No more worrying about forgetting a birthday or anniversary! Celebrations automatically roll out recognition to your teammates. Celebrations appear in your public Recognition Feed, encouraging the rest of your team to join in on the celebration.
Celebration is part of Bonusly's Celebrations feature, points come directly from the company, so there's no need to worry about managing allowances or Allowance Boosts.
Currently, we offer two types of celebrations:
New Hire
Custom made: Create your own celebration which can be use for Birthday, work Anniversary
1. Configuring the New Hire
A good first impression goes a long way! Welcome new employees to the team with the New Hire Celebration.
The New Hire celebration is sent based on the user's hire date, while the Welcome! celebration is sent based on the user's Bonusly account creation date.
Navigate to the Bonusly Admin dashboard.
Click Recognition on the left-hand sidebar. Then, click Celebrations.
You will be directed to the Celebrations page. From here, you can manage your Celebrations.
Click the Welcome Bot celebration in the Celebrations table. You will be directed to the Edit celebration page.
To create a Welcome celebration, click the Create new button at the top of the page and select the Welcome option.
Complete the following fields in the Basic Info section:
Name: Enter a name for the event (e.g., Welcome!).
Post on: Choose a date for the event.
Post Visibility: Choose a visibility option for the event.
Audience: Select the locations, departments, or teams to receive the Celebration post. To send the Celebration post to everyone, select Everyone. Please note, if multiple groups within a category are selected, all users of any selected group will receive a celebration post on their user account creation date.
Then, complete the Point settings section:
Amount in Points: Enter the amount of points to give out with the celebration. Enter 0 to send the celebration post without giving any points.
Complete the Post customization section:
Icon: Choose an icon image for the post.
Headline: Enter a short introduction for the post.
Message: Enter a short description or message for the post. Do not include @recipient, other group handles, or "+##" point amounts.
Image: Choose an image for the welcome post.
When you're done, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
Turning the Welcome! Celebration on or off
You’ll see that the New Hire! Celebration is on by default. To deactivate the Celebration: toggle the button next to the award name to gray.
Note: You can send 0 point celebrations even if the Posts can be given without points option is turned on in Program Settings.
2. Configure the Create your own celebration
To Create your own celebration such as Work Anniversary follow the steps:
Navigate to the Bonusly Admin dashboard.
Click Recognition on the left-hand sidebar. Then, click Celebrations.
You will be directed to the Celebrations page. From here, you can manage your Celebrations.
Click the Work Anniversary Bot celebration in the Celebrations table. You will be directed to the Edit celebration page.
To create a Welcome celebration, click the Create new button at the top of the page and select the Welcome option.
Complete the following fields in the Basic Info section:
Name: Enter a name for the event (e.g., Happy Work Anniversary!).
Post on: Choose a date for the event.
Post Visibility: Choose a visibility option for the event.
Audience: Select the locations, departments, or teams to receive the Celebration post. To send the Celebration post to everyone, select Everyone. Please note, if multiple groups within a category are selected, all users of any selected group will receive a celebration post on the anniversary of their hire date.
Then, complete the Point settings section:
Select one of the following point options:
Celebrate every year with the same amount of points each year: Enter any number of points (including zero) in the Amount in points field. These points will be given to all eligible users on each work anniversary. Note: You can send 0 point celebrations without enabling the Posts can be given without points option in Program Settings.
Celebrate every year and customize milestone years: Enter the milestone anniversary years and corresponding point amounts. Then, enter any number of points (including zero) to give on all non-milestone years. Please note, you must specify at least one milestone year. For milestone years, enter any amount of points greater than zero.
Only celebrate specific milestone years: Choose which milestone years to celebrate and enter any number of points (including zero) to give out on those years. You must specify at least one milestone year. Please note, Work Anniversary posts will only be made on the listed years.
Complete the Post customization section:
Icon: Choose an icon image for the event.
Headline: Enter a short introduction for the event.
Message: Enter a short description or message for the event.
Include "@recipient" to tag the user
Use "nth" to insert the anniversary year as 1st, 2nd, etc. We also support ordinal translation in other languages:
nth_fr for French
nth_es for Spanish
nth_de for German
nth_c for Czech
nth_pt for Portuguese
nth_it for Italian
Do not include "+##" point amounts.
Image: Choose an image for the event post.
To preview your Celebration post, click the Preview button at the top of the Post customization section. The Preview will resolve “nth” and “anniversary_date” so you can verify localized ordinals and dates before saving.
When you're done, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
Admins can edit automated celebrations anytime, but changes won't take effect until midnight. This means any updates won't apply to celebrations happening on the actual day it occurs.
