Celebrations
Introduction
Overview
Birthdays and work anniversaries are small but powerful opportunities to make employees feel recognized. With UpRaise, you donโt need spreadsheets or reminders to track these dates, just set up a rule once, and Slack will do the rest.
Why This Matters
For HR or People Ops teams, this means:
No more missed birthdays or service milestones.
Less manual work, no need to send dozens of messages each month.
Employees still get timely recognition that strengthens company culture.
Use Case Explanation
What This Automation Does
You configure a rule in UpRaise, and the system automatically sends birthday or work anniversary messages into Slack. These can go either:
Into a channel (like #celebrations) for everyone to see and join in.
Or into specific channels to arrange logistics for birthday or work anniversary celebrations in advance.
Practical Scenarios HR Teams Use:
Company-wide Birthday Roundups
Send a scheduled list of all birthdays in the coming week so no one gets missed.
Example Slack post in #celebrations:
๐ Birthday Cheers! ๐
๐ Time to celebrate our teammatesโ birthdays โ donโt forget to wish them!๐ค @meera โ July 11 (Friday)
๐ค @ravi โ July 12 (Saturday)
๐ค @simran โ July 17 (Thursday)
๐ค @vijay โ July 18 (Friday)
๐ค @isha โ July 25 (Friday)๐ Add your warm wishes in the thread and make their day special!
Work Anniversary Highlights
Post monthly or weekly milestones in Slack to recognize employeesโ journey with the company.
Example Slack post in #general:
๐ Big Milestones! ๐
๐ Here are some wonderful milestones from our teammates โ cheers to their journey at ABC Technologies!๐ค @meera โ July 10 (Thursday)
๐ค @ravi โ July 14 (Monday)
๐ค @simran โ July 17 (Thursday)
๐ค @vijay โ July 21 (Monday)
๐ค @isha โ July 23 (Wednesday)๐ฌ Drop a note to thank them or share a memory in the thread. Hereโs to many more! ๐
Team-specific Celebrations
Post reminders only in department channels (e.g., birthdays for the Marketing team appear in #marketing). This keeps celebrations more personal and relevant.
Daily Spotlight Messages
Instead of lists, HR can configure the rule to send individual shoutouts on the day of the birthday or anniversary.
Without automation, HR struggles with:
Checking calendars every day to remember all these dates.
Sending messages at the right time.
Keeping the tone consistent across departments.
Pre-requisites
Before creating the automation rule, make sure UpRaise is connected to your Slack workspace.
Next, you need to set up a User Segment. This is critical because, in the Precondition step of the rule, you will be selecting the segment that determines which users the automation applies to.
Create a User Segment
Go to User Segments and click Create Segment.
Give your segment a clear, descriptive name (e.g., Employees with Birthday Today or Employees with Work Anniversary Today).
Configuring for Birthdays
Select the Date of Birth field.
In the condition, choose is in today.
Enable the Treat as Recurring Event toggle.
This ensures that the rule checks the day and month each year, ignoring the year of birth.
For example, if an employeeโs DOB is 25th September 1995, the rule will still trigger on 25th September 2025.
Configuring for Work Anniversaries
Select the Joining Date (or whichever field your organization uses).
Again, apply the condition is in today.
Make sure to enable Treat as Recurring Event, so the system recognizes anniversaries annually.
Note: Itโs important to set these filters carefully. For anniversaries, double-check that youโre using the correct joining date field, so you donโt end up sending messages on incorrect dates.
Automation Process
Hereโs how you set up the automation step by step:
Create a New Rule
Navigate to the Automation Rules section in UpRaise.
Click Create New to start defining a new automation rule.
Basic Details
Name: Provide a meaningful name for your rule (e.g., Birthday Greetings to Slack).
Enable Toggle: Use the toggle to enable or disable the rule as needed.
Select a Trigger
UpRaise provides three trigger types to choose from:Manual Trigger: Run the automation manually whenever needed.
Scheduled at Interval Trigger: Automatically execute the rule on a recurring schedule. This is the most common choice for birthday and anniversary reminders.
Frequency: Choose how often the rule should run (e.g., Daily for birthdays).
Start Date: Select the date from which the automation should begin.
Time: Set the exact time when the message should be posted to Slack.
Occurrences: Define how long the automation should continue (e.g., 90 days for 3 months, or 365 days for 1 year).
Notifications on Success/Failure
Decide how you want to be notified about the execution of the rule:Notify Only When Rule Fails to Execute (default).
Notify For Every Rule Execution.
Do Not Notify.
By default, the user creating the rule will receive the notifications, but you can also select additional users if required.
Save & Proceed
Once the above details are filled in, click Save and Next to move to the Pre-condition step, where you will define the segment of users (e.g., employees with upcoming birthdays or work anniversaries).
Precondition Step
Once you have created the appropriate user segment(s), during rule creation you will have to simply select the relevant segment in the Precondition step.
Add Action โ Send to Slack
Once you have selected the user segment in the Precondition step, the next step is to define what happens when the rule runs.
Add Action
Click on Add Action.
From the list of available actions, select Send to Slack.
Configure the Slack Action
After choosing Send to Slack, youโll need to configure a few settings:
Action Name
By default, it will appear as Send to Slack.
You can rename it if you want (e.g., Birthday Wishes to #general).
Select Notification Type
Two notification types are available:
Birthday Celebrations
Work Anniversaries
Choose the type of celebration this automation is for.
Example: If this rule is for birthdays, select Birthday Celebration.
Select Slack Channel
Pick the Slack channel where you want the message to appear.
Example:
#general,#celebrations, or even a team-specific channel like#marketing.Make sure your Slack workspace is already connected with the system, otherwise the channel list wonโt be available.
Save the Action
After configuring the details, click Save.
Your action is now ready.
Rule Execution
Once saved, the automation rule will run at the scheduled time (defined earlier in the Trigger step).
Example: If the trigger was set to daily at 10 AM, the birthday/anniversary messages will automatically post at that time in the chosen Slack channel.
Monitor Execution with Logs
Every time the rule runs, UpRaise generates execution logs.
In the logs, you will see:
Success message โ โ confirms that the Slack message was posted as expected.
Failure message โ โ shows if something went wrong (e.g., Slack channel not connected).
๐ HRs can check these logs anytime to verify whether the rule has been executed or not. This ensures full transparency and makes troubleshooting easier.
Tips for HR Teams
Test with one small group (like your own HR team) before enabling for the whole company.
Create Segments with relevant filters to ensure proper rule executions.
Send during work hours (9-10 AM) so the team sees and reacts in real time.
Review employee data quarterly to ensure birthdays/anniversaries are accurate.
Conclusion
Benefits for HR Teams
Frees HR from repetitive messaging tasks.
Guarantees no missed birthdays or anniversaries.
Builds a consistent culture of appreciation.
Encourages team bonding as everyone sees and reacts in Slack.
Call to Action
Set up your first birthday or anniversary automation in UpRaise today. Start small with one team, then expand company-wide, your employees will love it, and your HR workload will shrink instantly.