Fuller’s launches neurodiverse recruitment guide

Fuller, Smith & Turner PLC, the premium pubs, and hotels business, has launched a guide to recruiting team members who are neurodiverse or have intellectual disabilities (ID).

The guide has been produced with help and support from LVS Hassocks – a specialist school for children with autism owned by the Licensed Trade Charity – and Fuller’s corporate charity Special Olympics Great Britain.

While a handful of Fuller’s pubs – in particular, The Cabbage Patch in Twickenham – are already active in this space, Fuller’s identified an opportunity to build on this work. Team members with an ID may need shorter shifts and clear, often visual, instruction. They may also have a range of sensory needs, such as quiet spaces for respite, or the avoidance of loud, busy sessions.

Against the backdrop of these minor adjustments, the benefits of a more diverse team are huge – building camaraderie and pride while helping to enrich the life of the new team member and their family. It is also a step in tackling the 94% unemployment rate among the 1.5 million people with an ID in the UK. The guide covers all aspects of the process from the use of inclusive language and visual cues when recruiting, through interview, induction and making small, but suitable, changes to the working environment.

Written by renowned trade journalist Kate Oppenheim, the booklet is being rolled out to all Fuller’s Managed Pubs and will also be available to all Fuller’s Tenants.

Monique Samra, Fuller’s People Experience Manager with responsibility for DE&I, said: “This is such a great booklet aimed at giving our General Managers the confidence and skills to recruit team members from a whole new, and vastly underrepresented, section of the community.”

Chris Welham, CEO at the Licensed Trade Charity, commented: “We have been working with children with IDs through our schools LVS Hassocks and LVS Oxford for decades – and this collaboration with Fuller’s is just fantastic.”

Laura Baxter MBE, CEO of Special Olympics GB, added: “The statistics around employment levels for people with an ID are exceptionally low. There are 1.5 million people living with an ID in Great Britain and only 6% are in paid employment. It is just fantastic to see Fuller’s – which has been a prolific fundraiser for Special Olympics GB since 2018 – taking a further step on its support for those with IDs.”