04.10.2023

Dyslexia Awareness Week: On Verve inspiring to support individualism

With Dyslexia Awareness Week taking place from the 2-8 October, Bianca Angelico, director of On Verve guest services, talks us through the importance of recognising and supporting employees with neurodiverse conditions.

DYSLEXIA AWARENESS WEEK: #UNIQUELYYOU - celebrates individuals with dyslexia from all backgrounds, understanding its challenges and how it shapes experiences.

As a business, we always aspire to support the individualism that all our DayMakers bring to their roles. I believe in hiring for the person and their skill set rather than the length or relevance of their experience.

By adopting this mindset, we have been able to construct teams for our clients that fulfil their needs and then some. We can build more meaningful connections and offer a more bespoke service, creating the best experience for our clients and the best working environment for our DayMakers.

My journey with neurodiversity has been a bumpy one. I was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, and my school did not know what to do with me. I was placed in a special needs school but that only lasted a week. I found audiobooks and podcasts to be my saving grace for studying because long academic texts were too overwhelming for me.

Now, in my adult life, the creativity that has come from my experiences with dyslexia has helped to build On Verve into the unique business it is. The fact that we have such a diverse team is a credit to the fantastic service we provide to our clients that goes beyond the standard corporate receptionist.

Individual aspects of everyone on our teams are always taken into consideration, including whether or not they are neurodiverse. I wanted to create an environment where people can bring their whole selves to work, and I think we’ve been successful at that. We offer internal support for team members with neurodiverse conditions, including text-to-speech readers, screen tints, and other anti-screen distraction monitors. Simple things like this can help to alleviate anxieties for neurodiverse team members and ensure they know support is there for them if they need it.

By creating a dyslexia-friendly workplace, everyone is supported to do their best work, whether they have the condition or not. We encourage our teams to be ‘uniquely’ themselves every day and bring their whole selves to work. By doing so, we harbour better connections with our clients who gain a better understanding of our teams, how they operate, and who is best to go to for particular information.

Dyslexia Awareness Week is a great reminder of the condition and how we can support people with dyslexia, but the important thing is that we take those lessons on board. On Verve will continue to support dyslexic employees and champion dyslexia-friendly workplaces across the corporate space.

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