oftentimes disabilities.
Monique Akanbi:
And as we move towards creating a more inclusive and diverse environment, just even thinking about neurodiversity and challenging ourselves just as you shared and leading with empathy really helps us be able to embrace individuals with neurodiversity experiences. I don't even want to call them challenges because they're all unique and they bring value. What are some misconceptions about neurodiverse individuals in the workplace?
Jhillika Kumar:
That's a good one. There's so many. A lot of times, there's this conception that neurodivergents aren't necessarily social, that they might have certain visible challenges that might be visible to the eye. When you look at forms of, for example, ADHD, individuals can really excel in roles that do require a lot of social interaction like sales and marketing. I myself am an ADHD-er, and it can also manifest in other forms or individuals might be more technical, might need more pattern-oriented and have unique skills in data entry and software engineering.
So right now, there is this assumption that individuals make that neurodivergents might be good at certain types of roles, and really what we share is that it is so broad. The cognitive variation of humanity can be applied to so many different types of endeavors. The other is that a lot of times, employers are afraid that hiring neurodivergents will incur additional cost to the employer because of the accommodations and the support needs required. And what we share is that 56% of accommodations are actually $0 to the company that neurodivergents requests for.
And we have over 50,000 job seekers on our platform so we see this data over time, and we've seen as the most commonly requested accommodations are actually meeting notes, recorded meetings to watch later, the ability to have tests delivered in written format in addition to verbal so it can be processed oftentimes in advance of meetings, having clear deadlines and deliverables. So a lot of times good management practices or minor modifications in behavior can result in an employee being significantly more productive. So that's another common misconception as well, that it's actually harder. What we say is if you get the communication out at the very beginning and you express how the employee works best and the employer expresses the way that they work and their team works in the very beginning, it can lead to a much better retention outcome, productivity outcome, and job fulfillment, essentially.
Monique Akanbi:
You have me thinking, right? And I'm thinking you're absolutely right in terms of those misconceptions. And then also, some of the things that you named are basic tools that we use today. If you think about some of our meetings, they're recorded. They're also able to be transcribed. So in thinking of... there are more benefits than there are challenges in terms of embracing neurodivergence within the workplace. What would you say are some key or unique strengths that neurodivergents bring to a company?
Jhillika Kumar:
Wow. Yeah. By nature of having unique brain, neurodivergents think differently. And so if we look at some of the greatest innovators in humanity, Richard Branson, Steven Spielberg, Albert Einstein, even Greta Thunberg, so many, and even Ada Lovelace, a lot of female technologists as well as Grace Hopper have had some form of neurodivergence in their life and have also been the true mavericks that have innovated and brought technology and science to where it is today.
So what we've seen is the rare cases when individuals have had the support, have had the environment to flourish and thrive, that has led to ripple effects across all of humanity. And so imagine bringing in that immense talent into your organization. Imagine the products you could build and the systems you could innovate on, and especially with the emergence of AI, we're going to have to rethink a lot of how we do work and how we measure talent and what productivity looks like and how can human talent be reliable in that sense?
And that is allowing us to have a totally different perception on how the future of work looks like. And a lot of us... one of our biggest investors is Sam Altman, who shares that, who is a builder of OpenAI and ChatGPT. And he has shared that it's neurotype-based hiring that is actually going to allow us to tap into the true potential of the workforce because we're looking... it's encompassing diversity of ethnicity, of gender, of background, because we're considering these unique walks of life in the way that someone's brain has developed over time. And so it really is an opportunity for deep, deep understanding of cognition and alignment with how that energy is then channeled to make an impact in the world.
Monique Akanbi:
So I hear innovation. That's a unique strength that neurodivergents bring into the workplace, but then also just fundamentally rethinking anything that we do. And that diversity of thought is definitely a unique strength that employers or companies can benefit from, especially as it relates to neurodivergence. How can companies become or create a more inclusive environment with respect to neurodivergent employees?
Jhillika Kumar:
Yes, and just to answer on your question earlier too, I felt like there was something in addition to innovation to tap on is a lot of our community, we see neurodivergence... there's a huge affinity for certain types of tools and technologies and innovating and your whole life, when you live with a struggle, oftentimes you create mechanisms and ways to then adapt to the world. And that actually is what developed the entire field of accessibility. So we see a lot of neurodivergents being really strong coders, programmers, and engineers, designers, architects, a lot of roles where we're building cyber security, for example, is a huge area where neurodivergents that have that affinity for pattern recognition and detail-oriented thinking can really thrive, especially when...
