Kristen Gradney
Chief Wellness Officer, VP of Total Rewards
LCMC
Episode 78
Beyond Perks: Leaders Must Weave Wellbeing into the Fabric of Culture
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleAugust 12, 2025 · 12:10
Thesis
“Integrating wellbeing into the core of an organization's culture and daily operations, with leaders taking direct responsibility, is essential for true employee thriving, moving beyond isolated initiatives.”
Show notes
Summary
Most leaders agree that employee well-being is important — but too often, it’s treated as an “extra” rather than an everyday responsibility. In this episode of Built By People, Dave D’Angelo sits down with Kristen Gradney, Chief Wellness Officer and VP of Total Rewards at LCMC Health, to explore how she’s shifting that mindset across a large healthcare system.
With a background spanning clinical nutrition, healthcare operations, and population health, Kristen shares how she transformed scattered wellness initiatives into a deeply embedded cultural value. She reveals the steps her team took to hear employees’ real needs, equip leaders with operational well-being tools, and build a shared vision that extends beyond perks like yoga classes or gym memberships.
Listen in to learn how Kristen navigated cultural resistance, why leader buy-in is essential, and the lessons she’d apply if she were starting over — plus practical strategies you can adapt to create a culture where well-being is everyone’s job.
Key Timestamps
- [00:00] – Kristen’s non-traditional career path from dietitian to Chief Wellness Officer
- [01:53] – The cultural challenge: leaders viewing well-being as “someone else’s job”
- [03:04] – Gathering employee feedback through a system-wide well-being survey
- [04:50] – Creating leader training on operational well-being and daily impact
- [05:45] – Embedding well-being into every task, not just special initiatives
- [06:24] – Why shared vision and leader accountability were critical to success
- [08:17] – Lessons learned: time, intention, and the need for early top-level buy-in
- [10:19] – Kristen’s advice: adapt evidence-based practices to fit your culture
Takeaways
- Engage employees early to understand what they truly need, not just what leadership assumes.
- Equip leaders with practical tools to integrate well-being into daily operations.
- Build a shared vision so all leaders see themselves as responsible for employee well-being.
- Measure cultural traction through leader engagement and proactive resource requests.
- Tailor well-being strategies to your organization rather than copying external models.
- Secure top-level support early to accelerate culture change.
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What you'll take away
- 1Culture change, especially around employee wellbeing, is a long-term journey requiring consistent intention, education, and reinforcement.
- 2Actively solicit employee feedback through surveys to understand their specific needs and tailor wellbeing efforts accordingly, rather than assuming solutions.
- 3Equip leaders with practical, operational tools (e.g., Lean Six Sigma-based) to integrate wellbeing into daily work processes and environment.
- 4Move beyond superficial 'point solutions' like yoga or pizza; true wellbeing is about weaving support into every task and interaction.
- 5While a 'groundswell' approach can be effective, securing top-level leadership support from the outset can significantly accelerate cultural transformation.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Wellbeing is often seen as a peripheral committee or isolated initiative, but it is a direct responsibility of leaders impacting the daily work environment.
- •Education and awareness about wellbeing-informed environments do not automatically equate to ownership; deeper engagement and individual connections are required.
- •Avoid blindly implementing wellbeing practices that work elsewhere; tailor evidence-based approaches to the unique challenges and culture of your own organization.
In Kristen's words
“culturally, it felt like, hey, I'm here to do a certain job, but the wellbeing of my employees and the environment that they work in wasn't for them to be responsible for.”
This quote identifies the initial cultural challenge of leaders not owning employee wellbeing.
“give people what they want, not what we think they need.”
This emphasizes the data-driven, employee-centric approach taken to understand and address wellbeing needs.
“creating a culture of well-being is not just You know, it's not just about having Code Lavenders and yoga and pizza, and we do a lot of those things, right? But it's really that weaving it into the culture of every moment, every day, every task.”
This is a core thesis statement, differentiating deep cultural integration from superficial perks.
“culture change takes time. It takes real intention. It's not something that we can talk about, set goals on a paper.”
This reinforces the practical reality and significant effort required for organizational culture transformation.
“don't assume that what worked everywhere else will automatically work for your organization... let it be tailored to your organization.”
This provides crucial advice against generic solutions and highlights the need for context-specific strategies.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Leaders perceive employee wellbeing as a peripheral responsibility, not core to their role.
- •Employees experience burnout and feel their work environments are not welcoming or supportive of their wellbeing.
- •Traditional 'point solutions' for wellbeing (e.g., EAP, gym memberships) are insufficient to drive meaningful cultural change.
- •Difficulty in securing top-level leadership engagement to support and accelerate wellbeing initiatives.
- •Challenges in moving from employee wellbeing awareness to tangible ownership and consistent action among leaders.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
You are now LCMC Health's Chief Wellness Officer
LCMC Health's Chief Wellness Officer on her Career Journey
LCNC recently tackled a cultural challenge around employee well-being
The LCNC Workforce Well-being Challenge
Looking back, why was addressing this challenge so important to the organization
The Need for Wellbeing at Work
Culture change takes time; what lessons did you learn from this experience
What would you do differently as a leader?
What parting advice would you like to share with our community about workplace wellbeing
What parting advice would you have for Wellbeing professionals?
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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