Ideas to Make Your Employee’s Want to Come to Work on Their Birthday
Going to work on your special day should be something to look forward to! Ok, maybe not. But here are some fun ways to make a member of your team’s birthday at the office one your employees will never forget. Doing something special to recognize team birthdays will help improve team morale and to reward everyone’s hard work. These ideas can also help with employee engagement and show the birthday person that the company that really values them.
Who Doesn’t Love Breakfast Food?
From bagels to donuts, you can’t go wrong with a birthday breakfast. What better surefire way to celebrate a birthday than setting up a breakfast buffet complete with coffee, bagels, donuts, fruit and more. Office birthdays are a great opportunity to treat the whole office. Not only will the celebrant’s birthday start off on the right foot, the entire office will be included in on the fun.
Let’s face it, everybody loves food-related fun, but some may prefer a healthier alternative, so why not switch things up with birthday muffins or a fun fruit kabob. Healthy alternatives such as these are a great way to include something sweet, but not too sweet for those who prefer not to eat sugary treats.
If the birthday boy or girl is more of a lunch person, let them pick the catering and set up a lunch buffet in the break room. Since a birthday isn’t complete without somebody blowing out candles, after lunch, provide a birthday cake, cupcakes, or cookies complete with candles and icing.
Recommended Swag: A small gift is always appreciated. Help your team enjoy their coffee with some branded mugs. The Maple Mug is a favorite around the swag.com offices, we ordered in different colors and let everyone choose their favorite.
Get everyone involved!
Make their morning and surprise them with a decorated desk or cubicle for a mini birthday party. Form a rotating decoration committee and have them come in early to decorate the birthday boy/girl’s desk with balloons, streamers, confetti, and their favorite flowers. Don’t forget to sing the traditional happy birthday song.
Get the whole office involved and pass around a birthday card for the entire team to sign their names. Including personalized messages in greeting cards is a great way to make someone’s birthday extra special.
Other celebration ideas such as putting a gift basket on their desk is a fun way to make birthdays personal. Everyone appreciates birthday gifts. As much as we all love gift cards, dazzle up the basket with some of their favorites; maybe some spa materials, their favorite snack, or movie tickets. If they are a sports fan throw in some tickets to see their favorite team. The personal touch can make all the difference.
Recommended Swag: Instead of a basket, put the gifts in a custom, reusable tote. Can’t go wrong with the classic casual tote. Add some specific Happy Birthday art to give it a great appearance.
Be creative!
Do a monthly celebration or throw a party for everyone born in each month. This is something the whole team can get involved in. October birthdays could have a costume party in light of Halloween. Enjoy yummy fall-themed treats like hot cider and pumpkin pie. February birthdays could have a Valentine’s day themed party, and July birthdays could enjoy popsicles and hamburgers. Or go for other themes, maybe a 90s party or an office favorite TV show or movie. Monthly birthday celebrations are a good idea since they won’t interrupt the daily work schedule which can happen if a few birthdays all fall around the same time.
Make it public!
Nothing says happy birthday like public recognition! Give a birthday shoutout on the firm/office social media pages. Make an Instagram story montage of the employee hard at work, or doing a hobby they enjoy. On Facebook, make a photo collage or a post shouting out the birthday. Another fun idea is the make a video where each employee says a happy birthday message to be posted on Facebook or sent via email for their coworker’s birthday. Public recognition is a great way to make employees feel recognized and valued outside of the work they put into the company/office, and birthdays, in particular, are a great time to do so!
Celebrate outside of the office!
Give them the choice to make their birthday an optional day off or a half-day. Giving them the day off allows them to have quality time with family and friends at home, without the stress or worry of coming in to work for the day. Similarly, granting a half-day is a fun way to let them celebrate with both their coworkers and their family.
Getting together for employee birthday celebrations outside of the office is not only special for one’s birthday but it is also a great way to bond as an office or team. You can turn the event into a proper office party. Ways of doing so are setting up an after-work birthday happy hour. Another fun outside of the office activity is to set-up birthday dinner parties at a nearby restaurant for close team members or see if somebody will host.
Add “Happy Birthday” to the company-wide email
Who says company-wide emails need to be boring. Add a birthday spotlight at the start or end of company/office-wide morning emails. Include a funny picture of the employee and some fun facts. This way, coworkers get the chance to learn a little bit more about each other and hopefully get a laugh out of what usually are seemingly routine emails.
Birthday Swag!
Of course, company swag is always a nice way to recognize a birthday. However, you must give something of good quality that your employee will actually enjoy and use, no cheap giveaways! Swag.com can help! Some of our favorites for employee gifts are the soft and so comfortable Bella zip-up hoodies, an awesome backpack or duffel, or something unexpected like a branded Kindle reader or Sonos Speaker.
Doing a little to show that you appreciate and recognize your employees can go a long way. And giving them a little Birthday love can really help spread warm feelings. Any (or all!) of these tips will improve your team morale throughout the year.