Like my brother, for example. You can put a newspaper in front of him for a second and remove it and ask him what it said under this very specific headline, and he can actually, in just one second of looking at it, summarize what it said. So that's his eidetic memory right there. And so imagine applying that to roles in the federal world or across different industries, finance, technology, even HR. So just to answer your question, a lot of opportunities for those unique talents to be applied and some really great strengths in being able to leverage technology and innovate and also be detail-oriented and build and be the architects of the future as well. So to your second question, can you ask that one again please?
Monique Akanbi:
Sure, absolutely. So how can companies create a more inclusive environment for neurodivergent employees?
Jhillika Kumar:
Yeah, great question. In terms of inclusive environments, there are so many different aspects that make up our workplace. There's how an employee interacts with their manager, which there's a quote I think by SHRM that your manager is your entryway into your organization. They're your first point of contact when you're interacting on your day-to-day, as well as recruiters. They're truly the gatekeepers that ensure that individuals are coming in an equitable and balanced way. And so how companies can be more inclusive is really many, many folds to it.
From the HR standpoint, having recruiters that understand to look beyond traditional requirements like education or work experience, to look at nonlinear backgrounds, and to really question with their hiring managers, what are those must-haves in the role? Are they really essentially required to apply this educational knowledge, or is that a nice-to-have? And that minor delineation process upfront can screen in or screen out millions of candidates that might be a good fit. And so we say from that perspective of HR really considering non-traditional, nonlinear backgrounds and pathways. Other ways teams can be more inclusive is managers understanding upfront what the neurodivergent requires, if they're employing someone or managing someone, what that individual needs to be successful.
So for example, Mentra built working with me documents where employees can express here that, "Here's how I communicate with my team, here's how I best communicate with my manager, written or verbal. Here is how I like to schedule my day to be more productive. I can do more tactical work in the beginning and strategic work later on." And there's very nuanced information that we can understand to make the environment more inclusive, because now instead of a manager assuming that someone's not working or someone's not able to perform, it's a miscommunication and understanding how that individual needs to be accommodated in terms of their environment and their team structures and processes and daily deliverables. So day-to-day things, minor adjustments that can be made to make the environment more inclusive, especially of individuals that think differently and might require that additional communication and transparency upfront.
Monique Akanbi:
So you gave us a few strategies on creating an inclusive environment specifically for neurodivergent employees. If I am just starting my journey as an employer, what advice would you give companies that are just starting that journey to creating an inclusive environment?
Jhillika Kumar:
Yeah, first of all, that's an interesting question. So what would be the first thing to do? When it comes to... okay, I'm a hiring manager and I want to bring someone onto my team. The first thing that we often think of is, "All right, let me write a job description. Let me structure this out. What are the must-haves, nice-to-haves?" And what we realize is a lot of the JD format that exists today is not fully comprehensive of, what is the day-to-day of the job going to look like? What times are they going to be required to operate? What's the office space?
And so what we encourage when a hiring managers looking to hire is, "Let me try to share as much information as possible about this role rather than the bare minimum," and allowing then for the recruiter to translate that into finding the candidates. So looking at multidimensional facets of an individual, not just technical requirements and what we call skills match, but also looking at the personality required for the role, the neurotype or the cognitive skills required for the role. What are the organizational values of this individual that align with the company?
So in the same way that we think about neurodiversity of being such a wide spectrum, we also encourage recruiters and HR leaders to understand the nuances of what can cause an individual to succeed in the job and not just compare a one dimensional, one-to-one match. And especially with AI, the possibility of building those models where we look so much deeper into the data to make those matches, the possibilities are limitless. So that's where we encourage is that first step, questioning, as we talked about earlier, the norms, what's the must-haves, but also going a lot deeper into sharing knowledge about what the role entails to open up the pool. And what we deliver at the end of the day, which we are trying to get to, especially with AI, is, "Here are the five best candidates that meet your role requirements based on that very holistic, multidimensional data set that you've collected." So the possibility for it to be more accurate and aligned with that multidimensional match is really high.
Monique Akanbi:
Awesome. And then what action can our listeners take to support neurodiversity in their own workplace? So they've created this environment of inclusion. What additional support beyond that initial journey could be offered that our listeners can offer?
Jhillika Kumar:
Yeah, absolutely. So we just talked about the very start of the hiring lifecycle. Once you go into actually employing someone, it's really important... we get this question a lot from our job seekers, is how transparent is the accommodations process within the organization? How open can I be to share my neurodivergence and not have it seen as a weakness, not have people treat me differently, rather understand why they might need to accommodate me in certain ways? And so whether that's a simple conversation with a manager and having that be an easy platform to have that conversation, or whether it's a formal accommodations process, making sure individuals aren't othered, aren't outed necessarily, and also it's a part of day to day.
