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The High cost of ADD in the workplace

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Contributed by: Wendy Burt-Thomas on 2/25/2008

Why accommodating your attention-deficit employees is bad for your business - and what you can do instead.

Kelly* will be the first to admit she's got Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). She jokes about it with her coworkers at the magazine where she works as an advertising sales rep and falls back on it when she forgets to get her sales contracts in on time. Her boss, Marie*, who has kids, is well aware that ADD is real; she's seen it among her teen's friends. Besides, she'd hate to lose Kelly as an employee. "She does, after all, sell a lot of ads," says Marie. "She just isn't very organized when it comes to paperwork."
Marie is like many bosses with employees who suffer from ADD. She's so focused on the part of the job that Kelly's doing right (sales) that she's letting the other responsibilities of the job (paperwork) slide. The argument is that Kelly is still making money for the company. The problem is, that logic is flawed because Kelly is also losing money for the company. After all, who has to call Kelly with reminders to get her contracts in on time? Who has to follow up with clients when Kelly forgets and goes out of town? Who ends up picking up the slack when Kelly says, "I'm finishing up another sale. Can you fill out that paperwork for me?" Another employee is taking time away from his or her work to finish Kelly's loose ends. Not to mention, because Kelly is so bad with details, who pays for an ad when it runs - but the client refuses to pay because Kelly forgot to get the contract altogether? Not Kelly.
About 8 million adults display the symptoms of ADD, which typically show themselves to others in the form of disorganization and the inability to pay attention, either for long periods of time or to more than one thing at a time.
"There are three different types of attention," says Tanya Mitchell, director of Training for LearningRx, a national brain training franchise. "Sustained, divided and selective. Sustained attention allows someone to stay on task for a long period of time, selective attention prevents them from being easily distracted, and divided attention allows them to multitask."
In those with ADD, the frontal cortex (surface) of the brain has more difficulty using glucose and less blood flow than in people without ADD. The frontal cortex inhibits impulses, initiates behavior and controls working memory. When underactive, the ability to screen irrelevant stimuli is reduced, and the individual pays attention to EVERYTHING. This results in poor regulation of the motivation system and makes staying on task difficult without immediate rewards.
"Video games provide rapid, constant feedback and stimulation and tend to be very engaging for people with ADD," explains Dr. Russell Griffiths, a licensed educational psychologist. "Neuroscience shows that by targeting and stimulating the underactive region of the brain responsible for the characteristics of inattention, attention can be strengthened. Therefore, the correct approach (to ADD/ADHD) is the opposite of the usual accommodations used (in the workplace) - like removing distractions, reducing workload or isolating employees into quiet areas."
So, if accommodating ADD employees' weaknesses isn't the answer, what is? While many might be quick to answer "Ritalin," there is a non-medicinal approach that's proving to have great success: brain training.
Also known as "cognitive skills training," brain training is one of the fastest growing methodologies in the education - and business - sector. As research continues to prove the plasticity of the brain (e.g. its ability to change and be improved), brain training franchisees are finding success - both financially and in their ability to help children and adults with learning disabilities, soldiers with traumatic brain injury and even seniors facing age-related cognitive decline. But how exactly does it work?
"Cognitive skills are the underlying tools that enable us to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and create useful associations, and solve problems," explains Dr. Ken Gibson, author of "Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake Up the Smart in your Child." "A person's cognitive skill set is made up of several cognitive skills including auditory processing, visual processing, short- and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and attention skills. In people with ADD or ADHD, the weakest cognitive skill is attention, although other areas tend to suffer as well."
Adults with ADD can see significant improvement in all three forms of attention after undergoing specialized brain training. Unlike tutoring, which focuses on specific academic topics, such as math or history, cognitive skills training pinpoints the weakest cognitive skills and strengthens them through specific exercises.
"One exercise might include having the employee work to solve a specific problem while the trainer tries to distract them," explains Mitchell. "Another might include sessions where they are trained to multitask. The results are measurable because there are a series of evaluations before, during and after the multi-week training."
Mitchell is quick to point out that cognitive skills training isn't just for those with ADD. "We've trained people who are already high-functioning, but want to improve in certain areas, such as memory, processing speed or reading. While companies may originally see a need for cognitive skills training for one particular employee, the results might lead them to later train everyone at the company. Boosting employee performance is the best way to increase productivity and therefore revenue."

*Name changed for anonymity

Wendy Burt-Thomas is the author of two books for McGraw-Hill and more than 1,000 published pieces.

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Wendy Burt-Thomas

Colorado Springs , CO

Wendy Burt-Thomas has posted 217 stories and 0 comments since joining on 12/26/2006. Wendy Burt-Thomas's average story rating is 4.33.

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