Our guide to doing workplace birthdays right
Birthdays can be a bit of a minefield in the office.
There are plenty of ways to slip up.
Whether it’s tactlessly revealing someone’s age or getting an inappropriate gift, celebrating employee birthdays can feel too risky.
But the benefits are significant too.
Employee birthdays can be a great opportunity to serve up recognition and appreciation for hardworking staff.
And such recognition has the potential to have a significant impact on your business. Combined with feedback and incentives, recognition can increase employee performance by 32%.
With that in mind, we believe celebrating employee birthdays the right way can be a real boon for businesses.
This article will look at the best practices you can follow to ensure birthdays in the workplace can be positive experiences.
Decide if you’re celebrating individuals or groups
First things first, you need to have a general company plan for celebrating birthdays. And one of the key decisions will likely be based on the size of your workforce.
If you employ dozens or even hundreds of staff, then celebrating every employee birthday might not be feasible. In situations like this, grouping employees by birth month and having one monthly event to celebrate all of them might be a good compromise.
This also has the benefit of making it harder to miss individual days, since all you need to keep abreast of is who has a birthday that month, rather than all the individual days.
These monthly celebrations could involve cards for everyone with a birthday that month, having snacks and some downtime in the office, or going out for a regular meal and toasting everyone celebrating.
If you celebrate each birthday individually, keep a careful eye on the dates to ensure you don’t miss any, and plan a celebration in the office for any that fall on a weekend or holiday. This will mean that anyone whose birthday isn’t on a day they’re in doesn’t feel left out.
Celebrating individual birthdays is great for smaller teams, particularly if your business is small enough to qualify for a free Findmyshift plan.
Ensure equal value gifts
Along the same lines, you want to set a rough budget per gift as part of your plan, and stick to this to show fairness. Having favourites in the office isn’t good for team morale, so spending the same amount on everyone’s birthday displays fair treatment.
Setting a budget in advance also ensures that the expenses of team birthdays aren’t unexpected.
If you spend the same amount on every birthday, then all you need to do is multiply that value by the number of employees you have to come up with your annual budget.
Balance personal with professional
This can be one of the trickiest challenges, but it’s important to get right. Employees want to feel recognised, seen, and appreciated. Personalised gifts that speak to their interests or hobbies can go a long way towards that.
But it’s important to maintain a professional boundary as well. Everyone loves a joke but what might be appropriate for one person might be offensive to another. Keeping cards and messages sincere is an easy way to avoid this grey area.
Company merchandise may not be the most exciting choice, but it does offer advantages in terms of being professional, promoting your brand, and making it easy to budget for.
Tickets or vouchers are also an easy way to show that gifts are equal value while still giving the recipient the flexibility to tailor it towards an interest of theirs.
You might also consider a company gift chest, where a variety of similar-value items are bought and put into a large container. On their big day, employees can choose an item that appeals to them from the chest.
If you go down this route, be sure to restock the chest regularly rather than waiting for it to run out, so that late in the year birthdays aren’t stuck with the gifts no one else wants!
Be discreet about ages
This is another aspect of remaining professional that can cause real trouble if not followed. Age can be a sensitive issue for many people, particularly around milestone years like 30, 40, or 50.
If you have a good working relationship, check quietly with employees whether they want their age to be public knowledge or not. Otherwise, err on the side of caution and avoid mentioning their age.
Go virtual
You may not always have everyone in your workplace, particularly if your business includes employees scheduled for shift work, or significant remote working.
If you aren’t all in the same place, having a virtual party can be a nice way to show employee recognition across remote teams. Sharing lunch over a call and giving your employee a shout out can be enough to show that you’re thinking of them on their birthday.
Putting a message up on your team noticeboard can also be a great way to celebrate even without getting everyone on the same call.
With these tips in mind, you’ll be well placed to celebrate employee birthdays in a positive, fair, and respectful way.