In the contemporary professional world, celebrating milestones is not confined to birthdays and work anniversaries. Enter the realm of ‘workiversaries’, an increasingly popular way to commemorate the anniversary of your initiation into a workplace. But hang on a minute, is it ‘workiversary’ or ‘workaversary’? As it turns out, the popular vote goes to ‘workiversary,’ and here’s everything you need to know about this new tradition that is enhancing workplace cultures around the world.
The Correct Term: Workiversary
While the word ‘workiversary’ might still be absent from the formal dictionaries, its usage is gaining traction globally. From social media platforms to corporate hallways, the term is finding a steadfast place in the professional lexicon.
Google: When we refer to Google‘s vast database of search terms, ‘workiversary’ is searched approximately three times more than ‘workaversary.’
Instagram: A scan through Instagram hashtags reveals a similar trend with #workiversary boasting twice the popularity compared to #workaversary.
X (Twitter): The distinction is even starker on X, where #workiversary is used a whopping twenty times more than #workaversary.
But what is behind this growing fascination with celebrating work milestones, and why is ‘workiversary’ the correct term to use? Let’s delve deeper.
The Roots of Workiversary
The term ‘workiversary’ stems from a blend of the words ‘work’ and ‘anniversary’. This mash-up succinctly captures the essence of the celebration — marking the completion of another year at a workplace. While ‘workaversary’ is also formed from the same parent words, it somehow hasn’t caught on with the same fervor, probably because ‘workiversary’ rolls off the tongue a bit smoother and aligns well with the original word ‘anniversary’.
The Birth of Company-Specific Work Anniversaries
Taking the workiversary trend a notch higher, some companies have come up with a clever twist, amalgamating the organization’s name with ‘anniversary’. For instance, celebrating a ‘Googleniversary’ is now a thing in the vibrant corridors of Google. This personalized approach not only adds a fun element to the celebrations but also fosters a sense of belonging and unity among employees.
Looking for a way to automate work anniversary celebrations?
We’ve got you covered! Our simple Slack/Teams app, Billy (the birthday bot), allows you to streamline the collection of birthdates and work anniversary dates, and automate celebrations by posting a fun and engaging message on the D-Day in the channel of your choice! Read more here about the benefits.
In today’s article, we’re going to explore what a birthday bot (also known as a bday bot) is, why it is important to install one for your company, and which are the best birthday bots available on the market for Slack, Teams, and Discord. Let’s get started!
What is a birthday bot?
A birthday bot is a software tool or application that integrates with platforms such as Slack, Teams, Discord, or other communication and collaboration platforms to help automate the process of celebrating and remembering employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries within a company.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of what a birthdaybot generally offers:
Automated Messages: The primary function of a birthday bot is to send out personalized birthday messages on the day of someone’s birthday, often facilitating group wishes from colleagues.
Birthday Reminders: Automatically reminding users of upcoming birthdays helps to foster goodwill and camaraderie within a company and allows for event planning and preparation.
Integration with Calendar Apps: Many birthday bots can sync with popular calendar applications, pulling in birthday data to automatically schedule reminders and messages.
Customization: Users can generally customize the bot’s settings to control how and when reminders and messages are sent, allowing for a personalized approach to birthday celebrations.
Why is it important to install a birthday bot?
Installing a birthday bot in a company setting can offer several benefits that enhance the social environment and foster a positive culture. Here are some reasons why it is important to install a birthday bot:
Increasing Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: Recognizing and celebrating birthdays can contribute to higher employee satisfaction. It shows that the organization values its members as individuals, which can, in turn, boost morale and productivity.
Creating a Positive Work Environment: Celebrating birthdays can add a fun and joyful element to the work environment, helping to create a positive, upbeat atmosphere that is conducive to creativity and collaboration.
Fostering Community and Team Spirit: Regularly celebrating birthdays can help to build a sense of community and team spirit. It encourages people to connect on a personal level and fosters a friendly and inclusive atmosphere.
Best birthday bots per platform (Slack, Teams, Discord)
In a few words: Billy has a very intuitive UI and UX, allowing you to easily streamline your employees’ birthdays and work anniversary celebrations process. It also has an auto-collect feature where it will kindly ask each user for their birthdate and work anniversary date. A huge time-saver!
