How To Celebrate Workiversaries & Birthdays At The Office

In managing a business, one of the key responsibilities that you have to focus on is ensuring the maximum performance of the employees. You have to look for measures and ways to ensure employees put their effort and performance at their best. 

Interestingly, according to Deloitte, recognition is one way of improving employee engagement and job performance. The research shows that employee engagement, productivity, and performance are 14% higher in organizations that recognize achievements than those that don’t. This suggests that workiversaries boost employee motivation, team morale, and cohesion. 

Celebrating an employee’s birthday leads to higher job satisfaction, improved loyalty, and lower turnover. In fact, a 2002 McKinsey study shows that 54% of employees quit their jobs because they don’t feel valued, while 51% quit if they don’t feel like they belong there.

Here are some procedures you can follow to ensure the satisfaction of your employees at work.  

1. Planning for Celebrations

Successful office party planning requires careful consideration and attention to detail. It involves a daunting process of choosing the right venue, organizing entertainment, and managing the budget. 

However, we have made it easy by providing tips on ensuring your workiversary success.

• Choose the correct date, time, and venue. Before you choose the date and venue, consider employees’ availability, the event duration, workloads and deadlines, and employee preferences. 
• Organize food and drinks. Consider the dietary restrictions and allergies amongst your employees and even your budget. 
• Plan the entertainment and activities. There is no party without entertainment. You can choose from team-building activities, live entertainment, and even interactive sessions that best suit you. 
• Plan for the decorations and ambiance. Give the party the vibe it craves with appropriate lighting, a color scheme, table settings, and even different wall decorations. 
• If you have digital signage, utilize a design service such as Canva to create and show a celebration image or video.
• Send invitations. After including all your employees, consider sending invitations to the supervisors and other guests. Ensure your invitation has a precise date, time, location, and RSVP information.
• Manage the budget. Have a clear expense list according to priorities while considering alternative options and monitoring your spending,
• Assign responsibilities. Careful assignment of duties will ensure smooth execution and completion of the tasks. 
• Take care of the logistics. While taking the last steps to make the party successful, ensure that your logistics are precise and consensus-based to avoid confusion later. 

2. Creative Ideas for Workiversary Celebrations

A party allows your employees to disconnect from work and let go of work stress. Here are some creative ideas for achieving this. 

To make the party more exciting, give each month a birthday theme, decorate the space, and choose foods around that concept. You can also add hot desserts and sweet treats. 

• Team Event

This can include taking a group out for lunch, going to the beach for a barbecue, or hosting a special after-work happy hour. You can customize the celebrations to their preferences, like booking a private karaoke booth.

• Special Gifts

Even though parties often revolve around food and drinks, this isn’t a requirement for a celebration. You can also opt to give your employees personalized gifts. These can include gift cards for local businesses, credit for food delivery, and company merchandise.

• Game Day

One reason you celebrate is to be happier and more productive. Actually, according to a TalentMS study, 89% of employees say gamification makes them more productive and happier at work. If you want to get your team laughing, go for a nostalgic vibe or try a childhood classic that will send them on their feet. 

• Dessert of Choice

Instead of a modern, common cake, you can go for a traditional cake experience by allowing each employee to choose a dessert for their big day. You can order a treat in advance and serve it in the break room for the whole team to enjoy. 

3. Fun and Meaningful Birthday Celebrations

Age is a tangible milestone of how far a person has come. You can help your employees celebrate these days by doing the following. 

• Personalized Desk Decorations

You can organize the birthday by adorning your employee’s desk with personalized decorations. Secretly coordinate with your colleagues to help you do the decorations or the employee’s cubicle before they arrive. Moreover, you can use their favorite color, themes, and inside jokes to create a personalized and festive atmosphere.

• Birthday Games

You can recreate the mood of a child’s birthday party by getting your employees to play a game together. For instance, you can opt for adult games like “Trivia Hour,” “Minute to Win,” or even “Name that Tune” and make your day memorable.

• Themed Office Decor

You can choose a theme based on your employees’ interests and decorate the office accordingly. This theme can be based on their favorite sports team, movie, or hobby. This will not only give this employee a personalized touch but also bring general joy to the organization. 

• Birthday Month

When you are in a big organization and leading a large team, organizing birthdays for each employee will be impossible. To cover all the employees, you can organize a monthly birthday party that recognizes all of them. On this day, you can buy cakes and snacks and allow them to hang out together. 

• White Elephant Gift Exchange

In the case of a more significant business where you cannot gift every one of your employees, you can organize with your employees to bring in a fun gift or “white elephant gift” within a given price range. All the gifts are then put together while wrapped; they are to pick the gifts randomly. 

Recognizing Milestones and Longevity 

Recognizing your employee’s role in your organization goes beyond improving morale, engagement, and happiness. They help in the following ways.

• Build a positive work environment. A hostile work environment is expensive and can cause businesses much trouble. By just taking a minute of your time and telling an employee that they did a fantastic job, you can radiate a positive atmosphere at the workplace. This makes them feel valued and appreciated at work, which is directly tied to their happiness.
• It helps with recruiting talent. Your hiring culture will be a bit easier when job seekers notice that you have a recognition and appreciation culture.
• Alignment through core values. While your organization may have clear and well-defined core values, they are useless if employees don’t recognize and practice them. Recognizing their milestones and longevity is one way to ensure employee behavior aligns with your core values.

Budget-Friendly Celebration Tips 

When you are on a tight budget or want to celebrate numerous employees, the following tips can make the celebration successful.

• Use Decorations

As we explained above, you can decorate the whole office or desk depending on your financial capabilities. Highlighters, permanent markers, and sheets of art all work. You can also include infallible banners and even tablecloths. 

• Arrange Quick and Cheap Entertainment

You can help your employees become their inner child by ionizing entertainment. Ask volunteers to design cards and prepare prizes that are easy on the wallet; for example, you can stuff that is less than $1. 

• Potluck Dishes

When you want to include food but realize that your finances won’t allow it, don’t push away the idea. You can try out some of the cheap potluck side dishes and appetizers. These include carrot and apple slaw, garlic butter pull-apart rolls, baked beans, or potato salad. 

In Conclusion

Organizing workiverseries isn’t only a day to give the employees a break from work, but also a day to make them feel valued and appreciated. You can use personalized gifts, organize events, or even take them for a treat. By doing this, you are building more than an employee-employee relationship. You are creating a close friend and loyal partner to your organization.