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On July 15 the Global Wellness Institute held its seventh roundtable. This time the topic was “Redefining Workplace Wellness,” and the roundtable took place in Manhattan. Twenty-five-plus experts from high-profile organizations (like the Cleveland Clinic, the Clinton Global Initiative, Johnson & Johnson, Citi and Goldman Sachs) sat down for a wide-ranging discussion about how the very idea of “work”—and the profile of the global workforce—is now changing at lightning speed.

Our current workplace wellness moment is dominated by negative media and unscientific “studies” that baldly conclude that “workplace wellness doesn’t work”—along with the “selling” of programs to companies as a pure profit-driver. But the roundtable concluded that, in the future, companies will shift from a narrow focus on ROI to a recognition of wider “return on value”: not just lower healthcare costs, but important gains in retention and productivity.

Globally, there are more millionaires (14.6 million) and billionaires (about 2,000) than ever before, but conspicuous consumption is on the wane. As J. Rupert, CEO of the Richemont Group, said: “In the future people with money will not wish to show it.”

The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), in partnership with Everyday Health, is now fielding a global survey on the state of wellness in the workplace. Everyone who works, please take it—and give us your insight on the positive and less healthy aspects of your job, and whether your company offers any wellness programs. 

A “heavy” reality: In the U.S., adults who are obese (67.6 million) now outnumber those who are overweight (65.2 million).

 – Washington University School of Medicine, June 2015