Start before day one: ask what helps and agree reasonable adjustments (a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010, diagnosis or not), then phase the information and write down the unwritten expectations. The duty to make reasonable adjustments runs from recruitment and onboarding, not just from a settled job. It is set by section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 and applied to employers through Schedule 8. You do not need to wait for a formal diagnosis, and you do not need to wait to be asked.
First, ask what helps and agree it before the start date
Once the offer is accepted, contact the new starter and ask a plain question: what would help them do their best work in the first few weeks? Acas is clear that what suits one neurodivergent person may not help another, so the move is to listen, suggest options, try adjustments and review them together rather than guess. Make it explicit that asking for an adjustment is normal and welcome.
Common, low-cost adjustments worth offering up front:
- Extra time to plan for and process changes, with early warning of anything that shifts.
- A written, ordered induction schedule that says what happens when and who to ask for help.
- Induction material in more than one format: written, visual and short video, not a verbal firehose.
- A named buddy or point of contact for the questions people feel awkward asking.
- Regular short check-ins in the first weeks, agreed in advance rather than sprung on the day.
- Control over the physical setup where it matters: quieter desk, headphones, screen and lighting choices.
Second, phase the information and name the unwritten rules
Most neurodivergent new starters are not held back by the work. They are held back by the week-one flood of acronyms, undocumented norms and you will pick it up expectations. So phase it. Give a structured onboarding plan with clear schedules and expectations, and spread the detail across the first weeks instead of dumping it on the first morning.
Then write down what your team treats as obvious: how meetings really work, when a message expects a reply, what counts as urgent, where to find things, and who owns what. Making the implicit explicit helps the new starter, and it tends to improve onboarding for everyone.
Then route to funded support: Access to Work
Where an adjustment goes beyond what you can put in place yourself, point the new starter to Access to Work, the government scheme that can fund coaching, assistive technology or a support worker. No formal diagnosis is required to apply, and a person can apply up to six weeks before they start a job once they have a written offer. The grant is capped at £69,260 a year in 2025-26. Be honest about timing: waiting times are long, often several months, so treat it as a route to plan early, never as fast or guaranteed.
If patterns at work reasonably suggest a disability, the adjustments duty can be engaged even without a disclosure, so do not gatekeep support behind a label. For occupational health input, your provider can advise on workplace adjustments, but it sits alongside the new starter’s own account of what helps, not above it.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.