Melissa Le

VP, Talent Acquisition, Advocate Health

As Advocate Health, we are one organization, bringing together our shared strength, expertise, values and vision to better serve nearly six million patients across six states who trust us with their care. From discovery to everyday moments, we’re redefining care–for you, for us, for all.

Supernova Award Category: 
Future of Work: Human Capital Management
The Problem: 

There is a 30-year discrepancy in life expectancy between those living on the South Side of Chicago and those living less than 30 miles away, in the northern Chicago area. Advocate Health is committed to reducing health disparities in the South Side of Chicago to improve healthcare for all. However, there are social determinants of health, and Advocate Health is committed to addressing and closing the health equity gaps by bringing jobs to the community and providing opportunities and access for all.

https://www.advocatehealth.com/news/advocate-health-care-to-make-1b-inve...

The Solution: 

Disrupting the root causes of health inequities on the South Side requires having a good-paying job with good benefits. Advocate Health deployed PLUM technology to help facilitate career coaching conversations with community members who are interested in healthcare but don’t know where to start. This is an integral part of Advocate Health’s “recruitment on wheels” initiative as listed below:

  • Advocate plans to retain all current teammates working on the South Side and is committed to hiring over 1,000 teammates within the next three years in various roles and levels of expertise throughout the South Chicagoland service area to care for the community and support this work.
  • Advocate Health is hosting job forums and deploying a state-of-the-art recruitment on wheels van, allowing it to connect students and potential teammates one-on-one to assess their skills, interests, and talents, and connect them with employment opportunities.
The Results: 

Showcasing Plum technology at multiple community hiring events has allowed Advocate Health to increase the awareness of employment opportunities in the healthcare industry. Plum’s ability to identify innate potential and match those results with various career pathways has led to successful hiring decisions. Advocate Health has enhanced its ability to make strategic, data-driven decisions that support the organization and advance career opportunities in the communities it serves. Some hires are identified right away, but Advocate Health also focuses on getting people interested in healthcare careers and exposing them to new career paths, planting seeds for tomorrow’s talent needs.

Metrics: 

Seventy-eight external candidates engaged in career conversations with Advocate Health’s talent acquisition team, and two candidates have successfully converted into Advocate Health teammates, with additional interviews underway. The hires include a Public Safety teammate and a new graduate Registered Nurse working in the CVICU. Both serve patients, their families and the community in South Chicago.

The Technology: 

The Plum assessment transforms talent acquisition by providing teams with a powerful, scalable way to uncover high-potential candidates, regardless of their resumes or prior experience. Through a single, science-backed assessment, Plum measures the core drivers of performance: cognitive ability, social intelligence, and personality. These attributes reflect durable skills, such as communication, innovation, and execution, that consistently predict success across roles, industries, and evolving business needs. Candidates are then matched to roles that align with their innate abilities and ranked by role fit, enabling recruiters to zero in on top talent before the first conversation. This approach redefines hiring by making it faster, fairer, and more aligned with long-term success. And because the same insights that drive better hiring also support ongoing growth, Plum extends this value to employees, enabling them to take charge of their development through their personalized Plum Profiles. By shifting the focus from pedigree to potential, Plum helps companies build adaptive, future-ready workforces equipped for the pace of change.

Disruptive Factor: 

The PLUM project in South Chicago was an integral part of a “Reverse Career Event” where Advocate Health put the candidates and the community at the center of its work, engaging in career coaching conversations based on individuals' drivers and drainers. Instead of posting a job and waiting for talent to come to Advocate Health, the talent acquisition team leveraged Plum to answer, “What are you good at?” and “How can we match our jobs to you?” The jobs that Advocate Health leveraged were entry-level talent positions, after which the recruiter would discuss all the avenues through which a candidate could continue to grow their career with Advocate Health.

Shining Moment: 

At the Reverse Career Event, the Advocate Health recruitment team interacted with several Plum candidates, including DH, who scored 93 on the job match criteria with a public safety role. At the event, recruiters interpreted DH’s results, spoke with them about their career goals, and introduced them to the Public Safety leadership team, which was onsite, interacting with candidates at the event, as it is a critical role for the hospitals and community. DH is now serving as a Public Safety teammate at Advocate South Suburban Hospital, and is currently working the third shift, enjoying Advocate Health, and is excited to grow within the organization. DH is grateful for the opportunity. When the recruitment team recently followed up with DH, they referred one of her friends.

About Advocate Health

Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the United States, created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Providing care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois, Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, Advocate Health is a national leader in clinical innovation, health outcomes, consumer experience and value-based care. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health services nearly 6 million patients and is engaged in hundreds of clinical trials and research studies, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the enterprise. Advocate Health is nationally recognized for its expertise in heart and vascular, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Advocate Health employs more than 160,000 teammates across 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations and offers one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs with over 2,000 residents and fellows across more than 200 programs. Committed to redefining care for all, Advocate Health provides more than $6 billion in annual community benefits.