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Employee Birthdays & holidays

Celebrate festive occasions with style

Automate celebrations, personalize rewards, and ensure no special occasion goes unnoticed—regardless of where your employees are.

 

Return on recognition

Why celebrate birthdays and holidays at work?

Recognition doesn’t always have to be tied to performance. Celebrating birthdays and holidays offers an easy, reoccurring, and impactful way to show employees they matter. These personal moments deepen engagement and help create a culture of care that resonates far beyond the workplace.

Performance
Stock market trading screen with financial graphs on laptop
69
%
of employees say they would work harder if they felt more appreciated.
69
%
of employees say they would work harder if they felt more appreciated.

It's simple, really: appreciation increases feelings of self-worth and personal value, which helps employees want to put in the effort. And it can be as simple as a "Hey, great work today."

 
Retention
Factory workers in safety gear discussing project during industrial meeting
31
%
lower turnover in companies with strong recognition programs.
31
%
lower turnover in companies with strong recognition programs.

Appreciation leads to greater loyalty. Why? Because when people feel seen and appreciated through recognition, they feel a stronger connection to their workplace. It's simple psychology.

 
Satisfaction
Smiling senior professional in blue blazer during office meeting
81
%
of employees believe personalized recognition improves their workplace satisfaction.
81
%
of employees believe personalized recognition improves their workplace satisfaction.

General appreciation is great, but personalized is even better, and it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Automation tools, integrations, and more make it easier than ever.

 

end-to-end flexibility

Never miss a chance to celebrate

Whether it’s birthdays, national holidays, regional celebrations, or company-centric events, make these meaningful moments unforgettable.

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Automated Recurring Events

Automate birthday and holiday rewards with customizable gifts, messages, or points based on the holiday, tenure, region, or other metadata.

Custom Catalogs

Build custom catalogs from millions of global gift options, so every birthday and holiday feels personal.

Custom Reward Point Amounts

Create flexible reward structures with customizable points to match your culture—perfect for both small wins and big celebrations.

Localization for Regional Traditions

Celebrate globally with localized holidays, cultural events, and recognition tailored to your diverse workforce.

 

Employee Birthdays

Meaningful birthday recognitions

Skip the generic card—and the hassle. Make every employee birthday celebration feel personal:

  • Celebrate peers in a dedicated birthday feed with custom messages
  • Share birthday shoutouts to Slack or monitors for (optional) company-wide visibility
  • Send points or curated gifts employees will actually love
  • Utilize user profiles to give thoughtful, interest-based gifts

testimonials

What customers are saying

The Nest Schools
 
 
Automation is something that is really important for us—we try to automate as much as we can so that we can focus on what's important. And Awardco's automation and integrations have fit in perfectly.
Brittany Madonna
Senior VP of Marketing & Communications
4Refuel
 
 
We have an on-the-spot recognition program where leaders can immediately recognize a CRP for demonstrating safe behavior. That recognition is visible across the organization, which motivates others to do the same. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, we’ve shifted our culture to spotlight what’s being done right—and that’s encouraged everyone to follow that path.
Headshot of a man with short black hair wearing a gray blazer and light blue shirt, smiling against a gray cloudy background.
Roshan Varghese
Sr. Director, Environment, Health & Safety
Crumbl
 
 
It's a very fast paced environment. There's a lot of rapport between people and everyone gets along really well and we can joke about the things that are maybe stressful, but we also really celebrate the big wins together.
Young woman with long dark hair smiling against a pink vertically striped backdrop.
Alejandra Caceres
Senior Vice President of Marketing
Crumbl
 
 
It’s much more personalized for the person celebrating their anniversary. From an operations standpoint, it’s helped us recognize employees on the actual day it matters most, instead of long after the moment has passed.
Smiling man with short dark spiked hair and beard wearing a black shirt against white background.
Josh Olofson
Vice President of Employee Experience
Ampirical
 
 
I could rave to millions of people that I think this should be the platform of choice.
Smiling young man with short dark hair wearing a blue and white checkered shirt against a blue gradient background.
Ryan Zellner
Marketing & Corporate Communications Manager
 
 
I love how simple Awardco is to use, both the main platform and the admin side, with how many reporting features it has to offer.
Anonymous
HR Generalist
Kodiak
 
 
Recognition just reminds you that no, you are seen. Your work is not for nothing. You are appreciated. It feels great and helps you stay motivated, even when things are tough.
Smiling man wearing a blue Patagonia fleece jacket standing outdoors in a snowy landscape with evergreen trees in the background.
Zach Makoutz
Sr. Manager, Category Sales Product
Lockton
 
 
Since implementing Awardco, we’ve saved at least 30 hours a month that used to be spent manually tracking, purchasing, and mailing gifts. Now it’s all automated—and more empowering for our associates.
Smiling woman with dark wavy hair wearing large earrings and a lavender blouse against a black background.
Selia Wood
AVP, Talent & Engagement
PMG
 
