Tag: birthday in slack

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Employee engagement

Best Slack Apps to Build Team Culture and Increase Engagement in 2023

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.

To put this list together we had the help of TopTools.io, A website that references all Slack apps and is able to list the best ones, gather all reviews and track app ranks on Slack marketplace.

Here you’ll find the best Slack apps to Build Team Culture and Increase Engagement.

  1. Billy (the birthday bot)

    billy the birthday bot for slack

    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

  2. GreetBot
    greetbotThis 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
  3. Trivia
    trivia bot slack
    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
  4. Standup.ly
    standup bot slack
    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
  5. Donut
    donut bot slack
    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
  6. Ricotta
    ricotta bot slack
    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
  7. Team Buddy
    team buddy bot slack
    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.

Categories
Employee engagement

12 best work anniversary messages

Here we go again! Today is another work anniversary for one of your colleagues, and you’re out of inspiration for sending them a message. Since we are currently in the hype of ChatGPT, I won’t copy/paste what it could have said; instead, I’ll give you relevant prompts to use in order to create the best work anniversary messages!

Drafting the perfect prompt

Counter-intuitively, it is not an easy task. Every time you write a ChatGPT prompt, you need to be very specific to ensure that the results fit exactly what you expect for the employee work anniversary messages.

What is important for our matter (work anniversary celebration message) is to mention:

  • the hierarchy level between you and the person
  • how close you are to this person
  • the tone of the message (humorous, sarcastic, friendly, etc.)
  • whether or not the message will be seen by others (public channel vs. direct message)
  • (bonus point) ask ChatGPT for a fun fact about the work anniversary date

Additionally, it is best to ask ChatGPT for multiple results so that you can choose the one that best reflects the intention you’d like to convey, or pick parts from different results of happy work anniversary messages.

Let’s see that in practice!

Examples

Here are some examples of prompt and some examples of messages ChatGPT generated:

Example #1 – The basic one

Prompt

Write 7 short work anniversary celebration messages for me to send to Beth, a colleague who is 3+ hierarchy levels above me and in another department, with whom I’m not close at all. I have never met her in person. These messages will be sent directly to her through Slack. By the way, it’s her 3rd work anniversary.

Sample messages

  1. Congratulations on your 3rd work anniversary, Beth! 🎉 Your hard work and dedication continue to inspire us all. Wishing you many more successful years at [company name]!
  2. Happy 3rd work anniversary, Beth! 🌟 Your leadership and expertise have made a significant impact on our company. Here’s to many more years of growth and success!
  3. Wishing you a fantastic 3rd work anniversary, Beth! 🎊 Your commitment to excellence is truly admirable. May you continue to lead and inspire us in the years to come.
  4. Happy 3rd work anniversary, Beth! 🏆 Your guidance and dedication have been invaluable to our organization. Thank you for your hard work, and may you continue to achieve great things!
  5. Beth, congratulations on your 3rd work anniversary! 🎈 Your passion and drive for success have contributed greatly to [company name]. Here’s to many more years of accomplishments!
  6. Cheers to your 3rd work anniversary, Beth! 🥂 Your unwavering commitment and leadership have played a vital role in our company’s progress. Wishing you continued success in your career!
  7. Happy 3rd work anniversary, Beth! 🎉 Your dedication and expertise have been a guiding light for our team. We’re grateful for your leadership and look forward to your continued achievements!

Example #2 – Max power

Prompt

Write me 5 work anniversary celebration messages I could send to Alex, a colleague who is at the same hierarchy level and with whom I’m really close, that will be posted in a public channel. Please use an humorous tone and include a fun fact related to the 18th of March.

Sample messages

  1. Hey Alex! Happy work anniversary! 🎉 Can’t believe it’s been another year of sharing office gossip and coffee runs together! Did you know that on this day in 1314, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake? Well, at least our job isn’t that intense, right? 😂 Here’s to another year of surviving the daily grind together! Cheers! 🥂
  2. Happy workiversary, Alex! 🥳 On this day in 1965, the first-ever spacewalk took place, which is almost as groundbreaking as the day you joined our team! Thanks for all the laughs and friendship – looking forward to more interstellar adventures together in the office! To infinity and beyond! 🚀
  3. A massive shout-out to Alex on their work anniversary! 🎊 Did you know that on March 18, 1990, a major art heist happened at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston? Well, you definitely stole our hearts right from the start! 😜 Let’s keep creating our own work of art together – cheers to another year of teamwork and camaraderie! 🎨
  4. Happy work anniversary, Alex! 🍾 Fun fact: On this day in 1850, American Express was founded. Just like their slogan, “Don’t leave home without it,” we wouldn’t want to work here without you! Thanks for being an invaluable partner in crime and for all the fun memories we’ve shared. Here’s to another year of growing, learning, and laughing together! 💳
  5. Hey Alex! It’s your work anniversary, and you know what that means – time for a little history lesson! On March 18, 1644, the third great plague pandemic began in China. But don’t worry, unlike that pandemic, your presence here has had only positive effects on our team! 😅 Thanks for being a fantastic colleague and friend. Let’s keep spreading good vibes and conquering the office world together. Cheers! 🍻

Conclusion

As you can see, the hardest part is fine-tuning the prompt you’re going to send to ChatGPT. The more precise you can be, the better the results will be. Keep in mind you can always ask for more variations and it can be used for remote office birthday as well. I hope this helps you avoid the blank page syndrome!

