NOTE:  Hi, Kevin here…below is a  guest post from John, a teammate of my here at the office. It’s a post about a project he and I both love:

Making Life Difficult For Our Company President

I’m John Van Den Brandt, a National Account manager at 4imprint. You may also know me as our wildlife photographer. My wildlife images have been featured in the 4imprint exclusive Wildlife Calendar for the past five years.

As a wildlife photographer, it’s my goal to make life difficult for our company president, Kevin Lyons-Tarr. You see, every May, Kevin joins our art director and a few graphic artists in pouring over scores of my wildlife images to narrow their favorites down to just twelve for next year’s calendar. My objective is to make that task as tough as possible.

From the far reaches of North America to the grasslands of Africa, my images are the product of hundreds of hours in the field, not a few days at a game farm photographing trained animal models. (Ever wonder why that bear in some calendars looks like its fur was just shampooed and blow-dried?) Instead, I seek to capture remarkable moments in the natural world that will elicit a gasp from the review team and delight our customers when they turn the calendar page each month. Here are the 2012 calendar images:

We feature those images in a calendar that is a cut above the ordinary. Saddle stitching (no spiral), larger size and premium grade paper (25% heavier) make this an art-quality calendar that we’re all proud of.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I’ll be out in the field, capturing photos that will give Kevin a headache next May.

Friday we held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a walking trail we put in at our distribution center.  The team did a great job pulling it together. It’s a 1/2 mile ‘groomed’ trail that’s perfect for getting some fitness time in over lunch or before or after work.  Folks can count the time they put in on the trail for points in our ‘Fit 4 Life’ wellness program, and best of all you you can see people spending quality time together with colleagues enjoying the outdoors. The ribbon cutting included imprinted pedometers (of course!) so everyone can keep track of their progress.

Our local YMCA hosts a Corporate Cup challenge each year.  Area companies form teams and compete in a variety of events to encourage health, fitness,   sportsmanship, teamwork – and fun!

The events  include the typical games like soccer, volleyball, swimming, and basketball – but also include ‘human curling’, kickball (in the snow!), extreme fitness challenges, endurance and even a scavenger hunt.

It really is a great event, and promotional products definitely play a role. Every team sports custom t-shirts with a team ‘theme’ and it’s not uncommon to see a logo’d sport bottle or imprinted sportpack as well!

Thanks to all on our team and everyone that we competed with for a fun Saturday. Here’s a picture from the event, featuring a old guy who looks quite a bit like me pulling every muscle in his body. I found out the next morning that apparently you use different muscles playing dodgeball than you do sitting in your cubicle writing blog posts.

Then again, I think that might just be one of the key points of the event.

Today’s post is actually by one of our associates, John Van Den Brandt. John asked if he could use my blog space to talk a bit about a project he’s pretty passionate about!

-klt

I’m John Van Den Brandt. By day, I’m a Senior National Account Manager at 4imprint. Any other time, I’m a wildlife photographer, spending long hours in the field waiting to capture that  one perfect,  heart-stopping moment of wildlife action.

When a typical employer learns of your passion for anything outside your job, the likely response is ‘Fine, just don’t let it interfere with your work’. But 4imprint is not a typical  employer. Here, the thinking was ‘How can we utilize John’s talent to the benefit of our  customers?’ That’s how the 4imprint Exclusive Wildlife Calendar was born. (Can you begin to  see why 4imprint just made the list of America’s Best Places to Work for the third straight  year?)

The calendar’s been a hit – in addition to the wildlife images, customers seem to like the brief “stories” that I write about how I captured each month’s image. In fact, at the beginning of each month I often receive e mails from customers throughout the country complimenting me on that month’s image, asking questions or encouraging my work. One customer said that we’ve saved him a lot of money on story books because his child will only go to sleep if he can first page through our calendar and name all the wildlife. He won’t accept any substitute!

I hope you won’t accept any substitute either. If you’re looking for a unique calendar that uses real wildlife images (not game farm models), a gift that will keep your logo front and center all year long, check out our wildlife calendar. The 2011 edition is our fifth and I believe our best ever.

Thanks to 4imprint for supporting my dream and thanks to you, our customers for making it come true.

Click here to view all the images in the 2011 calendar.

Yesterday we had our annual ‘Service Awards’ lunch.  It’s something we’ve always done to recognize folks who have been with us for 5, 10, 15, 20 years, etc.  We had lots of folks in the 5 and 10 year groups and had more than 15 total in the 15 and 20 year groups.

We celebrate because these are bright, talented folks and we know they have options about where they could work. The fact that they’ve chosen to stick with us over what is by today’s standard a very long time,  is something we’re proud of.

We simply can’t be successful at any level without great people who are in an environment where they are valued, respected and have the tools they need.  That’s why it’s such an honor for us to have made the the Great Place to Work® Rankings:2010 Best Small & Medium Workplaces Presented by Entrepreneur® list for the third consecutive year, after all that’s what the list is all about.

We have great people here, and I’m so blessed to be able to come in each day and roll my sleeves up with them.

I have said to anyone who will listen – I work with the best people.  They are the reason behind any success we’ve enjoyed.  They’re thoughtful, creative, courteous and come in every day wanting to do the best they can and treat others as they would like to be treated.

So I should not have been surprised, but definitely was, when a large gathering of associates (like 200+!) formed outside my cube today – all to wish me a happy birthday and offer congratulations (and have a good laugh about…) my recent inclusion on a ‘hot list’ in our industry (I know, my name and ‘hot’ in the same sentence…makes me laugh too!).

There was cake, ice cream, some gag gifts, but best of all a real barbershop quartet to seranade everyone. The fact that one of the voices in the quartet  is our own Orien (or Big O) from our web development team made it all the better. The guys hit it out of the park!

If you work with us, these are the folks who are here to support you – and as you can see you, and I, are in good hands.

Job stress comes with a hefty price tag, costing American businesses more than
$300 billion a year. Just how do all those dollars add up? Stress impacts our ability to perform, leads to workplace turnover, and is a direct contributor to medical and insurance costs.

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Maximizing performance should be every company’s top priority. But when
it comes to performance, we must look beyond our daily to-do lists toward
big picture results.

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With the announcement of the ’50 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work For’ today at the SHRM Conference, many of us were debating and sharing ideas about what makes a company a truly ‘great place’. I posed this question via twitter:

“in 140 characters or less, what makes a company a great place to work?”

Here are a couple of the responses:

@imbrimful said: What makes a place one of the best places to work? Flexibility and caring, kind managers that take interest in their employees

@tlcolson said: decision autonomy within your sandbox, results oriented culture, “right-sized” company, market based comp/benefits

Jack Welch (at the Sunday keynote) stressed trust and communication (amongst a few other more colorful thoughts!).

What’s your take? Comment here or let me know via twitter:  @4imprintklt. It’s an important topic.

Especially in today’s economic climate.