I have my hives setup with an upper entrance (not to be confused with a top entrance which is bad for bees) in the upper brood box. The bees will be coming in and out of this upper entrance as well as the bottom "main" entrance. When I place my supers on, I also have a entrance hole in my supers. So when I place the excluder and supers on, I plug the entrance in the brood box, and the bees automatically move up to the hole in the super. All the bees know is that they are weighted down and want to enter a hole. So within seconds of adding the supers, I have bees entering in the supers, above the excluder.
These upper entrances also have the benefit of the bees not having to go completely through the brood chamber, cutting down congestion and perhaps lowering swarming to a small degree.
No doubt, the first year is the hardest to get supers drawn with an excluder. Many times, a new hive has worked the main flow building up the brood chamber boxes, and by the time a beekeeper places supers, the flow is on the down side. And if this is the case, the bees know the flow is slowing and they will backfill and use every available space in the brood chamber as compared to drawing a new box of foundation. This is typically what happens to many who have bad experiences with excluders. The bees work through the flow building up two brood boxes, and then the beekeeper late in the flow places supers with an excluder then complains the bees will not work the supers due to the excluder.
The second year coming out of winter, with the hives full to capacity, and needing to store nectar, will go draw that comb and everything is easier. But the first year, many things are against you. Timing, flow, etc. You may need to "bait" the supers or just allow the bees to COMPLTELY fill out the brood chamber boxes, and take some honey for yourself from the end frames.