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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.

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

WebPT
 
 
I cannot tell you what a relief it was to be able to integrate metadata from our HRIS system so that birthdays and service awards were automatically recognized and sent to our WebPTers. This was a huge, huge accomplishment for our employee engagement.
Britney Burns
Employee Experience Program Manager
Alera Group
 
 
Awardco has allowed people to recognize their coworkers in a public way, and we see it every day. Collaboration is in the DNA of Alera Group, and appreciation is absolutely central and core to effective collaboration.
Kristie White
AVP, Change Strategy & Organization Development
Children's Nebraska
 
 
One year into having sunshine, our recognition, feeling like we're recognized went up ten percent. I think that's just a true testament of how much it means to us. We do have those hard days. And again, the Sunshine Recognition Hub empowers our nurses and team members. It's given us a platform to recognize, those moments of of excellence.
Smiling blonde woman with wavy hair wearing a gray textured blazer, maroon top, and turquoise earrings, standing indoors with a blurred window background.
Mellisa Renter
Director of Professional Nursing Practice
Dubai Airports
 
 
We did our first cycling project on the runway. It was a crazy and challenging idea, but the team did an amazing job—and receiving a High Flyer for it felt incredible.
Smiling man with dark hair and beard wearing a black shirt against a gray background.
Barkin Ozdemir
Content Development Manager, Brand & Communications, Dubai Airports
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
Hertz
 
 
I'd like for others to look at Hertz and say ‘they're doing something right’. They're listening to employees, taking that feedback and continuing to build upon their recognition programs. Just to let them know that it is part of our culture and it's not just a platform.
Smiling woman with long blonde hair wearing a black blazer and pink top, standing outdoors with crossed arms and blurred greenery in background.
Jessica Mollica
Vice President, Human Resources Field
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
Alera Group
 
 
Colleagues have to choose a value from The Collaborative Way when they recognize, making our recognition feed daily proof of why our values are so important. It’s such a powerfully positive place. Leaders are really taking notice—they want to see their teams at the top of the adoption leaderboard because they know the impact our values have on employee performance and retention.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing a black blazer and white blouse against a gray background.
Pam Johnson
VP of HR
Lockton
 
 
As a system administrator managing the back-end, being able to hand out physical AwardCodes takes out the administrative work. We no longer have to track names, who's getting what points from what event.
Smiling woman with wavy dark hair wearing a green blouse with textured dots against a black background.
Tisa Penny
Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner
Kodiak
 
 
This integration to our Slack channel… makes it very easy and seamless. There’s this running log of all of these shout outs, which I think is really powerful.
Smiling man wearing a blue Patagonia fleece jacket standing outdoors with snow-covered pine trees in the background.
Zach Makoutz
Sr. Manager, Category Sales Product
Southern Oregon Head Start
 
 
For us to onboard a staff member, it's probably close to about 5,000 to 6,000 dollars. As a nonprofit, I feel like going to Awardco has been a huge cost-savings advantage.
Smiling woman with long dark hair wearing a black and white striped turtleneck sweater against a light background.
Amber Lease
Human Resource Director
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
 
 
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
 
 
The entire experience, from sourcing and implementation to trouble-shooting and recognition, has been seamless and easy...I love the platform!
Anonymous
HR BP
Crumbl
 
 
For most companies, purpose, mission, and values can end up feeling like just words on paper. That’s why we were so interested in Awardco. It gives us an authentic way to bring our values to life. Every time someone recognizes a teammate, our purpose and values are right there, reinforcing what they look like in action every single day.
Smiling man with short spiked hair and a trimmed beard wearing a black t-shirt on white background.
Josh Olofson
Vice President of Employee Experience

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.