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!
Slack has become one of the most popular communication platforms for teams, with its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other apps. One of the best features of Slack is its ability to bring people together, even when they are working remotely. Celebrating birthdays is an important part of any workplace culture, and Slack has made it easier than ever to do so. In this blog post, we will explore some of the ways you can celebrate your birthday on Slack.
Creating a Birthday Channel
One of the easiest ways to celebrate your birthday on Slack is to create a dedicated channel for the special events. This can be done by simply creating a new channel and naming it something like #celebrations. Once the channel is created, you can invite your colleagues to join in and share their wishes. You can also use this channel to post pictures of your celebration or any other birthday-related content.
Using a Slack Birthday Bot
Celebrating birthdays is not a built-in feature of Slack (see our other article about “does Slack notify birthdays“). You can use an app on Slack to celebrate your birthday. You can use Billy (The Birthday bot) for instance, simply install it in your workspace and you can set it up to post in the channel of your choice (the #celebrations one for instance). This way it will post the wishes reminder for you.
Virtual Celebrations
If you are working remotely, celebrating your birthday on Slack may be the best option. You can set up a virtual celebration by scheduling a video call with your colleagues and using a conferencing app like Zoom or Google Meet. You can also use Slack’s built-in video calling feature to connect with your colleagues and celebrate together. You can use this time to play games, share stories, or just catch up with each other.
Conclusion
Overall, there are many ways to celebrate your birthday on Slack, whether you are working in the office or remotely. Creating a dedicated channel, using Billy Birthday, and scheduling a virtual celebration are just a few of the ways you can bring your colleagues together to celebrate your special day. Celebrating your birthday on Slack is a great way to build team morale and strengthen workplace relationships.
Birthdays are a special occasion and a great opportunity to show your employees that you care. In 2023, celebrating birthdays in the workplace will look quite different from how it did prior to the pandemic. With many companies still working remotely, there is an increased need for virtual communication tools like Slack to help bring everyone together and make birthdays extra special. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to use Slack for birthday wishes this year.
Birthday Channels
Creating a birthday channel on your company’s Slack workspace is one of the most effective ways to celebrate employee birthdays. This gives everyone in the company a dedicated space to post happy birthday messages, funny memes, and other celebratory content. It also encourages camaraderie by bringing people together who might not otherwise interact regularly on Slack. Plus, it’s just plain fun!
Another great way to make sure no one misses an employee’s birthday is by using a Slack app to automate it like Billy Birthday. This bot can be set up so that it automatically sends out notifications when someone’s birthday is coming up. This ensures that all of your employees get their due recognition on their special day without any extra effort or manual tracking required from HR staff or managers.
Virtual Gatherings
Finally, what better way to celebrate someone’s birthday than with a virtual gathering? Use Slack to send out invites for an online video call where team members can chat and catch up while they share cake (or cupcakes!). Virtual gatherings can provide much-needed social interaction during these times of remote work, while still allowing people to maintain social distancing protocols as needed.
Celebrating birthdays in the age of digitalization has its challenges – but also plenty of opportunities! By utilizing tools like Slack channels and bots, HR teams can ensure that no employee goes unnoticed on their special day while also creating meaningful connections between colleagues who may not have interacted before now. Whether you opt for virtual gatherings or simple messages sent through Slack – there are limitless possibilities for making birthdays even more special in 2021!
A recent study conducted by Microsoft revealed that only 1 in 2 employees feel engaged at work. The research goes on to state that disengaged employees cost businesses between $450-$550 billion annually in lost productivity. With such staggering numbers, it’s no wonder why so many organizations are looking for ways to improve their employee experience. The following are the top 5 initiatives your company can implement today to improve your employee experience and create a happier, more engaged workforce.
Onboarding Program: Implement an onboarding program that covers the basics of your company culture, values, and expectations. Then, go a step further and assign each new hire a mentor who can help them acclimate to their new role and answer any questions they may have along the way.
Employee Recognition Program: Create an employee recognition program that celebrates employees for meeting (and exceeding) goals, exhibiting exemplary customer service skills, or going above and beyond their job duties. Publicly acknowledging and thanking employees for their hard work is a great way to show them that you appreciate their contributions and it motivates them to continue putting forth their best effort.
wellness initiatives: Invest in your employees’ physical and mental wellbeing by implementing wellness initiatives such as standing desks, fitness reimbursement programs, or meditation classes. Showing employees that you care about their health and wellbeing will go a long way in building trust and fostering a positive relationship between employer and employee.
paid time off (PTO): Give your employees the gift of time by offering generous paid time off policies. This not only shows employees that you value their work-life balance but also allows them the opportunity to recharge their batteries so they can come back to work feeling refreshed and ready to take on whatever challenges come their way.
flexible work arrangements: Offer flexible work arrangements such as remote work options, flex hours, or compressed work weeks. This gives employees the freedom and flexibility to design a work schedule that works best for them which leads to improved focus, decreased stress levels, and increased productivity.
Employees who feel engaged and valued are more likely to be productive members of your team who add value to your company. Implementing even just one or two of the above initiatives can have a positive impact on employee morale and help turn your business into a thriving workplace!
