Xceptional

We are tackling the massive global problem of autism unemployment. Despite having a range of attributes that are in high demand autistic people often miss out on meaningful employment due to the conventional recruitment process.

Our solution is a recruitment platform, uniquely suited to autistic people, that allows job seekers to demonstrate rather than articulate their strengths through activity-based assessments. The outcome is a treasure trove of skilled, reliable and loyal talent for a range of roles, particularly those that are hard to fill and retain or where there are skills shortages. 

Globally, it is estimated that there are 125 million people with autism, approximately 80% of which are under or not employed, impacting not just the person but family and support systems.

The CDC puts the prevalence of autism as 1 in 59, which if extrapolated suggests that there could be 125 million globally. When this diversity is viewed in terms of employment, disability charity A4 estimates 65% of people with autism are not employed - almost 12 times the rate of people without disability. Worldwide, the UN secretary general has stated that more than 80% of adults with autism are unemployed.

Autism thus contributes a large barrier to employment. The total number of people across Microsoft, SAP, DXC, JPMorgan and other autism hiring programs is approximately 2000 people. We are only scratching the surface in terms of deploying them in appropriate roles and fully utilising their unique abilities.

The barriers to employment for a person with autism are varied and exacerbated by a conventional approach to recruitment that involves face to face interviews and detailed resumes. Many autistic people do not even get past the first check-point and are effectively locked out of meaningful employment. Our approach is to demonstrate how very exceptional our talent is via a thorough assessment focussing on strengths and not perceived weaknesses.

Our solution is a personalised app addressing employment challenges faced by autistic people. This app reduces anxiety and highlights the unique strengths of the candidates. 

The app draws upon Xceptional’s specialised interview techniques, including activity-based online assessments to create a Profile for each job seeker. These techniques highlight the traits of job seekers such as an incredible eye for detail, pattern matching and recognition along with the ability to sustain high levels of concentration.

Job-matching capabilities draw on the data from these specialised activity-based interviews and assessments and match these results to the set of skills that have been distilled from client job descriptions. Combined with a percentage rating system, Xceptional is able to provide matches that are strength-based and targeted at the specific role to be filled.

The core functions of the app are free of charge to use for autistic candidates, with additional features in a paid version. The tool serves to scale Xceptional’s current business practices allowing for remote assessment and different geographic regions to be impacted.

Our founder and CEO has a sister, Sarah, with autism. As her brother, Mike has witnessed her employment struggles for 20 years. Like many, Sarah isn't suited to the traditional recruitment process and finds interviews stressful. Her atypical communication style and high anxiety hold her back. Her brief periods of employment have under-utilised her skills and rarely catered to her strengths.

We are seeking to help people like Mike’s sister, who, because of their autism, are either under employed or cannot find employment. They come from all walks of life and socio economic backgrounds. The impacts are financial, go to the core of identity and have a wide ranging effect on family, friends and carers.

Our solution design is based on our experience in placing people with Autism into jobs. Importantly, just under 50% of our company identifies as neurodiverse and they are our testers and sounding boards. In addition, throughout the design phase we have been in contact with leaders in this field from around the world and companies who specialise in hiring autistic staff in order to design a solution that is fit for purpose.

Many autistic people are currently unemployed or underemployed despite having the skills to do a variety of jobs. This population is currently marginalised from the job market, experiencing up to 80% unemployment globally. Our solution engages with this population to provide a pathway to employment and to equip individuals with the tools for self advocacy via a career Profile. On the other side we advocate for these workers with the business users of the solution, encouraging autistic friendly interview practices and providing safe workplaces. As new job sectors arise and technology changes they will be incorporated into our solution.

Our solution is to use technology to change the traditional recruitment model to embrace a pool of untapped neurodivergent talent, resulting in more neurodiverse individuals in employment.

Our approach is to use evidence-based assessment that is delivered remotely via a web application. The job seeker undertakes proprietary assessments from the comfort of their own home. These assessments paint a picture of the individual and their interactions with our assessments forms a Profile, showcasing their skills and abilities. The assessments are designed to be enjoyable, to obtain maximum engagement from the job seeker.

This Profile is then augmented with information such as required sensory adaptations, preferred learning approaches, work samples and external certifications to present a well-rounded picture of the job seeker. The Profile is used as the primary evidential artifact to match job seekers to employers looking for talent.  All data points contained within the Profile provide a picture of where the job seeker sits amidst of the broader candidate pool.  

