The move to a monthly birthday celebration comes at the cost of personal touch. To highlight each individual during the group celebration, GreenPal orders a sheet cake with the faces of each honoree on a slice. As you can imagine, the personal touch provides more laughs and smiles than a plain cake.

When someone on the Gravity Payments team has a baby, the company sends the new parent a blanket from Haiti Babi, a organization they know well that trains moms in Haiti to knit and crochet. The blanket gift brings together two elements important to Gravity culture: supporting employees and giving back.

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Alumni networks are a powerful tool to help former employees remain engaged with your organization and with each other. They can also be something an employee looks forward to joining from the outset. For inspiration, check out McKinsey’s and Accenture’s alumni networks. For smaller companies, a Facebook group, Slack channel, or LinkedIn Alumni group work well to facilitate an online community. Interview former employees on what they want to see in their alumni network, such as content or networking events.

The favorite new parent gift of workplaces everywhere is the gift of a baby onesie with a company logo or culture-relevant slogan. It’s a fun present to tell new parents on leave that the company is thinking of them and sharing in the joy of a family addition.

Sometimes the best gift is the gift of personal time. At Ghost Marketing, employees celebrating an anniversary get the day off to spend it with their family and friends or do whatever they’d like. The gift of a day off is an actionable way to show that the company values work-life balance.

🚧 If the day off doesn’t fall on a workday or is at a particularly bad time, offer the option to cash it in at some other point in the month.

The first day leaving a baby at home and returning to the office can be a tough one. The return can be even harder when the workplace looks very different. At Awesome Company, the People team eases the pain of day one by providing updates to new parents 3 weeks before they return. The updates include the new faces and names they might encounter and what’s changed around the office.

Food brings us together. For holidays that celebrate particular cultures and identities at your company, offer a budget to let those celebrating bring in relevant dishes for the whole team to share. During the break, give team members the opportunity to talk about their culture or identity (if they're comfortable).

Stories and shared vulnerabilities between coworkers go a long way. Many new parents say that having a senior leader share their own experience as a new parent is an impactful way to create a pro-family culture. Conducting a check-in before a new parent goes on leave can help the employee understand that it’s okay to take the time and space they need adjusting to the new lifestyle.

At Awesome Company, they have managers create a running Google Doc with notes of interesting things going on in the office while an employee is on leave. New parents don’t have to look the doc at all, but if they want to passively check-in to see the big things that are going on in the office, they can. It’s a way to keep new parents connected on their own terms.

Bluebird and Package Free go the extra mile with their birthday cards. In advance of the special day, dedicated “culture crews” run around and collect submissions for a Kudoboard— a tool that allows employees to post notes, videos, photos, and gifs all on a shared card. The card is presented to the birthday person during the teamwide celebration.

💸 For a no-budget alternative, try using a collaboration tool your team is already using for other purposes to make an interactive digital card. Maybe, Figma, Mural, or even Google Slides.

Looking for new ways to hang with your remote teams? Try a virtual puzzle. At Impala, the People Ops team organizes regular sessions using this free puzzle tool from Google.

Work anniversaries can be a time to highlight the connection between a team member and the company. At Terrific Company, the team gives the celebrating employee a chance to pick out some new gear from the company swag store. This operationally-friendly idea provides the employee a choice and autonomy. Sites like Axomo can help out.

At Remarkable Company, leadership knows a note from the CEO can go a long way in making an employee feel appreciated. Before each work anniversary, the CEO receives a direct message reminder, tasking them with writing a few thoughtful words about the employee.

📈For a more scalable alternative, you can offer this for milestone anniversaries only.

⭐️ We like this because it's a great way for the CEO to show that they know and care about their employees at an individual level.

At Boldy, the People Team wanted to ensure the addition of a new family member was recognized as a celebration, rather than a burden. Now, before a parent goes on leave, the team throws a virtual baby shower where everyone celebrates and plays baby games.

For companies with gift-giving cultures, it’s a common practice to award more significant presents to employees who stick around longer. Knockout Company gives progressive gift cards acknowledging tenure. Employees celebrating one year receive a $100 gift card. At two years, it's $200. Year three, $350. At four years, $500. Anyone who sticks around for five or more years receives a $1,000 gift card of their choice on their anniversary.

When your team starts growing, channels become crowded. Great Company wanted to recognize birthdays publicly across the workspace but needed to make sure the messages didn’t become lost in #general or #random. They chose to create a #celebrations channel as the primary location for sharing the love. The manager of the birthday person is in charge of creating the post on the morning of the special day.

