Episode 75 - How Health Carousel Increased Employee Engagement Through Health Literacy and Gamification - with Marijke Woodruff

What happens when an employer invests heavily in employee health benefits, but employees aren't engaging with the resources available to them?

In this special episode of The Health Literacy 2.0 Podcast, recorded during the Workforce Success Stories Summit, EdLogics Chief Health Officer Seth Serxner, PhD, MPH, speaks with Marijke Woodruff, former Chief People Officer and Vice President of Human Resources at Health Carousel.

Marijke shares the story of how Health Carousel, a fast-growing healthcare staffing company with more than 1,000 employees, rethought its approach to employee health and well-being.

Despite offering an excellent benefits package, the company struggled to achieve the engagement it wanted. Marijke needed a solution that could improve employee participation, support healthcare cost management, and provide meaningful data to demonstrate results.

She explains why Health Carousel introduced the EdLogics platform, how it used gamification and personalized health education to engage employees, and what the organization learned from the experience.

The results

During the conversation, Marijke shares several impressive outcomes from Health Carousel's program:

• 60% employee engagement with the platform.
• 70% utilization of health education resources covering chronic conditions and other health concerns.
• More than 95,000 learning modules completed.
• Knowledge and understanding measures improving from a reported 68% baseline to over 95% following education.
• 100% of surveyed users reporting that they better understood their health condition after training.
• 90% of users reporting an intention to change their behavior or lifestyle.

Marijke also describes how targeted educational campaigns helped employees better understand their healthcare options, encouraged the use of telemedicine and employee assistance resources, and supported more appropriate healthcare utilization.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why even excellent employee benefits packages can struggle to achieve meaningful engagement.
• How gamification, incentives, and interactive learning can make health education more accessible and enjoyable.
• Why health literacy matters to both employee well-being and organizational performance.
• How Health Carousel launched its program and encouraged employees to participate.
• How employee learning data helped HR leaders understand workforce health concerns and communicate results to the C-suite.
• What Marijke would do differently, and her advice for other HR and benefits leaders considering a similar approach.

One of Marijke's strongest messages is that gamification shouldn't be dismissed as a gimmick. When combined with credible educational content, thoughtful incentives, and useful analytics, it can become a powerful tool for employee engagement and learning.

About the guest

Marijke Woodruff is a former Chief People Officer and Vice President of Human Resources at Health Carousel. She now works as an independent HR consultant and coach, drawing on her experience in organizational growth, people strategy, and employee well-being.

Marijke's website: M. Consulting

Marijke on LinkedIn: Marijke Woodruff

About the host

Seth Serxner, PhD, MPH, is Chief Health Officer at EdLogics and host of The Health Literacy 2.0 Podcast. Check out The Wellbeing Effect by Seth Serxner.

Learn About EdLogics

Want to see how EdLogics' gamified platform can boost health literacy, drive engagement in health and wellness programs, and help people live happier, healthier lives?

Visit the EdLogics website: www.edlogics.com.

This special episode features a conversation originally presented at the Workforce Success Stories Summit 2026, hosted by Ben Geoghegan of the A Better HR Business podcast.