Companies Find Autism Can Be a Job Skill

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<P>Companies Find Autism Can Be a Job Skill<BR>自闭症也是工作技能</P>
	<P>Some employers increasingly are viewing autism as an asset and not a deficiency in the workplace. </P>
	<P>Germany-based software company SAP AG has been actively seeking people with autism for jobs, not because of charitable outreach but because it believes features of autism may make some individuals better at certain jobs than those without autism. </P>
	<P>It's a worthy initiative, according to disability experts, since 85% of adults with autism are estimated to be unemployed. </P>
	<P>Piloted in Germany, India and Ireland, the program is also launching in four North American offices, according to an announcement Thursday. </P>
	<P>SAP aims to have up to 1% of its workforce--about 650 people--be employees with autism by 2020, according to Jose Velasco, head of the autism initiative at SAP in the U.S.</P>
	<P>People with autism spectrum disorder--characterized by social deficits and repetitive behavior--tend to pay great attention to detail, which may make them well suited as software testers or debuggers, according to Mr. Velasco, who has two children with the condition. </P>
	<P>In addition, these people bring a different perspective to the workplace, which may help with efficiency and creativity as well, he said. </P>
	<P>'They have a very structured nature' and like nonambiguous, precise outcomes, Mr. Velasco said. 'We're looking at those strengths and looking at where those traits would be of value to the organization.' </P>
	<P>Autistic employees at SAP take on roles such as identifying software problems, and assigning customer-service queries to members of the team for troubleshooting. </P>
	<P>One employee works in 'talent marketing,' issuing communications to employees internally. The company is looking for someone to produce videos and is considering an applicant with autism who has experience in media arts. </P>
	<P>SAP is also considering other positions, such as writing manuals to give clients very precise instructions on how to install software. </P>
	<P>Individuals with autism might excel at going step by step, without skipping details that others may miss, said Mr. Velasco. The business procurement process, such as getting invoices or managing the supply chain, is another area in which an individual with autism might shine, he said. </P>
	<P>SAP isn't the only company to have such a program. In the U.S., mortgage lender Freddie Mac has offered career-track internships since 2012, including in IT, finance and research. </P>
	<P>The lender hired its first full-time employee from the program in January, according to a Freddie Mac spokeswoman. In IT, the company has found that interns often perform well in testing and data-modeling jobs that require great attention to detail and focus as well as a way of seeing things that might not have been anticipated by the developers. </P>
	<P>'Harnessing the unique skills of people on the autism spectrum has the potential to strengthen our business and make us more competitive,' according to the lender's policy. </P>
	<P>To be sure, as with any group, people with autism have a range of interests and abilities. SAP is working with a Danish autism-focused training and consultancy firm, Specialisterne, which carefully screens and interviews the candidates to find the appropriate matches before sending them to SAP to evaluate. </P>
	<P>Patrick Brophy, 29 years old, has a bachelor's degree in computer science in software systems and a master's in multimedia systems, which includes website development and editing. Mr. Brophy says he has Asperger's, a term commonly used to describe a milder form of autism spectrum disorder.</P>