Depending on your leave policy, a new parent may be out of the workplace for a long time. During that time, a lot of things are happening in that person’s life. Zazzy Company sends new parents a baby book signed by the whole team to show their love and support.

Things can move fast in the office while you’re away. At Course Hero, the team has a light re-integration onboarding for new parents returning to the office from leave. The process offers new parents a workplace refresher and includes information about new developments at the company.

A research study conducted across the United Kingdom and Ireland determined that one of the top struggles of returning mothers was the transition back. Sometimes, new parents want to check in while they are away, or gradually ramp up to working full time again. Building out a phased return allows parents to ease back in and stay in the loop.

📚 How Companies Can Ensure Maternity Leave Doesn’t Hurt Women’s Careers. Harvard Business Review. David Collings, Yseult Freeney, and Lisa van der Werff.

Beyond parental leave policy, there are many ways companies can support new parents. Awesome Company keeps improving by collecting feedback from a new parent while the experience is top-of-mind. The company uses those observations to guide support structures for the benefit of future parents.

Many companies are starting to recognize heritage months— like Pride Month and Black History Month— externally. It's easy for a PR team to post something on social media, but it's far more impactful to force engaging internal conversations. At Awesome Company, the team coordinates events, panels, and readings throughout the heritage month to foster better conversations.

Instead of gathering for an in-office celebration, many remote teams choose a specific time to jump on a video call together (via Zoom or Google Hangouts, perhaps). They spend this time going around the circle and sharing favorite memories of the birthday person. It's a great way to make sure the isolated employee gets lots of love during their special day.

A parent buddy is an excellent resource for new parents to help them navigate as they re-enter the working environment. Not only can a parent buddy be a support structure and sounding board for a parent trying to find balance, but the connection can also be a great way to foster inter-team relationships. Teams of all kinds benefit from parental bonding.

⭐️ We like this because having someone to talk to who can relate to your-day-to-day challenges is so important.

📚 How Companies Can Ensure Maternity Leave Doesn’t Hurt Women’s Careers. Harvard Business Review. David Collings, Yseult Freeney, and Lisa van der Werff.

Productboard rewards employees who have been at the company for four years with the trip of a lifetime. The organization has provided vacations to Iceland, Denmark, Canada, and Colorado for their distributed team as a thank you for the years of service. Vacation Fund and Blueboard can help coordinate vacation gifts.

At growing companies, there are few chances for top leadership to reflect on the individual contributions of individual employees. At TenantBase, the management team uses birthdays as a recurring opportunity to foster a more in-depth personal appreciation. As the day approaches, the CEO, COO, or CTO writes a thoughtful card to thank the birthday person and remind them how important they are to the company.

💸 For a no-budget alternative, have the C-suite team member send the note in the form of a digital card.

⭐️ We like this because fostering a connection between upper management and employees is a great way to keep everyone aligned and engaged.

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Gravity Payments supports its clients at every possible opportunity. For birthdays (and work anniversaries), the team turns to Blue Poppy Floral, a local Seattle customer of theirs that provides bouquets, plants, and goodie bags.

There is a point of pride that comes with each additional year logged. At Namely, Amazing Company, and Zazzy Company, teams highlight the distinction by presenting the honoree with a mylar balloon highlighting the number of years they’ve been with the company. Employees often keep the balloons at their desk until it gets to that weird deflated state where it’s half dragging on the ground.

Sometimes managers (especially younger managers who do not have children) are unprepared for how to work with a parent returning from leave. Scheduling training for that manager before the parent comes back is a great way to ensure they provide a welcoming and supportive environment for a returning parent.

Quality exit interview questions get to the why and the most actionable feedback. An effective mixed-method question looks like: “On a scale of 1-5, rank your relationship with your supervisor” followed by “Why did you choose that ranking?”. It’s the why behind the rankings that will reveal the concrete opportunity space for your organization to do better. Next, ask “why” 1-2 more times. Data shows that the fourth response to the “why” probe is the most actionable piece of feedback.

There are very few gifts that are both practical and fun. Giving an employee a keyboard would be functional, but not enjoyable. Meanwhile, novelty or branded items can be fun at the moment, but not useful. At Pupford, the team found a gift to span both categories: shoes. On their birthday, employees receive a stipend for purchasing a new pair of kicks.

New fathers face unique challenges of their own in the workplace. Ensuring parental equality requires creating space and visibility for new fathers to support one another. Many companies add returning father’s to a father resource group to support dads as they navigate the challenges of their new family role.

At Productboard, when an employee adds a new member to their family, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the whole family. The company sends a big gift box to the parent's home to share in the excitement.

