Low participation rates continue to bedevil managers ofcorporate wellness programs.

A research survey conducted byMinneapolis-based HealthFitness in partnership with the ConnellGroup offers a compelling explanation for why this has remained thecase.

Bottom line: It’s not that most employees don’t want to takeadvantage of wellness options. The programs simply aren’t beingpackaged and promoted in a way to facilitate greater participation.

Sean McManamy, senior vice president of HealthFitness, says mostemployers lean heavily on financial incentives to driveparticipation. Such incentives are often in the form of lowerinsurance premiums or program-related bonuses.

“Certainly financial incentives drive participation,” he says.“Almost all employers offer them now — we’re seeing an escalationin incentives as employers battle low participation rates. But whatwe found was that that incentives alone do not drive participationor engagement.

“When you look at the difference between those who participateand those who don’t, some of the strongest reasons were culture.The employer may be offering an incentive and thinking it equatesto supporting a culture of health — and those are not one in thesame.”

For instance, the survey found employers that have employeewellness programs often don’t communicate that one is available.Or, as McManamy says, employers may have one that they can pointto, but many employers don’t believe health and fitness are part ofthe culture, and think the wellness program is just windowdressing.

The key to increasing engagement, he says, is to focus on thespectrum of participation, from active participants at one end, tocompletely non-active at the other, and then tailor engagementstrategies to those in the middle.

“It doesn’t take much to move the group in the middle to one endor the other,” he says. “They are on the fence. You have to showthem you truly support health and fitness as part of theculture.

Survey results

The survey reports active participants clearly benefit fromwellness options; 79 percentsay they are satisfied with the program and the results theyachieved.

HealthFitness wanted to find out more about those who resistedjoining the programs, particularly those in the middle of theengagement spectrum. Those people were much more ready toparticipate than earlier research indicated.

Identifying a higher level of interest among such employees wasa key finding of the study. Of nonparticipants, 60 percent say theyare “likely to start participating, but for some reason do not.”Those were the ones of most interest to the researchers. Diggingdeeper into the factors blocking participation, they found thefollowing:

• 41 percent of employee nonparticipants aren’t satisfied with thewellness options they have. These nonparticipants are likelier thanparticipants to leave their employer, to fail to refer someone tothe company and be less productive overall.

• 53 percent of nonparticipants “feel that there are culturalbarriers preventing them from fully engaging, includinginconvenience and their employers’ lack of support for theirparticipation,” the report says.

• 69 percent of nonparticipants blame a lack of information ontheir failure to participate. “In some cases, the proportion ofemployees aware of programs’ availability is 30 percent lower thanthe proportion of employers indicating they offer the program,”HealthFitness says.

• Professionals such as coaches, trainers, and other specialistsare key drivers of engagement, and many who weren’t involved citedthe lack of such professionals as a barrier. Participantsappreciate the personal touch in wellness programming — 75 percentcite it as a key motivator to ongoing participation.

Getting past 'window dressing'

A more nuanced factor is communicating to employees that it’sexpected they will participate in at least some of the menu optionson company time, McManamy says.

He uses the example of a bus driver who, in a focus group,complains that the company did not offer any time for her duringher workday to take breaks to exercise or participate in otherprograms.

“She told us, ‘We get a financial incentive, but I sit on my busall day driving — my employer does nothing to help me take a breakand walk around or to offer me opportunities to participate in theprograms that are offered. They don’t really mean it when theyoffer that financial incentive,’” he says. “Employees can seethrough these kinds of window-dressing programs where they have todo it on their own time.”

McManamy says HealthFitness’ most successful clients “are doingthe programs and offering incentives but also getting seniorleadership involved. A senior manager takes a walk with otheremployees during the day, for instance. It tells the employees thatthe company really means this.”

Creating a culture of health and fitnesshas to happen at the day-to-day working level to truly beeffective. Videos and posters showing the CEO working out aren’talways relevant to the rank and file.

“Employees wanted to see their direct manager is saying it’sokay and important to participate. The CEO can be too far removedfrom the employee. They need to know their direct boss supports theprogram and the culture of health,” he says.