If your organization promotes to anyone that is likely to use prescription medication, this is a handy giveaway to consider. Great imprint area, and very, very handy!

And handy promotional products are very, very effective.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2009
For more information contact:
Brenda Haines or Heidi Strand, Communications
(920) 230-2583

4imprint White Paper and Podcast Released:
What’s in the Employee Breakroom?
Blue Paper® features employee nutrition and its impact on productivity.

(OSHKOSH, Wis.)— Promotional products retailer, 4imprint releases its most recent podcast and Blue Paper (its own version of a white paper), entitled What’s in the Breakroom?: Employee Diet and Productivity. Featuring research that links nutrition to worker productivity, this Blue Paper offers health-conscious tips and ideas to reducing absenteeism and increasing an employer’s bottom-line.

In a 2006 Personnel Today magazine article by Sally O’Reilly, wellness-solutions company vielife studied 15,000 people in the U.S. and the U.K. Results found that employees with poor nutrition reported 21% more sick-related absences and 11% lower productivity than healthier colleagues. Additionally, in Christopher Wanjek’s book Food At Work Workplace Solutions For Malnutrition, Obesity And Chronic Diseases, it was found that in one year obesity contributed to more than 39.2 million lost work days and 239 million restricted work days.

In response to this convincing data, many companies are making the shift to healthy onsite food offerings, such as nutritional vending machine choices to low-fat cafeteria menu options to nutrition policies that dictate no-donut meetings. And, the rewards are showing themselves in reduced illnesses, chronic diseases and enhanced concentration.

“This Blue Paper sheds wonderful light on the direct relationship between healthy eating and work productivity,” explains Mary Curtin, vp of human resources for 4imprint. “As employers, we have an opportunity to provide a supportive work environment that caters to healthy eating and nutrition through a variety of methods, including offering WeightWatcher® programs, nutritious vending options or even onsite fitness classes. By helping keep our team members well and fit, they live longer, better lives, and we benefit from their increased productivity. It truly is a win-win.”

Blue Paper (4imprint’s version of a white paper) and podcast available for download at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/.

About 4imprint Blue Papers
4imprint Blue Papers are in-depth, how-to articles, distributed to 4imprint customers to help their organizations succeed. Accessible at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/ in both print and podcast forms, Blue Papers are also available on iTunes®. Blue Papers cover popular, cutting-edge business, marketing, human resources and management topics such as podcasting, online social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and experiential marketing.

About 4imprint
4imprint is part of 4imprint Group, Plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, and serves more than 100,000 businesses with its innovative promotional merchandise throughout the United States and Canada. For more information, log on to www.4imprint.com.

I have come across a few articles recently on govexec.com, regarding the federal government’s initiative to increase wellness among its employees.  Many organizations are beginning to add wellness programs of some type into their culture, as there are many options and benefits to both the employers and employees.

A wellness program can include anything that improves employee’s physical or emotional health.  Offering incentives for attending fitness classes, smoking cessation, and weight loss programs provide opportunities for staff to improve their health. Making an onsite nurse available makes it convenient and cost-effective for employees to take care of health issues.

To improve emotional well-being, offering non-work related classes can be a much needed way to relieve stress.  Cooking, parenting, and crafting classes offered on the lunch hour can be an effective creative outlet.  Or present opportunities for telecommuting, to allow employees some flexibility with family and sick time.

The benefits for the organization include reduced healthcare costs, less employee sick time, and more productive and creative employees.  Staff can benefit from more work-life balance, feeling better, fewer health problems, and less stress.  These programs can be a critical asset when recruiting, hiring, or retaining employees.

Do your currently have a wellness initiative in place?  Or are you planning one for your agency?  If so, feel free to share your ideas and any impacts you’ve seen.  There are opportunities that can benefit all of us.

For additional information on what wellness can do for your agency, read 4imprint’s new Blue Paper on Employee Diet and Productivity.

We’ve all attended open houses for schools, neighborhood gatherings, and family events, but have you ever thought of holding an open house at your healthcare facility to network or offer new specialties to patients?

• Set up a meet & greet for staff to get to know new and existing patients.  Staff will have the opportunity to meet with patients on a personal level to get to know them better, understand their concerns, and learn about their families.  When greeted by name at the next appointment, both staff and patients will feel appreciated.
• Introduce the opening of a new location to the community.  Invite local media to the open house, as well as new and potential patients.  It’s a great opportunity to talk about the benefits of the new location, and make patients aware of your presence.
• Recruit new staff.  Invite prospective job candidates in to meet your staff currently in you organization.  They can get to know what positions and opportunities are available, and understand more about your business and plan.

Open houses provide many public relations opportunities for your healthcare facility, and provide an ideal occasion for you, your staff, and patients to network in a more casual setting.

For more information on planning an open house, take a look at 4imprint’s Healthcare Newsletter.

I love this picture.

Got a note from Shauna (one of our customers) who was looking for a way for her daughter’s soccer team to support a teammate named Riley who is battling cancer. Riley’s folks had already started ‘Riley’s Army‘ – an organization to help other families with cancer (which is amazing if you think about it!) – and the girls wanted something they could wear as part of their soccer uniform to honor their friend (and others who are fighting the fight) and so an idea was born.

These embroidered wristbands fit the bill perfectly. Love the way this photo gets all the hands together – a real feeling of solidarity.

