June is National Wellness Month. Which gives you the perfect entree to make a push for greater participation in this key health cost-cutter.

The good news is there are a slew of resources out now to help you make that appeal.

In fact, there’s a brand new study out that can help your company zero in on the best practices your peers are tapping to get the most from their wellness initiatives.

Check out some of the key findings out of the “2011 National Employee Wellness Month Employee/Employer Survey,” conducted by Virgin HealthMiles, to see how they can shape your own program.

Strategy No. 1: Play up the benefits to them

Yes, your company wants its workforce to be healthier. But most employers are still motivated by lower healthcare costs when putting a wellness program in place.

Not much of a carrot to get employees participating. However, there’s plenty of proof wellness works. And the employees who participate are reaping some attractive upsides.

Check out the top five benefits other employees are enjoying that you’ll definitely want to share. At least one of these should appeal to every person on your payroll:

1. Improved activity levels (69%)
2. Feel happier and healthier (64%)
3. Weight loss/improved body mass index (BMI) (50%)
4. Paying lower healthcare premiums (17%), and
5. Lessened reliance on medications to control existing conditions (11%).

Strategy 2: Offer up Incentives

Even though people know they should take steps to be healthier, most still want some positive reinforcement to sign on and stay on.

Part of most wellness budgets these days go towards financial incentives for employees who meet certain health and well-being goals.

But how much are they spending? That varies company to company, but the top two dollar amounts to benchmark your own incentives against, per employee, annually are:

• $100 – $500 (38%), and
• $501-$1,000 (22%).

Strategy 3: Draw on social networks

We’re not talking about Facebook or Twitter here. It’s the social network within your own company’s community that’s critical to the success of any wellness program.

Nearly half (44%) of companies with a wellness program said having a supportive social community at work got people to embrace wellness.

More importantly: It got them to stick with it. Almost 60% of employers said a supportive corporate culture helped employees stay committed to healthy behaviors.

So look into ways to build that community for employees, whether it’s a walking (or running) club at lunch to Healthy Snack Fridays in Finance, where each staffer takes a turn supplying healthy food options.

Tags: Health cost-cutter, healthcare costs, National Wellness Month, Virgin HealthMiles