Discover more with BrainsFirst

If you share BrainsFirst’s commitment to a bias-free and science-based approach and wish to incorporate these principles into your work, BrainsFirst offers a comprehensive certification program. By participating in this program, you can deepen your understanding of BrainsFirst’s concepts and seamlessly integrate this outlook into your professional endeavors, bringing added value to your clients’ work lives or enhancing performance within your organization. To learn more about this exciting opportunity, click here.

We are our Brains

Have you ever wondered why all of this is so important? Well, it all boils down to the fact that our brains are at the core of who we are. Our brain is not only essential to our everyday lives, but it also plays a crucial role in our work. By recognizing this, we can understand why BrainsFirst places such a strong emphasis on the brain.

The assessment of abilities and drive, two key indicators of performance, heavily relies on executive functions. These executive functions, measured by BrainsFirst, provide valuable insights into an individual’s cognitive abilities. But that’s not all – recent research (Balconi et al., 2020) suggests that executive functions also play a role in supporting social skills, which is another important marker of performance.

By considering the interplay between executive functions, abilities, drive, and social skills, BrainsFirst offers a comprehensive understanding of potential performance. It’s about taking a holistic approach that encompasses all aspects of an individual’s cognitive capabilities, enabling a deeper insight into their potential for success.

Biases are Everywhere: Understanding Diversity

When we think of diversity, our minds often conjure images of gender, ethnicity, age, religion, and similar factors. However, diversity encompasses more than just these visible aspects. There are also “hidden” dimensions of diversity, such as personality, neurodiversity, and skills, which are often overlooked when striving for diversity, despite their significance. Embracing diversity is not only morally important but also financially beneficial for organizations, leading to increased innovation and improved performance. Therefore, it is a goal worth pursuing in all respects.

BrainsFirst plays a role in fostering diversity by providing a bias-free tool with its NeurOlympics. This tool actively corrects for biases related to age, gender, and educational background, ensuring that all talents are included and contributing to the reduction of talent waste. However, there are cases where uniformity may be desirable, particularly in relation to specific skills. Nonetheless, it is crucial to recognize that the visible aspects of diversity remain important. For example, air traffic control necessitates a very specific skill set. By making hiring decisions based on an individual’s brain, we can gain insight into both the visible and hidden aspects of diversity, enabling a comprehensive understanding of candidates.

Neurodiversity - Embracing Hidden Strengths

Neurodiversity is an essential but often overlooked aspect of diversity. It refers to the natural variation in brain functioning within the population and is increasingly recognized as a crucial consideration in the workplace (LeFevre-Levy et al., 2023). Prominent organizations like Microsoft, Google, and IBM actively seek out and recruit neurodivergent individuals, acknowledging the unique strengths they bring (LeFevre-Levy et al., 2023).

Neurodiversity encompasses conditions such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and dyslexia. While each of these conditions presents its own challenges, they also come with distinct strengths that should be acknowledged and valued. For instance, ADHD is often associated with passion, courage, and the ability to hyper-focus, while also fostering creative thinking (Doyle, 2020). Neurodiversity offers significant advantages in terms of innovation, problem-solving, and creativity (LeFevre-Levy et al., 2023). Importantly, the strengths of neurodivergent individuals align remarkably well with the specialized skills and higher-order thinking that will play a pivotal role in future job requirements (LeFevre-Levy et al., 2023). Notably, the inclusion of neurodivergent individuals has been reported to contribute to increased organizational performance in the aforementioned organizations (LeFevre-Levy et al., 2023).

Just like with more visible aspects of diversity, organizations should make accommodations for neurodiversity. This can involve implementing adjustments that foster a flexible work environment, such as reducing sensory distractions or providing dual screens to improve concentration (Doyle, 2020). By recognizing and accommodating neurodivergent individuals, organizations can tap into their unique strengths and unleash their full potential, fostering a more inclusive and innovative workplace.

Working in an Era of High Job-Mobility - Finding the Right Fit

The prevalence of high job mobility can pose challenges for companies, particularly in terms of long-term employee job satisfaction (Yang & Hu, 2021). However, one potential solution lies in prioritizing a job-brain match. This approach aims to cultivate enduring job satisfaction that goes beyond the initial "Honeymoon Effect" (Yang & Hu, 2021), as a job aligned with your unique way of thinking and working promotes a sense of compatibility. By minimizing the need to constantly adapt to unfamiliar work styles, a job-brain match can help alleviate stress. It's also crucial to consider job demands, which encompass various work-related psychosocial factors and significantly impact overall well-being (Elovainio et al., 2022). Examples of such factors include time pressure, demanding tasks, and role ambiguity (Elovainio et al., 2022).

A job-brain match can mitigate the adverse effects of these factors by ensuring that the selected candidate is well-suited to handle them. As a result, employees are more likely to find greater job satisfaction and remain committed to their positions when the match is based on brain compatibility. The NeurOlympics facilitate such a job-brain match by aligning the expected Natural Skills sought by a company with the potential candidate's Natural Skills. Consequently, a successful job-brain match not only benefits the company's growth but also positively impacts the well-being of employees.