Explore the new State of Recognition 2026 report

 

Birthdays & Holidays

Celebrate festive occasions with 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, 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 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.

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
  • Utilise user profiles to give thoughtful, interest-based gifts

Customer Testimonials

What customers are saying

Beckman Coulter
 
 
Change management was a concern when exploring new vendors. However, our leadership, HR, and associates have smoothly transitioned to Awardco, and they appreciate its straightforward and intuitive design, which surpasses the complexities of previous platforms.
Kerie Rogers
HR Operations Leader
Americare Senior Living
 
 
We love to catch our team members doing great things! They can’t pour into others from an empty cup. That’s why we invest in recognition and take the time to celebrate our people.
Sarah Mazzocco
Chief People Officer
BPM
 
 
We use recognition as a tool to motivate and encourage our employees—everyone knows Awardco because we actively use it for any and all incentives for employees.
Monica Delgado
Senior Manager of Total Rewards
4Refuel
 
 
We were doing recognition even before we adopted this platform, but this platform made it so easy for our frontline leaders and middle managers to run the recognition programme.
Roshan Varghese
Sr. Director, Environment, Health & Safety
Cinemark
 
 
Awardco significantly enhances employee engagement and helps our employees feel valued and appreciated, leading to higher morale. Offering customizable recognition programmes for Cinemark and a wide range of awards helps align with our employees' interests and ensures that all employees, from theatre staff to management, feel valued and appreciated.
Ann O'Keefe
Director of Benefits
Kodiak
 
 
The emphasis that Kodiak puts on people and employees first is really unique. We're always looking for opportunities to acknowledge the important and special and above and beyond work that our coworkers are doing.
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 recognise it. We work with some incredible people, and it’s important to celebrate them however we can.
Colby Green
Paid Social Senior Associate
America First Credit Union
 
 
After COVID hit we had over 1800 employees go remote. Our HQ campus became a ghost town. We couldn't do the high touch thing anymore, but still wanted to engage our workforce. Because of the nature of remote work we didn't even know which employees were where, and there was no way we could use our old system of bi-annual distribution. We had gotten so much positive feedback with our service anniversary programme that we reached out to Awardco to see if they could do something to help us with our bonus programme.
Jodi Gonzales
HR Manager
Paramount
 
 
I was really looking for a user-friendly, up-to-speed, and easy-to-use programme that can expand in different ways, and I found it with Awardco.
Shaye McCoy
Senior Analyst Total Rewards
4Refuel
 
 
Often, you're on the road for an entire shift, and you may not necessarily interact with a lot of other colleagues… And so being recognised helps you feel more connected with the team.
Christopher Whilsmith
Certified Refueling Professional
ClickUp
 
 
At ClickUp we like to recognise employees on their work anniversaries. Awardco makes this infinitely easier by automating the process. Now, employees receive a timely email on the day of their anniversary along with a small gift. It's just one small way we're able to express our gratitude and now we're able to do it without any manual labour on our end.
Deanna Tindell
People Operations Specialist
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.
Pam Johnson
VP of HR
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 Senior Associate
Southern Oregon Head Start
 
 
If we retain a teacher, that’s 20 students we get to serve. Going from 45% turnover to 8% means we’ve kept 85–90 more staff. That’s an incredible impact on both our children and our budget.
Amber Lease
Human Resource Director
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.
Tisa Penny
Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner

Celebrate any special day

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