Chicago Tribune

 UNTAPPED WORKFORCE
   PLACEMENT FIRM EXPANDS COMPANIES' DIVERSITY
   By Maudlyne Ihejirika
   Special to the Tribune
   August 27, 2000

   When Lori Akers lost the majority of her vision from complications of
   diabetes, the Denver company she was working for did not quite know
   what to do with her. It was the early 1990s, and the Americans With
   Disabilities Act was relatively new. The company knew it could not
   fire 39-year-old Akers from her clerical job, but it also was not
   interested in special accommodation for an employee suddenly visually
   impaired.

   "Basically, what they did was try to get me to quit by literally
   giving me nothing to do," said Akers, of Denver. Akers recently found
   a new and better job through a job placement agency called
   HirePotential. Headquartered in Denver and recently established in
   Chicago, this national consulting and staffing firm helps corporations
   recruit, accommodate and retain employees from the untapped workforce,
   including the disabled, mature workers, veterans and welfare
   recipients.

   HirePotential numbers this untapped workforce at 27 million
   nationally. There are 4.5 million unfilled job openings nationally,
   according to the firm. When Baby Boomers, who make up the bulk of the
   workforce, begin to be eligible for retirement in the next five years,
   corporations will have to learn to recruit, accommodate and retain
   skilled individuals from a vastly different marketplace,
   HirePotential's founders say.

   "We saw no one filling this niche," said Vice President Sara Poticha,
   who runs the new Northbrook office. "What we really do is expand a
   company's diversity program," she said. "Traditionally, you might
   think of diversity as gender and ethnicity. You don't necessarily
   think of it as people with disabilities and these other specialty
   groups. It's not that corporations haven't been recruiting from this
   segment. But what we found is that corporations didn't necessarily
   know how to integrate and really accommodate the untapped workforce."

   HirePotential (www.hirepotential.com) plans to work with Chicago-area
   companies to develop strategy, solutions and staffing to maximize
   employment opportunities for this segment of the workforce.

   In working with a company, HirePotential first assesses the corporate
   environment, analyzing the type of business, employment needs,
   technology processes and the potential for assistive and adaptive
   technology devices to meet the needs of those seeking employment. The
   firm next presents solutions--from the aforementioned devices to
   education and training on accomodation. Finally, HirePotential places
   skilled employees into the corporate environment.

   "We found them on (the Internet)," said Tina Scott Polsky, director of
   diversity for Pitney Bowes Mailing Systems in Stamford, Conn., which
   has worked with HirePotential on an employment diversity program since
   April. "Here at Pitney Bowes, we recognized that in order to remain
   competitive, we needed to focus in on a population that comprises 20
   percent of American people with disabilities," Polsky said. "We just
   saw it as something that we needed to do to widen the diversity net we
   had already cast in many different directions."

   HirePotential, founded a year ago and funded by venture capitalists
   Brinson Partners of Chicago, has quickly become a resource and
   referral for government and non-profit agencies working with the
   disabled, veterans and welfare recipients. The majority of its job
   placements have been in information technology, customer service and
   administration. Offering direct placement, project-based employment or
   employment on a project-to-hire basis, HirePotential has a database of
   some 3,000 registered and available employees.

   Potachi is quick to stress, however, that HirePotential employees must
   be skilled and job ready.

   "We don't take on training of employees" she said. "We focus on the
   skills of the individual and the jobs that we have to fill, and on
   ensuring there's a successful transition within the client's
   environment, regardless of what population the worker comes from," she
   said.

   Even so, the firm goes above and beyond, said one worker who recently
   switched careers because of a disability.

   Olivia Hernandez, 23, of Dallas, worked at a day-care center before
   severely injuring her back. With the help of the Texas Rehab
   Commission, an agency akin to the Illinois Department of
   Rehabilitation, Hernandez received computer training and then a
   referral to HirePotential.

   "I felt really comfortable with them. They didn't treat me like other
   agencies, where they act like they don't believe you when you say
   you're disabled and can't do certain kinds of work," Hernandez said.
   "When I went on the interview, my HirePotential manager went with me .
   . . It's the different way they do things.


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