Designing Job Roles Around Cognitive Strengths

This is the first blog in a new series that aims to work with HR professionals to support the line managers in their business. We will be looking at each stage of the employee lifecycle and exploring HR’s role in neuroinclusion throughout. In this first blog, we look at how HR can reduce ambiguity and risk by collaborating with line managers to build cognitively inclusive roles from day one.

Hiring neurodivergent talent isn’t just about changing how we recruit, it’s about rethinking what we’re recruiting for. Those that have actively recruited neurodivergent professionals, including organisations like JP Morgan and Hewlett Packard, have seen impressive results. For example, these companies reported measurable gains in productivity, innovation, and problem-solving capacity. At Hewlett Packard, neurodivergent software testers were shown to be up to 30% more productive than their peers, while JP Morgan found teams benefited from new approaches to complex problem-solving and risk analysis. 

HR teams often understand the importance of neuroinclusion. But getting buy-in from line managers (the people responsible for day-to-day management) can feel like the hardest part. Concerns about “getting it wrong,” disrupting team dynamics, or not being “fair” to everyone else can lead to hesitation or resistance. 

That’s why systemic neuroinclusion starts at the design stage, long before interviews are even scheduled. When roles are built around cognitive strengths rather than vague expectations, everyone wins: 

Did you know that only about 22% of autistic adults are in paid employment? This shows a significant underutilisation of talent. (National Autistic Society, 2021)   

Let’s look at how HR can lead this shift and help managers build roles that work for everyone. 

Vague roles invite confusion. Line managers may struggle to support neurodivergent employees when job descriptions rely on phrases like “good communicator” or “team player.” These terms are subjective and open to interpretation, often shaped by narrow ideas of professionalism. 

Instead, help managers break roles into specific, outcome-based tasks that reflect the actual work: 

“But we already have people in these roles, do we need to start from scratch?” 

Not at all. You can start embedding neuroinclusion into existing structures.  

Try these small, impactful tasks to get started:  

✅ Quick tip: Pilot a clarity-first redesign for one key role and use what you learn to inform other job families. 

Neuroinclusive roles don’t lower standards, they optimise performance by designing for fit. 

Job crafting — the practice of allowing employees to shape how they complete tasks in ways that align with their cognitive strengths — can be a powerful tool for engagement and inclusion. This can include: 

“But what about the parts of the job no one wants to do or aren’t cognitively aligned for?” 

Great question. Job crafting isn’t about letting people pick only their favourite tasks, it’s about enabling everyone to contribute fully by understanding how they work best. Job crafting empowers employees to play to their strengths, driving higher engagement (Gallup, 2020). 

That’s where strengths-based tools like our Genius Finder™ come in. It gives managers: 

✅ Quick tips for HR and managers: 

With the right tools, managers don’t need to be neurodiversity experts, they just need a framework that helps them lead with clarity, confidence, and empathy. 

Many neurodivergent individuals bring standout cognitive skills. Research highlights pattern recognition and hyperfocus as common strengths among neurodivergent individuals (Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2019) alongside others well-known like innovative thinking or visual-spatial reasoning that are often underutilised in traditional role design. But when aligned with the right tasks, these strengths can drive serious impact. 

Here’s what that looks like in practice: 

Strength: A team member with high pattern recognition and attention to detail 

Scenario: In a financial services firm, this individual spots irregularities in transaction data that others have missed, leading to early fraud detection and safeguarding client accounts. 

Outcome: Reduced business risk, improved compliance. 

Strength: Lateral, outside-the-box problem solving 

Scenario: During a product recall, a neurodivergent operations lead proposes a workflow change that cuts response time by 40%. Where others see chaos, they identify opportunities. 

Outcome: Faster resolution, preserved reputation, retained customers. 

Strength: Ability to sustain deep concentration over time 

Scenario: In a manufacturing setting, one employee consistently identifies product defects invisible to others. They enjoy repetitive detail-checking others find draining. 

Outcome: Increased quality control, fewer returns, reduced cost. 

Strength: Visual-spatial reasoning and process mapping 

Scenario: A neurodivergent team member restructures a complex onboarding process using a flowchart and visual guide. Engagement goes up, drop-off rates go down. 

Outcome: Improved employee experience, faster time-to-productivity. 

By helping managers shift their focus from “culture fit” to cognitive contribution, HR can unlock a wider talent pool, while also driving better business outcomes. 

✅ Quick tip: Start building a “strengths library” in collaboration with your teams. What tasks benefit from deep focus? Lateral thinking? Visual processing? Use this to shape future role design, hiring, and team planning. 

Your role isn’t just to fill vacancies, it’s to lead the shift toward systems that make inclusion not just possible, but practical. 

At Genius Within, we work with HR leaders to: 

Ready to attract neurodivergent talent with confidence? 

Get in touch to book a discovery call with our consultancy team.