Turn the Work Anniversary On or Off (For User)
Navigate to the Profile Settings page to turn your Work Anniversary Celebration on or off. Locate the Celebrate and Private checkboxes to the right of the Work Anniversary field:
Check the Celebrate box and enter your work anniversary date to turn the Work Anniversary Celebration on. Uncheck the box to turn the celebration off.
If you check the Private checkbox, only you, your manager, and admins will see your Work Anniversary Celebration post.
3. Configure the Happy Birthday Celebration
To make adjustments to the Happy Birthday Celebration:
Navigate to the Bonusly Admin dashboard.
Click Recognition on the left-hand sidebar. Then, click Celebrations.
You will be directed to the Celebrations page. From here, you can manage your Celebrations.
Click the Birthday Bot celebration in the Celebrations table. You will be directed to the Edit celebration page.
To create a Welcome celebration, click the Create new button at the top of the page and select the Welcome option.
Complete the following fields in the Basic Info section:
Name: Enter a name for the event (e.g., Happy Birthday!).
Post on: Choose a date for the event.
Post Visibility: Choose a visibility option for the event.
Audience: Select the locations, departments, or teams to receive the Celebration post. To send the Celebration post to everyone, select Everyone. Please note, if multiple groups within a category are selected, all users of any selected group will receive a celebration post on their birth date.
Then, complete the Point settings section:
Amount in Points: Enter the amount of points to give out with the celebration. Enter 0 to send the celebration post without giving any points.
Complete the Post customization section:
Icon: Choose an icon image for the event.
Headline: Enter a short introduction for the event.
Message: Enter a short description or message for the event.
Include "@recipient" to tag the user
Use "birth_date" to insert the recipient's date of birth
Do not include "+##" point amounts.
Image: Choose an image for the event post.
To preview your Celebration post, click the Preview button at the top of the Post customization section.
When you're done, click the Save button at the bottom of the page
In order to enable the Birthday Award, you'll want to make sure that your users have birthday information in Bonusly. Click here to learn more about adding birthday information for your users.
Turn the Happy Birthday Celebration On or Off (For User)
Navigate to the Profile Settings page to turn your Birthday Celebration on or off. Locate the Celebrate and Private checkboxes to the right of the Birthday field:
Check the Celebrate box and enter your birth date to turn the Happy Birthday Celebration on. Uncheck the box to turn the celebration off.
If you check the Private checkbox, only you, your manager, and admins will see your Birthday Celebration post.
Export to CSV
Admins can export a CSV of all active celebrations for the entire year to learn:
Who has upcoming celebrations
If users have opted out of a particular celebration
When participating users got a celebration post
Total points given to date
To export your Celebrations to CSV, navigate to the Celebrations page and click the Export to CSV button.
Celebration Action Menu
Admins can manage any active celebration by clicking on the three vertical dots on the far right of the table row on the Celebrations page. Clicking these dots will open the Action Menu.
Send Manually
Click Send Manually on the Action Menu to send a celebration post to users that did not receive a post as expected.
To check if a user received a specific Celebration post, Admins should Export to CSV and confirm:
The user’s celebration preference is set to “Public”
There is no “Posted on” date listed for the Celebration post in question
Deactivate a Celebration
Click Deactivate on the Action Menu to turn off a celebration for any reason. Please note, admins do not have the option to manually rectify any custom celebrations for groups.
Adding birthdays and hire dates
To use The Happy Birthday Celebration and It's Your Work Anniversary Celebration, you must first add birthdays and hire dates for your users. It's easy to add birthdays and hire dates for both new and existing users, whether you're managing your users manually, or integrating with an HRIS!
Manual user management options:
Birthday and anniversary dates can be added individually or in bulk with our manual user management features. Bonusly does not store the birth date year for any users, for security purposes, so there is no need to add them.
Adding birthdays and hire dates for an individual user
To add a birthday and hire date for a new or existing user, first go to Users > Manage. Then, simply create a new user or edit a current user. Input their hire date in the Hired on field and input their birthday in the Date of Birth field. Be sure to scroll down in the popup and hit the Save button when you're done!
Adding birthdays and hire dates for multiple users
Our bulk upload feature makes it easy to add birthdays and hire dates in one go. Simply follow the directions in this article for editing multiple users, and put your users' birthdays in the columns titled date_of_birth and their hire dates in the column titled hired_on.
HRIS/HRMS integration management options:
Bonusly pulls hire dates and birthdays from your HRIS/HRMS integration, so there's no action to take. You're all set! 🎉
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help!
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