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
 
 
The best decision we made was switching from our previous platform to Awardco. The customer service is excellent, the features are amazing, and we LOVE that they take our ideas and make them happen. They are always looking at innovating, which is one of our core values. We are extremely satisfied with Awardco and everyone here at The Nest LOVES the program.
Smiling woman with long wavy burgundy hair standing outdoors near apple tree branches with fruit.
Sara Beer
Director of Core Values
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
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
PMG
 
 
One of the best parts of myKudos [Awardco] is seeing others rally around a recognition post—commenting, reacting, and adding to the praise. I love scrolling through the kudos channel and seeing teammates from other accounts getting hyped up for the great work they’re doing. It really creates a sense of community across the agency.
Smiling young man with light brown hair and beard wearing a blue checkered dress shirt against a dark wall.
Colby Green
Paid Social Senior Associate
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
PMG
 
 
I really appreciate how myKudos [Awardco] offers different ‘classifications’ of shoutouts, so no matter how someone went above and beyond, there’s a way to recognize it. We work with some incredible people, and it’s important to celebrate them however we can.
Smiling young man with light brown hair and beard wearing a white checkered shirt against a dark background with circular wall decor.
Colby Green
Paid Social Senior Associate
Lockton
 
 
Prior to Awardco, the recognition process was manual and time-consuming. Everything was done through emails and spreadsheets, with physical delivery of plaques and gifts. Important milestones were sometimes missed, despite our best intentions.
Smiling young woman with long blonde hair wearing a red blazer and black top against a black background.
Mallory Pence
Marketing Manager
4Refuel
 
 
It’s really meaningful to see CRPs who are out on the road by themselves, along with employees working from home, still interacting and connecting through the platform. It’s almost like our 4Refuel Facebook—bringing everyone together no matter where they’re working.
Woman with blonde hair wearing a black and white patterned jacket, smiling with arms crossed against a light background.
Lynne Harkness
VP, People & Culture
Lockton
 
 
When I pitched Awardco to our leadership team, I shared the risk of losing connection as we grow. I framed it as a strategic need. Their response? ‘Stop talking. Just do it.
Smiling woman with long wavy blonde hair wearing a black top and a pendant necklace against a black background.
Melissa York
SVP, Head of People & Culture
Alera Group
 
 
We do an annual engagement survey, and we do see a lot of comments from people saying they love to work here because of the people they work with. We get a lot of good comments about working with others.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing a black blazer and white collared shirt against a gray background.
Pam Johnson
VP of Human Resources
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.
Black and white portrait of a woman with long wavy hair smiling gently at the camera.
Cassidy Barsdoff
Director, Project Management Office
NIBCO
 
 
Awardco has definitely helped us do recognition even better. Recognizing someone you work with, even if you don’t see them every day, has been empowering.
Smiling woman with blonde hair in a dark blue blouse against a gray background.
Ashley Martin
President & CEO
Dubai Airports
 
 
The implementation was effortless. The Awardco team was incredibly supportive and proactive throughout the journey, offering guidance and expertise that led to a smooth and successful launch of our High Flyer program.
Maha Salem
Senior Manager, Rewards & Recognition, Dubai Airports
PMG
 
 
We’ve made myKudos [Awardco] a key part of how we work at all levels—whether you’re a people manager or an individual contributor. MyKudos is just as powerful when peers recognize each other, creating a culture of appreciation across the organization
Smiling woman with long wavy hair wearing a blue and white striped shirt with folded arms against a light blue background.
Mary O’Brien
Head of Programmatic
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

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.