If you want to go further you can even set up a birthdaybot for slack, see this article for more details.

Cheers ✌️

Categories
Employee engagement

How to use birthday bot?

Introduction

Since COVID hit, companies all over the world have tried to find many ways to connect their employees and create camaraderie in this new remote environment. The most basic way of doing this is by celebrating employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries. Nothing is more appreciated by a co-worker than seeing their colleagues celebrate their birthday. But do you know how much of a pain it can be? You have to name someone in charge of it in the company who will connect daily to your HRIS tool to check whose birthday/work anniversary it is, write a lovely message, and post it in a given Slack channel. This process sounds like a waste of time, right? That’s where a birthday bot comes in!

So, what is a birthday bot?

A birthday bot (or bday bot) is a type of chatbot designed to help users celebrate birthdays. It is a program that can be integrated with messaging platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and Facebook Messenger, and can be used to keep track of birthdays, send reminders, and even send automated birthday messages.

Installing a birthday bot

For the sake of the example, we’re going to pick Slack. Let’s visit the marketplace and search for a “birthday bot”:

Let’s install the first one on the list. They all have similar features. What’s cool about Billy (the market leader) is that it’s both the cheapest and most feature-rich option for Slack.

Let’s follow this installation process. Click Install from the marketplace:

Then, click Allow:

If you see this, congratulations! You have just installed your first birthday bot 🎉

Now, let’s get it configured!

Configuring the bot

From the previous screenshot, we can see the various settings available during the onboarding flow. Please keep in mind that all services work similarly, so what’s true for Billy is probably true for others.

So, you have:

  1. The channel in which you’d like the bot to send celebration messages.
  2. An option to opt-in for work anniversaries.
  3. The scope of the celebrations: all workspace members vs. channel members only.
  4. The birthdate collection method: automatic vs. manual.

Once you submit, it will redirect you to the bot’s full settings page:

We can discover three new settings:

  • Celebration time
  • Celebration language
  • Weekend management (D-day, Mondays, or Fridays)

We can also see that we can add Billy to multiple channels (in case we would like to use it in multiple sub-teams).

Note: When you add Billy to a channel, he will:

  1. Kindly introduce himself.
  2. (Only if you enabled the auto-collection of dates) Send a message to the relevant members depending on the scope you chose (all workspace members vs. channel members only).

Using the Birthday Bot

Now that the bday bot has been added to your first channel, let’s take a look at how to use it on a daily basis.

Filling out birthdates and work anniversary dates

If you look at your active channels in Billy’s settings, you will notice two buttons if some birthdays are missing:

If you click on the first button Ask 12 members, Billy will reach out to each member individually to remind them to fill out their birth date, telling them that you asked for it.

If you click on Import dates, It will provide you with an Excel file that you’ll have to fill out and send back to Billy’s through the chat.

Note: If you have enabled auto-collection, Billy will automatically reach out on an optimized schedule to collect dates by himself.

Personal settings

Previously, we only discussed the admin settings. Please note that only the person who installed Billy and the Slack workspace admins have access to those admin settings.

Now, let’s take a look at the personal settings:

We can see two different sections.

The first one is to fill out our birthdate and our work anniversary date. We can note two things:

  • The year is optional (each person can hide how old he/she is).
  • There is an opt-out option in case someone doesn’t want their birthday or work anniversary to be celebrated (indeed, some people are not comfortable with it).

The second one is the list of upcoming events. This is useful if someone wants to check someone else’s birthday/work anniversary or if you are an admin looking to check whether or not you inputted the right date!

Tips and Tricks

To ensure the best user experience for your Slack members, here is our recommendation on how to use a bday bot:

  1. Install it and import the birthdates and work anniversary dates of everyone.
  2. Turn on auto-collect so that whenever someone new joins the Slack workspace, Billy will automatically collect their information.

Conclusion

In this article, we saw how to install and configure a birthday bot, and how to use it on a daily basis. We really encourage you to test one of the available birthday bots on the market and observe the reactions of your teammates. Trust us, you won’t be disappointed!

Last but not least: If you are using Slack and want to give Billy a try, here is a link to do so.

Let us know what your teams think of it in the comments!

Categories
Employee experience Remote work

How to Celebrate Your Birthday on Slack

Introduction

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.

Categories
Employee engagement

How to automate birthdays in slack in 2023

There are few things more frustrating than forgetting a birthday. Whether it’s a coworker, family member, or close friend, forgetting someone’s special day can leave you feeling guilty and thoughtless.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to avoid this issue altogether: by automating birthday reminders in Slack! Here’s how to automate birthdays in slack in 2023.

Why it’s important to send birthday wishes to employees and colleagues

Wishing birthdays in Slack is something everybody does. It’s the most simple and natural thing to do, not mentioning that it is totally cross-cultural and done all across the globe. You can learn more on why it’s important to celebrate employee’s birthdays in this article.


