With targeted autism/neurodiversity employment programs emerging regularly now around the country, a small employment program by a water utility in California would normally not draw attention. However, this employment program of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC), has several distinctive features. Let me know if you agree.
First, a few words of background on the PUC itself and the neurodiversity program development. The PUC dates back to the mid nineteenth century, founded as the Spring Valley Water Company in 1860. Today it oversees an expansive network of pumping stations, reservoirs, pipelines and tunnels delivering water to over 2.7 million households and businesses. It employs an army of engineers, hydrologists, billing agents, maintenance staff, rate analysts, and chemists: over 2300 employees spread among seven Northern California counties.
The PUC’s General Manager is Harlan Kelly, an engineer, who has been at the utility for sixteen years, the last seven as the General Manager. In recent years Kelly has overseen a construction boom, with the $4.8 billion capital program to modernize the water delivery network, and a $2.9 billion capital program which is updating the sewer system.
In early 2018, Masood Ordikhani, the utility’s workforce director, approached Kelly with the idea of a workforce initiative to take advantage of the boom, targeting workers with autism and other neurodiverse conditions. After Kelly gave the green light, Ordikhani and his staff designed a neurodiversity hiring program in connection with the engineering and construction firms that have been involved in the PUC construction.
Ordikhani wanted to focus on the segment of the autism and neurodiverse community with greatest difficulties in finding employment. The jobs he targeted were administrative and office jobs that did not require engineering or technical degrees or advanced skills. The neurodiversity program would start small, with modest numbers of participants in the first two years, and then grow gradually over the next decade.
The Arc San Francisco, the non-profit specializing in employment for adults with developmental differences, was brought on as an intermediary for the recruitment and screening, job coaching and supports, transition into on-going employment. Recruitment began in fall 2018, with seven participants on board by the end of October. Four of the participants had a diagnosis of autism, while three had diagnoses of other significant learning disabilities. All were in their twenties or early thirties. One was hired by the PUC, the other six were placed at the engineering/design firms Stantec and Brown & Caldwell, and at Webcor, the large California construction firm.
Stantec brought on Natalie to work in in an office support position with time split between its San Francisco and Walnut Creek offices: doing data entry, reprographics, and reception services. Brown & Caldwell bought on Baird, and he assisted with supply management, car logs, proof reading reports and administrative support. Webcor brought on three workers, including Delia in Human Resources support doing data entry, I-9 verifications, and filing, and Brandon in a project office, doing scanning, document control and mail. Webcor’s workers were placed at active construction jobsite offices. The PUC brought a participant whom I’ll call Jim, to do data entry, document control and scanning.
The participants recently completed the first six months, with two already transitioned into regular employment. The next cycle is scheduled for September, and three large engineering firms have signed up: Jacobs Engineering, Arcadis, and Black & Veatch. Webcor has signed up for a second cycle.
So why should we take notice? The program certainly is not distinctive in size. Ordikhani hopes it will grow steadily among engineering and construction firms and be replicated by public utilities nationwide. But for the next few years, it will be modest, each cycle will be a handful or two of participants.
Nor are its structures of recruitment and support significantly different so far from the major neurodiversity programs. It has adopted the best practices identified in the leading employer manuals by the Autism at Work coalition, Autism Speaks, Uptimize, and Integrate Autism Employment Advisors; and is still in its early stages of trying to sharpen these practices.
Rather, the PUC program’s distinction lies in something more inchoate: the spirit and consciousness by which it is being implemented. I'll try to illustrate.
“By 2018, the unemployment rate in San Francisco was under 2.5%, and we saw it as an opportunity to bring in workers who even in the booming economy were not finding jobs,” Ordikhani recalled recently. “My staff reviewed the employment data, and adults with developmental disabilities in San Francisco stood out for their extremely high unemployment rate. At the same time, what I read and observed about workers with autism and other neurological conditions suggested that they could bring a lot to the PUC and our contractors in their empathy, loyalty, attention to detail and untapped skills.”
Whether to disclose is an on-going issue in autism employment. The PUC program opted for full disclosure from the start, highlighting transparency, and letting other staff know about the participant coming on board and the program goals, and seeking to get buy-in from co-workers. Kristen Pedersen, the senior director of workforce inclusion at the Arc, which oversaw implementation, explains, “We sought support from all levels, supervisors and co-workers. Our experience is that as co-workers know about a person’s developmental differences, they nearly always rally in support.”
I know Jim, the worker with autism placed at the PUC, and some of his unusual behaviors and difficulties he had in jobs over the previous five years. After two months, though, when I hesitantly checked in Jim’s progress, Ordikhani was fully complimentary. “We’re so lucky to have him. He brings such an upbeat nature to the job. Sometimes I’m down and I just need to see him to be picked up.”
It was good to hear this, even though I suspected Ordikhani was skipping over other issues. In serving as a volunteer job coach with adults with autism, so much of the feedback I get from employers is negative, calls complaining that “He talks too loud in his cubicle and disturbs other workers”, “He walked in on a meeting unannounced”, “Another worker complained he made a mess of the company kitchen”. Ordikhani always focused on the positive, as well as patience and flexibility.
Over the next four months, whenever we spoke Ordikhani continued to say about Jim, “He’s such an addition to our staff”, and remark on the value he brought. Ordikhani observed how Jim advanced the program’s understanding of autism. “He’s the expert on autism”, and added, “He teaches us about autism, so we can improve the program for future cycles.”
Ordikhani further noted, “He’s already had an impact on our workplace, making all of us more patient with each other, and recognizing how lucky we are to have these jobs.” In one conversation, the issue of accommodations came up, and Ordikhani observed, “We all need accommodations, including me”.
Ordikhani’s workplace culture seemed to be picked up by the other companies. Stephen Robinson is the Bay Area regional manager for Stantec, which has more than 22,000 employees worldwide. He commented, “Other staff rallied around Natalie. Her presence helped all of us slow down, and consider how we could help each other.” Similarly, according to Brian Morton, Vice President at Webcor, each of the three local office managers and top company management already are looking forward to the next cycle.
The Arc’s Kristen Pedersen oversees placements of adults with developmental differences at a range of leading employers, including Salesforce, Facebook, and Amazon. She notes that a prominent part of any effective neurodiversity program is patience. Nearly all of us need time to adjust to new positions. This is so especially for workers with developmental differences--though the more usual result for these workers today, outside of a few workplaces, is impatience rather than patience.
Near the end of the musical Avenue Q, one of the main characters, Princeton, plaintively asks, “Why does everything have to be so hard?” Even when companies or government agencies agree to participate in neurodiversity hiring, most still do so in 2019 with great hesitation, ready to fire for the first mistake or difficulty, grumpy about any failures to fit right in, seeing only the negatives.
This is where Ordikhani and his effort is most distinctive, and why attention should be paid to the PUC’s neurodiversity program.
