Novo Nordisk has put diversity and inclusion high on the agenda in its work on social responsibility. With Project Opportunity, which started in 2013, Novo Nordisk aims to include people with autism in the workforce. The main objective of the project is to give people with autism a chance in the labor market and an opportunity to use their skills professionally. Nine of 13 people with autism who participated in Project Opportunity have been hired after the one-and-a-half-year project period. Novo Nordisk has working functions that match many of the special skills that neurodiverse people can have in e.g. IT in general, programming, proof reading and quality assurance of data. In the latest round of Project Opportunity, Novo Nordisk wanted help in recruiting four new employees who would work in different departments with quality assurance, finance and accounting, data analysis and programming.

• Specialisterne gave presentations on autism and autism in the workplace at Novo Nordisk and met with the four department heads to identify tasks and expectations of the candidates’ competences. Subsequently, Specialisterne issued four separate vacancy. Among 40 applicants, Specialisterne selected 20 candidates, each participated in a competence-clarifying workshop in one day at Specialisterne.

• Eight candidates were selected for a two-week course with different tasks and group projects. The first week took place at Specialisterne. Here was the program organized by Specialisterne for clarification. The second week took place at Novo Nordisk and offered work-related tasks and the presentation of a group task in front of department managers.

• After the project process, recruitment interviews were held in the various departments. Some of the candidates were for several interviews. The four new Novo employees were hired for a year and a half, where mentors from Specialisterne provided sparring of both employees and department heads at Novo Nordisk along the way.

“The recruitment was so good from the start that all the candidates in the final two-week course could have taken a job with the skills they had. They were all very good. The departments chose who they wanted to hire. Of course, it was a lot about the personality of the candidates, but it was also a factor who we would help best by giving them a job. It’s a core value in Project Opportunity.”

“Once I had found the departments and with the help of Specialisterne, we had trained the managers to hire, it was minimal how much I participated in the recruitment process myself. I have had the greatest confidence in Specialisterne’s professionalism and competences. It has worked perfectly. It has been very trust-based and it must a cooperate like this.”

Henriette Ipsen, HR Consultant, Novo Nordisk