	<P>He had been looking for full-tine work for a few years but said that in the handful of interviews he went to, he would sometimes stutter or misinterpret questions, which he felt reflected poorly on him in the interviews. </P>
	<P>When he arrived at SAP for the screening day, however, he had the technical qualifications and he appeared to have skills to work in a corporate setting, according to Peter Brabazon, Specialisterne program manager. Mr. Brophy was hired by the quality assurance department in July, where he identifies glitches in software prior to it being issued to clients. </P>
	<P>'Four weeks before joining, I was steadily more and more nervous,' said Mr. Brophy, who worried about his adjustment to a new environment. 'Within a month, [the work] was second nature. I had found myself.'</P>
	<P>Mr. Brophy said there have been challenges with his job, particularly when he has to revamp how he does a certain task. </P>
	<P>From a social standpoint, he found it easy to integrate into his team, said both Mr. Brophy and David Sweeney, a colleague assigned to be his mentor. </P>
	<P>About 1% of the population in the U.S.--or some three million people--is thought to have an autism-spectrum disorder. The latest figures issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that one in 68 children have been identified with an autism-spectrum disorder.</P>
	<P>Their lifetime employment rate is extremely low even though many want to work, said disability experts. Among young adults between 21 and 25 years old, only half have ever held a paid job outside the home, according to a study published last year in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. </P>
	<P>Though many people with autism go on to higher education and are qualified for employment, they may have trouble getting in the door of a workplace because of difficulties with networking or interviews, according to Wendy Harbour, executive director of the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, at Syracuse University. </P>
	<P>There are a number of companies and outreach efforts that aim to hire people with autism, seeking to tailor work to their abilities. </P>
	<P>But SAP and employers like Freddie Mac said their effort is specifically a business decision to take advantage of what they see as unique skill sets. </P>
	<P>SAP said that individuals being considered to work there usually have had at least some higher education. </P>
	<P>In Dublin, the candidates arrive at the company's software design center, dubbed the 'AppHaus,' which features open spaces, movable desks and whimsical furniture. They are asked to work in pairs on a task building a motorized robot. Candidates are given the instruction manual and brief instructions.</P>
	<P>Assessors from Specialisterne look to see if the candidates listen to instructions and pick up on cues, and how they react to challenges such as how the colors of the pieces to the robot look different from the instruction manual. 'I want to see how they work together and their technical skills,' said Debbie Merrigan, one of the assessors for Specialisterne. </P>
	<P>She wants them to be meticulous, she says. If they aren't it doesn't mean they aren't employable, but they may not be a good fit for working at SAP. Sometimes candidates get overwhelmed and simply leave.</P>
	<P>After Specialisterne identifies a candidate as being a good fit, SAP then conducts further interviews, as they would with any other applicant, says Kristen Doran, a program manager in human resources at SAP Dublin. At this facility, 15 candidates were screened and interviewed in order to hire the three who are currently placed as contractors. Mr. Brophy works in the quality assurance department while the other two individuals are in the troubleshooting division. </P>