A personal message from people that matter can go a long way. When the employees at Hilsoft Inc. celebrate work anniversaries, they open their online workspace to find a collection of thoughtful notes from their closest colleagues in their feed. The message is scheduled in advance to ensure that it’s the first thing the team member sees in the morning.

Mid-size and large companies with multiple new parents in the office at a time have the opportunity for communal support systems. At Course Hero, all of the women who return from leave and are pumping get a Slack channel to coordinate times for using the pumping room.

At Awesome Company, every department has a unique subculture. Rather than decide everything from the top, the organization chooses to let teams determine how to celebrate. Teammates coordinate birthdays in a temporary Slack channel (with everyone except the birthday person) and receive a budget from People Operations for whatever celebration they choose.

⭐️ We like this because it’s great way to delegate the responsibility and create a culture of teammates supporting each other

Once new parents come back to the office, life is different for them. As employees make adjustments and learn their new routines for taking care of a child, Knockout Company offers them three months of extended, flexible work-from-home time to make it a little bit easier.

The best source of talent is your company's network. Sharing current open roles with your teams on regular basis can help you get great candidate referrals. At Salesforce, the Talent Acquisition team organizes "recruitment happy hours” where employees invite their friends outside the company to learn more about the team.

Christine Tsai, mother and partner at 500 Startups, notes, “pregnancy can be rough on women physically and involves lots of doctor’s appointments.” To support pregnant women in the office, Awesome Company creates a flexible schedule for expecting mothers. The process kicks off by prompting a manager to have a conversation early on to start thinking about arrangements.

📚 5 Ways Startups Should Support Pregnant Employees, Inc. Jessica Stillman.

During the winter holidays the Knack crew asks team members if they want to participate in a secret Santa gift exchange. Those who enlist are given a co-worker to mail a gift to, along with a spending limit, but we require the gift to be representative of the person's hometown. We then collectively open our gifts on a video call and everyone gets to guess who the gift is from based on its contents.

As an early-stage startup, the employees at OrderGroove receive options that vest over their first four years. Those employees who stick around for that entire time receive a special gift of gratitude in recognition of this particular moment: a company vest.

Those who have notched their tenth year at Kaplan become immortalized in the form of a sketch of themselves. For the milestone anniversary, the company brings in a professional artist to draw the employee. The depictions incorporate various details of the honoree, including their quirks and workplace identities.

Mercer Mettl sees work anniversaries as an opportunity for team bonding. Across the company, the team lead takes the whole group out for lunch at a location chosen by the employee celebrating the anniversary. During the lunch, the teammates of the honoree take turns sharing their appreciation for that person.

🌍 For a remote-friendly alternative, you can offer to buy everyone’s lunch and jump on a video call together.

Babies aren't cheap. At Knockout Company, the team helps alleviate the cost of the baby essentials with a $500 gift card to employees on parental leave to help pay for diapers, food, clothing, or nursery setup.

As part of Pie Insurance's parental leave program, we provide $500 in grocery or meal delivery services to the new Mom or Dad. It helps to take their mind off of getting dinner on the table so they can focus on their new little one.

When a team member loses a loved one, in addition to taking off as much time as needed, the team at Knack sends the employee a free meal via a food delivery service gift card. In addition to taking work off of their plate for a while, they want to give the team member one less thing to think about while navigating the loss of a loved one.

At Crediful, their employees are spread around the world, making physical gifts difficult. Instead, (using Blueboard) the organization gives the gift of experience in the form of a stipend. The team uses the money to travel, go to concerts, or participate in some other type of adventure.

It's difficult to coordinate among stakeholders during the offboarding process. Creating a private Slack channel with relevant people helps you communicate more directly. This channel can include the offboardee's manager and relevant HR and IT folks. You may or may not want to invite the offboardee depending on the context of their departure.

A fun way to get-to-know your colleagues better is to see where they spend their time during the day - their office. Start a #WFH-challenge slack channel and invite your teammates to share a picture of their working environment. Have them also share their tips on ergonomic seating, desk lighting, or productivity playlist along with the photo itself.

When an employee has a birthday at 15Five, they receive a $500 stipend toward a personal development course. In the spirit of celebrating the person and not the job, the team member chooses a learning opportunity unrelated to their day-to-day job.

One of the perks employees at Atlassian enjoy the most is Volunteer Time Off (VTO). With VTO employees spend a dedicated amount of time volunteering instead of working. It's not only a great purposeful benefit and but it also boosts your company’s brand as a great place to work.

A heartfelt and affordable way to show you care is providing a goodbye card for a leaving employee, signed by team members and other important coworkers and superiors. Encourage signers to write a favorite memory or characteristic about the employee.