Our assessments are also designed to be undertaken anonymously by current employees, so that the hiring manager can benchmark the job seeker’s performance against a known comparison context across multiple skill areas. This aids shortlisting of candidates based not only on assessment performance but also organisation suitability given the goals and required workplace adaptations of the job seeker.

Our solution uses technology to deliver a web based assessment platform, allowing us to take analog assessments and deliver them digitally.  The assessment results are then classified into skill set groups (e.g. Attention to Detail, Numerical Reasoning, Logical Reasoning etc.) and recorded for analysis.  

Data analysis is provided using data visualisation platforms to identify outliers and provide a comparative benchmark against existing anonymised data sets.  This anonymised data provides training data for machine learning algorithms to automate the job seeker matching process.

Our solution utilises well known and tested web technologies to deliver a responsive single page application using Node.js/JavaScript/Reast.js. Data is stored in a cloud hosted Postgres database, which is the data source for our data visualization platforms.

An additional element of our technology is the assessment puzzles used to create the Profile.  These puzzles allow participants to show their strengths and understand their challenges. World-renowned autism specialists have shown that these specific puzzles enable an understanding of the strengths of autistic people.

A number of studies have shown the shocking unemployment figures for autistic people and the barriers they face to entering work. One of the primary barriers is the challenge of job interviews which cause increased anxiety for autistic people. 

A 2016 study by Lorenz et al found that the most frequent challenges were in communication and social interaction. In a 2017 study by Sarrett, the majority of participants found challenges with the interview process, with many referring repeatedly to interviews as being particularly difficult or stressful. 

Other very worthwhile programs focus on altering the behavior and skills of autistic individuals using role-playing, scripts, mock interviews or virtual reality training. Our theory of change is that by providing an alternative path through appropriate puzzles and assessments we can supplement the job interview with better data, and eventually help businesses shift away from the job interview for autistic people.

Xceptional’s theory of change is built around the idea that if we celebrate and harness the unique talents of autistic people they and their allies can better advocate to employers and overcome these barriers. At the core is a set of assessments and work sample tasks which allow autistic people to show their strengths and understand their challenges. World-renowned autism specialist Dr Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues including Frith have shown that specific puzzles enable an understanding of the strengths of autistic people.

Alongside these puzzles, we also provide training and recruitment services to businesses in order to shift norms, attitudes and beliefs, increase employment opportunities, increase retention rates and reduce reliance on family members and other carers for support. Ultimately, this will improve net wellbeing, enhance mental health, promote inclusivity and community integration and reduce reliance on government.

So far we have impacted 100 people. We have impacted 25 people directly through people we have placed into work or are coaching in work. For each person who gains employment, there are on average 3 additional people - family members or carers - who are positively impacted and able to return to work or re-engage in the community. 

In addition, we have trained more than 500 employees at our business and government partners in autism awareness training. 

Over the next year, we have a target of placing 50 people into work, with a total impact number of 200. In 5 years, through the scaling potential of our technology we anticipate impacting more than 100,000 people.

Our primary goals over the next year are to: 

• Significantly increase our social impact through placing 50 people into work

• Positively impact 150 carers or family members

• Grow the number of skilled candidates we are assessing to 30 per month

• Expand our job areas to 10, including cyber, analytics, engineering, accounting, administration

• Launch our Xceptional app to job seekers as well as to business customers.

• Increase job satisfaction to above 85>#/p###

• Grow our strategic partnerships and expand into additional states across Australia

Our primary goals over the next 5 years are to:

• Achieve scale in helping individuals find meaningful careers

• Expand in at least 3 markets including our core of Australia / NZ

• Enhance our products and services for changing the mindset of employers and the awareness of individuals and employers.

• Do all the above by ensuring both the financial viability and operational scalability of the business. 

Our barriers are in 3 areas.

Firstly, on one side of our market we have a need to increase our pipeline of skilled candidates. We are not able to keep up with the interest we have from employers who want to employ autistic people and, more broadly, people who are neurodiverse. Having more jobs than candidates is a good problem to have, but one that is top of mind to address in 2020-21.

There are two main parts to this problem of increasing our pipeline of candidates. One, relevant this year, is increasing overall candidates that are finding us; second, a 5 year problem, is increasing the portion that are skilled, either by training candidates, or by working with corporates to reframe how they describe job requirements. Currently, only 20% of job seekers coming to us have sufficient skills to be placed into jobs. 

