2026 Spring Thank Tank -From Optional to Operational: Reframing & Retooling Well-being as a Business Imperative

Description

Corporate wellness investment is not disappearing – it is becoming more scrutinized. 

While the global wellness market continues to project growth, many organizations are reshaping their wellness budgets as part of broader cost-management and benefits optimization efforts. Within this shifting landscape, many wellness leaders face a new reality: they are being asked not only to optimize their programs, but to justify their existence. The issue is no longer whether well-being matters in principle; it is whether it is operationally embedded, strategically aligned, and demonstrably valuable. 

This Think Tank addresses this inflection point directly. This virtual speaker line-up will equip leaders for reframing the Value on Investment (VOI) so that it better speaks the language of the C-suite -- “risk, resilience, productivity, capacity, and sustainable human performance” -- and how to better position well-being as essential infrastructure for organizational survival and success, and not as a discretionary benefit. 

Learning Objectives: 

1. Identify how cost optimization is reshaping corporate wellness spending. 
2. Understand how to reposition well-being as an operational driver – integrating well-being into core organizational systems, decision-making processes, and leadership practices rather than standalone programs. 
3. Implement practical strategies learned from leading organizations that are successfully reframing well-being. 

Chair: Janis Davis-Street, MS, MA, EdD, CHES, HERO Senior Fellow - Education