CultureBot is a Slack bot designed to help teams celebrate birthdays and workiversaries in a streamlined manner.
It enables users to set up notifications for these milestones and send customized messages, fostering connection and positivity in the workplace.
By using CultureBot, companies can enhance morale and cultivate a collaborative and appreciative work environment where everyone feels valued.
Donut
Donut is a tool that integrates with Slack to facilitate personalized celebrations for employees, helping to foster a healthy and inclusive work environment.
It offers features like automatic reminders for important dates, allowing teams to plan celebrations in advance according to individual preferences.
Additionally, Donut encourages virtual team-building events to foster camaraderie and ensure no one feels isolated or overlooked.
DailyBot
DailyBot is a tool designed to assist remote teams in cultivating a positive and unified work environment.
It offers features such as giving kudos, using emojis and GIFs for appreciation, and creating a leaderboard to encourage a culture of positivity and recognition.
Additionally, it integrates with platforms like Slack, Discord, and Microsoft Teams to offer birthday and reminder functionalities, promoting a harmonious and organized team culture.
Top 2 best birthday bots for Teams
Billy (the birthday bot)
Simply the best birthday bot for Teams, if we do say so ourselves — and the G2 reviews seem to agree! 😉
In short: Billy offers an exceptionally user-friendly interface, simplifying the process of organizing and celebrating your employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries. Plus, its automated data collection feature courteously prompts each user to share their birthday and work anniversary details, saving you a substantial amount of time.
AnnounceBot is a digital tool designed to facilitate celebrations and recognitions within a team or company setting.
It automates the process of sending personalized messages for a variety of occasions including birthdays, workaversaries, and major holidays, and can even integrate with platforms outside of Microsoft Teams, reaching clients or contractors via email.
Top 3 best birthday bots for Discord
Scottbucher
Scottbucher’s BirthdayBot is a digital tool designed to streamline the celebration of birthdays and work anniversaries within a company.
It accommodates different time zones to notify employees of upcoming birthdays and allows for the customization of birthday messages and roles.
Additionally, server owners can maintain control to avoid confusion, schedule celebratory messages, and even upgrade to a premium package for further customization options, including a library of 500 messages and various visual settings.
Birthdayy
Birthdayy is a Discord bot designed to help manage and celebrate birthdays within your community or organization.
It allows for the personalization of birthday announcements and enables users to register their birth dates.
The bot offers a user-friendly interface where birthdays can be viewed and sorted efficiently based on various filters, and its settings can be customized for a more tailored usage experience.
NoiTheCat
NoiTheCat is a versatile birthday reminder chatbot available on Discord, which facilitates the integration of employee birthday details with your Google contacts, ensuring easy retrieval of information whenever required.
It offers the flexibility to send personalized birthday messages through either email or SMS based on your preference.
Additionally, it supports scheduling messages for future dates to orchestrate surprises and can convey wishes in multiple languages.
That’s it, folks! I hope you’re now convinced of how important it is to install a birthday bot in your company as soon as possible and which one will suit you best! Try Billy (the birthday bot) out now!
In the fast-paced world of modern work, fostering a strong team culture and boosting employee engagement are critical for organisations striving to stay ahead of the competition. While there are numerous platforms designed to enhance workplace collaboration, Slack has emerged as a powerhouse, revolutionising the way teams communicate, collaborate, and connect. With its ever-expanding ecosystem of applications, Slack has become an indispensable tool for teams looking to nurture a positive work environment and increase overall engagement.
Here you’ll find the best Slack apps to Build Team Culture and Increase Engagement.
