A workplace needs assessment helps you understand your ideal working conditions and find ways to implement them.
It might include looking at:
1. Your Sensory Environment
- Adjust Noise Levels: Use active noise-cancelling headphones to control noise levels and create a comforting environment. A quiet room might also be helpful.
- Adjust Lighting: Some people need more light stimulation, while others prefer no artificial light. Adjust the lighting to suit your needs.
- Clothing: Wearing soft or compressing under-layers can make expected clothing more comfortable. Where possible, wear what you are comfortable in.
- Visual Noise: Processing too much visual information can be tiring. Using a baffle board.
2. Your Social Environment
- Adjust Meetings and Events: If meetings or events feel overwhelming or inaccessible, consider adjustments. This could include having a quiet room to retire to at events or accessing big meetings virtually, even if you are in the same building.
3. Energy Levels
- Adapt to Your Energy Patterns: Adapting to social and sensory aspects of an office environment can be exhausting, as can hyperfocusing. If you are neurodivergent, you may not be a ‘plodder’; you may need to ‘sprint-recover-sprint-recover’. Honour that, find out how you work best, and work with your manager to see what can be done to allow you to do that.