SAP Hires Autistic Minds To Boost Productivity In IT Field
SAP, one of the leading enterprise software corporations in the world, will be hiring individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to work in IT because of their exceptional analytic and focus skills.
The effort came underway with the help of Specialisterne, a foundation that connects people with autism to prospective jobs. Specialisterne will recruit hundreds of ASD people from across the globe to work in software testing, programming, and data quality assurance for SAP.
"By concentrating on the abilities that every talent brings to the table, we can redefine the way we manage diverse talents," said Luisa Delgado, member of the executive board of SAP AG, Human Resources. "With Specialisterne, we share a common belief that innovation comes from the 'edges.' Only by employing people who think differently and spark innovation will SAP be prepared to handle the challenges of the 21st century."
ASD individuals performed extremely well during SAP's pilot trials in India and Ireland, prompting the German-based multinational company to move ahead and start hiring.
Just this past year, there have been notable efforts from other companies to give job opportunities to autistic individuals. Last month, nonPareil, a Texas-based training program and software company that helps young adults with autism get into the workforce, enrolled 100 students to learn software programming, even 3D modeling. In the company, dozens of autistic workers are employees.
SAP will make the list as the first multinational corporation to incorporate this hiring process.
Since the pilot projects, SAP laboratories based in India have already hired six individuals with autism after they demonstrated strong productivity and cohesiveness when working with software testing on the SAP Business Suite applications, and SAP facilities in Ireland have completed screening of potential autistic employees for five job spots.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 88 children are diagnosed with ASD, and it's five times more common in boys than girls.
Asperger's syndrome is a form of autism that displays obsession to detail in individuals diagnosed. A study last year found that some child prodigies have highly autistic qualities while holding high IQs.
A majority of children with ASD, specifically 62 percent, do not have intellectual disabilities, the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network found.