For the office
An office birthday calendar without the spreadsheet
Somebody once made an Excel list. Then people joined, people left, and nobody knows who keeps it. With Hoera you share one link in the team chat, every coworker adds their own birthday, and everyone who wants one gets a reminder. No template, no admin, no HR data.
Free · no app needed
The trouble with the birthday list
The classic office birthday calendar is a template: an Excel sheet, a Word document or a printable on the wall of the kitchen. It works on day one. After that it depends on one coworker remembering to update it, and on everyone being comfortable that their date of birth sits in a file on a shared drive.
The other classic is asking HR. That means personal data from the personnel file being used for something it wasn’t collected for. Most HR teams, rightly, say no.
How to create an office birthday calendar
For a team, a department or the whole company: an employee birthday calendar that the staff keep up to date themselves.
- 1
Add yourself
Your name, your birthday (day and month are enough) and your email. - 2
Share one link in the team chat
Create the group ‘Work’ or the name of your team, and drop the link in Teams, Slack or the WhatsApp group. - 3
Every coworker adds their own
Whoever wants to be in it, taps the link and fills in their own birthday. Whoever doesn’t, doesn’t. That is the whole privacy policy. - 4
Reminders for whoever wants them
Each coworker chooses: a weekly overview, an earlier nudge for a few favorites, or no reminders at all.
Privacy at work, built in
- Voluntary: nobody is added by someone else.
- Day and month only, unless a coworker chooses to share the year.
- Only the team group sees the team. Your family group, if you have one in Hoera, sees nothing of it.
- Leaving is one tap. Deleting your account removes everything.
Compared with the usual office options
| Excel or template | Outlook shared calendar | Slack birthday bot | Hoera | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who keeps it up to date | One coworker | An admin | Everyone, in Slack | Everyone, via a link |
| Needs an account | Shared drive | Microsoft 365 | Slack | No, just email |
| Year of birth | Usually in the file | Depends | Depends | Optional, private by default |
| Reminders | None | Per person | In a channel | Per person, by email |
| Works outside the tool | No | No | No | Yes, any phone or PC |
| Cost | Free | With 365 | Often paid | Free |
More on sharing in Google Calendar, Outlook and iCloud on shared birthday calendar.
Also for the team, the club and the committee
Anywhere people share a group chat but not a personnel file: the football team, the choir, the parents of the class, the volunteers. One link, everyone adds their own, and the birthday cake never gets forgotten again.
Frequently asked questions
Is a birthday calendar for employees allowed under privacy rules?+
It is fine when it is voluntary. With Hoera every coworker decides for themselves whether to join, what they share (the year of birth is optional) and when to leave. Nothing comes from HR or the personnel file.
Can HR or the team lead see everything?+
Whoever creates the group sees the same as everyone else: the members who added themselves, with day and month. There is no export and no admin view.
What happens when someone leaves the company?+
They leave the group with one tap, or delete their account. Their birthday disappears from the calendar right away.
Does it work for a sports club or a committee?+
Yes. Any group with a group chat: a team, a choir, the parents of the class, a volunteer crew.
Does it cost anything?+
No. The calendar and the email reminders are free for everyone. Only reminders on WhatsApp cost €19 a year, per person.
Start your team’s birthday calendar
Ready in a minute. Then share the link in the team chat, and the rest takes care of itself.
Free · no app needed