It’s a great way to celebrate your employees, build a culture of recognition and increase employee engagement.

When your team scales, you’ll want to find a way to simplify and automate the process of birthday notifications and celebrations. But when it comes to putting it in practise you’ll soon find out that there are very few solutions out there to automate birthday messages for your team.

How to automate birthday wishes in slack

With Billy Birthday, there’s no excuse for forgetting a birthday ever again! By following these simple steps, you can set up automated messages and reminders that will help you keep track of all the special days. So go ahead and give it a try! Here’s how to do it:

  1. Install Billy Birthday by clicking “Add to Slack” on this page.
  2. Authorizing the app to access your Slack account.
  3. You’ll be taken to a page where you can customize your settings.
    Choose a slack channel for the messages, select if you want to celebrate work anniversaries, update posting times, and select which birth date collection method you’d like (either automatic, the bot will ask the users their birthday or manual with a spreadsheet where you can enter birthdays in bulk)
  4. That’s it! Billy Birthday will automatically post birthday celebration messages to your team in the channel you’ve selected.

By following these simple steps, you can easily automate the process of tracking employee birthdays and anniversaries using Slack. This will free up your time so that you can focus on other important tasks and make sure that no one’s special day goes unnoticed.

Categories
Employee experience

Using Slack to Celebrate Employee Birthdays in 2023

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!

Birthday Bot

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!

Categories
Employee engagement

Best birthday messages for coworkers

Slack is a great way to stay connected with your co-workers, but it can also be used to celebrate special occasions, like birthdays! Wishing your colleagues a happy birthday on Slack is a great way to spread some cheer and make everyone feel appreciated. Birthdays are a special time to celebrate life and show our loved ones how much we care about them. But what about celebrating birthdays with our coworkers? Celebrating birthdays in the workplace can be a great way to build team morale and make everyone feel appreciated. There is nothing better than sending a warm wish on your colleague’s birthday. Here are examples of birthday messages for coworkers:

  1. “Happy birthday! I hope all your birthday wishes and dreams come true.”
  2. “Happy birthday to someone who is forever young!”
  3. “Wishing you the biggest slice of happy today.”
  4. “Happy birthday, coworker! You make being here so much more fun. Thank you for all of your positive energy.”
  5. “Happy birthday to the world’s greatest coworker.”
  6. “Happy birthday to a unique colleague. I wish you an awesome day to celebrate!”
  7. “Happy birthday, [coworker name]! Wishing you all the best on your special day!”
  8. “[Coworker name], hope you have a fantastic birthday! You deserve it!”
  9. “[Coworker name], happy birthday! Thank you for being such a great coworker!”
  10. “All the best on your birthday, [coworker name]! Wishing you a happy and healthy year ahead.”

A very nice way to make your message original is to add a fun fact to it. Here is a page where you can access dozens of fun facts ordered per months and days. For instance you can checkout the fun facts for 22nd of April.

Make sure to add a GIF

This one is definitely my favorite:

Using GIFs is a must-have nowadays, you can find everything you need on Giphy by searching “Birthday”, here is the link. We recommend that you install Giphy app in your Slack, it makes it very easy to integrate GIFs in messages. Checkout our Top 5 slack apps for a remote workspace for more information.

Conclusion

Sending birthday wishes via Slack is a quick and easy way to show your colleagues that you care. A simple message can brighten someone’s day and make them feel appreciated. So next time one of your coworkers has a birthday, don’t forget to wish them a happy one on Slack!

Categories
Remote work

Top 5 slack apps for a remote workspace

Though working remotely has become increasingly popular in recent years, it can still be a challenge to stay connected with coworkers and manage projects effectively. Fortunately, there are a number of apps that can help. Slack integrates with a variety of apps, making it a powerful tool for remote work. Here are the top 5 of the best Slack apps for a remote workspace:

  1. Donut
    Donut is a great way to stay connected with your remote team. The app randomly pairs employees together for virtual coffee chats, and also has options for group chats and scheduling.
    Link to Donut app
  2. Loom
    Loom is perfect for recording quick video messages or tutorials.
    Link to Loom app
  3. Office vibe
    Office vibe is a good way to stay on top of team morale, and allows managers to give and receive feedback anonymously.
    Link to Office Vibe app
  4. Zoom
    Zoom is a video conferencing app that can be used for online meetings, webinars, and screen sharing. The Slack integration allows users to start or join Zoom meetings with just a few clicks.
    Link to Zoom app
  5. Billy Birthday
    This app helps you keep track of birthdays and send automatic birthday messages to team members. It’s a great way to stay connected and celebrate special occasions. Billy Birthday is a must-have for celebrating birthdays remotely.
    Link to Billy Birthday app
  6. Bonus: Giphy
    This app lets you add gifs to your conversations, making them more fun and engaging. You can also search for specific gifs to add to your messages.
    Link to Giphy app

These are just a few of the many apps that can help make remote work easier and more efficient. With these five apps, you’ll be well on your way to maintaining a productive and connected remote workspace. By integrating these apps with Slack, users can customize their workspace to fit their needs and maximize productivity.