All brains belong: The Digital Picnic backs neuro-inclusivity with employee support initiative

Since 2019, Cherie Clonan has wanted to tick an item off her wish list in order for her social media marketing agency to go above and beyond on the neuro-inclusive workplace front. 

Last week she did just that when Melbourne-based The Digital Picnic became the ‘little business who could’ by revealing it would now be covering the full cost of any employee wishing to seek out an autism and/or ADHD diagnoses.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the decision, Clonan said she knew “companies everywhere allocate so much each year to L&D (learning and development) budgets, but some of the biggest personal, and therefore professional, transformation a person can experience is to recognise they’re neurodivergent”.

Clonan, who was formally identified as autistic in 2019, also noted that “neurodivergency isn’t limited to autism/ADHD” and The Digital Picnic’s policy “will be extending to the full umbrella of neurodiversity and honouring that umbrella accordingly”.

A formal assessment can be life-changing, and life-saving, and can transform careers for employees.

Clonan told SmartCompany that the announcement sends a strong message to The Digital Picnic’s employees.

“You’re not just welcomed here,” she says. 

“We’ll even go beyond that and cover the full cost of a formal assessment because that’s between $2,000 to $4,000 per person.

“It’s a huge privilege that’s just not afforded by all, especially in a cost of living crisis, and it ultimately becomes just a huge barrier for people being able to show up to workplaces in a way where they fully understand themselves and can advocate for themselves.”

The Digital Picnic founder Cherie Clonan. Source: Supplied

Clonan says The Digital Picnic hopes that by covering the cost of formal assessments, it removes any barriers and acknowledges the privilege attached to the process. 

“I know because two employees have been through the process already,” she says. 

“They come out with this really intense, deep understanding of themselves and they know exactly what they need to ask for in order to thrive in our workplace, but even workplaces beyond ours, and that makes me so happy.”

Helping employees to show up “authentically”

The Digital Picnic, which was founded by Clonan in 2014 after she left an in-house digital marketing role, has 17 employees and has taught more than 20,000 people digital marketing in nine years. 

Clonan says the company’s policy sends a genuinely inclusive message to the industry and the people who work in it.

“That message is that we’re a really safe place to work as a neurodivergent person,” she says.

“And when you’re a neurodivergent person that’s the kind of message you seriously need to see, feel and trust to be true because it’s really hard out there.

“You can’t change who you are to fit into workplaces.

“What we really need in 2024 and beyond is for people to be able to show up authentically, as themselves, and have it work the other way around.”

When asked why founders and business owners should always advocate for their employees, Clonan says she is reminded of the RSPCA ‘animal walk’ commercial from 1988, which was digitally re-mastered for RSPCA Awareness Week 2009.

“It just talked to the RSPCA’s role in helping these animals heal and I sort of liken that to the role often that I play as an autistic CEO at The Digital Picnic with a largely neurodivergent workforce,” she says.

“I’m not exaggerating here when I say this: our team arrives at our workplace sometimes with pretty significant workplace trauma from other workplaces.

“For example, being performance managed because they were deemed to be too direct or just a whole host of things that really shouldn’t be the case. 

“For me, having a lived experience of neurodivergence, but also a really strong desire to advocate for human beings in general. I actually have the honour and the privilege of watching those people heal in front of me in my own workplace and go on to receive multiple promotions.”