#209 - Well-Being Strategies Any Health Organization Can Use

Recorded live at AdventHealth, this episode explores what it truly means to operationalize employee wellbeing at scale — and why it cannot live inside a single benefits line item.

Kristin Duquaine, Executive Director of Employee Wellbeing, and Sarah Hawkins, Senior Manager of Employee Wellbeing, share how AdventHealth embedded wellbeing into its brand promise of “Feel Whole,” translating it into strategy, structure, and measurable impact.

Wellbeing Is Not a Program — It’s a System

In many healthcare organizations, wellbeing is folded into an EAP or buried in the health plan. At AdventHealth, it has dedicated leadership, executive visibility, and cross-functional integration.

Kristin, a nurse with nearly three decades at AdventHealth, explains how her clinical experience shaped her belief that holistic wellbeing — mind, body, and spirit — drives long-term outcomes. That philosophy now informs systemwide workforce strategy.

Measuring What Matters

Wellbeing ROI rarely shows up in Year 1.

The team is building a centralized data strategy to evaluate engagement, health risk movement, chronic condition outcomes, mental health impact, and differences across workforce segments. The goal is not participation alone — it is bending long-term workforce stability curves.

The Health Champion Multiplier

A cornerstone of the strategy is the Health Champion Network: 2,800 volunteer team members advocating for wellbeing within their departments.

Key insight: volunteers, not “voluntold.”

Champions are culture carriers and influencers. Departments with champions show significantly higher engagement in wellbeing programs.

For smaller hospitals without dedicated FTEs, this offers a scalable model: build a grassroots network, equip them with tools, and multiply impact without adding headcount.

Advice for Smaller HR Teams

If you only have a few hours a week:

• Make communication consistent, not episodic.
• Tap natural influencers inside departments.
• Integrate wellbeing into daily leader messaging.

Wellbeing is not about marathons or meal plans. It is about helping people see themselves in the solution.

This episode proves scale and humanity can coexist — when leadership commits to both.