Good stuff indeed.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2009
For more information contact:
Brenda Haines or Heidi Strand, Communications
(920) 230-2583

4imprint White Paper and Podcast Released: Body Language
Blue Paper® features common cues and interpretations of body language and
the importance of cultural awareness in nonverbal communication

(OSHKOSH, Wis.)— Promotional products retailer, 4imprint releases its most recent podcast and Blue Paper (its own version of a white paper), entitled What is Your Body Language Saying?

“Body language can be just as important as spoken language in communications,” shares Mary Curtin, 4imprint vice president of human resources. “This paper discusses cues such as facial expressions, gestures, posture and proximity which can help employers better communicate with their employees, customers or partners. It’s an interesting topic with application to associates at all levels.”

As business becomes increasingly global, companies must also be mindful of cultural differences and nuances that are present in body language. Jeanette Martin, co-author of “Global Business Etiquette” and business professor at the University of Mississippi, says that there is value in understanding cultural differences in body language even if your company has not yet reached a global market.

In addition to discussing common body language cues and body language in a cross-cultural setting, 4imprint’s latest Blue Paper provides tips on how to ensure that you are aware of and using body language in an effective way, such as:

• Copy or mimic the gestures of the person you are speaking with to make him or her more comfortable.
• Maintain a foot stance that is six to eight inches apart with feet pointed forward as it communicates a relaxed and attentive state.
• Balance eye contact so you are looking directly at someone 80-90 percent of the time. More and it appears disconcerting, less and it shows disinterest.

These, along with many other practical non verbal recommendations, are available for download as a Blue Paper and as a podcast at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/.

About 4imprint Blue Papers
4imprint Blue Papers are in-depth, how-to articles, distributed to 4imprint customers to help their organizations succeed. Accessible at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/ in both print and podcast forms, Blue Papers are also available on iTunes®. Blue Papers cover popular, cutting-edge business, marketing, human resources and management topics such as podcasting, online social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and experiential marketing.

About 4imprint
4imprint is part of 4imprint Group, Plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, and serves more than 100,000 businesses with its innovative promotional merchandise throughout the United States and Canada. For more information, log on to www.4imprint.com.

Earlier this year, I traveled to see one of the makers of our stainless steel bottles and had the chance to see the manufacturing process from start to finish.

It was fascinating to see the step-by-step transformation from stainless steel sheet to finished water bottle.

Step 1: Stainless Steel Sheets

Every stainless steel bottle begins its life on one of these rolls of stainless steel.

Step 2: Stainless Steel Tubes

Then, each flat sheet is formed into a stainless steel tube.

Step 3: Tubes Cut to Size

Each tube is then cut to size.

Step 4: Water Bottle Shaping Begins

Each tube is then shaped – and the familiar bend of the water bottle neck begins to emerge.  When shaping is complete, each stainless steel bottle is then polished and painted to add color.

Step 5: Detail Added

For some stainless steel water bottle designs, additional features (like the rubber grip on the Travel-Well Stainless Steel Water Bottle pictured above) are added.

Step 6: Finished Product

Finally, the finished product – ready to imprint with your logo!

-Suzanne

It looks like classic is the new trendy.

The Associated Press reports consumers are craving the tried-and-true, with a healthy dose of nostalgia in their holiday décor and gifts.  Consumer psychologists say classic colors, shapes and styles evoke welcome feelings of security and stability.

If classic gifts will resonate with your customers, suppliers, donors, volunteers or members, a gift like our 3 ¼” Round Shatterproof Ball Ornament might be a good option.  We’ve given it a slight update, screening a holiday motif and the year on one side, with room for your logo in a subdued, metallic gold on the other.

The ornament comes in muted, matte shades of classic holiday colors: red, gold, green, blue, clear, white and purple.  These are available in quantities as few as 100, for just $2.50 each.  Packaged in an individual gift box, these ornaments are ready-to-give.

In fact, you may even want to start a new tradition – making this the first in series of collectibles you share with customers. You’ll have your holiday gift-giving figured out for years to come!

-Suzanne

Right now, I currently sort my recyclables using these clever recycling bins.

There is one for glass, one for cans and one for paper.

But, this month, that changes.

Oshkosh, where I live, is taking its recycling program to the next level. Soon, we’ll be able to combine all of our recyclables into one bin.

The move to single-stream recycling – where all recyclables are combined together is pretty cool.  It usually encourages people to recycle more than when they have to separate everything.

But, I do have one tiny (ok, maybe tiny is not the right word) concern about all of this.  I might have to give up my garage. The recycling bins are really big.  I’m a little concerned that there might not be room for anything else in there – like my car, for example.

City of Oshkosh Single-Stream Recycling Bins

Fortunately, the bins come in two sizes.  I managed to order the smaller one – it measures 24” W x 32” L x 42” H but might now need to go buy a smaller car to fit the space.  I’ll let you know.

If you’re looking for something handy to use for taking your recyclables to the bin, you might like these Bright Recycling Bags, which help you keep paper, glass and cans separated.  Or, if this is something your customers might like, check out our version, the ModFX Recycling Tote Set.

Happy recycling.
-Suzanne

It’s Customer Service Week and each year we schedule some fun things around the office to celebrate the work that our team does to serve our customers. The theme this year is around being service ‘heroes’ so we went with a superhero theme.

But as always, our incredible Facilities Crew was not satisfied with just posters or decorations (although we have some good ones!) – I offer the picture below as evidence (this is how you were greeted today if you work at 4imprint)! These guys work very, very hard to help us make 4imprint a special place to work and they’re always up for having some fun along the way to celebrate accomplishments, recognize holidays or just bring a smile.

Well done guys! Definitely brought some smiles today – and reminded me I need to work on my abs.