Birthdays & Holidays

Celebrate festive occasions in style

Automate celebrations, personalise 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, recurring, 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 for businesses with strong recognition programmes.
31
%
lower turnover for businesses with strong recognition programmes.

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 personalised recognition improves their workplace satisfaction.
81
%
of employees believe personalised recognition improves their workplace satisfaction.

General appreciation is great, but personalised 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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Automate Recurring Events

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

Custom Catalogues

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

Custom Reward Point Amounts

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

Localisation for Regional Traditions

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

 

Employee Birthdays

Meaningful birthday recognition

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

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

Customer Testimonials

What customers are saying

OB Hospitalist Group
 
 
Our investment to leverage the Centre of Excellence team at Awardco was the best decision we made. Katie didn’t just advise, she partnered. She brought deep healthcare expertise and helped us translate what recognition should feel like for clinicians into something that actually works for a deskless, clinical workforce. With her leadership, we built our Awardco instance as a true virtual haven: a values-based recognition experience designed with and for our teams, easily accessible, and directly tied to our mission. The result is an always-on programme that makes it easy to celebrate the moments that matter — strengthening connection, belonging, and pride across the organisation.
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Megan Vera Weaklend
SVP of Marketing & Customer Experience
PMG
 
 
Since joining, I’ve found myKudos [Awardco] posts to be a great way to learn what others are doing across the agency. I’ve even picked up ideas from shout-outs that I’ve been able to implement on my own accounts. It’s more than recognition—it’s a source of inspiration.
Smiling young man with short brown hair and a beard, wearing a checked shirt against a dark background.
Colby Green
Senior Paid Social Associate
Americare Senior Living
 
 
When people join Americare, we want them to feel like they're part of something bigger than just a job; that they have a sense of purpose because they get to make a real difference in our residents' lives.
Smiling woman with wavy blonde hair wearing a red blazer, black top, and a silver cross necklace against a blue-grey background.
Mary Eaves
Senior VP of Operations (Assisted Living Division)
Crumbl
 
 
We are very deliberate about the culture we have built. It is a constant effort every day. We value integrity and innovation, and we have a fantastic culture because of the people we hire. We have a huge team of truly talented individuals. They need to know that they are respected, that their work is impactful, and that it means a great deal to those around them.
Smiling man with short brown hair and glasses wearing a black shirt against a white background.
Bryce Redd
CTO
 
 
The entire experience, from sourcing and implementation to troubleshooting and recognition, has been seamless and straightforward... I love the platform!
Anonymous
HR Business Partner
Alera Group
 
 
Colleagues must select a value from The Collaborative Way when giving recognition, making our feed daily proof of why our values are so important. It is a powerfully positive space. 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 grey background.
Pam Johnson
VP of HR
Lockton
 
 
Before Awardco, the recognition process was manual and time-consuming. Everything was handled via 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
The Nest Schools
 
 
Switching from our previous platform to Awardco was the best decision we made. The customer service is excellent, the features are brilliant, and we love that they take our ideas and make them happen. They are always looking to innovate, which is one of our core values. We are extremely satisfied with Awardco and everyone here at The Nest loves the programme.
Smiling woman with long wavy burgundy hair standing outdoors near apple tree branches with fruit.
Sara Beer
Director of Core Values
Crumbl
 
 
It’s much more personalised for the person celebrating their anniversary. From an operational standpoint, it’s helped us recognise employees on the actual day that matters most, rather than long after the moment has passed.
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Josh Olofson
Vice President of Employee Experience
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 recognise?’ prompt right when you log in.
Smiling woman with dark wavy hair wearing a lavender blouse and white earrings against a black background.
Selia Wood
AVP, Talent & Engagement
The Nest Schools
 
 
Just managing our custom rewards felt like a full-time job with our previous vendor—it took all day every Friday. With Awardco, I don't have to do any of the manual fulfilment work anymore. I'm saving 6-8 hours a week, just managing orders.
Sara Beer
Director of Core Values
Kodiak
 
 
Awardco makes it really easy to select colleagues that you want to recognise, whether it's one, whether it's multiple. Recognition helps build trust with teammates and leaders.
Smiling man with short hair and a beard, wearing a dark collared shirt in an outdoor setting.
Brett Miller
VP of Creative
Colonial Pipeline
 
 
What really sold us on Awardco over everyone else was not just how easy the platform is to use, but the phenomenal partnership with Amazon.
Smiling man with short dark hair and a beard, wearing a grey plaid blazer and a white collared shirt against a plain light background.
Imran Merchant
Total Rewards Manager
PMG
 
 
The ability to customise the platform and call it 'MyKUDOS' made it feel like a true extension of our brand and culture.
Smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a red cardigan, black top, and beaded necklace against a white background.
Pam Buyers
Head of Culture at PMG
Dubai Airports
 
 
At AOCC, we have integrated peer nominations into our process. The more recognition a team member receives, the more points they earn towards winning a High Flyer award. This has fostered genuine cohesion, inclusivity and teamwork across the department.
Smiling man in a blue suit jacket, white shirt and brown tie against a white background.
Kan Ni
Vice President, Airport Operations Control Centre, Dubai Airports

Thought Leadership & Resources

Employee celebration resources

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can organisations restrict birthday or holiday points to a specific catalogue?
 

Where supported, organisations can restrict an award to a selected catalogue 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.

Catalogue restrictions can help align the reward with the purpose of the programme, 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 catalogue controls and employee visibility depend on the enabled product and setup. Organisations should confirm whether a catalogue 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 programme, 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 catalogue
  • Curated holiday or seasonal reward collections
  • Travel, experiences or local activities
  • Charitable donations or a campaign-specific giving option
  • Non-monetary recognition, messages or other configured experiences

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

Can organisations choose which employees receive birthday or holiday rewards?
 

Organisations can configure eligibility based on approved employee and organisational 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 programme, separate programmes by region, or different birthday and holiday experiences for selected groups. A seasonal programme may also use different reward values, catalogues, or dates for different locations.

The available filters and rule behaviour depend on the connected data source and enabled configuration. Organisations should define how new starters, employees on leave, transfers, leavers, rehired employees, and corrected data are handled.

Can birthday and holiday rewards be personalised?
 

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

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

Personalisation options vary by programme. Organisations should confirm which fields, messages, branding elements, delivery channels, and recognition experiences can be customised before publishing detailed product claims.

Can Awardco automate birthday and holiday recognition?
 

Where the relevant programmes and employee data are enabled, organisations can automate birthday recognition and schedule recurring holiday rewards or campaigns.

Birthday automation can use an approved employee date-of-birth field to identify eligible staff. Holiday programmes can be scheduled around a specific date, season, campaign period or company calendar, and can distribute points or other rewards to a defined group.

Automation can reduce manual administration, but organisations 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.