Founder Podcast Feature: Chase Sterling on Moving Beyond Silos in Workplace Wellbeing
What happens when workplace wellness focuses too narrowly on individual behavior, while the systems shaping health at work remain unchanged?
In this episode of the Wellness Law Podcast, Wellbeing Think Tank Founder and Executive Director Chase Sterling joins host Barbara Zabawa for a thoughtful conversation about workplace wellbeing, outcomes-based wellness programs, healthcare costs, leadership, organizational systems, and what it means for workplaces to take greater responsibility for the conditions they create.
A Conversation About Breaking Siloed Thinking in Workplace Wellbeing
For many organizations, workplace wellness has historically focused on individual health behaviors: screenings, incentives, challenges, benefits, and programs designed to help employees make healthier choices. These efforts can be valuable, but they are only one part of a much larger picture.
In this conversation, Chase explains why workplace wellbeing requires looking beyond isolated programs and considering the full work environment. Leadership practices, policies, culture, communication, physical space, wages, psychological safety, belonging, and access to care all shape whether people are supported or depleted by work.
This is especially important as employers continue to face rising healthcare costs and increased pressure to show measurable outcomes. When organizations respond by placing responsibility solely on employees, they risk missing the deeper question: what role is the workplace itself playing in people’s health, stress, and ability to thrive?
What This Episode Explores
This episode explores why workplace wellbeing cannot be reduced to a single program, department, or benefit. Chase shares the founding purpose of Wellbeing Think Tank, which was created to bring people together across disciplines and help elevate evidence based, integrated approaches to workplace wellbeing.
The conversation also examines the renewed interest in outcomes-based wellness programs, including programs tied to biometric standards and healthcare discounts. Chase acknowledges the very real pressure employers face around healthcare costs, while also challenging organizations to think more holistically about what they are trying to solve and how they measure success.
Rather than treating health outcomes as an employee only responsibility, the episode invites listeners to consider how workplace conditions may help or hinder wellbeing. If employees are struggling to access preventive care, for example, the solution may not be another incentive. It may require looking at paid time, scheduling practices, manager support, communication, cultural barriers, or access to care in a language employees understand.
Chase also discusses how HR professionals, benefits leaders, and wellbeing practitioners can better influence decision makers. One key message is that wellbeing efforts need to connect to the business problems leaders already care about, including healthcare costs, retention, productivity, engagement, turnover, and organizational effectiveness.
At the same time, the conversation makes clear that healthier workplaces require more than good messaging. They require cross-functional collaboration, better data, manager accountability, and a willingness to look honestly at how work is designed and experienced.
Why Listen
This episode is a valuable listen for HR leaders, benefits professionals, workplace wellbeing practitioners, organizational leaders, and anyone trying to move beyond surface level wellness efforts.
It is especially relevant for those navigating conversations about healthcare costs, outcomes-based programs, employee responsibility, and organizational accountability. The conversation offers a practical reminder that wellbeing strategy should not begin with a program. It should begin with the problem an organization is trying to solve, the data available, and the conditions that may be influencing people’s health and experience at work.
It is also a reminder that workplaces do not need to solve every human problem. But at a bare minimum, they should not make life harder for the people doing the work.
Listen to the Full Episode
We invite you to listen to Chase Sterling’s full conversation on the Wellness Law Podcast and reflect on what it might look like to move beyond siloed wellness programs and build more integrated, evidence-based strategies for workplace wellbeing.
Listen to Beyond Silos: Chase Sterling on the Wellbeing Think Tank & Outcomes-Based Wellness on the Wellness Law Podcast.
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