When our team closed our physical office during the COVID pandemic and first transitioned to remote work, our birthday celebrations became an afterthought as a quick message in the group chat or a shout out during the virtual daily team huddle. Overall it lacked the kind of love, care, and appreciation that came from in-person birthday celebrations. It didn’t have to be that way and I learned the lesson too late.
During a coaching call with a client, she told me that she struggles with the same issue as they are 100% virtual. She even had one team member cite in their exit interview that she felt invisible because her birthday passed without acknowledgement.
Birthdays can drive increased employee morale and retention. A study done by Snappy found that 80.8% of employees agree that “if employers celebrated personal milestones such as birthdays, employee morale would be higher in the workplace (80.8%), as would employee retention (74.6%).”
Yet in today’s digital office landscape, creating meaningful birthday celebrations can feel challenging. The good news? Virtual celebrations can be just as engaging and connection-building as in-person ones with the right approach.
I have since drastically changed how we approach virtual celebrations and teach the same to clients. Virtual birthday celebrations aren’t frivolous, they’re crucial touchpoints for building human connection in digital workplaces.
Here are ten creative ways to celebrate someone’s birthday via Zoom that will transform “meh” into memorable:
- Photo Backgrounds: Have everyone create a custom virtual background featuring photos of the birthday person that they have turned on during the meeting. This encourages creativity and personalization, making the birthday person feel seen and celebrated.
- Matching Mustaches: If the birthday buddy happens to have a very distinguishing feature, like a mustache, then have everyone on your team use the Zoom “Studio Effects” to add a mustache to their face. This creates a fun, shared experience that fosters camaraderie and lightheartedness.
- Surprise Meal/Dessert Delivery: Coordinate with a local food delivery service to have a meal or dessert delivered to the birthday person during your Zoom call.
- Team Cupcakes/Donuts: Dunkin Donuts is a global company that operates in almost 50 different countries! You could have everyone on the team get a box of donuts delivered prior to the meeting, and then during the meeting have a celebration.
- Story Time: For each section of the meeting, have people randomly chime in with a comment, but have the comment also weave a story about the birthday person into it.
- Blow The Candle Out: Have the birthday person take a deep breath in and then exhale as if they are blowing out a candle. But when they exhale, everyone on the team turns their cameras black or covers their camera with their finger so it’s black. Have them then make a wish. This creates a fun surprise for the birthday person.
- Celebrity Cameo: Use services like Cameo to hire a celebrity, athlete, or influencer the birthday person admires to record a personalized birthday message. Play it during your Zoom celebration for a memorable surprise.
- Custom Birthday Song: Use an AI tool like Suno.com to create a custom song for the person based on who they are. Then play that during the meeting.
- Wall of Appreciation: Use the collaborative whiteboard feature in Zoom. Act as if you are doing something work related, but then have everyone write positive words of appreciation about the birthday person.
- Online Birthday Trivia: Create a trivia game focused on the birthday person’s life, favorite things, and shared memories. This is a great way to reminisce and test everyone’s knowledge.
- Virtual Pet Parade: If the birthday person loves animals, have everyone introduce their pets (or favorite stuffed animals) on camera. Award prizes for the most creative pet costumes or tricks.
After implementing these types of celebrations with her team, she saw an immediate shift in not only the energy of the meeting, but her team was talking about the virtual birthday experiences long after the actual day was done. Several team members even mentioned feeling more connected despite their physical distance.
In Dance Floor Theory we talk about the value of micro actions in terms of employee engagement. Remember that often the most memorable celebrations aren’t about elaborate productions or expensive gifts, they’re about demonstrating that you see and value someone’s unique contribution to the team.
Try implementing one of these ideas for your next team birthday. The small investment in creativity and thoughtfulness will yield tremendous returns in terms of employee engagement and your Culture of Connection™.