Billy (the birthday bot)
Billy is a bot that automates birthday and work anniversary celebrations. It is the top rated bot for Slack and Teams. Celebrating birthdays is one of the simplest thing to do to increase employee recognition. It’s also an efficient way to build a positive team culture and team bonding. Try out Billy the birthday bot
GreetBot
This bot greets people in Slack. GreetBot is a friendly onboarding assistant that helps you welcome new members of your Slack workspace. Try out Greetbot now
Trivia
You want your team to play together without adding a new Zoom call in their calendar? Trivia builds camaraderie, collaboration and connections among your teammates thanks to games in Slack. It is fun, memorable, and engaging. Try Trivia
Standup.ly
This is a stand Up Bot for daily async meetings. Automate daily huddle check-ins, retrospectives, 360 feedback reviews, 1-on-1, planning poker, backlog grooming, and other workflows. Test Standup.ly now
Donut
Donut is a tool to connect serendipitously for virtual coffee, peer learning, birthday and work anniversary celebrations, DEI discussions, and more. Donut makes connections across the organization, for teams of all sizes in three ways: by encouraging in-person or virtual meetups or asynchronous banter. Install Donut
Ricotta
Play games and trivia together as a team with Ricotta Games & Trivia. The best part? It’s asynchronous and collaborative. Fun trivia quizzes with 30K+ questions and 30 categories. Play asynchronous quizzes without disrupting work for a quick 5-minute break. Install Ricotta for Slack
Team Buddy
TeamBuddy Is a combination of team directory with icebreaker questions Encourage your people to know each other. Make your company’s culture more inclusive and warm. Try Team Buddy
This is all for our curated list of the best Slack apps to Build Team Culture and Increase Engagement. You think we forgot an app? Reach out to us, we’d be happy to update this article.
Celebrating birthdays and work anniversaries. What a normal thing to do! But as companies went remote and then hybrid, it got lost in the process. Celebrating birthdays fosters team bonding, brings some fun and positivity in the (remote) workplace. It’s one of the most efficient initiative to implement when it comes to improving employee engagement.
Billy was installed by hundreds of companies on Slack and celebrated thousands of birthdays. This is from this enormous success that our team decided to help Microsoft Team users as well. We’re proud today to be introducing Billy: the birthday bot for Microsoft Teams.
The Power of Celebrating Milestones in the Workplace
Research consistently shows that celebrating employee milestones has a profound impact on their job satisfaction and overall engagement. When employees feel appreciated and valued, their morale and motivation soar, leading to increased productivity and retention rates. Recognizing birthdays and work anniversaries is an opportunity to show employees that their contributions are valued and that they are an integral part of the team’s success.
Meet Billy Birthday – A Bot that Spreads Joy
If you’ve been using Slack, you may already be familiar with Billy Birthday. This delightful bot has been brightening up workplaces by celebrating birthdays and work anniversaries with a touch of fun and excitement. With its charming personality and interactive features, Billy Birthday has become a favorite among teams looking to foster a sense of camaraderie and celebrate milestones in a memorable way. From personalized greetings to virtual celebrations, Billy Birthday has proven to be a simple yet effective tool for bringing teams closer together.
Expanding Billy Birthday to Microsoft Teams
We’re thrilled to announce that Billy Birthday is now available for installation on Microsoft Teams! As one of the most popular collaboration platforms, Microsoft Teams offers a vast user base and a familiar environment for teams to come together. By integrating Billy Birthday with Microsoft Teams, we aim to extend the reach of this beloved bot and enable even more teams to celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries with ease.
How to Install and Use Billy Birthday on Microsoft Teams
Getting started with Billy Birthday on Microsoft Teams is a breeze. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you get up and running:
Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the Apps section.
Search for “Billy” in the App Store and click on the installation button.
Once installed, you can access Billy Birthday by typing “@Billy” in a channel or direct message.
Follow the on-screen prompts to set up preferences and customize the bot’s behavior.
With Billy Birthday seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Teams, you and your team can now enjoy a host of features designed to make milestones even more special.
Testimonials and Success Stories
Don’t just take our word for it! Here are a few testimonials from companies that have experienced the magic of Billy Birthday:
“We are happy to have Billy installed on our Slack, the employees are delighted to receive a little attention on their birthday.” – Sarah, Office Manager @ smallable.
“Billy Birthday has been amazing. It’s very intuitive and easy to configure my preferences. I had no problems dealing with Billy Birthday and I loved the functionality of uploading an xls file to import birthdays.” – Victor, Hapyness manager.
Conclusion
Celebrating milestones in the workplace is not just a formality; it’s an opportunity to create a positive and inclusive work environment where employees feel appreciated and valued. With Billy Birthday now available on Microsoft Teams, you can now elevate your team and elevate your culture! Install the app with this link.
