Just like birthdays are celebrated for individuals, and anniversaries are celebrated for couples, work anniversaries are important to celebrate for employees. Celebrating these milestones is a surefire way to show employees that you care about them, value them, and support them.
Introduction to Work Anniversaries
Work anniversaries, otherwise known as service anniversaries or workiversaries, are the yearly milestones that your employees hit as they stay tenured at your company. Often, companies give out employee service awards or gifts as a way to show appreciation, and while the traditional method is to give service awards every five years, we have some recommendations for modernizing that model.
The goal of work anniversaries is to show that you care. Employees put a lot of time and effort into their work, especially after a year or years. Work anniversaries and service awards are the perfect way to show your appreciation for all that they do.
Why Are Work Anniversaries Important?
Think about forgetting or ignoring an anniversary of a loved one…that doesn’t send a good message, right? Your loved one may feel uncared for or unimportant, and your relationship will most likely suffer.
The same holds true for an employee’s work anniversary. If you skip it (or even worse, if you celebrate it in a generic, meaningless way), your people won’t feel cared for or supported. This can lead to disengagement, lower productivity, and eventual separation.
On the flip side, 93% of employees who feel valued are motivated to do their best work, and 88% of them are more engaged. In fact, every single measure of morale, productivity, performance, customer satisfaction, and retention go up when employees are recognized.
With these jaw-dropping benefits in mind, can you afford not to celebrate work anniversaries? The answer is no, you really can’t—at least, not if you want to have a healthy, productive work environment.
Work Anniversary Message Ideas for Employees
The good thing is, you don’t have to think of elaborate, expensive ways to celebrate each employee’s anniversary every single year—meaningful messages can be enough!
Here are 21 examples of meaningful messages you can send to employees to make their work anniversary more special:
- Congratulations on your work anniversary, and thank you for an incredible year! We love working with you, and we’re excited to see what next year will bring.
- Here’s to you, someone who is more than just an employee, but also a cherished member of our team. Happy work anniversary!
- Thank you for your hard work and dedication last year. We appreciate all of the value and fun you bring to the table.
- We are forever grateful for your positive attitude, your work ethic, and your unique personality. Here’s to another great year!
- You set the standard for hard work and dedication, and we appreciate all that you’ve done for us over the past year(s). Happy anniversary to an exemplary employee!
- You can always be counted on to go the extra mile and uplift those around you. Now it’s time to say thank you for all that you do.
- It’s already been five years? Time flies when you’ve got hardworking, fun employees on your team! Thank you for all that you bring to the table, and congrats on your anniversary.
- It’s been a pleasure working with you for the past year(s), and I’m excited to see what you accomplish in the next year.
- Only a year in, and you already show great promise at becoming an essential part of our company’s future. Thank you for all that you do.
- Our team and company wouldn’t be the same without you, and we couldn’t be happier that you’ve been with us for three years.
- Over the past year(s), you’ve inspired us to reach great heights, and we’re so excited to see where the next year takes us. Happy anniversary to a one-of-a-kind employee!
- Remember that professional, skilled, and downright awesome person we found exactly a year ago? That was you! Thank you for everything you’ve done in the past year.
- Words are too small a compensation compared to everything you’ve done in the past year(s), but we still want to congratulate you on your work anniversary and wish you the best for the upcoming year.
- Hard work, diligence, and loyalty make the best employees, and you have all of these qualities and then some. We’re so happy to have you working with us!
- It’s been two years since you joined us, but it feels like just yesterday. Time flies when you have such an amazing employee on the team. Happy anniversary!
- You have been an essential part of our company’s success, and we want to thank you for all that you’ve done. Here’s to another great year!
- Since the day you were hired to now, you’ve brought your unique skills, outlook, and abilities to our team, and we couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you for all that you do for us.
- It’s impossible to quantify your hard work and loyalty, but we can at least show our appreciation for all that you do. Happy work anniversary!
- Every team needs someone with confidence, a good attitude, and innumerable skills—thank you for being that person! We’re excited for another year working together!
- You make work a better place to be, and that means a lot. Thank you so much for the time and effort you’ve given—you inspire us to be better.
- We’ve loved watching you learn and grow over the past year(s)—and we’ve learned and grown right along with you! Thank you for taking this journey with us. We can’t wait to see how we’ll grow in the next year.
These genuine messages of gratitude will go a long way. And while you should definitely give out thoughtful, personal service awards at least every few years (or offer a fun, varied service award catalog), a personalized expression of appreciation is what many employees really want.
Say Adios to Awkward or Insincere Anniversaries
We get it, it’s tough to find the right words to convey your appreciation and gratitude to employees. We hope that this list helps. Tweak these ideas to fit your needs, and make sure whatever message you send is personalized to each employee’s strengths and contributions. Genuine messages of appreciation can make a work anniversary the special event that it’s supposed to be.
An avid lover of fantasy books, a proud Hufflepuff, and a strong proponent of escapism, Jeff has a love of good storytelling. He relies on that for both his professional work and his writing hobby (don’t ask about the 10+ novel ideas collecting virtual dust on his computer).
