Bridges and gatekeepers: employees' willingness to refer qualified candidates on the autism spectrum
Author(s)
Lup, Daniela
Martin, Esther Canonico
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Recruiting neurodiverse talent has increasingly featured on the organizational diversity agenda, yet recruitment practices geared toward locating and attracting neurodivergent candidates remain understudied. While research and practice have shown that employee referral is one of the channels through which a significant part of new talent is recruited, little is known about employees' willingness to refer qualified social contacts who are neurodivergent. We address this limitation by investigating employees' willingness to refer highly qualified candidates on the autism spectrum and some conditions under which they are more or less likely to refer such candidates. We explore these aspects in a study of working individuals, using a mixed-method approach. The quantitative analysis shows that disclosure of an autism condition to potential referrers might pose some advantage, in that it increases the likelihood of being referred, but this advantage accrues only to male candidates. Furthermore, cues that hint at the social dimension of the “ideal worker,” commonly used in job recruitment materials, are the strongest deterrent for referrers. The qualitative analysis of the reasons behind decisions to refer sheds light on some mechanisms that might explain these findings.
Date Issued
2024-11-01
Date Acceptance
2024-07-04
Citation
Human Resource Management, 2024, 63 (6)
ISSN
0090-4848
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Human Resource Management
Volume
63
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Human Resource Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22247
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-07-21