In today’s fast-paced world, finding efficient and creative ways to celebrate birthdays can be a challenge, especially when distance separates us. However, with the power of technology and the versatility of Microsoft Teams, you can automate and personalize virtual birthday celebrations like never before. In this article, we’ll explore how you can leverage Microsoft Teams apps to make remote birthday celebrations truly special. Let’s dive in!
Set up automated posts with Billy Birthday
To ensure no birthday goes unnoticed, integrate Billy Birthday with Microsoft Teams. Start by creating a dedicated birthday channel or chat within Teams. Then, leverage Billy Birthday’s app features to set up posts that notify team members, colleagues, or friends about the birthdays or work anniversaries. By automating reminders with Billy Birthday, you ensure that everyone has ample time to prepare and join the celebration with the perfect gift in hand.
Automate Virtual Surprises and Gifts
Even from a distance, you can surprise the birthday person with automated virtual gifts and surprises. Microsoft Teams offers various integrations and connectors that enable you to automate the delivery of e-cards, virtual gift cards, or even personalized video messages. Set up scheduled deliveries or trigger these surprises based on specific events, such as when the birthday person joins a virtual meeting or opens a Teams message. These thoughtful gestures make the birthday person feel cherished and bring joy to their special day.
Conclusion
Thanks to the power of Billy Birthday and the versatility of Microsoft Teams, remote birthday celebrations can be streamlined, personalized, and full of joy. By leveraging automated reminders, personalized messages, virtual surprises, you can create memorable experiences for the birthday person and everyone involved. Embrace the capabilities of Microsoft Teams and make each virtual birthday celebration a moment to cherish.
In this digital age, distance may physically separate us, but technology connects us in meaningful ways.
In order to enhance employee retention and keep top performers within your organization, it is crucial to not only calculate your company’s turnover rate but also analyze the underlying causes behind employee departures. From there, it’ll be easier to implement ongoing measures to maintain a low turnover rate. Here are 4 effective strategies for reducing employee turnover:
Regularly monitor turnover rate:
If your turnover rate is high, it signifies an underlying issue that needs to be addressed promptly. By tracking your organization’s departure rate regularly (such as on a monthly or quarterly basis), you can identify problems early on. Merely examining turnover metrics once a year may lead to a delayed awareness of issues that have already driven many employees away. To be proactive in resolving concerns, it is advisable to measure turnover more frequently, as suggested by Goldberg.
Engage with your employees:
To prevent employee attrition, one of the most effective actions is to directly ask them what measures are needed to retain them and then take appropriate action. This can involve conducting exit interviews with departing employees, as well as engaging with your current workforce. To proactively address potential turnover, Goldberg recommends conducting “stay interviews” with high-performing and high-potential talent. Understand their priorities and concerns, and make an effort to address those issues whenever possible. It’s highly recommended to put in place employee recognition and celebration initiatives. Celebrating employee birthdays is a good start for instance.
Foster a foundation for success:
Reducing turnover begins from the moment you onboard a new team member. To mitigate employee departures, it is crucial to ensure that they are set up for success right from day one. Jaffee suggests creating a comprehensive onboarding process that provides new hires with optimal opportunities to thrive in their roles. This way, you can improve their initial experience, increasing the likelihood of long-term engagement and retention.
Encourage professional growth:
When employees feel stagnant and perceive limited opportunities for advancement within an organization, they tend to seek new prospects elsewhere. To maintain a low turnover rate, it is important to provide your employees with avenues for growth and professional development. Jaffee recommends offering clear pathways for career advancement and fostering a company culture that emphasizes employee growth. By doing so, you can enhance employee engagement, retention, and overall job performance.
Your company’s employee turnover rate serves as a vital metric for assessing the overall health of your organization. Now that you understand how to calculate employee departure rate and leverage that information to reduce turnover and improve retention, you can promptly implement these strategies to foster a healthier work environment. By employing these measures, you can ensure the longevity of your top employees’ tenure within your organization.
Recognizing and celebrating employee milestones, such as birthdays and work anniversaries, is crucial for fostering a positive work culture and boosting team morale. With remote work becoming increasingly prevalent, it’s important to adapt to virtual environments and find innovative ways to celebrate these special occasions. In this article, we will explore creative ways to be celebrating employee birthdays and work anniversaries using Microsoft Teams in 2023.
