What’s the best way to get employees involved with a company’swellness program? Get the company’s CEO, COO, CFO and other seniorexecutives involved with it, as well.

At least, that was the conclusion uncovered by a surveyconducted by Willis North America’s Human Capital Practice, a unitof Willis Group Holdings.

The survey recorded results from 1,949 employers, 71 percent ofwhich had 500 or fewer employees. Participants insisted twoimportant factors in success of a workplace wellness program weremanagement support and cultural support for wellness.

Cheryl Mealey, national practice leader, wellness consulting,Willis Human Capital Practice, acknowledged that the survey, now inits fourth year, reinforces the need for those in the board room tobecome actively engaged in corporate wellness with their front-linesubordinates.

“The need for management support continues to be one of the topthings for these programs to work,” she commented.

Mealey isn’t alone in this kind of thinking.

“If we’re going to implement a get-healthy program and seniorleadership isn’t participating, then the credibility of the actualprogram would come into question pretty quickly, as would themotivation to participate,” noted Karen Cunningham, human resourcesdirector with AmeriFlex in Frisco, Texas.

Other findings from the survey noted that health care costsremain the primary driver for worksite wellness programs; roughly44 percent of those surveyed reported insufficient time and staffto offer a wellness program; and only 28 percent of respondentsadmitted to having a specific strategy in place to improve employeeengagement in such programs.

Cunningham, for her part, said getting employees involved inwellness programs can be difficult; in addition to leadershipbuy-in, organizational culture is an important factor as to whethera worker will take part in a smoking-cessation program orweight-loss clinic or not. Aside from corporate culture, shecontinued, employees may not be seeing the connection between theirwellness (or lack of it) and higher costs to them in the form ofhigher health insurance premiums.

Another reason for potential disengagement is because employeesmight not know about the programs or realize they exist.

“It’s just like training an employee in anything else,”Cunningham explained. “You have to go through the steps ofinforming them; reinforcing it,; reinforcing it again; reinforcingit a fourth or fifth time. People learn, and understand, indifferent ways, so the best way to ensure employees are picking upon it and using wellness tools is to reinforce that in everyway.”

Mealey said another way to encourage more employee participationand involvement is by building personal success stories andtestimonials into the information process.

“When people see others who are experiencing success, they’remore likely to want to participate themselves,” she added.

Brokers of wellness programs can help boost programparticipation by helping employees – through employers –understand the program’s direct benefits, and to work withemployers to build a positive reward and recognition system,Cunningham said. Leadership can furthermore enforce the benefits ofwellness programs by setting goals for the entire company inaddition to participating themselves, she added.

However, Mealey pointed out, employers also need to understandthat wellness is an investment, one that should pay off in loweredinsurance rates, among other things. She acknowledged that with aslow improvement in the economy, more employers will hopefully putmore resources toward existing wellness programs, and perhapslaunch new ones.

“Many have grandiose ideas of what wellness programs should dofor them,” she said. “But as with anything, you get what you putinto them.”