	<P>The candidates are paid market rate and if they succeed on the job, they will be hired as full-time employees after a year, said Liam Ryan, managing director of SAP Labs Ireland. </P>
	<P>Difficulties with social interaction and inflexibility can sometimes pose significant problems for individuals with autism, and SAP has a mentoring system and in some cases has made changes to the work schedule to accommodate these new employees. The company also conducts a month of employee-adaptation training to increase employees' comfort level at working with the team as well as another month or more of job training. </P>
	<P>'It's hard to go into a corporate space if you prefer order to disorder, ' says Thorkil Sonne, founder of Specialisterne. 'Our biggest effort is to work with them...to define and strengthen their comfort zone,' said Mr. Sonne, who has a son with autism.</P>  一些雇主們越來越把自閉症視為工作中的財富而非劣勢。 德國軟件公司SAP AG 一直都在積極尋找自閉症患者，這並非是出於公益慈善的考慮，而是因為該公司認為自閉症的特徵使人在特定崗位表現更為出色。 疾病專家表示，這是一種有益的嘗試，因為約85患​​有自閉症的成年人都沒有被雇傭。 週四的一份聲明顯示，這項計劃率先在德國、印度和愛爾蘭實施，也即將在四個北美辦公室推廣。 SAP 美國分部自閉症計劃負責人喬斯·韋拉斯科(Jose Velasco)說， SAP 計劃在2020年時使自閉症僱員比例達到1，約650人。 韋拉斯科說，自閉症的表現為缺乏社交技巧以及動作重複，患者會非常注重細節，這令他們完美勝任程序測試員或者調試者的工作。他的兩個孩子也有相同的狀況。 另外，他補充道，這些人給工作場所帶來了不同元素，這可能有助於提升效率和創造力。 &ldquo他們的個性注重條理 " 並且喜歡明確的、精準的結果，韋拉斯科說。&ldquo我們看重的是他們的優勢，以及這些優勢如何在公司裡發揮價值。" SAP 公司裡，患有自閉症的員工的職責包括檢測軟件的問題，以及向故障排除組的成員分配客戶提出的問題。 一名員工在 " 人才營銷 " 部門工作，負責發布員工內部通訊。該公司在尋找一個會製作視頻的人，並且考慮找一個在媒體藝術方面有經驗的自閉症患者。 SAP 也在考慮其他職位，例如撰寫說明書，以便在如何安裝軟件方面給予用戶準確的指導。 韋拉斯科說，自閉症患者在履行流程方面勝於常人，並且能夠關注到其他人可能忽視的細節。他說，商業採購流程，例如獲取發票或者管理供應鏈，是又一個自閉症患者可能會大放異彩的領域。 SAP 不是唯一一個擁有此類計劃的公司。在美國，抵押貸款公司房地美(Freddie Mac)從2012年起提供職業生涯規劃實習，包含IT、金融和調研等領域。 房地美新聞發言人表示，該公司於今年一月首次通過該項目僱傭了一名全職員工。該公司發現，IT領域的實習生在測試和數據建模之類的工作中表現突出，這非常需要注重細節的能力和專注力，並且能從不同角度來發現開發者可能會忽視的問題。 該公司的策略是：" 利用自閉症患者的這些獨特技能將會強化我們的業務，並讓我們更有競爭力。" 和其他群體一樣，自閉症患者有許多興趣和技能。SAP 正在同丹麥一家聚焦自閉症的培訓及諮詢公司Specialisterne合作，這家公司會仔細篩选和面試候選人，再將他們送到SAP 進行評估。 帕特里克 布羅非(Patrick Brophy)患有亞斯伯格症，持有多媒體系統專業學位，其中涉及了網站開發。 29歲的帕特里克·布羅非(Patrick Brophy)擁有軟件系統的計算機學士學位和多媒體系統的碩士學位，其中包含網站開發和編輯。布羅非說他有亞斯伯格症，這一術語通常用來形容自閉症中程度較輕者。 他過去幾年中都在尋找一份全職工作，但是他說在參加過的幾場面試中，自己有時會結巴或者對問題理解錯誤，這讓他覺得自己在面試中表現得很差勁。 Specialisterne的項目經理彼得·布拉巴宗(Peter Brabazon)表示，然而在SAP 的選拔中，布羅非擁有技術資格，並且顯示出了在企業中工作的能力。布羅非於去年七月被品質保障部門錄用，職責是在軟件發售給客戶前檢測其中的小問題。 " 在加入前的四周裡，我變得越來越緊張 "，布羅非說，他擔心自己適應新環境的能力。 " 不出一個月，這項工作成了我的第二本能。我找到了自我。"  布羅非說工作中有許多挑戰，特別是要改進他做事的方法。 布羅非說，從社交的角度來說，他覺得融入團隊並非難事。他的同事兼導師大衛·斯威尼(David Sweeney)表達了同樣的看法。 美國約有1的人口，或者說約300萬人，患有自閉症。美國疾病控制與預防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)週四發布的最新數據顯示，每68名兒童中就有一人被確診為自閉症。 疾病專家表示，儘管這些人想要去工作，他們一生中的被雇傭率卻非常之低。《美國兒童及青少年精神病學學院期刊》​​(Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)去年發表的一項研究顯示，在21至25歲的年輕人中，只有半數曾有過走出家門的帶薪工作。 溫迪·哈伯(Wendy Harbour)說，即使許多自閉症患者繼續接受高等教育並獲得了任職資格，他們也會因社交障礙或在面試中的表現而被公司拒之門外。哈伯是雪城大學(Syracuse University)泰肖夫(Taishoff)中心的執行總監，該中心致力於兼容並包的高等教育。 許多公司和旨在僱傭自閉症患者的拓展機構都在嘗試按照他們的能力度身定做工作崗位。 但是SAP 和房地美這類的雇主說，他們所做的努力主要是出於業務上的考慮，為的是利用這些獨特的技能。 SAP 表示，被選中在那里工作的人通常至少接受過高等教育。 像達拉 麥克馬洪(Dara McMahon)這樣的自閉症患者在SAP 承擔著分發客戶問題的工作。 在都柏林，候選人會來到公司的軟件開發中心，也就是俗稱的 " 程序屋 " ，其特色在於開放式的環境、可移動的桌子和造型奇特的家具。他們被要求分組完成組裝機器人的任務，同時得到說明書和簡單的指導。 Specialisterne的評委著重觀察候選人是否聽從指導、按指令行動，以及他們如何應對挑戰，例如機器人部件的顏色和說明書上的不一樣。" 我想看看他們如何合作、技術水平如何 " ，Specialisterne的評委黛比·梅里根(Debbie Merrigan)說。 她說她想要那些一絲不的人。如果不夠謹慎並不代表他們不適合被雇傭，但可能不適合在SAP 工作。有時候選人覺得壓力太大就直接離開了。 SAP 都柏林分部人力資源部的項目經理克里斯滕·多蘭(Kristen Doran)說，在Specialisterne選出合適的候選人之後， SAP 會接著做進一步的面試，就像他們對所有應聘者所做的一樣。在這裡，15名候選人參與了選拔和麵試，為的是選出三人。他們三人現在都是合同工。布羅非在品質保障部門，另外兩人則在問題解決部門。 SAP 愛爾蘭實驗室總監利亞姆·瑞安(Liam Ryan)說，候選人一旦成功入選，將會按照市場平均水平獲得報酬，一年之後會成為正式全職員工。 社交障礙以及缺乏應變能力有時會給自閉症患者帶來很大的麻煩，所以SAP 建立了導師體系，有時也會調整工作日程來適應這些新員工。該公司還進行了為期一個月的員工適應性訓練來提升員工在團隊中工作的適應程度，並且再花一個月或者更長時間來進行職業培訓。 " 如果你習慣了無規律的生活就很難融入工作場所 " ， Specialisterne 創始人託基爾·索恩(Thorkil Sonne)說。 " 我們要盡最大努力來發現並拓展他們的適應能力 " ，索恩說。他的兒子也患有自閉症。