This document provides tips for celebrating employees' birthdays in the office. It recommends starting with a birthday survey to collect names, birthdays, favorite treats, and whether birthdays should be public or private. Then, send a monthly email announcing treats in the break room for those having birthdays that month without including years. Provide the birthday persons' favorite treats for all to enjoy. Encourage notes on a birthday board with photos of the birthday people. Finally, send a last email reminder to post notes before removing the board at month's end.

1. How to Celebrate
Your Employees’
Birthdays
BY: RICK HEVIER

2. Content
1) Start off with a birthday survey.
2) Send out a monthly birthday
email.
3) Provide birthday treats for
everyone in the office to enjoy.
4) Encourage people to post an
appropriate birthday wish on the
birthday board.
5) Send out an email first thing in
the morning on the last week day
of the month.

3. There are so many ways to celebrate a birthday.
People go wild; people have parades; people
celebrate in the quiet of their homes; and, sometimes,
people mourn or don’t celebrate at all.
Companies have the means to ensure birthdays are
celebrated and remembered fondly (or anonymously if
that’s how the employee likes it).
BUT.
Introduction

4. Start off with a birthday survey.
Collect the following information on the survey.
This simple survey can be sent to each employee upon
being hired. Then, this can allow the HR department to
move into the next step for celebrating employees’
birthdays.
Please enter your first and last name.
What is your month and day of birth?
Do not get the year to avoid people knowing how old
someone is. This can bring about negative feelings for
some.
What is your favorite flavor of (insert special treat you’d
be willing to get for the office to share, such as
cupcakes)?
Please list all of your known food allergies.
Do you want your birthday to be celebrated in the
office or kept hidden from public knowledge?

5. Send out a monthly birthday email.
At the beginning of each month,
send out an email, stating there are
treats in the breakroom/kitchen for
all to enjoy, including the flavor of
treats for all birthdays celebrated
that month (including the non-
celebrated birthdays’ favorite
flavors). Also include in the email
whose birthdays are being
celebrated that month and on what
day. Again, do not include their year
of birth. Encourage people to write
a birthday note and pin it on the
birthday board that can be hung in
the breakroom/kitchen. Keep
reading for information on all these
various pieces of this celebration-
practice in the office.

6. Provide birthday treats for everyone
in the office to enjoy.
Provide the flavors of
treats the people with
birthdays that month
stated were their
favorite and a couple of
traditional flavors. This
means all can enjoy in
the celebration, as well
as the birthday people!
This will also encourage
people to partake in the
next step.

7. Encourage people to post an appropriate
birthday wish on the birthday board.
This Birthday Board can be hung in the
breakroom/kitchen near the birthday
treats. A cork board usually will do the
trick, as they are not too expensive.
Put out markers and fun colored papers
for people to write notes. Each month,
post a picture of the birthday people on
the board with their full name above
their picture and birth month and day.
People can then pin their wishes near
the pictures for each person. At the
end of the month, gather the notes for
each person in an envelope and leave
them on that person’s desk or in their
mailbox, whichever is company policy.

8. Send out an email first thing in the morning
on the last week day of the month.
Tell people that today is
the last day to celebrate
office birthdays for the
month of (fill in the
blank). This will
encourage any last
minute people to post
nice notes for the
birthday people before
they are taken down.

9. Thank you for
watching!
BY: RICK HEVIER