Why You Should Celebrate a Work Anniversary

In our personal lives, we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and other occasions with our loved ones. These celebrations build our relationships as well as remind us of our value in others’ lives. Our connection builds as we honor and remember the good things that happen in each other’s lives.

The same thing is true if you decide to celebrate milestones in the lives of your colleagues or employees. As an organization demonstrates that they value important and small moments in their employee’s life, they will find their employees more engaged and connected to the company.

One of these occasions to celebrate is a work anniversary. A work anniversary is the annual celebration of the day an employee first started working for a company. While yearly acknowledging someone may seem unimportant, it is a way to show you appreciate their dedication and loyalty. Additionally, it will demonstrate that you are paying attention to their work and valuing their contribution. These are just a few of the many reasons why you should celebrate a work anniversary.

Why Celebrate a Work Anniversary?

Recently, many companies and researchers are focusing their research on discovering the best ways to improve workplace retention. Honoring important moments in an employee’s life is one of those ways. While celebrating work anniversaries might seem insignificant, it is the small things that make a company great.

8 Benefits of Celebrating a Work Anniversary

1. Demonstrates that you see their work

Especially in large corporate settings, it is easy for an employee to feel invisible. This feeling becomes especially present between entry-level employees and higher management. One of the easiest ways to help employees see that they are on the company’s mind is by honoring their work anniversary. 

As you notice employees in this small way, they will begin to feel less like one of many and more like a key player in the organization’s success. It also will demonstrate to your employees that you value their loyalty in working through the inevitable difficult days to remain dedicated to the company. 

2. Helps staff feel appreciated 

Celebrating a work anniversary not only helps someone feel like the company knows them, but it also can express appreciation. Acknowledging a work anniversary is a chance to show you appreciate the specifics of what they bring to the workplace. 

A genuine work anniversary message can boost their confidence and build their connection with their teams and company. Here are some items that you can point out to show appreciation to your colleague or employee to honor their work anniversary:

• Share a memory you enjoyed during the last year.
• Celebrate a project they completed since the last anniversary.
• Show gratitude for their contributions, not only work-based, but also in building a positive company culture.
• Share positive customer feedback.

3. Strengthens Teams

If you want your team to function more as a family, then you need to act like one. Families celebrate, so why not celebrate those same occasions together as a “work family?”

As colleagues spend the time to honor the milestones in each other’s lives, they will naturally build connections with one another. These celebrations allow colleagues to start discussions, find commonalities, and reduce misunderstandings. 

Therefore, wishing them a “happy work anniversary” will build a stronger team as staff members feel understood and appreciated.

4. Improved customer opinion

Simply put, a happier employee leads to greater customer satisfaction. A happier individual will be more supportive of company goals and, therefore, more willing to go above and beyond for the customer.

Because celebrating a work anniversary can strengthen teams and build a culture of appreciation, there will be greater job satisfaction. Greater satisfaction leads to more business opportunities. Whether that is through customer service, sales, or greater productivity, your organization will see a boost in positive customer interactions. 

Additionally, a part of building a positive workplace culture is how outsiders perceive the business. Celebrating your employees can demonstrate how you value your employees. As word spreads about the workplace culture, you will be more likely to attract more qualified talent and more customers.

5. Creates a positive and friendly company culture

Placing an emphasis on recognizing the big and little things in your employees’ or coworkers’ lives will strengthen the company culture. A key component of company culture is the atmosphere and attitudes of the work environment. Because the company culture shapes everything the organization does, it becomes vital to encourage a healthy culture. 

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About a Healthy Company Culture.

Honoring milestones like a work anniversary is a small but meaningful way to foster a positive work environment. One of the ways it does this is by ensuring that no one feels left out. Naturally, within an organization, some individuals will stand out and receive more attention than others. This can build resentment without any system to acknowledge everyone in some way.

A work anniversary is one occasion every employee experiences. Therefore, celebrating all employees and fostering positive attitudes becomes common ground.

6. Naturally lends itself to yearly “progress checks”

Most companies already utilize some type of yearly performance review. Because of this, it becomes an easy addition to honor their anniversary. However, to go one step further, it can be an opportunity to touch base with the employee on how the company can help them reach their goals. 

According to multiple staff retention models, a major component of job satisfaction is that the job appropriately meets the employee’s challenge level. A work anniversary can be an opportunity to touch base and allow for open communication on what the employee needs from the company. These “progress checks” can address both future work opportunities and challenges, as well as other workplace factors that might lead to greater job satisfaction.

7. Improved staff retention

While every company will experience employee turnover due to unavoidable factors, like moving, the goal of an organization is to limit voluntary turnover factors. According to  The Great Resignation Report, 21% of surveyed employees said they quit due to feeling unappreciated. Additionally, the Work Institute reports that “over one-third of newly hired employees quit within their first year.”  

