By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Corporate America is gradually waking up to the possibilities inherent in job recruiting in the GLBT community, according to one California-based recruiting firm.

Los Angeles-based Candidatefive organized a recruiting event at the Hotel Allegro in the Loop Aug. 9.

The firm, which went into business last year, aims to match Fortune 500 companies and job hunters from the GLBT community.

Accenture, Firestone/Bridgestone, Walgreen’s, Hewitt and Ernst and Young were among the companies represented at the event.

Candidatefive CEO Patrick Diamond said corporate America is gradually seeing the value of advertising job openings to the GLBT community.

“There are some companies who, when I first called them, didn’t know what ‘GLBT’ meant. But it all comes down to the way we sell it—they’ve come to see the value,” Diamond said. “Gays and lesbians are two to three times more likely to hold advanced degrees. Over 70 percent of them are employed in salaried positions.”

Candidatefive’s job forum functions not only as a venue for job hunters but as a marketing event for the recruiters, too. Most who attended the forum said having online access is essential for someone seeking employment in corporate America these days, given that many companies are spread far and wide across the U.S.

Devra Courneya, senior human resources representative for compliance and diversity for Nashville-based Bridgestone/Firestone said she came to the job fair more to promote her company’s recruiting website than to collect resumes.

“We have over 45,000 employees all over,” Courneya said. “We need to know what it is (job seekers) want to do and if they are willing to relocate. We know many of them want flexibility and want opportunities where they won’t be pigeonholed.”

But John Redmond, U.S. diversity recruiting leader for Accenture, said that even with the emphasis on online applications and job postings, attending a job forum and making personal contact with recruiters is still worth a job seeker’s time.

“If I know someone is a good match, I can take their resume and I can go and push,” Redmond said.