How to celebrate birthdays at work: 8 ideas for hybrid offices

Returning to the office may feel like the first day of school. The excitement. The energy. The outfit choices!

For those in HR, the nerves likely outweigh the excitement. That’s because as many of our organizations return to the office, we in HR are once again tasked with reimagining many aspects of our work lives, this time for a hybrid workplace.

One common workplace routine to reimagine is birthdays.

With everyone in the office or working virtually, we were able to create consistent norms around important events like birthdays. Celebrating an employee's yearly trip around the sun now becomes more challenging when some people are in the office and some aren’t. Ever-changing schedules and a fast-growing organization don’t help either.

In this article, we’ll explore how to make people feel celebrated in an equitable way whether it's a happy birthday at home or they’re headed into the office.

The importance of celebrating birthdays at work

Besides celebrating birthdays at work being a great way to show appreciation and care, research shows that job search activities jump 12% just before a birthday. Birthdays (along with anniversaries and other milestones) are natural occasions for reflection and often catalysts for life changes. Big midlife milestones, such as turning 40 or 50, can prompt employees to assess their careers and take action if they’re unhappy with the result.

This is one reason why, especially as your organization grows, it’s important to maintain consistency in how you celebrate birthdays. You don’t want to intentionally hurt anyone’s feelings or skip an opportunity to recognize them.

Understand how people want to be celebrated

For some, birthdays are a time for celebration and reflection. Yet, for others, it’s a more sensitive time. Employees may prefer to be private or pass on the opportunity to celebrate. Because of this, our norms require the same level of sensitivity and personalization.

You’ll learn that not everyone wants to celebrate the same way. Some people enjoy public attention, others prefer a private celebration, and others may not want it acknowledged at all. We want to at least check-in to see if an employee wants to celebrate and respect their decision if the answer is no. But most of all, no one wants to be ignored or forgotten.

Be consistent in how you celebrate employees

Norms around fairness and equity matter, especially for a milestone that every employee will likely hit during their tenure at your organization.

Given the need for equity and personalization, we can still design hybrid birthday celebrations that appeal to a wide, diverse group of people whether they work in the office or outside of it. Furthermore, we can celebrate in a way that decreases any sense of embarrassment (cringe-worthy Zoom “happy birthday to you” songs, anyone) and instead increase employee engagement and motivation by helping them feel connected to the organization and their team.

Here are two ideas to start that run the gamut from personal to private to public.

Birthday Idea #1 for Hybrid work - Make it snappy!

We don’t get to pick our birthday. But we can still give employees the opportunity to pick what may make their day more special and unique.

Snappy.com is an all-in-one enterprise gifting platform helping organizations create connections through the power of giving. Snappy allows you to customize and automate gift campaigns for several initiatives, including birthdays. Using the snappy.com dashboard, admins can send one-off gifts or automate long-term campaigns where every gift feels personalized and equitable.

Even if an employee prefers to keep their birthday celebration private, an employee doesn’t need to interact with anyone to review or receive the gift. Plus, by giving them the opportunity to choose a gift that best suits their needs the gift is personal and unique. Cookie deliveries every year can get stale (literally), but choosing a new gift every year likely won't.

How it works remotely

Employees receive a surprise in their inbox on their special day. Employees can accept a suggested gift or choose from a curated list of great product options from familiar brands. Once the gift is selected, it’s shipped to the recipient’s address of choice anywhere in the world.

How it works in-office

Like hybrid work, snappy is flexible. No matter if the employee is in the office at home, each employee will have the same experience.

Birthday Idea #2 for Hybrid work - Gratitude Board

Expressing gratitude is the most important practice to increase health and happiness, according to Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the field of positive psychology. One reason why is the feel-good hormone of dopamine that’s released in our brains when we share or receive gratitude. You can instill this practice in your organization through a gratitude board.

Research has found that gratitude can help employees feel embedded in their organization, more welcomed and valued, and can contribute to reducing turnover. This is especially important in the early stages of a career when new employees are still finding their way.

That’s why giving the gift of gratitude (and a dopamine kick) can be especially impactful on birthdays - a time when as we noted above, employees are already reflecting on their careers.

How it works remotely

Whether we are in the office or home, expressing gratitude doesn’t need to take place when everyone is in the same room.

No need to collect individual responses or create private slack channels. Instead, use a tool like mentimeter.com with a simple prompt like, “What’s one thing you appreciate about Employee X?

Mentimeter populates all of the answers into one word cloud so that an employee can see the list of answers together. In addition, your employee will get a memento they can keep.

Here’s how to start this practice:

• Encourage the employee’s manager to share a unique Mentimeter link with team members 2-3 days before the employee’s birthday.
• Once the responses are in, Mentimeter will produce a digital word cloud showing all of the answers to the prompt at the same time
• On the employee’s birthday, share the final creation with them.
• Avoid sharing the final gratitude board with the greater team, in a public slack channel, or in any other setting unless the employee does so.

This is a great way to prompt additional reflection. For example, in their next 1:1, the employee’s manager can call out one to two gratitude shares and ask follow-up questions that highlight the employee’s unique contribution to the team and company.

Be sure you’re not excluding anyone on the team from this practice. If one team member is invited to contribute, everyone should be. Plus, celebrating together as a team is a simple way to build stronger team bonds. Make it clear the team is invited to share their gratitude, but don’t make it mandatory.

How it works in-office

The benefit of using a digital tool like Mentimeter is that it’s flexible and doesn’t require the employee or their team members to be in the office.

A birthday card can take time to circulate, especially if not everyone is co-located. Imagine the disappointment if an employee has fewer pieces of gratitude because several of their colleagues weren’t in the office at that time.

While the final output is digital, the employee can choose to print it out and save it as a physical artifact if that’s what they prefer. A digital card also means it likely won’t get lost.

6 more hybrid birthday ideas for the workplace

Here are six more ways to celebrate someone’s birthday whether they’re in the office or remote, and how you might customize each idea depending on where the employee is that day.

• Send a Slack message to the team channel or from the team (you can even schedule it in advance to ensure it’s the first thing the team member sees in the morning).
• Shout out during a team meeting (even if it's a few days before or after)
• Create a video message or virtual e-card from the team or a few key stakeholders. Even if the employee is in the office, this allows others who want to participate the opportunity to be included, and as a bonus, the employee can rewatch the video as often as they want!
• Have your team create homemade signs that they can hold up during a meeting.
• Have an office party with decorations! If remote, ask the team to use virtual party backgrounds on a video meeting.
• Use a meal delivery service to send them a sweet treat or meal of their choice.

Retooling our workplace rituals like birthdays for a hybrid workplace can feel overwhelming. Cake cutting and cramming into conference rooms is no longer possible or equitable when not everyone is in the office.

Instead of scrambling last minute, or worse, forgetting a birthday altogether, set up one or two personalized options that allow employees to select their own way to celebrate, or a budget-friendly gratitude practice that makes their special day more meaningful and hopefully motivating.

Want more tips on how to craft meaningful rituals for the most important moments in an employee’s journey? Sign up for Pyn Point, our newsletter.