These statistics demonstrate that one of the best ways to avoid employee turnover is to show genuine interest in employees and their development. This can be accomplished by actively instituting workplace appreciation programs, like celebrating a work anniversary. 

While it may seem simple, taking some time to celebrate your employees can go a long way in maintaining job satisfaction. And who knows, these efforts might help you combat 21% of staff retention issues. 

Read More: Workplace Retention 101

8. Improves engagement at work

Different from employee satisfaction, work engagement focuses on the “emotional commitment the employee has to the organization.” In other words, engagement at work is measured by whether or not the employee believes in their work and company. An engaged staff member is one who actively participates in the work and organizational goals. 

One of the main focuses of a workplace appreciation program is to build a connection with the company. Employees will build this necessary connection and “buy-in” through efforts like celebrating a work anniversary as they feel more involved and appreciated. 

Ways to Celebrate a Work Anniversary

A barrier to starting a work anniversary program can be coming up with ideas on how to celebrate them. The good thing is that an employee anniversary celebration doesn’t need to be elaborate or expensive. Whether it is the first year or five years, the main goal is to show gratitude for the employee’s contributions over the last year. You can celebrate in many ways.

To celebrate, your business can: 

• Provide a small bonus: Everyone appreciates a little extra cash, so this is a sure way for employees to feel appreciated. 
• Give a work anniversary gift a class related to their hobbies: What better way to show them you see them than finding a class unique to their interests? Consider gifting them a class special to them, like a painting, cooking, pottery, or other courses.
• Send a gift card to one of their favorite places: Gift cards can be a convenient way to show you care, especially if you pick a gift card that is special to them.
• Give them the day off: What better way to celebrate an employee anniversary than having the day off? An added PTO day is a great way to show you appreciate them.
• Host a party: A party is a fun way for all organization members to celebrate. Not only will it provide a chance for anyone to express their gratitude for the honored employee, but it will also get people talking. A party will, therefore, encourage a more connected team.
• Announce it on a company bulletin or message board: This is a simple and convenient way to let others at the company know someone is celebrating a work anniversary. 
• Give a Group Work Anniversary Card: An anniversary card can be a great way to gather a work anniversary message of appreciation for the employee. Also, the nice thing about a group anniversary card is that it can be the main event or nicely added to one. 
• Post a social media shout-out: Like announcing it on the company bulletin board, a social media shout-out involves your customer in the anniversary celebration as well. 
• Find a way to upgrade their workspace: Whether it is gifting a nicer chair, upgrading a device, or adding a plant to their space, this can be a great way to celebrate the employee’s future at the company. 

6 Tips on Celebrating a Work Anniversary

Understanding why you should celebrate work anniversaries is one thing, but actually implementing it is another. It can be challenging to know where to start and how to create a system that works and is also manageable, especially in a large company. Here are 7 tips on things to include or avoid when celebrating a work anniversary:

1. Keep track of everyone’s hire dates on your calendar: Whether this is you personally or delegating the task to someone else, this can be an easy way to set up a reminder when a work anniversary is approaching. Often times, appreciation platforms have automations that track and send work anniversary cards to commemorate the event. 
2. Involve the whole company: If possible, try to get everyone involved. This can be through a group work anniversary card or a company party. Whatever it is, getting everyone involved will help build connections between colleagues. 
3. Establish an employee work anniversary program: One way to make celebrations go on autopilot is to create a program. Assign someone or a committee to establish how they will celebrate, what work anniversary gift they will provide, and any other policies so that something is already set and ready to implement when the time comes. 
4. Personalize the celebration: Get a gift unique to their hobbies or likes. Doing this will make the anniversary celebration feel more personal and foster a positive attitude towards the organization. 
5. Ensure all celebrations are equitable: Keep your work anniversary recognition methods similar across the organization. The last thing you want to do is unintentionally show favoritism because it will contradict your intention for starting a workplace celebration. 
6. Consider recognizing differently based on tenure: While it may seem contrary to keeping appreciation equitable, consider varying the celebration based on years with the company. A work anniversary should reward dedication to the company, and therefore, there should be a slightly more elaborate gift for those reaching 10+ years.  There is equity as long as everyone gets a similar celebration when reaching that year mark. 

Add a Kudoboard to your next work anniversary celebration

Kudoboard is an online group anniversary card that eliminates the need to pass a greeting card around the office. Instead, it streamlines the process by providing an online board where coworkers can easily add a “happy work anniversary” message—no matter their location. 

Because contributors can write a message at their convenience, the responses will be more thought out without worrying about the allotted space. Additionally, a Kudoboard allows contributors to add photos, GIFs, and videos to their messages. Overall, when you use a Kudoboard instead of the traditional paper greeting card, the recipient gets a more personalized card that will make them feel more appreciated.

Ultimately, it isn’t how you choose to celebrate work anniversary for your employees’ or coworkers’ work anniversary that matters. What matters is that you took the time and effort to celebrate their unique contribution to the organization.