This CPO Knows What’s at Stake when It Comes to HR in Healthcare
•February 13, 2026
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Why It Matters
The approach links employee experience to patient outcomes, showing HR’s pivotal role in healthcare performance and cost efficiency. It signals that companies investing in holistic people strategies can achieve stronger clinical results and competitive advantage.
Key Takeaways
- •HR directly impacts patient outcomes in healthcare
- •Integrated mental health benefits remove cost barriers
- •HR functions operate as a business within business
- •Whole‑person well‑being boosts performance and culture
- •Avoid over‑complex employee programs; prioritize simplicity
Pulse Analysis
Allison Velez, chief people officer at Marathon Health, illustrates how modern HR in healthcare extends far beyond traditional personnel issues. By treating the people function as a separate business unit, her team aligns talent acquisition, culture, and organizational design with the company’s clinical and financial goals. This “business‑inside‑a‑business” mindset ensures that HR decisions directly influence provider staffing, patient experience, and overall operational resilience. This approach also enables data‑driven workforce planning, allowing Marathon Health to anticipate staffing gaps before they affect care delivery.
Velez’s most impactful initiative was building an accessible mental‑health ecosystem for employees. Marathon Health partnered with the Live Better platform, offering same‑day primary‑care and licensed therapist appointments, and eliminated out‑of‑pocket costs for mental‑health services. By strengthening the traditional employee assistance program and providing multiple care pathways, the company reduced barriers to treatment, boosting employee well‑being and, consequently, clinician performance and patient satisfaction. Early metrics show a 15% reduction in employee absenteeism and higher engagement scores, reinforcing the link between mental health support and operational efficiency.
The interview also highlights two broader HR trends shaping the sector. Integrated well‑being—covering mental, physical, financial, and relational health—is gaining traction as a driver of organizational performance, especially in high‑stakes environments like health care. Conversely, the proliferation of fragmented employee programs creates noise that hampers engagement; simplicity and seamless integration are becoming the new benchmarks for effective people strategies. As regulatory pressures mount for employee wellness reporting, firms that embed holistic well‑being into their HR architecture will gain a competitive advantage, leading to stronger talent retention, higher productivity, and better patient outcomes.
This CPO knows what’s at stake when it comes to HR in healthcare
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Marathon Health is a different kind of healthcare company, working directly with businesses, governments, and unions to meet the healthcare needs of their employees and members. Its CPO, Allison Velez, understands the weight of her work in the people department.
“When you do HR work in healthcare, you have a very clear line of sight to the patient, and that is meaningful to me. It’s important. It brings a lot of fulfillment to me and to my team,” she said. “We know that the work we’re doing is really helping people, not just our teammates or our employees, but actually the patients and the clients that we serve.”
She said that’s motivated her approach to leading the HR function for the independent advanced primary care provider. She sees her team as a business within a business.
“We have to think of ourselves as almost a business inside a business, and what I mean by that is that we are also running an operation. We have certain deliverables that the organization expects of us,” she told HR Brew.
She’s worked with her team on a mindset shift imagining themselves outside the company working to deliver results that further the business’s goals, as if Marathon Health contracted with them to manage the HR work and deliver on expectations.
“In healthcare, these expectations and the table stakes are very high. It matters a lot if we have our providers staffed in a health center. It matters a lot if our culture is supportive and friendly and people want to be here, and how we interact with our clients and our patients. So all of this work is very central to the entire reason we exist,” she said.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked?
The most meaningful change I’ve led is building a comprehensive, accessible mental health ecosystem for our teammates. We began by giving employees full access to our Live Better platform, which integrates primary care and licensed mental health support with very fast appointment availability. We then removed all out-of-pocket costs for mental health services—eliminating one of the biggest barriers to getting help—and strengthened our traditional EAP so teammates have multiple pathways to care.
Mental health is foundational to organizational performance. When people are overwhelmed, unsupported, or unable to access care, it directly impacts their ability to lead, to collaborate, and to care for others. As a leader responsible for our culture and organizational health, this work is central to how I support the enterprise.
What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?
The biggest misconception is that my work is narrowly focused on employee issues. In reality, my role is deeply tied to the overall health and performance of the business. Modern people leadership is about aligning culture, capability, and organizational design so the company can execute its strategy—clinically, operationally, and financially.
Most of my time is spent understanding where the organization is headed, where friction exists, and what people-centered interventions will unlock clarity, alignment, and performance. It’s enterprise problem-solving, not policy administration.
A provider recently told me that working here “gave her the joy of medicine back.” That’s not an HR transaction. That’s the impact of intentional culture and organizational design.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
The most fulfilling part of my job is knowing that everything my team and I do ultimately supports the patient. Whether it’s talent acquisition, benefits design, leadership development, or organizational culture, our people strategies are built to ensure caregivers can deliver exceptional care through our advanced primary care model.
Caring for the health of others is a profound responsibility and a high calling. I’m grateful that our work in HR helps create the conditions where clinicians can practice with clarity, connection, and purpose—and where patients and their families feel the impact.
What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?
I’m most optimistic about the growing focus on integrated well-being—not just mental and physical health, but also financial stability, connection, and organizational clarity. Companies are finally recognizing that whole-person health is fundamental to performance and culture, and that when employees thrive, patient, customer, and company outcomes improve as well.
What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?
I’m least optimistic about the trend toward unnecessary complexity in the employee experience. Organizations often add more programs without focusing on clarity or integration. Employees don’t need more noise—they need simplicity and support they can actually use.
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