At 5:15 every Wednesday evening, you’ll find a group of Hayneedle’s most adventurous practicing sun salutations, warrior sequences, and more. From beginners to experienced yogis, all are welcome to participate in a yoga class led by one of Hayneedle’s own editors, Chelsea Grubbs. Writer by day, yoga instructor by night, our teacher shares her skills and passion with the rest of the Hayneedle team. What began as an offer for anyone interested has developed into a weekly get-together for a group of devoted practitioners. Laughter is a welcome staple as the students explore new ways to stretch and challenge both body and mind.

The yoga class is just one of the ways that the Hayneedle team is showing a growing interest in wellness. Earlier this year, Hayneedle announced the development of a new wellness program. The program kicked off in April with a wellness fair that included biometric screening and a health evaluation. In May, employees had the opportunity to learn about healthful summertime cooking during a lunch-and-learn session hosted by a Hy-Vee nutritionist, who shared healthful recipes and safe grilling tips. Hayneedle is also providing employees with an opportunity to eat green this summer by introducing a new Community Supported Agriculture program. Through CSA, members pre-pay for a season-long share and receive a bag of produce each week. It’s a wonderful way to experiment with different foods as well as ensure access to locally grown, organic produce.

The next phase of the wellness program is expected to launch this summer. By investing in the health of our employees, we foster an environment of positivity and fulfillment. We provide lots of options so that every team member may participate!

This was Hayneedle’s second year sponsoring the Young Professionals event. As the Summit Living Room Sponsor, we put together six living room sets filled with products of all styles from our flagship site, hayneedle.com. The living room sets were displayed throughout the conference facility, inviting participants to gather for fellowship and to share creative ideas.

Eleven years ago today, founders Doug Nielsen, Julie Mahloch, and Mark Hasebroock established Hammocks.com. They set out to create the best place in the world to buy a hammock, bar none. Since that time, our company has grown to become the best place not only to buy a hammock, but to buy everything else imaginable for home. And we’re still growing.

We’ve gone from less than 10 employees to more than 500, and we’re now the 4^th largest online home furnishings retailer.

And it should be noted that we can put down about 5,000 Dilly Bars every year. Documented.

We value fun, but we value future even more. We just crossed the 11-year milestone with the opening of our new fulfillment center in Riverside, California. This new facility has 300,000 square feet – this combined with our existing Ohio fulfillment center means the capacity to ship over 2 million units per year. All in all we’ve laid the groundwork for continuing to build the best place to shop, to work, and to call our home away from home.

Hayneedle wishes you and your family a happy, memorable holiday season!

Last month Hayneedle got into the Halloween spirit with costumes, contests and, of course, treats! There were several impressive costumes, but the winners for the individual costume contest included the Joker and Wilfred. The group prizes were awarded to the superheroes versus villains’ themed HR team and the Workforce brothers, Mario and Luigi. A new pet costume contest made its debut this year, in which employees dressed their furry friends in costumes and took pictures to be voted on Halloween day. This year’s winners included two dogs: one dressed as Clark Kent and the other transformed into a spider.

Other Halloween events included a mummy-wrapping contest, trick or treating at the Customer Care Center, and cookie decorating. Everyone was also invited to help themselves to hot apple cider throughout the day and treated to Halloween-decorated snack cakes in the afternoon.

Our Work-from-Home Seasonal Internet Retail Associates are passionate about providing answers to product questions and orders, and they’re totally committed to helping customers find what they love on our sites. They will provide personal-shopping expertise for our nearly 300 online stores.

To find your niche in a vibrant, casual atmosphere where extraordinary experiences matter – for our customers AND for you – apply now at: http://www.hayneedleinc.com/careers/job-openings/

And check out our commercial!

Hayneedle Commercial

If you have questions, feel free to contact Jill Case at jmcase@hayneedle.com or call 402-715-3080.

The winning team? New Kids on the Bocce. In addition to bragging rights, the New Kids won the grand prize of – wait for it, now – Hayneedle water bottles … which will one day be considered priceless, we’re pretty sure.

Hayneedle is proudly located in the middle of America: Omaha, Nebraska. People always ask, “Why Omaha?”  We know exactly why. Check out these top 10 reasons we think Omaha is the best place to live, work, and play:

1. Omaha was rated the #1 city to raise your kids by Kiplinger.com and rated #8 by the Wall Street Journal.
2. The College World Series.
3. While we may be wearing Levis and driving Camrys, the residents of Omaha are wealthier than average. The city also has a host of billionaires, including Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts ($1.5 billion), Walter Scott ($1.2 billion) of Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc., and Berkshire Hathaway founder and CEO Warren Buffett, whose estimated wealth is more than $40 billion.
4. According to Livability.com, Omaha has one of the best music scenes in the country. “Omaha’s rich musical tradition essentially began in the 1920s when the city became a center for jazz and blues. Dreamland Ballroom, built in 1923, was at the heart of the 24th Avenue North corridor scene for 40 years, showcasing performances by artists such as the Nat King Cole Trio, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.”  Bright Eyes and Conor Oberst, 311, Terry Lewis, and Wynonie Harris all have Omaha roots.
5. Times may be tough throughout the country, but Omaha has one of the lowest unemployment rates nationwide.  Only 4.2% of Omaha’s workforce is unemployed, according to an On Numbers analysis of U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics data (source Bizjournals.com).
6. Voted the second best-run state in the country, “The state of Nebraska had the 21st lowest revenue per capita in the country in 2009 yet managed to spend more per capita that year than all but seven states. The state has the fourth lowest debt per capita, and it is one of 13 states with a perfect AAA credit rating. Besides being financially sound, Nebraska also has an unemployment rate of 4.2%, the second lowest rate in the country. The state also has relatively low poverty, high graduation rates and the seventh lowest rate of foreclosures last month,” according to 247wallst.com.
7. Recently, Omaha was ranked eighth among the nation’s 50 largest cities in both per-capita billionaires and Fortune 500 companies, according to USA Today. “Sure, San Francisco leads the amount of billionaires per million people, and Atlanta leads in the number of Fortune 500 companies per 1 million people. But no city, not even the major coastal giants, can claim a ranking as high as Omaha on both lists,” the paper concluded.
8. Food.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised at all of the culinary adventures and opportunities you’ll find in the big O! Omaha has a great reputation for having fabulous ethnic, fine dining, and family-style restaurants.
9. Are you or do you know a recent college grad? In 2011 Omaha was voted the second best city for recent college graduates by The Daily Beast.
10. “Education.  Around 88% of children attend Omaha metro public school districts while the remaining attend private, parochial, or non-denominational school.  OPS test scores exceed the national average for large school districts.  Graduates receive more than $25 million in scholarship offers annually and over 61% go to college or other post-secondary schools.” (source: Omaha Public Schools).

Like a box of human crayons, Hayneedle employees donned colored pants on a designated day and celebrated what a colorful bunch we are.  Participation was happily higher than anticipated, and a special shout-out goes to our male employees who got their color on as well.  To everyone who took part, we love hue. Hugs.