Employee Birthday Reminders in CrewHR: A Simple, Low-Effort Morale Boost

Most teams don't need another "initiative." They need small, consistent touches that help people feel seen — without adding extra admin work.

That's exactly what Employee Birthday Reminders in CrewHR are for: a lightweight, optional feature that keeps you and your managers aware of upcoming birthdays, and can automatically send a simple birthday greeting to employees.

No big workflow. No awkward "how old are you turning?" moments. Just a small morale boost that runs quietly in the background.

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Why birthday reminders matter (even if you're busy)

A quick "Happy Birthday" might feel minor, but it's one of those small signals that contributes to a healthier team culture — especially for shift-based or multi-location teams where managers don't see everyone daily.

The goal isn't to turn CrewHR into a social network. The goal is to make it easier to be a thoughtful employer without needing sticky notes, spreadsheets, or someone's memory.

How it works

CrewHR makes birthday reminders easy to enable and easy to control. You can turn it on or off at any time.

Step 1: Enable Birthdays

Go to:

Settings → Birthdays → Toggle On

That's it. From there, you can configure exactly how you want reminders handled.

Step 2: Choose who gets the reminders

You can send birthday notifications to any combination of:

You (admins/owners)
Managers
Employees (optional automated greeting email)

Everything is optional, so you can keep it as quiet or as automated as you'd like.

Step 3: Choose your reminder cadence

Different teams prefer different rhythms, so you can choose:

Daily reminders (great for managers on shift)
Weekly reminders (a heads-up for planning)
Monthly digest (a simple overview)

This gives you enough notice to do something small (like a quick message in Slack) without creating more work.

Where birthdays show up in the app

We intentionally designed birthdays to feel present but not overpowering.

You'll see a subtle 🎂 cake icon in a few places:

On the Employee page

A small cake icon appears to indicate when it's someone's birthday — visible, but not taking over the UI.

On the Schedule

On days where birthdays occur, you'll see the cake icon on the schedule too. You can hover to quickly check whose birthday it is that day.

This is especially useful for managers: they're already living in the schedule — so the reminder appears where they'll naturally notice it.

What the emails look like

CrewHR sends two types of emails depending on your setup:

1) Admin/Manager summary emails

Managers (and admins) can receive a digest showing upcoming birthdays for the week or month — and on the day itself, a simple note like:

"Birthdays today: [Employee A], [Employee B]"

2) Employee birthday greeting email (optional)

If you enable it, employees can receive a simple birthday email. It's intentionally lightweight — and importantly:

We don't mention age.

That keeps it friendly and inclusive, and avoids turning birthdays into something awkward.

Customize the birthday message

Every team has a different tone. You can customize the employee birthday email content so it sounds like you — whether that's professional, warm, funny, or minimal.

Examples:

"Happy Birthday from everyone at [Company]! Have a great day 🎉"
"Wishing you a brilliant birthday — thanks for everything you do."
"Happy Birthday! Enjoy the day (and the cake)."

A small feature with real culture impact

The best operational tools don't just reduce admin work — they help teams run better.

Birthday reminders are one of those "small-but-mighty" features:

Low effort
Optional
Subtle in the interface
Helpful for managers
A simple boost to employee experience

Turn it on in 30 seconds

To enable birthday reminders: