A Personal Perspective by Becky Beaumont

As an Ageas UK employee, in 2022 I volunteered to be part of the IT Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. Within this role, I was tasked with finding out more about neurodiversity and how we can raise awareness of it. Additionally, I would take a look at what changes we could make to our recruitment process within the IT department in order to encourage more neurodiverse applicants as well as assist our existing neurodiverse workforce. I have always had an interest in neurodiversity as my brother is autistic, and I have a daughter who is currently going through diagnosis. With my new role in mind I asked my brother for his thoughts, and he pointed me in the direction of the South Hampshire branch of the National Autistic Society. They run a brilliant Autism Ambassador Scheme and after finding out more, I was keen to get involved and become an Autism Ambassador myself. The aim of the scheme is to spread understanding of autism to colleagues, family, friends, and the wider community. I wanted to be able to better understand the needs and challenges for autistic people, and see how we could make changes at Ageas to improve the environment for neurodiverse employees. In September 2022, I attended the Autism Ambassador Scheme training. My personal thoughts are that there are still a lot of myths and misconceptions about autism, and I think when people don’t understand something it can make them fearful and scared to ask questions. At Ageas, I am confident that the line managers and other colleagues that have seen the presentation now have more of an understanding which in turn removes a lot of the fear. I believe there is an openness across the company to embrace our differences, and I see the potential and positive outcomes that come about just by making slight changes and having open honest conversations. An example of this with the new hybrid way of working, is understanding that communication can be difficult, and people may prefer to converse via email as opposed to having their camera on for meetings. I think Ageas’s flexible way of working helps in many ways, namely having the freedom and flexibility to discuss and adjust working hours. I learned a lot at the Autism Ambassador Scheme training, and I liked being able to hear all the facts. Until then, I had no idea that only 22% of autistic adults are in paid employment, and that shockingly it could be lower than this. Through examples and exercises, it was interesting to learn what it is like for an autistic person, I gained an insight into what they may struggle with, and the senses that are affected. The main message for me was to speak to the individual and find out what would help them - just a little change could make the world of difference to their daily life. Everyone is different, and neurodiversity is experienced differently person to person, so the individual will know best. Following the training, I have run workshops and delivered presentations within Ageas to raise awareness of autism and to share what I have learnt from the course with my colleagues. The scheme provided a presentation, which I have tailored for our colleagues, that I co-deliver with Nikki Hinch, Ageas’s Inclusion Consultant. I am pleased to say that this presentation has now being shared across the business, helping to raise awareness of autism across a variety of different departments.

My name is Rebecca Beaumont. I work as a Senior IT Developer at Ageas Insurance, within IT Delivery Services. I have worked at Ageas for 26 years.

I currently have nine people who report into me, and my role combines technical development and line management.

I live with my 3 daughters in Milton Keynes.

I became an Autism Ambassador last year and my hope is to help raise awareness both in my professional life and personal life.