So what we encourage with recruiters we work with is attaching in your email signature, "If you want an accommodation, just let fill out this form or here it is," in every email that goes back and forth so it's just a part of the process. So same thing goes for resource guides on how to get your accommodations within your organizations. That should be upfront. That should be when an employee on-boards into the organization, "Here's how you get the accommodations you need if it's ever requested," not something that's tagged along at the end that someone has to navigate a very complicated portal to find, and then figure out how to be honest and open about a very personal matter that they might need support for.
So all the way to, how does a manager ensure the employee has that safe space to request that? And what you'll see is that will spike up productivity once the employee feels valued, feels heard, and just feels comfortable working in that environment. And if organizations truly are measuring output, "How much more are we able to achieve?" Then they'll realize that the marginal cost is significantly outweighed by the output of the individual.
Monique Akanbi:
How do we eliminate the stigma around... you talked about accommodations and making that easy or creating an environment where there's an easy process to request or ask for accommodations. And sometimes, if I'm thinking... if I am someone that is neurodivergent, but my perception is that there is this stigma and I don't want to cause or create attention to it, how do we eliminate that stigma so that way we truly create an environment where they feel free to share are the requests that are needed?
Jhillika Kumar:
That's such a great point. And how we've seen this play out in various Fortune 500s we work with is starting with leadership, when someone shares that... I talked earlier about some great innovators, someone who has done well in their career opens up and shares, "A lot of this was actually because I think differently. Here's a lot of the struggles I went through growing up. Here's how I was treated as an outsider and an outcast, and here's how I made my way through this world to get at this outcome," that really creates a difference in perception of the conversation around neurodiversity, where now we're seeing it from a strengths-based perspective, a strengths-based lens, that then talking about starting with that, leading with that and sharing, "Here's the advantage, that it allows me to see things in a different way. It allows me to have this part of my brain that excels in this very specific task, and also I do struggle in these other things that I hope you'll understand and work with me on, and something that we can build systems and processes for me to improve on."
And just having a conversation where... starting with the benefits, the unique impacts, and then also balancing that with the strength, the challenges, can be a more balanced way of talking about neurodivergence so it isn't stigmatized necessarily. And also just pointing to the fact one in every five humans are neurodivergent. If individuals aren't openly expressing it, that means there's a high chance that someone you're talking to might be neurodivergent so it's just a way of making the person you're speaking with aware that this is not only very common, it's also something that when understood can yield immense positive results, though it does come with its own unique considerations that might by society be seen as a weakness, however, can be conveyed in such a way that it actually allows me to tap more into my strength rather than just being a weakness when it's accommodated for.
Monique Akanbi:
Wow. Thank you. These are some really good nuggets. I want to give you an opportunity as we get ready to wrap up this episode. Any final thoughts or honest thoughts around neurodiversity in the workplace and what leaders, specifically HR leaders can do to really embrace neurodiversity?
Jhillika Kumar:
Yeah. A lot of the conversation we see at the Neurodiversity at Work Roundtable led by Microsoft, who's one of our partners, is that figuring out, "How do I even start? And if my company is not embracing neurodivergence, where do I begin?" And we've seen many case studies where some organizations set up programs, which is a great way to get started. You train the recruiters, you train the hiring managers, you bring on individuals into specific roles, and we also say that that should not be the end goal. That should be the starting point. That should be the leg into the organization and creating a third door in.
Then it becomes about, "How do we scale that to bring that across the organization? How do we make sure that for every role on our career site, we are factoring in neurodivergent candidates and making sure that the process is neuroinclusive from the get-go?" And that's where we say that it all comes down to the data and what's shared upfront, and also looking at unique sourcing tools and hiring platforms that are tapping into these underserved communities and displaying strengths in a way that are unique. A lot of organizations we work with are actually boot camps, certification programs, assessors, so we're showcasing that, no, someone might not have the traditional qualifications, though they might actually excel at your role for these reasons.
Monique Akanbi:
Thank you so much, Jhillika for being our guest on this podcast, on Honest HR podcast. So many great nuggets that you've shared, just even in terms of how do we create an environment that is inclusive and embraces neurodiversity in the workplace? If you haven't already, please subscribe and follow Honest HR however you listen to our podcast. Also, reviews have a real impact on a podcast's visibility, so if you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and help others find out about Honest HR.
Thank you again for joining us on Honest HR. Thanks, Jhillika. This episode is approved to provide 0.5 SHRM professional development credits towards your SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. After you've listened, you're eligible to enter this activity ID 256KRXN. Again, activity ID 256 K as in kite, R as in rabbit, X as in xylophone, N as in nice. Please note that this code will expire October 15th, 2025. To learn more about Honest HR, head to SHRM.org/HRdaily and you can hear more.