Supporting problem solving, concentration and memory at work

You can do a range of things to help support an employee with cognitive impairment. Some cognitive conditions can affect problem solving, concentration and memory. A person may need support in one of these areas or more than one.

In addition to the information on this page, you may also want to visit our article about supporting learning and understanding at work.

Cognitive differences at work

People with a cognitive impairment may have an intellectual or learning disability, acquired brain injury, autism spectrum or other neurological conditions.

A cognitive impairment might affect how a person:

• thinks creatively
• solves problems
• concentrates
• remembers
• plans and organises.

By giving your employees the right support, you can help them feel less stressed and frustrated. You can also help them to not feel overwhelmed and confused when they’re trying to learn something new.

Making workplace adjustments to support your staff

Even simple changes like removing distractions, using reminders and checklists, and changing how you schedule breaks can help.

How to encourage creative thinking

Creative thinking helps someone come up with new ideas or ways to solve a problem. To help employees use creative thinking, you can:

• create a friendly, open place to work and show that you value input from employees about how the organisation runs
• set up a buddy program where employees are matched with another employee who can help them to think creatively.

Supporting problem solving and critical thinking

Problem solving is being able to find answers to problems by thinking in an organised way. Critical thinking is being able to look at all the information accurately and fairly.

You can consider these to help employees with their problem solving and critical thinking skills:

• Reminders and checklists – employees can use these to look at the situation and give information about the problem. This might include what has been done, when it was done and what’s next.
• Graphic organisers – these help employees to look at links between ideas using key words and images. This means they can look at the whole problem as well as the connected smaller problems. Graphic organisers are also called visual maps, mind maps and visual organisers.

Supporting concentration and memory

Difficulty in concentrating or remembering can be related to a person’s disability, and employees need understanding and support. Memory issues can affect how people do their job and stay safe in the workplace.

To help employees focus and remember work tasks, you can:

• avoid or remove distractions – for example, divide workspaces with walls, move workstations away from other employees and reduce noise
• avoid asking employees to do more than one task at a time
• break down tasks into small steps
• use ‘to do’ lists, perhaps on a whiteboard that employees can tick off as they complete their work
• schedule regular breaks
• schedule tasks that need a lot of attention early in the day
• set up a buddy program to give employees extra support to keep on task
• make a set work routine to make it easier for employees to remember their tasks. If you change the routine, give employees time to adjust.

Helping employees plan and manage time

Preparing and organising work tasks gives a structure to each working day and can reduce stress levels. Employees who struggle with these skills may need support.

To help employees organise, plan and manage their time, you can:

• set up a buddy system to give employees extra support and guidance
• encourage employees to use calendars, watches and timers with prompts
• have regular check-ins with employees to review workloads.

Where to get more support

A cognition and communication specialist such as a speech pathologist may be able to identify any barriers in the workplace through an assessment.  Your employee might be eligible for a free workplace assessment through the Employment Assistance Fund.

Specialist employment agencies, such as Disability Employment Services (DES), who provide coaching and support on the job for people with disability may be able to assist a person to learn how to problem solve at work. To learn more about DES visit How DES can help.