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

Crumbl
 
 
It's really fun to have a tool like Awardco to recognize and thank those people in a much more tangible way that's not only points in their wallet, but also a visible recognition that everybody can interact with.
Smiling woman with long dark hair wearing black top against a pink striped background.
Alejandra Caceres
Senior Vice President of Marketing
TD SYNNEX
 
 
Using Awardco, we received 122 nominations for 80 unique nominees in just 10 days. This is the most internal nominations we’ve ever gotten, and we've had so much positive feedback from our coworkers on the user experience!
Smiling woman with long curly hair wearing a purple cardigan and a floral dress against a plain background.
Rebecca Wolff
Media Relations
The Orientation Company
 
 
Awardco not only ensures each employee receives the recognition they deserve from the company, but it provides a meaningful way for team members to shine a spotlight on each other's contributions daily, which would otherwise be nearly impossible to do with our 100% remote workforce.
Lindsay Obrentz
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
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
MultiCare Health System
 
 
Awardco's platform and program are far and away the best I've seen in my career. Based on behavioral science with an intuitive user interface (and truly customizable reporting!), it is a game changer in employee engagement and appreciation.
Maghan Adams
Employee Experience Specialist
Pacific Life
 
 
We do a lot of remote work activities where you can win something. We do a lot of these contests, and I used to go to Amazon and send a $25 gift card to the winners, but now I do it through Awardco. It's in the system, trackable, and much more streamlined.
Amberlee Taylor
Sr. Communications Specialist
NIBCO
 
 
When we implemented Awardco, we refreshed everything and synced all service dates to our HRIS. It works flawlessly now—and the person who used to manage that spreadsheet is very happy.
Smiling woman with long dark hair with red highlights, wearing a black top and silver jewelry, posing against a gray background.
Dawn Bloch
Chief People Officer
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
Kodiak
 
 
There's plenty of research that shows the compounding impact of how when other people can see recognition, it creates that snowball effect. And so it just makes people work better together. They feel more as part of the team.
Smiling man with brown hair wearing a blue Patagonia fleece jacket standing outdoors in a snowy landscape with snow-covered evergreen trees in the background.
Zach Makoutz
Sr. Manager, Category Sales Product
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.
Smiling man wearing a blue suit jacket, white shirt, and orange tie against a white background.
Kan Ni
Vice President, Airport Operations Control Center, Dubai Airports
Kodiak
 
 
Whether it’s recognizing a peer or a member of our team, Awardco is so simple and intuitive.
Black and white portrait of a smiling woman with long wavy hair wearing a dark top, sitting indoors.
Cassidy Barsdoff
Director, Project Management Office
Greenfield Global
 
 
Feeling seen and feeling valued… That's one thing that keeps me going every day. We all try to strive for the best and try to help one another. We have a great management system here and everybody is seen and heard.
Aisha Ariyo
Export Logistics Coordinator
McCormick & Company
 
 
The exciting part isn’t just that people love being recognized—it’s how eager they are to recognize their peers. That enthusiasm speaks to our culture. There’s a real appetite for recognition because it matters, because they care, and because they want others to feel appreciated.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing a floral jacket and white top against a textured wall.
Sierra Capone
Director, Wellbeing & Employee Experience
Dubai Airports
 
 
Recognition is vital in a large, fast-paced, and dynamic environment like ours. It motivates our people, reinforces our corporate behaviors, and helps create a culture where everyone feels valued and engaged.
Portrait of a woman wearing a black hijab, with clear skin and natural makeup, looking directly at the camera against a white background.
Khulood AlMarzooqi
Director of Total Rewards & Employee Engagement, Dubai Airports
Crumbl
 
 
I’ve been able to see how much recognition has changed since we started using Awardco. From an admin perspective, it’s become so much more manageable and has saved me countless hours. Birthdays, anniversaries, and new-hire milestones are all automated through Workday, new hires get points at 30 and 60 days, and employees are recognized automatically for birthdays and anniversaries.
Smiling young woman with long brown hair wearing a black top against a pink background.
Shannon Martell
Employee Experience Specialist

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.