On 13 May 2026, our founder Daniel Smith spoke at the Maritime People & Culture Conference in London, organised by Spinnaker. His session, The neurodivergent advantage, was part of the conference’s opening day.
The conference brings together the people responsible for recruiting, developing and keeping the industry’s workforce, from HR directors at shipping companies to crewing managers and training providers. That made it exactly the audience we most want to reach: the people who design the recruitment processes, appraisals and policies that decide whether neurodivergent seafarers get in, get on and stay.
What the session covered
Daniel started with the basics: what neurodiversity is, and what it means to be neurodivergent in an industry built around rigid routines, long contracts and life on board with the same small crew.
He then talked through the barriers neurodivergent people face at each stage of a maritime career, from automated recruitment and timed psychometric tests to medical fitness rules, written exams and the difficulty of asking for adjustments at sea.
The heart of the session was the advantage itself. Neurodivergent people often bring strengths the industry needs, such as focus, pattern-spotting, problem-solving under pressure and fresh ways of looking at familiar problems. Daniel set out practical ways employers can make the most of that talent, from clearer job adverts and fairer interviews to simple adjustments on board, and managers who know how to respond when someone tells them they are neurodivergent.
Why it matters
Our survey of the industry found that three in four neurodivergent respondents had not told their employer, and almost half of all respondents had seen a colleague’s career harmed because of a neurodivergent condition. HR and people teams are in a unique position to change that.
If your organisation would like to go further, we offer neurodiversity training for maritime employers, and our guide to neuroinclusive recruitment is free to use.
