Engaging people with autism in ag
Program creates roles to match employees
A HIGH attention to detail and a close affinity for animals are the hard-to-find traits SunPork Farms need specifically from their staff in animal care roles.
According to SunPork managing director Dr Robert van Barneveld, they found their perfect match by employing autistic people.
The Autism and Agriculture program was started in 2016 by SunPork to provide job opportunities for autistic people in the agriculture industry.
Dr van Barneveld worked in both the autism and agriculture communities and recognised the ways in which the two could integrate.
His daughter was diagnosed with autism when she was four years old but at age 15 was re-diagnosed with Rett syndrome.
Rett syndrome is progressive, genetic brain disorder and in the early phases can often be confused with autism.
Dr van Barneveld is the chair of the Co-operative Research Centre for Living with Autism, which helped establish Autism and Agriculture along with Specialisterne Australia.
“The pork industry was looking to raise the bar in who they employed in animal care roles,” he said.
“They wanted someone with a high attention to detail and an affinity for animals.”
Dr van Barneveld said many autistic people possessed those traits but the traditional employment process wasn’t suited to them.
“We saw we have one group of individuals who have the skills we want and thought, ‘Why don’t they have jobs now?’” he said.
“We looked at how we can have an environment in the workplace that allows us to employ the people we need in the roles we need.
“You have to do as much of an educational process with the existing workforce as you do with the people we’re employing.
“So now we are trying to promote an inclusive culture rather than separating autism and agriculture.
“We don’t just have autistic people working with autistic people, our farm workplaces are fully inclusive.
“We’ve learnt a lot along the way and there have been some speed bumps.
“Now we have to focus on making our entire workforce inclusive to work with a diverse range of individuals.”
SunPork Farms employs 13 individuals on the spectrum across the group, making up about 3 per cent of the workforce based in Queensland and South Australia.
“The program has had a very high retention rate,” Dr van Barneveld said.
“We had a lot of interest. Some of the candidates we employed had never had a job or worked away from home, despite being qualified for the job.
“Now they have meaningful, long-term jobs, they live by themselves, they’ve made friends and they’re part of the community.
“It has been life-changing for them. In some cases they still need support but it’s amazing that the workplace has adapted so well.”
Autism and Agriculture focused primarily on animal care roles. Dr van Barneveld said there were autistic employees working with the piglets, feeding, working in R&D, working in the mating shed and working with weaners, growers and finishers.
People on the spectrum are encouraged to apply for any advertised positions with SunPork Farms.
Dr van Barneveld said it didn’t have to be a traditional resume but could be anything from a story, video or series of pictures.
Autism and Agriculture program leader Dr Kirsty Richards, who is a veterinarian by trade, said the labour force participation rate for people on the spectrum was 42 per cent by comparison, generally for people with disability it was 53 per cent and 83 per cent for people without disability.
“People on the spectrum who are employed are often underemployed – they may be over-skilled, may not be employed full-time or may be underpaid,” she said.
“That’s where SunPork came in.
“Labour and skills security is a problem for us. We were looking for a human resource with the ability to be competent within our group.
“Then there was this underutilised group of people who had skills that would suit us, like that attention to detail and affinity for animals. “It’s an incredible synergy.” Dr Richards said accessibility to employment, as well as the traditional employment process, could be challenging for people with autism.
“Having to write a resume and then do an interview can be quite confronting for autistic people,” she said.
“What we were looking to do was focus on the strengths of autism and gave them an opportunity to focus on their strengths.
“We asked them to show, through photographs, ‘What animals do for you and what you could do for animals?’ We got a lot of beautiful applications.”
Dr Richards said they removed the interview process altogether.
“We introduced our candidates to the workplace slowly,” she said.
“The first week we had a virtual piggery, creating a piggery-type environment in a conference room in Dalby.
❝It’s an incredible synergy.
— Kirsty Richards
“We had a pig pen, nipple drinkers, feed bowls, gates. People tried on their overalls and boots. The intent was to give people a piggery experience in a safe, non-confronting environment.
“Then the next day we took them on a tour of the piggery where they were introduced to the piggery environment. Then subsequently we had two weeks of training.
“People only left the program by their choice.”
SunPork aimed to create roles for people instead of employing people to fit roles.
“We worked out the best fit for each individual and matched them to a position,” Dr Richards said.
“If you think of the traditional recruitment as people for roles, this very much turns that paradigm around to roles for people.
“We’re seeing benefits across our entire workforce in that we’re challenging our way of doing things. We’re also seeing enhanced engagement, workplace culture and business price.
“We hope in the future there won’t be an autistic employment program but we’ll just have an employment paradigm that will suit everyone.”