Our second problem is the challenge of corporate cultural change. Each manager that takes on an autistic person has a huge potential for impact. However, most managers have deadlines, and incentives to deliver results; the thought of adding someone to their team with disabilities causes fear and uncertainty.

Our final problem is technical. Currently, due to limits of our assessments we provide services to around 10% of autistic people, who have abilities in IT. According to the UK Autistic Society, expanding into our planned industries, such as legal and accounting, will allow us to cover around 50% of autistic people.

Increase our pipeline of skills candidates

We are building relationships with existing groups and networks. A lot of autistic people do not use traditional job boards, and trust is built often by word of mouth recommendations. 

Additionally, we are connecting with parent groups on Facebook, and using Google ads. We are also building a new referral program to encourage referrals from people we have placed into jobs.

Upskilling candidates. Currently, only around 20% of job seekers coming to us have sufficient skills to be placed into jobs. We are working with a network of partners through whom our job seekers can access training. 

Corporate cultural change

To tackle the problem of educating employers and help managers move through disability awareness to disability and neurodiversity confidence, Xceptional will deliver a national neurodiversity training program. This will focus on increasing awareness of the benefits and decreasing the conscious and unconscious bias associated with employing autistic people. 

The program will build the recruitment and retention capabilities for autistic people at employers throughout Australia. The project will target the intersectionality of disability and employment, including in regional, rural/remote and indigenous communities, with the objective of increasing employment of autistic people by enabling more employers to adopt more inclusive hiring practices.

Expand industries we reach

Finally we are researching the natural strengths required to expand into new industries and the underlying puzzles. We continue to reach out to our research partners for advice in these areas.

2 fulltime and 3 part-time, we have one full-time Senior Systems engineer, a part-time Engineer and two part-time Testers and have just hired a full-time Web Developer. In addition we have consultation from the CEO/Founder, COO, Recruitment Manager, Coaching Manager and Growth Officer. 

Our founder and CEO, Mike Tozer, has spent his career at the intersection between innovation, social impact and systems change. For 12 years, he worked in agile software teams in Hong Kong. His team built international systems to connect multinational corporations with nonprofits and 25 United Nations organisations. Mike founded this business because he is passionate about making the world a better place for those who are autistic and has both a sister and child on the spectrum.  

Our technical lead and Senior Engineer has over 15 years experience developing software and leading teams to do the same with extensive experience developing software in the charity & non-profit space.   

In addition we have a software engineer who joined us 6 months ago and two software testers who have been working for Xceptional for over two years, who all happen to be autistic, are particularly good at what they do and play an important role in the development.   

Xceptional has business and government customers who use our recruitment and training services. In addition we have a strong network of partners, including self-advocates, nonprofits, and Disability Employment Services (DES providers) along with universities and other research institutions. We are also part of a global network called NeuroWrkx which is made up of around 30 companies that embrace the autism advantage.

Google has provided financial backing for our solution as part of the Google.org Impact Challenge. We are also beneficiaries of Westpac’s Businesses of Tomorrow program, Optus’s Future Makers program, AMP’s Tomorrow Fund and Macquarie Bank’s Kickstarter program.  

Xceptional has recently entered a strategic partnership with IPA, a national recruitment provider in Australia.

We are a for-profit for-purpose company. Our way of creating social impact is baked into the very heart of the business: through how we operate and through how we place people into jobs.

As our purpose is to serve people with autism, there is no cost for registering, going through the assessment process or for being placed. We seek to provide a pathway to meaningful employment for many who have been unsuccessful using traditional recruitment.

Revenue is generated through candidate placement, organisational training and coaching services and through subscription to our software. Our model is to be a premier source of candidates. 

We focus on industries where there are skills gaps (such as the tech industry where there is a large skills shortage) or have hard fill positions that our candidates are ideal for (such as jobs that have a repetitive nature and a high turnover rate). 

In addition to placement, we provide organisation training for staff, a comprehensive onboarding process and coaching for placed candidates, their managers and teams.  We believe we have a duty of care to our candidates wellbeing beyond placement.

As a for-purpose business that is registered with Social Traders we are positioned to take advantage of social procurement policies of government and business sectors. In addition, this status combined with the actual work we do places us very well in the hitting zone to receive ILC grant funding form the Federal government along with attracting philanthropic funding for programs that are new or breaking into new geographic regions.