Create a dedicated channel Establish a specific channel in your Microsoft Teams workspace solely dedicated to celebrating employee milestones. This allows for easy organization and ensures everyone has access to relevant information.
Collect employee information: Gather essential details such as birth dates and work anniversaries for all team members. Maintain an updated record to ensure accurate recognition.
Virtual Birthday Celebrations:
Send personalized messages: Encourage team members to send personalized birthday messages via direct messages or within the designated celebration channel. This creates a sense of personal connection and shows that colleagues care.
Virtual parties and games: Organize virtual parties where team members can join a video call to celebrate the birthday. Incorporate fun activities like virtual charades to engage everyone and make the celebration memorable.
Digital gifts and e-cards: Encourage team members to send digital gifts or e-cards using Microsoft Teams’ integrated features or third-party apps. These small gestures can make employees feel valued and appreciated.
Commemorating Work Anniversaries: Use the designated celebration channel or a dedicated Teams post to publicly recognize employees reaching work anniversaries. Highlight their contributions, accomplishments, and years of service. If you want ideas for good messages, check out our article about the best work anniversary messages.
In the virtual work landscape of 2023, celebrating employee birthdays and work anniversaries in Microsoft Teams offers an excellent opportunity to strengthen team bonds and promote a positive work culture. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can ensure that your team members feel valued, appreciated, and connected, regardless of physical distance.
In this article we’ll go through a list of must-have communities when you are working in HR or people-related roles. These communities were vetted by us to make sure they are relevant. Please be aware that some of them are created by companies also to promote their own software. Before listing the groups you’ll find a quick list of advantages of joining such communities, then you’ll find the 7 Best Slack communities to join if you’re an HR or People Ops professionals in 2023.
Advantages of joining Slack communities
Enlarge your network, build relationships Joining Slack communities is a great way to grow your network. It allows you to reach out to people have a common interest.
Find experts in your niche Slack groups bring together all people related to certain subjects. Joining a group around a specific niche gives you access to the very best person in this subject. Usually these are also pro-active people wanting to share their knowledge. You can also find mentors.
Contribute by sharing your knowledge to the community Joining a community is also about contributing to it and helping other members.
List of best Slack communities
#People On top of the Slack community they also offer a newsletter and a podcast worth checking out. Over 6000 people ops, human resources and talent management professionals are involved in a 24/7*365 conversation about anything to do with people. Join #People community
People Geeks (by CultureAmp) The People Geek Slack community brings together diverse individuals and skilled thought leaders from around the globe. Join People Geeks community
People People Join other recruiting experts, HR game-changers and talent people to talk about humans-at-work issues and share smart ideas about our changing talent landscape. Join People People community
Hacking HR With learning, community and collaboration. We are a community of business and HR leaders, HR practitioners, technologists, entrepreneurs, consultants.Join The Hacking HR Community Now! Join Hacking HR community
Secret HR Society You’ll need to connect with a current member to join this Germany-based community. The Secret HR Society is a member referral-only society to evolve Human Resources and connect thought leaders globally. Join Secret HR society
Resources for Humans (by Lattice) 19k+ HR leaders are in the community. This one is a very wide and dynamic community. This community is designed to help HR professionals connect, share advice, and ask questions. Join Resources for Humans community
The Shape of Work community (by Springworks) A networking avenue for People Managers, HR Leaders and People Ops professionals to shape the Future of Work by discovering the best practices, resources, tools and accessing exclusive experiences. Join The Shape os work community
Let us know your thoughts on any of these communities, we’d love to have more insights from the inside to see which of them are more relevant after a while. Also if you have a community to recommend, leave a comment under this article 🙏 Thanks for reading us.
Are you tired of missing your colleague’s birthdays at work? Well, Billy (The Birthday Bot) for Slack has got you covered. Billy is an intelligent bot that can remind you of upcoming birthdays and even help you plan a surprise birthday party for your colleague. In this article, we will discuss the top 5 benefits of using Billy for Slack.
Benefit #1: Never Forget a Birthday Again
With Billy, you can say goodbye to the days of forgetting your colleague’s birthday. Billy will remind you of upcoming birthdays, so you can plan ahead and surprise your colleague with a thoughtful gift or gesture. This will not only make your colleague feel appreciated but will also strengthen your working relationship.
