Downers Grove, IL – Advocate Aurora Health has been recognized as a 2019 CareerSTAT Frontline Healthcare Worker Champion. CareerSTAT, an employer-led initiative of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, recognizes employers who are making great strides to support healthcare’s critical employees – nursing aids, medical assistants, food service workers, housekeepers, and others – who make up the frontline workforce and want to grow their careers.
An important component of the Advocate Workforce Initiative is the NAVIGATE program, a robust strategy designed to positively impact the career trajectory of frontline workers. NAVIGATE combines learning opportunities and workforce development into a single program, providing team members the ability to learn and hone new skills, determine career pathways with mentoring and coaching assistance, and access tools and resources that promote mobility and wage growth. NAVIGATE is offered three times a year over a four-month period. To date, 129 frontline workers have participated, 64% of whom have identified a career pathway. Additionally, 10% of workers have moved up the career ladder, receiving an average 24% increase in salary.
“Serving our communities through job training for healthcare careers and providing career development for our team members enables us to embrace and celebrate our diversity while ensuring every person we serve feels appreciated and cared for,” says Aimee Louw, system vice president of team member and workforce development.
This year’s Champions and Emerging Champions award winners have developed strategies to hire a workforce that reflects the communities in which they operate, according to CareerSTAT. They have made training, education, and development opportunities accessible to more employees, regardless of financial ability or other barriers, and are helping non-clinical workers move into clinical positions with a defined career path that leads to jobs that pay family-sustaining wages.
Champion organizations will be honored later this month during the National Fund for Workforce Solutions’ national convening in Dallas, Texas. Detailed profiles of all nine organizations, along with further information on their skill and career development programs are available on the CareerSTAT website. Since 2014, CareerSTAT has recognized a total of 51 organizations. More information about best practices for supporting and advancing entry-level healthcare workers can be found in the CareerSTAT Guide to Investing in Frontline Health Care Workers.
About Advocate Health Care
Advocate Health Care is the largest health system in Illinois and one of the largest Accountable Care Organizations in the country. A national leader in population health management, Advocate operates nearly 400 sites of care and 12 hospitals, including two of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals, the state’s largest integrated children’s network, five Level I trauma centers (the state’s highest designation in trauma care), three Level II trauma centers, one of the area’s largest home health and hospice companies and one of the region’s largest medical groups. Advocate trains more primary care physicians and residents at its four teaching hospitals than any other health system in the state. As a not-for-profit, mission-based health system affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, Advocate contributed $702.5 million in charitable care and services to communities across Chicagoland and Central Illinois in 2017. Advocate is part of Advocate Aurora Health, one of the ten largest not-for-profit, integrated health systems in the United States. We help people live well.