We should like to thank Professor Ludmila Praslova for agreeing to join us from Los Angeles on the occasion of World Autism Day

Speaker: Professor Ludmila Praslova, Professor and Director, Vanguard University of Southern California, Graduate Organisational Psychology, Los Angeles

Successfully managing and integrating a diverse workforce has never been as challenging and yet so important.

We acknowledge the need for Inclusion as a moral, social and economic imperative: we all lose when human potential is squandered. But unfortunately use of conventional criteria in assessment means that some of our best candidates are ignored as their perceived weaknesses exclude them in the course of competitive selection processes.

Providing incentives for organisations won’t necessarily work as attitudes to inclusion and discrimination occurs on different levels. Application of legislation such as the Equality Act 2010 has only resulted in tokenism and fails to address the fundamental point that the majority of those with exceptional problem solving skills and analytical thinking may not, for example be as strong in making small talk that is a significant aspect of many interviews. In short, there needs to be a different approach to talent management which can accommodate those with autistic traits and neurodivergent characteristics.

Utilising the results of leading edge research, this session will bring a US and international perspective to the debate on how organisations can take a more positive approach to maximising individual and organisational performance.

Prof. Ludmila Praslova has for many years worked tirelessly to educate Corporates that failure of individuals in the workplace is the result of continuous discrimination rather than issues of competence. As professor of psychology at VUSC she is having considerable success in changing attitudes and “Giving Genuine Talent a Chance”