The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) talent center is working to expand its workforce diversity by establishing hiring procedures that will help individuals in the neurodivergent community to better present themselves during the hiring process, according to a senior CIA official.
Lakshmi Raman, director of artificial intelligence at the CIA, explained during a CSIS webcast on Feb. 7 that there is an increasing demand for more people – especially with artificial intelligence (AI) expertise – to join the Federal workforce, but that demand still outstrips supply.
“We need to be tapping into all our resources and [people] who can help us in this space. That means when we are trying to recruit, onboard, and retain, we need to be looking across the board at people who can help us do this work so that we can start to meet the demand that we see,” Raman said.
Neurodiversity is a word used to explain the unique ways people’s brains work. Being neurodivergent means having a brain that works differently from the average or “neurotypical” person.
To boost hiring of individuals in the neurodivergent community, the CIA is working through its talent center to establish new procedures making it “easier for the neurodivergent community to present themselves during an interview,” such as providing questions or information in writing or breaking down questions into multiple part questions.
In addition, Raman explained that the intelligence community also needs to create a culture where there’s empathy, psychological safety, and where people feel like they can be vulnerable at work, Raman said.
“We have an employee resource group … that works to represent that community to be able to advocate for them to our leadership … That is a step [in the right direction] not only for our leadership, but to the broader workforce to help advocate for what you know needs to be done,” Raman said.
Raman added that the best way to go after the challenges the Federal government sees in AI, cybersecurity, and other areas of innovation is by “engaging a diverse, diversity of thought.”
“The CIA is a 75-year-old plus [agency]. So, we have been doing things a certain way for a long time, but we are working to address some of these challenges that we see,” Raman said. “I’m very optimistic, especially with very smart, dedicated, passionate people inside the agency who are working to represent the community.”
