Corporate Wellness in Practice: A Hands-On Workshop for HR and Benefits Teams

The National Wellness Council is hosting a one-day, hands-on workshop designed for HR leaders, benefits administrators, and workplace wellness coordinators who want to move beyond one-off perks toward a coherent, evidence-based employee wellness strategy. The workshop takes place September 22, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois.

Why This Workshop, Why Now

Many organizations have added wellness benefits in recent years, gym stipends, meditation app subscriptions, occasional wellness days, but struggle to connect these offerings into a strategy that meaningfully moves the needle on employee health outcomes or measurable business metrics like absenteeism and retention. This workshop is designed to close that gap, offering practical frameworks grounded in occupational health research rather than one-size-fits-all program templates.

What the Day Covers

The workshop is organized around four core sessions:

Session 1: Assessing Organizational Wellness Needs. Participants will learn frameworks for identifying the specific stressors and health risks most relevant to their workforce, rather than defaulting to generic program offerings.

Session 2: Designing for Participation. Drawing on behavioral science, this session addresses one of the most persistent challenges in corporate wellness: low engagement. Participants will examine common barriers to program participation and strategies for addressing them.

Session 3: Measuring What Matters. A practical session on selecting meaningful metrics, beyond simple participation counts, to evaluate whether wellness initiatives are achieving their intended outcomes.

Session 4: Building Your Action Plan. Working in small groups organized by organization size and industry, participants will leave with a concrete, prioritized action plan tailored to their workplace.

Who Should Attend

This workshop is designed for:

• HR directors and benefits managers
• Workplace wellness program coordinators
• Occupational health and safety professionals
• Small business owners exploring wellness initiatives for the first time

No prior wellness program experience is required, though participants working within an existing program will find the measurement and optimization sessions particularly useful.

Format and Logistics

The workshop runs from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, including a working lunch, and will be held at a centrally located Chicago venue with full accessibility accommodations. Group sizes are intentionally kept small to allow for meaningful discussion and individualized feedback during the action-planning session. Participants will receive a workbook and follow-up resources to support implementation after the event.

Why It’s Worth Attending

Workplace wellness continues to sit at the intersection of employee wellbeing and organizational performance. This workshop offers a rare opportunity to step back from the day-to-day administration of benefits programs and engage directly with the research and frameworks that distinguish genuinely effective wellness strategies from well-intentioned but underperforming ones.

Registration is open now, with a limited number of seats available to preserve the workshop’s small-group format.