Apply now for Recognize Awards 2026

 

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

Kodiak
 
 
It's really important for relationship building and strengthening. Having this platform that makes it super easy to recognize is what sets Kodiak apart from the rest.
Cassidy Barsdoff
Director, Project Management Office
PMG
 
 
The ability to customize the platform and call it 'MyKudos' made it feel like a true extension of our brand and culture.
Pam Buyers
Head of Culture at PMG
PMG
 
 
Companies that invest in recognition are seen as people-centric. When people feel appreciated for their contributions and are truly engaged, they’re more innovative, more creative, and more willing to think beyond the status quo. This elevates work, fuels stronger business outcomes and can foster deeper customer relationships.
Monica Gunderson
Talent Management Lead
Dubai Airports
 
 
The scalability of the Awardco platform makes it the perfect partner for Dubai Airports. It evolves as we evolve—allowing us to introduce new efficiencies and features while keeping recognition simple and user-friendly.
Khulood AlMarzooqi
Director of Total Rewards & Employee Engagement, Dubai Airports
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.
Mellisa Renter
Director of Professional Nursing Practice
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
Ultradent Products
 
 
We're present in pretty much every continent in the world, and there's no limitation to our recognition system. We see recognitions from Brazil to the US, from Japan to China, from South Africa to France, and everyone is engaged.
Favio Paiva
Workday Specialist
Lockton
 
 
We selected Awardco after a focus group review. It was hands down unanimous. Everyone loved how clean, easy, and intuitive Awardco was, especially the ‘Who do you want to recognize?’ prompt right when you log in.
Selia Wood
AVP, Talent & Engagement
Kodiak
 
 
Awardco makes it really easy to select colleagues that you want to recognize, whether it's one, whether it's multiple. Recognition helps build trust with teammates and leaders.
Brett Miller
VP of Creative
America First Credit Union
 
 
Previously, every manager hand-wrote a message to their employees every six months thanking them for their hard work, and it was all tied in with the bonus distribution. It was very high-touch, very labor intensive, and we had the process down to a science. We liked the connections that formed between managers and employees as a result of this program, but after COVID-19 most of our workforce went remote. Our semi-annual tradition wasn't possible any longer, nor was it feasible.
Kent Streuling
SVP of HR
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.
Roshan Varghese
Sr. Director, Environment, Health & Safety
SEF Energy
 
 
Awardco allows everything to support our core values and our mission, which is very important to us because that strengthens our culture.
Lauren Long
HR Operations 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
Organizational Development
Ampirical
 
 
The onboarding process was very encouraging. We weren't given the program and told to figure it out on our own—we've had someone to lean on the entire time, someone who helped us navigate this big, company-wide change.
Ryan Zellner
Marketing & Corporate Communications Manager
Dubai Airports
 
 
High Flyer has given us a framework to consistently and meaningfully acknowledge employees, boosting morale and reinforcing the behaviors that drive success. Recognition now feels natural and embedded in our culture.
Kan Ni
Vice President, Airport Operations Control Center, Dubai Airports

Celebrate any special day

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