During a meeting, Simona Zerilli, my supervisor, mentions Dandelion, a new hiring program at DXC Technology (the company I work for) aimed at people on the autism spectrum. Given the many years spent at Fede e Luce and the many friends that the movement has introduced me to, I immediately perk up: it could be something interesting to contribute to thanks to my experience. I call Marco, the manager of Dandelion, and ask for clarification. I barely finish my sentence before he says "Do you want to participate too? Let's do this thing together?". I've known Marco for a few years, he's a sensitive and capable person, in difficult working moments he's been there for me, so I gladly accept the proposal.
Born in Australia, since 2014 Dandelion has been operating in several countries (United Kingdom, Poland, Bulgaria and the Philippines), and efforts are underway to activate it in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. Its main purpose is to create a working environment that allows neurodivergent people to use their peculiarities and potential in the service of a company that offers Information Technology services, for software testing and development activities, acquiring the necessary skills, growing thus as employees and as individuals. For neurodivergent people, DXC's Dandelion is an opportunity to develop technical skills to obtain meaningful long-term employment in an IT environment. For organizations, on the other hand, it is an opportunity to secure the unique capabilities that are often associated with neurodiversity, such as visual thinking, comfort with planned routine activities, accuracy, honesty, strong attention to detail and the ability to identify errors, all characteristics of value in the world of information technology.
The results so far have exceeded expectations. Some reference figures: 92% of the people involved have continued their working journey with DXC, 75% expressed a high level of satisfaction with the work they are doing, productivity in the projects involved has increased between 30% and 40%, 100% of the projects have offered people with neurodiversity a permanent position within them after completion of the Dandelion program.
In Italy similar realities already exist, although the estimated percentage of people on the autism spectrum who work is around 10%. There are companies that have been formed precisely to hire staff in neurodiversity, but they are still little-known realities. Dandelion nevertheless maintains its own innovation: we are no longer talking about companies that are formed to employ people with disabilities, but about a company born to make profit that understands that the abilities of a neurodivergent person can constitute considerable added value. The people involved are mainly those with Asperger's syndrome (Level 1 of autism severity), but people with ADHD (attention deficit disorder), hyperactivity and dyslexia have also been engaged.
The hiring process – which will take place at Untapped company which will then provide consulting staff to DXC Tech – will follow the classic steps: job applications through registration on the Dandelion program portal, an interview with expert staff that will assess the person's technical and relational abilities to understand if they will be able to sustain work in the company, a regular paid contract, a training path, presumably in remote mode (that is from home connected to a computer) and starting in a software development or testing project, partially in remote mode, partially in person at a company location. The working group that has been formed is extremely motivated to carry forward this initiative and the company management has also been immediately available to support the program. Now we are ready to start.