Antoni

Championing neurodiversity: Antoni’s story

Since joining bp in 2019, Antoni has used the support and networks available at bp to expand his role as a champion of neurodiversity within the business and beyond

He started his career in bp as a customer operations manager, working with customers around Castrol. Due to his constant curiosity and persistence in delivering change he helped bp become more inclusive. In 2022 he transitioned from Budapest to London, where he joined bp’s procurement team working in the world of Digital & Talent procurement, and could further influence change across the company including launching a Neurodiverse Reverse Mentoring Programme. Currently Antoni is an advisor in bp’s Digital Garage, where he finds new and exciting procurement tech that will help bp achieve it’s saving and efficiency goals.

Beyond his day-to-day job, Antoni is also a driving force in the neurodiversity working group: one of bp’s many employee networks set up voluntarily by employees for employees. Partly thanks to his leadership within this group, he was recently announced runner-up in the ‘stereotype buster’ category at Genius Within’s Neurodiverse Awards. “It’s fantastic to receive such recognition – it’s really been an exciting year at bp!” he says.

Elevating neurodiverse talent within bp

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, Antoni is proud to say that bp is always looking at ways to develop for the better: “That’s where bp gets it right,” he says.

“When interns joined the business through bp’s partnership with Ambitious with Autism, bp didn’t just say, ‘we’ve had some autistic students come in and it’s great, let’s move on now.’ Instead, bp considered how we could develop a career path for them where they could see a true opportunity to prosper with the company in the long-term,” says Antoni.

We had implemented in 2022 a roadmap on how to elevate neurodiverse talent within bp – which focused on inclusivity but also looks at how neurodiverse people can bring a true business advantage to bp. This has lead to implementing Reverse Mentoring Programmes, and also a company funded ND Assessment.

Antoni explains that 15% of people – and therefore potentially of bp’s current and future employees – are neurodiverse. It’s critical that companies remove the barriers many neurodiverse people may face when finding a new role and entering employment. Antoni and the working group have been involved in testing fonts and graphic designs for bp – ensuring they are accessible and easily read by everyone.

The importance of self-identification

Antoni’s advice for his neurodiverse colleagues is to talk about it:

Don’t be afraid to speak about your neurodiversity. There’s nothing wrong – in fact, you’re doing everyone else a favour by self-identifying openly. You make them aware that you’re a fantastic person, and it allows them to understand you better and to accommodate accordingly.

And for that, he feels lucky that bp has a strong culture of educating people to look for value in others – whether they’re neurodiverse or not. Still, Antoni acknowledges that it can be challenging to self-identify as neurodiverse and that not everyone may want to speak so openly about it. This is why he’s so grateful for the neurodiverse working group, which is always there to provide support, advice and a sense of connection.

I encourage you to reach out to us! I must say that I really love my neurodiverse working group. I love them to bits.