 
We wanted everything to go through one platform—and that's how we landed on Awardco.
Smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a red cardigan, black top, and a colorful beaded necklace against a white background.
Pam Buyers
Head of Culture
Dubai Airports
 
 
We were looking for a simple yet effective platform with a user-friendly interface, and Awardco ticked all the boxes. Through Awardco, we’ve been able to integrate multiple recognition touchpoints into one platform.
Maha Salem
Senior Manager, Rewards & Recognition, Dubai Airports
Dubai Airports
 
 
It only takes a moment to thank someone, but that recognition stays with them and inspires them to do even better.
Soosan Abidali
Office Manager, Strategy & Development, Dubai Airports
Kodiak
 
 
The emphasis that Kodiak puts on people and employees first is really unique. We're always looking for opportunities to acknowledge the important and special and above and beyond work that our coworkers are doing.
Black and white portrait of a woman with long wavy hair smiling gently at the camera.
Cassidy Barsdoff
Director, Project Management Office
Greenfield Global
 
 
It feels very good to get recognized. You put in so much hard work, and when someone acknowledges it, you feel appreciated and valued. I think that’s the key.
Aisha Ariyo
Export Logistics Coordinator
Lockton
 
 
We created ‘Celebrating Culture’—a program where we reward engagement at everything from costume contests to lunch-and-learns. Awardco makes it easy to motivate and recognize employees both in person and remotely.
Smiling woman with shoulder-length dark wavy hair wearing a green textured blouse against a black background.
Tisa Penny
Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner
Children's Nebraska
 
 
Being a nurse, I know that oftentimes it's hard to keep coming back day after day. It often goes without recognition or gratitude, but Sunshine has given us the opportunity to empower our team and our leaders with the ability to recognize others. We're proud to have seen such high engagement from our team members submitting recognitions on the platform.
Madeline Quinn
Employee Experience Manager

Thought Leadership & Resources

Employee celebration resources

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can organizations restrict birthday or holiday points to a specific catalog?
 

Where supported, organizations can restrict an award to a selected catalog or reward category. For example, onboarding or holiday points may be limited to company swag, while a birthday award may be available across a broader marketplace.

Catalog restrictions can help align the reward with the purpose of the program, the employee population, the company store, or the available budget. The restriction may apply to a specific award, point balance, employee group, or campaign.

The available catalog controls and employee visibility depend on the enabled product and setup. Organizations should confirm whether a catalog can be limited by country, population, category, provider, or event.

What types of birthday and holiday rewards can employees receive?
 

Depending on the configured marketplace and program, employees may receive or choose from:

  • Reward points to spend in an available marketplace
  • Gift cards or digital reward options
  • Company merchandise or a branded swag catalog
  • Curated holiday or seasonal reward collections
  • Travel, experiences, or local activities
  • Charitable donations or a campaign-specific giving option
  • Nonmonetary recognition, messages, or other configured experiences

The available catalog, country coverage, supplier inventory, currency, fulfillment, and point value can vary. Organizations should describe representative categories rather than guarantee a specific brand, item, event, price, or delivery date.

Can organizations choose which employees receive birthday or holiday rewards?
 

Organizations can configure eligibility around approved employee and organizational data. Rules may include location, country, department, employee type, employment status, hire date, or other supported metadata.

This allows a company to run one global program, separate programs by region, or different birthday and holiday experiences for selected populations. A seasonal program may also use different reward values, catalogs, or dates for different locations.

The available filters and rule behavior depend on the connected data source and enabled configuration. Organizations should define how new hires, employees on leave, transfers, terminations, rehired employees, and corrected data are handled.

Can birthday and holiday rewards be personalized?
 

Organizations can typically configure the message, branding, sender, reward value, catalog, visibility, notification, and other elements of the employee experience.

A birthday program might send a personal message with points or a selected gift. A holiday program might offer a broad marketplace, a seasonal catalog, company-branded merchandise, a local gift option, or a campaign-specific reward.

Personalization options vary by program. Organizations should confirm which fields, messages, branding elements, delivery channels, and recognition experiences can be customized before publishing detailed product claims.

Can Awardco automate birthday and holiday recognition?
 

Yes, where the applicable programs and employee data are enabled, organizations can automate birthday recognition and schedule recurring holiday rewards or campaigns.

Birthday automation may use an approved employee birth-date field to identify eligible employees. Holiday programs can be scheduled around a specific date, season, campaign period, or company calendar and may distribute points or another reward to a defined population.

Automation can reduce manual administration, but organizations should validate the source data, trigger timing, employee eligibility, campaign start date, and exception process before launch.

Celebrate any special day

Make birthdays and holidays stand-out events that employees will love.