| HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
Jackie Le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
6 Tips for Interviewing Applicants with Autism as Government Launches Review
Next month, a government review is set to start examining ways to get more autistic people into employment and to stay and succeed in work. Currently, fewer than 3 in 10 people with autism are working and the government wants to close this employment gap to boost productivity and bring individual fulfilment. Read on to find out more about the review, the benefits of hiring people with autism and some practical tips for inclusive recruitment practices.
The government review is being led by Sir Robert Buckland KC MP and will aim to make recommendations to the government in September. It will look at how employers currently support autistic employees and what more could be done to prepare autistic people for work as well as how to improve the productivity of autistic employees and reduce stigma around autism in the workplace. The review will gather evidence from businesses, employment organisations, specialist support groups and autistic people.
In announcing the review, the government highlighted a recent visit by Sir Robert and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, to London manufacturer KwickScreen, which provides transparent screens to every UK hospital and played a pivotal role during the Covid pandemic. They discovered that many of the company’s breakthrough initiatives came from neurodivergent team members.
Understand the Business Case for Hiring People with Autism
As well as creativity and innovation, other strengths often associated with autistic people include developing expertise in highly specialist subjects, being detail oriented and highly focused, efficient and dedicated. Other traits can be more challenging, however, such as difficulty ‘reading’ people, expressing emotions and being uncomfortable with change.
Top Tips for Inclusive Job Interviews
The charity Autistica has provided some helpful tips for employers on changes you can make to your job interviews to help autistic applicants. We’ve summarised their findings below.
As autism is a disability, you’re legally required to make reasonable adjustments but making these changes can also help you find a suitable candidate whom you might otherwise have overlooked. Many of the suggestions are best practice anyway and will therefore benefit all applicants.
1. Provide Detailed Information in Advance
Think about everything a person might need to know when they attend an interview. More information can reduce anxiety about the uncertain elements of visiting your office and the interview process. For example, you could provide information such as the interviewers’ biographies, travel routes, who to ask for at reception, where to wait and where the toilets are. You could also ask candidates if there’s anything in particular they’d like to know before they attend.2.
2. Think About the Environment
Autistic candidates may be extra sensitive to the sensory environment, especially when it’s a new place and they’re nervous. To help make them more comfortable, you could, for example, offer a quiet room to wait in rather than a busy reception.
3. Consider Other Formats
Instead of a standard interview, you could think whether a trial or task would tell you more about applicants’ ability. Or you might offer alternatives to a face-to-face interview where preferred, such as an informal video chat.
4. Give Candidates Time to Prepare
Consider providing the questions for the interview a week in advance to all candidates. This can relieve a lot of anxiety, enabling them to perform to their best.
5. Make Questions Clear and Simple
Break questions down into the different elements you want the candidate to talk about. Autistica gives this example:
Instead of asking, ‘What experience do you have of managing high workloads?’, say, ‘Think of an example of when you’ve had lots of tasks to complete in a limited amount of time. Please tell me: What was the situation? What management strategies did you use? Were these strategies effective?’ Ask each of these questions separately, not all at once.
6. Offer Adjustments
State before the interview that you’re happy to make reasonable adjustments. Provide some suggestions and be clear that requesting adjustments will not disadvantage the candidate.
| PAYROLL
Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
How to Set Up, Amend or Cancel Your PSA Online
As an employer, you may want to meet the tax and National Insurance liability that arises on a taxable benefit in kind on your employee’s behalf as a goodwill gesture. You can use a PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA) to do this, as long as the benefit or expense is a type that is suitable for exclusions. You can now use a new online service to set up an agreement, and also to amend it or cancel it.
What is a PSA?
A PSA is an agreement with HMRC under which the employer agrees to meet the tax and associated Class 1B National Insurance on the items included within the PSA on behalf of their employees. The employer does not need to report benefits included within a PSA to HMRC on the employee’s P11D or payroll those benefits.
There is a cost to using a PSA as the tax paid on the employee’s behalf is also a taxable benefit. Consequently, the employer pays tax on the grossed up value of the benefits. The employer must also pay Class 1B National Insurance in place of the Class 1 or 1A liability that would otherwise arise, and on the tax due under the PSA. For 2022/23, the Class 1B rate is 14.53%. It reverts to 13.8% for 2023/24.
Setting Up a New Agreement
If you want to set up a PSA for the first time to meet the tax on benefits provided to employees in the 2022/23 tax year, you need to do this on or before 5 July 2023. This is the day before the deadline for filing your 2022/23 P11Ds.
You can apply online using the service on the Gov.uk website (see: tinyurl.com/4t6hfeu3). You will need your employer PAYE reference as well as your contact details, including the name and address of your business, your telephone number and your email address (unless you sign in using your Government Gateway account).
A PSA is an enduring agreement and once it has been set up, it will remain in place unless amended or cancelled.
The date on which you set up your PSA will determine what you can include in it.
Review Your Existing PSA
If you already have a PSA set up, you will need to review it to ensure that it remains valid for 2022/23 benefits in kind. If you want to amend or cancel your existing PSA, you need to do so by 5 July 2022/23. You can now use the new online service to do this.
Settling the Tax and National Insurance
Once you have set up your PSA you will need to work out what you owe under it and tell HMRC. You can use the online PSA1 form to do this. If you do not do this, HMRC will estimate what you owe.
You must pay the tax and National Insurance on a 2022/23 PSA by 22 October 2023 if you make your payment electronically. An earlier payment date of 19 October applies if you choose to pay by cheque.