Enna

Enna is a social enterprise which helps corporates attract, recruit and integrate neurodivergent talent (those that are autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic or having ADHD), with the mission to help these individuals find meaningful employment. My name is Emily and I'm the founder. I'm 24 years old and a young female entrepreneur. I started Enna as I was inspired by my Brother and Father, who have Aspergers. Throughout their lives, they struggled to find employment despite being hugely talented. My brother can take a car apart and put it back together from memory!  Who are we trying to help? Enna is aiming to address the underemployment of neurodivergent adults in the UK. Statistics show that a staggering 68% of autistic individuals aren’t in any kind of paid employment (representing 470,000 people) and only 16% are in full time work. Our service aims to lessen these statistics and help neurodivergent adults find meaningful employment, where they can live up to their potential and build their career. Benefits of this include reduced anxiety, income security, better mental health and most importantly, happiness. In regards to employers, inclusion and diversity has become a priority over the last 10 years, as they realise the benefits diversity brings to the workforce. Despite this development, 60% say that they worry about providing the wrong support for an autistic individual and they wouldn’t know where to go to get this support.  These facts represent a huge gap in the market that is yet to be addressed. What are we trying to do? The vision is to create an organisation that connects neurodivergent adults to job opportunities with inclusive employers. We aim to do this through our core services - an employers membership based network, an accessible jobs board, training and consultancy. As well as this, our dual support system will provide a comprehensive support package to both the individual and the employer. Individuals will be able to benefit from our specialist mentoring support with our trained job coaches while employers will get tailored autism training and support in their hiring decisions. What do we want to achieve? Firstly, helping more neurodivergent adults find work they love and helping them start a fulfilling career.  Secondly, helping employers become more aware of autism, how they can diversify their workplace and the fantastic benefits of hiring autistic talent.  Thirdly, disrupting the nature of 'traditional' recruitment, so recruitment practices and hiring are more accessible to neuro-diverse job seekers.