Benefit #2: Increase Employee Engagement
Celebrating birthdays at work is a great way to boost employee engagement. By using Billy, you can encourage your colleagues to celebrate their birthdays and make them feel valued. This will create a positive work environment and foster a sense of community within your team.
Benefit #3: Build a Positive Company Culture
Celebrating birthdays is just one way to build a positive company culture. By using Billy, you can show your colleagues that you care about them and appreciate their contributions to the team. This will help to build a sense of loyalty and commitment to the company.
Benefit #4: Save Time and Effort
Planning birthday celebrations can be time-consuming and stressful. However, with Billy, you can save time and effort by automating the process. Billy will remind you of upcoming birthdays, help you plan the celebration, and even order the necessary supplies for the party.
Conclusion
In conclusion, using Billy (The Birthday Bot) for Slack has many benefits, including never forgetting a birthday again, planning surprise birthday parties with ease, increasing employee engagement, building a positive company culture, and saving time and effort. By using Billy, you can make your colleagues feel appreciated and valued, and create a positive work environment.
FAQs
Is Billy (The Birthday Bot) for Slack easy to set up?
Yes, Billy is very easy to set up. All you need to do is install the bot in Slack, and you’re good to go.
Can I customize the messages sent by Billy?
Yes, you can customize the messages sent by Billy to suit your company culture and style.
Does Billy work with other chat platforms besides Slack?
No, currently, Billy only works with Slack. That being said, Microsoft Teams integration is under development. Reach out to the team for early access.
Is Billy free to use?
Yes, Billy is free to use for workspaces having 30 users or less. For larger workspaces, Billy is a paid service, but the cost is minimal compared to the benefits it provides.
Utilising Slack, Teams or any other messaging software is now common for everyone. It’s not just reserved to startups or technology companies. Today we’ll take Slack as our main example. In order to master communication via Slack, you need to master the use of certain apps or extensions. The one I use everyday is Giphy, a GIF extension for Slack that makes it easy to search and publish GIF in channels. Why ? Because it’s either really funny, or illustrates perfectly what I want to say (better than a small emoji) or even because an image is sometimes worth a thousand words. That’s why we’ll see how to use Giphy in Slack.
1. Setting Up Giphy in Slack
First let’s see how to set up Giphy in your Slack workspace if you don’t have it yet. It’s a quick process, you need to visit Giphy page on Slack app directory (link here). Then click “Add to Slack”. 2 clicks later, you’re good to go! Giphy is now installed successfully.
Talking about Slack app, if you want to celebrate birthdays in Slack we have something for you and we just wrote an article about it: How to use birthday bot?
2. Using Giphy in Slack
Now that you’ve set up the extension, we’ll see how to use Giphy in Slack.
Note that you can send GIFs in any conversation using Giphy, either in public channels, private channels but also in direct messages.
Now how to search for a GIF ? Enter in the text prompt: /giphy my search message Then press enter, don’t worry the message won’t be posted like this. You can notice the “Only visible to you” mention.
ou’ll see a proposal of GIF and you’ll be offered 3 options: Send, Shuffle (to find another one), Cancel.
It’s time to play with the shuffle button until you see a GIF that you like. Click send when you’re ready and that’s it. Your GIF is now posted for everyone to see it.
3. Best Practices for Using Giphy in Slack in a professional environment
Even though Giphy is mostly safe for work, I’d recommend a few best practises to make sure you’re acting in an appropriate manner in a professional environment.
First avoir offensive GIFs or images that can shock other people. Avoid of course the ones that are crude or sexually suggestive.
Make sure you don’t post too many GIFs or it can get overwhelming.
Those rules can seem basic but we’d better read them once in a while to make sure we’re not missing one.
Conclusion
We’ve seen how to use Giphy in Slack, from installation to usage, you’re now a pro!
Mastering the use of GIFs in Slack is important to make a point and to ease everyday communications. Also, it’s just fun, right ?! If this article was helpful, please drop a comment I’d be glad to read your mention.
This bot greets people in Slack. GreetBot is a friendly onboarding assistant that helps you welcome new members of your Slack workspace.