Furthermore, our recruitment, training and coaching business continues to grow with major recurring contracts secured within the last 4 months with government and other corporate clients. The revenue from these activities will add to the sustainability of the business when combined with the various other sources of funding previously mentioned.

Finally, we have been building technology that has yet to be widely released to the market and this technology is currently being trialed for beta testing. This revenue will grow over time as more licences are taken up.

Xceptional’s aim is to connect neurodiverse people to meaningful careers. We can’t do this at scale without a significant ecosystem of partners. Having spoken with several Solve alumni we believe that Solve will enable us to connect with a significant breadth of partners, funders, employers and investors that will help us grow our vision and our impact. 

We have a solid network of funders, employers and nonprofit partners in Australia. Solve will allow us to expand our network both in the US, as well as beyond to other parts of the globe, given the global connections of MIT and Solve. 

Product/service distribution is a key area for Xceptional. Our software, currently in development, is designed to be used by businesses that are employing autistic people, either exclusively, or as part of a broader HR system. 

We need partners who are willing to test our assessment and matching technology with their autistic staff and job applicants and using our technology to improve the success of their programs. 

At Xceptional, we understand the importance of finding the right partners and working with them to build strong relationships. We are drawn to SOLVE because of the recommendations we have had from SOLVE alumni who have told us about the impressive breadth of the partner network. With that in mind, we look forward to this element of the program in particular.

We would like to be introduced to companies that have existing autism hiring programs, or who may be considering an autism hiring program in the technology, banking and insurance industries.

Our shortlist includes the following companies: Microsoft, HP, Cisco, EY, Capital One, Bank of America, Vodafone, General Motors, Uber, ServiceNow, MunichRe and MetLife.

We would also like to connect with funders and investors who would consider funding autism-focused ideas.

Furthermore, MIT Initiatives that connect with our work include the McGovern Institute, the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research, the Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) and the Good Jobs Initiative at MIT Sloan.

Globally, it is estimated that there are 125 million people with autism, approximately 80% of which are under or not employed.  

The purpose of our solution is to engage working-aged adults who are autistic, and help them find not just a job, but a meaningful career. They are a largely untapped workforce of unemployed people who can excel at high level technical positions in a variety of industries. We are talking about the candidate whose focus and attention to detail makes them extraordinarily good at software testing or the one who’s self taught development skills enabled them to test higher than most senior software engineers in the organisation. 

The total number of people across Microsoft, SAP, DXC, JPMorgan and other autism hiring programs is approximately 2000 people. We are only scratching the surface in terms of deploying them in appropriate roles and fully utilising their unique abilities.

The barriers to employment for a person with autism are varied and exacerbated by a conventional approach to recruitment that involves face to face interviews and detailed resumes. Many autistic people do not even get past the first check-point and are effectively locked out of meaningful employment. 

Our solution is a recruitment platform, uniquely suited to autistic people, that allows job seekers to demonstrate their strengths through activity-based assessments. 

Our intention is to scale this solution so it can be used by partners around the world. We would use the funds to continue our development and achieve this goal.

Globally, it is estimated that there are 125 million people who are neurodivergent, approximately 80% of which are under or not employed.  

Our solution is to use technology to change the traditional recruitment model to embrace a pool of untapped neurodivergent talent, resulting in more neurodiverse individuals in employment.

Our approach is to use evidence-based assessment that is delivered remotely via a web application. The job seeker undertakes proprietary assessments from the comfort of their own home. These assessments paint a picture of the individual and their interactions with our assessments forms a Profile, showcasing their skills and abilities. The assessments are designed to be enjoyable, to obtain maximum engagement from the job seeker.

This Profile is then augmented with information such as required sensory adaptations, preferred learning approaches, work samples and external certifications to present a well-rounded picture of the job seeker. The Profile is used as the primary evidential artefact to match job seekers to employers looking for talent.  All data points contained within the Profile provide a picture of where the job seeker sits amidst of the broader candidate pool.  

The assessments undertaken are in the form of a puzzle, world-renowned autism specialists have shown that these specific puzzles enable an understanding of the strengths of autistic people. We need to continue to build on the puzzles to make them existing puzzles more challenging and intuitive to the job seeker being assessed. For instance, to assess the skill level while the puzzle is being taken and stop or continue increasing the difficulty level. 

In addition we need to be able to scale the solution globally and increase the capacity of the solution to assess the data points and produce a Profile.