Finding the right present for everyone can be hard. Not everyone needs something new, and not everyone will use something generic. GoodHire chooses to donate to a favorite cause of the employee instead (they collect this information during onboarding). The gift aligns with the company’s cultural value of giving and having a positive impact on the world. Donation gifts are easy with sites like Global Giving.

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Mugs are a great gift for a variety of reasons. They are relatively cheap, easy to personalize, and useful in the workplace. At Remarkable Company, managers order funny mugs (from Zazzle or Etsy) that reflect the personality of the celebrating employee. At Inuvo, the birthday mugs offer a hand-illustrated portrait of the employee.

Venture for America opts for an easy, but personal gift for their distributed team. The organization keeps everyone’s favorite coffee shop on file (information they collect during onboarding) and sends a gift card to that spot when the teammate’s birthday rolls around.

🚧 Not every coffee shop has online gift cards (or gift cards at all). You may want to stipulate that need when you collect the information.

Navigating parental leave in a way that supports the company and the individual is a complex and personal process. There are many factors to consider across contexts. From the very beginning, managers and leaders should create an open conversation about approach, communication, and return expectations.

📚 How Companies Can Ensure Maternity Leave Doesn’t Hurt Women’s Careers. Harvard Business Review. David Collings, Yseult Freeney, and Lisa van der Werff.

It’s one thing to recognize an employee for their hard work and loyalty internally— it’s another thing to announce it to the world. GroundFloor Media features work anniversaries on the company landing page when a major milestone year rolls around.

Celebrating birthdays with dessert can be a struggle for those trying to stay away from sugar. At coolblueweb, the birthday person chooses breakfast for the office instead. Of course, the honoree might choose doughnuts, but at least there is a choice to do something less sweet.

When Warby Parker employees hit their three year work anniversary, they receive the gift of an international trip. The present isn’t just a vacation, but rather an opportunity to engage deeper with the mission-driven aspects of the company. Third-year team members are grouped together on a handful of trips a year to go see the international operations of the company’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program. The connection to the organization’s greater purpose is a way to keep tenured employees engaged with their day-to-day work.

⭐️ We like this because it's an impactful way to celebrate the employee and the importance of the work they are doing at the same time.

📚 How Warby Parker Makes Every Point In Its Employee Lifecycle Extraordinary. First Round Review.

A sheet cake isn’t the dessert of choice for most people. Splendid Company adds a little more personalization (and a lot more deliciousness) to their birthday celebrations by keeping tabs on everyone’s dream desserts. The team collects the preferences during onboarding and orders those favorites instead of something generic.

Olark built a transition program that spans both sides of parental leave. To make sure nothing gets dropped, a transition period begins 3 months prior to when an employee is expected to go on leave. Similarly, the 3 months following leave are a ramping-up period with extra support and an understanding that the returning parent will not be back to functioning at full capacity.

As Awesome Company grew, they realized their tradition of bringing in a cake for every person’s birthday wasn't scalable. Instead, the organization started to celebrate birthdays once a month, letting the birthday people decide amongst them what the cake flavor will be. Knockout Company has a similar practice, but rather than leave the cake flavor up to discussion, Knockout hosts a lottery among birthday people (a competitive affair for the infamous November birthday crowd).

People Teams shouldn't coordinate holiday celebrations in a bubble. Consider sourcing ideas and inspiration for holidays and heritage months from the rest of the team. See what observances matter most to employees and don't make assumptions.

The use of a third party to conduct the exit interview helps you get more honest feedback. Forty percent of employee’s reasons for leaving change when a third-party is used, suggesting that having an employee’s superiors dramatically alters the results of the interview.

Tired of the awkward silence while waiting before the meeting starts? At Buffer, the team shares icebreaker questions while everyone's gathering for their all-hands meeting. The People team adds an icebreaker question ahead of time, so teammates can jump in and start chatting, avoiding the “Zoom silence.” They’ve also experimented with having a teammate play music during this gathering time.

Reflection and shared appreciation are central elements of work anniversaries at Splendid Company. For this small team, personal love comes in the form of a word cloud. In the days leading up to a work anniversary, the Operations Coordinator collects words and short notes that describe the team member. On the day of the celebration, the honoree receives a framed version of the collection of thoughts from their teammates. There are a number of free sites like WordArt.com to help create quick, customizable word clouds.

The managers at BoxCast recognize birthdays as an opportunity to engage with employees at a personal level. Offsite lunches give the team leads the space to have a real, non-work conversation with their direct reports.

🌍 For a remote-friendly alternative, have the team lead and direct report order in food (paid for by the company) and chat over video while they eat.

⭐️ We like this because it’s a structured way to deepen relationships and build trust.