Melissa Le, VP of Talent, Advocate Health
In this episode of You Should Know, co-hosts William Tincup and Ryan Leary speak with Melissa Le, VP of Talent Acquisition at Advocate Health and Caitlin MacGregor, CEO and Co-founder of Plum.
The conversation centers on Project Equinox, a pioneering talent initiative that reimagines how healthcare organizations recruit and retain talent by leading with potential, not pedigree. Melissa talks about Project Equinox itself and how Advocate Health used Plum to make it happen, while Caitlin goes in depth as to how Plum helped make this project come to life.
Advocate Health serves many areas, but one in particular is a Chicago neighborhood where life expectancy is 30 years below the national average. Traditional hiring practices, focusing on resumes, degrees, and job experience, weren’t reaching the right candidates or building trust within the community. The system needed a more inclusive, future-ready approach to talent.
Why traditional job fairs fail
Melissa shared that standard career events often exclude people who don’t see themselves as “qualified.” Project Equinox flipped that by meeting people where they are, with tools that build confidence, not just screen for experience.
Why durable skills beat degrees
Caitlin emphasized that talents like communication, execution, and innovation proved far more predictive of job success than education history. This reframed the idea of who belongs in healthcare roles.
How Plum builds trust in historically excluded communities
Melissa and Caitlin discussed how giving candidates personalized insight into their Talents, not just application outcomes, helped rebuild trust in a system that many had reasons to mistrust.
The impact of moving assessment upstream
Instead of waiting for people to apply, Advocate Health used Plum at the very top of the funnel, opening doors for those who didn’t even know they were candidates. Over 200 people were assessed in the first year; many were hired and retained because they were matched based on potential, not a paper resume.
Behavioral data as an on-ramp
The group explored how psychometric data helps create on-ramps into organizations for those previously overlooked, whether due to lack of experience, gaps in employment, or simply never imagining themselves in a hospital setting.
Caitlin MacGregor, CEO and Co-Founder of Plum
The outcomes were powerful. When you lead with potential, you unlock opportunity, equity, and long-term success. Project Equinox is living proof that rethinking talent starts with rethinking what talent looks like.
Equinox wasn’t just a project. It was a mindset shift. A way to see the untapped potential already inside the organization, and the data to act on it. Now, talent decisions are fairer, smarter, and more future-ready. And employees at every level have a clearer path to grow, contribute, and stay.
Project Equinox is an innovative talent initiative led by Advocate Health in partnership with Plum. It reimagines how healthcare organizations attract and hire talent by moving away from resume-based screening and toward soft-skill and potential-based hiring. The project focused on bringing opportunity directly to underserved communities.
The Plum Profile is a personalized soft skills report generated after completing the Discovery Survey. It reveals your top Talents, what energizes or drains you, and how you naturally think, collaborate, and lead. It’s a science-backed way to boost self-awareness and guide smarter career development and team alignment.
Advocate Health needed a way to identify talent that traditional hiring methods often overlook. Plum offered a scalable, science-backed way to assess durable skills like communication, adaptability, and execution, helping the organization surface high-potential candidates and improve retention from day one.
Yes. By focusing on behavioral fit and potential, Advocate Health saw stronger employee engagement and retention among hires made through Project Equinox. The initiative proved that when people are placed in roles aligned to their strengths, they stay longer and grow faster.
Instead of relying on applicants to come to them, Advocate Health deployed a mobile recruitment van equipped with the Plum assessment and VR experiences. This allowed community members to explore careers in healthcare, discover their innate strengths, and see how they could thrive in roles they never considered before.
The focus was on entry-level roles in patient support and healthcare operations, positions that require strong people skills and a drive to serve, rather than a specific credential or work history. The Plum assessment helped match individuals to roles where they could thrive, even without prior experience.
Plum doesn’t screen based on where someone’s been, it helps you see where they can go. Its science-backed assessment reveals each person’s top Talents, work style, and motivators. Combined with the Plum Role Model™, it enables fast, fair, and predictive hiring aligned to what actually drives success in a role.
Plum is independently audited for fairness and transparency (e.g., NYC Local Law 144), showing no adverse impact across race, gender, or age. The platform is built to surface true potential—not past privilege—by focusing on innate capabilities and job-role alignment.
4x more predictive than resumes
Personalized Plum Profiles for every user
Scientifically validated and bias-audited
Designed for both hiring and internal development
Engaging and insightful candidate/employee experience
High satisfaction (93%) and completion (92%) rates.