Thorkil is broadening perceptions of normality and providing a neglected population with the tools to be active, independent contributors, through a company designed to capitalize on the unique characteristics of the autism disorder. Competing at market terms, his company Specialisterne, and partner foundation are bridging the autistic community and the business world in a way that is unprecedented in Denmark or elsewhere in the world. Drawing upon an extensive IT background, Thorkil has built a company that focuses specifically on providing autistic people with engaging employment, a supportive work environment, and the skills they require to succeed in the working world.
Thorkil begins by seeking out and measuring the skills of potential employees through a five-month assessment and training program, which was initially funded by municipal authorities. Mild autism disorders are often bundled with a set of skills that are particularly well suited to some careers. The difficulties associated with the disorder, including problems in understanding social cues, discomfort with team work, and hypersensitivity to noise, are generally coupled with other qualities—high motivation, exceptional ability to focus on a given task, persistency, and high learning ability—skills any employer would value. Precision, attention to detail, structured work style, and patient acceptance of repetitive tasks are particularly relevant to jobs in the IT field, including software testing. Starting with the understanding that autistic people are very gifted at systems and linear construction, Thorkil began using the Lego construction toys that many autistics loved as a children as a basic tool to discern their skill levels. Specialisterne’s assessment and training staff, several of whom are practitioners schooled in other autism therapies, do not ask direct questions (since autism is generally accompanied by anxiety and difficulty in direct communication), but they use the toys to observe and interpret abilities and motivation. Taking advantage of that use of Lego toys, unintended by their producer, Thorkil has also built an ongoing partnership with Lego to help support his work. In addition to the technical knowledge necessary for software testing jobs, the training program covers a very wide range of topics, including how to approach a manager and how to prepare a CV.
The workplace choices that Specialisterne offers are unusually responsive to its employees’ needs. Most of its employees work on a project by project, freelance basis and can choose their working base—some working at their homes, others at Specialisterne’s offices, and most of them in Specialisterne’s clients’ offices. Seventy percent of the firm’s employees work on customer premises, a telling testimony to the success of his training. Thorkil has found that creating a comfortable working environment spurs improvement in behavior and function “Autistics are social,” he notes, “If they are comfortable; things viewed as “autistic traits” really just need a bit more understanding.” Specialisterne’s office culture caters to the requirements of autistic workers, from structured working methods, clear instructions, and limited stress situations to working hours adjusted to individual capacities. Personal support and personalized training and skill development program facilitate a comfortable transition into the workforce.
When a company begins to work with Specialisterne, a contact person is appointed who is empathetic to the skills and limitations of autistic people and trained in the most effective and practices for working with them. Other company employees are given a short introduction to autism, and things to keep in mind when working with autistic people, and feedback is regularly by client companies. Several client companies have reported, perhaps not surprisingly, that their employees who are in frequent contact with the autistic software testers have begun to speak more clearly and directly with one another as a result of working with people who require a very explicit style of communication.
Thorkil is emphatically committed to offering Specialisterne’s services as an equal—or better yet, superior—competitor with other, traditional software companies. He is quick to dismiss any suggestion that “charity,” “cheap labor,” or “sheltered workplace” considerations should be taken into account in decisions to use his company’s services. He doesn’t fail to note, however, that Specialisterne’s employees are unusually focused in repetitive testing assignments, and that their fault rate in data conversion is 0.5 percent, compared with a typical 5.0 percent fault rate in other firms engaged in performing data conversion.
Thorkil has an extensive background in the IT field, and on the day that he signed his resignation letter from his long-time employer, he also signed a contract with his former firm, who became Specialisterne’s first client. He initiated his new endeavor in Aarhus, Denmark, and he has subsequently established a sister company in Copenhagen. Currently, his companies have twenty-five clients who are serviced by forty-four Specialisterne staff members, and twenty additional staff members are now in training. In 2008, his companies earned the equivalent of US$3.3M in revenue, resulting in a profit in 2008 of US$170,000.
Having demonstrated the effectiveness of Specialisterne’s concept, Thorkil has stepped back from the post of CEO in order to focus most of his energies on spurring the global spread of his “idea” through his sister foundation. As noted above, there is great interest in introducing the Specialisterne concept sin other geographical settings. New companies using that concept have already “sprouted” in Sweden, Belgium, and Israel, and two such companies, drawing on Thorkil’s inspiration and informal guidance, are being launched in the United States and as many as four in the Netherlands. Thorkil is also working on securing grant funding from companies, universities, and civic groups to enable him to introduce his model in four additional countries, including the United Kingdom.
To hasten the spread of his idea, he is also exploring the possibility of licensing franchisees. To achieve maximum impact, he is establishing a new management model in which daughter companies will be launched under the foundation’s auspices, and external companies that complete a certification process will be permitted to use his logo. He is also building a complementary program that help inject his model into other businesses not under the direct purview of his own organizations. He is also experimenting with tweaking the criteria used in recruiting new employees to focus on personality types, recruiting for specific qualities rather than explicitly seeking autistic people, in order to avoid any possible “charity for the disabled” consideration in decisions to use his companies’ services.
Many other fields of endeavor, in addition to software testing, are well suited for autistic employees—pharmacy, accounting, motor repair, and piano tuning, to cite only a few examples. Thorkil plans to use his foundation to expand into at least a few new fields. (He estimates that one to five percent of the tasks undertaken by business firms could make good use of his employees’ skill sets.) Thorkil is also investigating possibilities for extending the reach of his approach to the large population of lower-functioning autistics through a three-year youth training program. That undertaking would utilize current autistic employees of Specialisterne as teachers and incorporate Thorkil’s hands-on assessment strategy in helping prepare the young people for active roles in society. Using autistic people teach other autistic people, he suspects, would reinforce his earlier finding that a comfortable, accepting environment—in which certain behaviors are not only normal and understood, but expected and valued—has as immensely positive impact on the functioning, happiness, and employment prospects of autistic people.