Is It Appropriate for HR to Send Wedding Anniversary Wishes to Employees? Share Your Thoughts!

Dear seniors, can organizations send wishes to their employees on their wedding anniversary? It seems a bit personal for HR to wish an employee a happy wedding anniversary, especially when these wishes are circulated throughout the organization. I would like all of you to comment on this and please share your experiences and any practices you have come across.

Thanks!

Dear Sharmaneesu, good question! Allow me to congratulate you on such an employee-friendly and motivating thought. It would be great if a company is doing it and does it with a gift of either a bouquet, sweets, a small gift, or a paid leave! Without any material gift, even if a token gift, the occasion would lose its charm. Moreover, it may entail a burden on the employee in terms of a treat or otherwise if such wishes are circulated across the organization.

You can, however, always send a personal mail (exclusively) to the employee wishing him a Happy anniversary!

Warm regards.

I actually feel that a wedding anniversary is personal to an individual, and HR and organizations would do well to stay away rather than jump to congratulate officially.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with sending wedding anniversary wishes to employees. This occasion is very important in everyone's life, next to their own birthday. However, please remember that it must be continued and sent to all employees and updated every time an employee gets married. If you start it, continue it and do not stop halfway through. Once you initiate this, the spouse will also appreciate the gesture and the human touch your organization has. Good thought!

Regards,
M.V. KANNAN

Have a clear policy on these kinds of gestures. Once started, it should be consistent, fair, and accurate.

Regards, AVS

Thank you for your responses. All views seem to be individual personal opinions on the matter.

Organizational Practices

What about practices in organizations? How many of you are doing the same in your organization or have experienced it in a previous organization? Please comment.

Dear Sharmaneesu, good point. As we have a manufacturing industry and we have a policy for Ma. Anni, previously we personally went to employees' homes in the evening with a bouquet, sweets, and a wishing card. However, Mr. Ravi mentioned that many people consider this day very special and prefer to go out for enjoyment. Asking them to stay at home for our wishes was not perceived as good or fair. Therefore, we have revised our policy and now wish them at the company premises only, providing a sweet box and a card so that both aspects are covered. There are various other options available to motivate employees based on the points discussed above.

Regards,
Bhavesh Upadhyay

In our company, the HR Head sends a congratulatory email to the employee on his Wedding Anniversary and Birthday, of course. This email is circulated to all employees. Many employees respond to this email or send an SMS. This gives a lot of happiness to all.

Regards,
Shailendra Varma

Let me share that we practice the same. We send a bouquet to the employee's home before he/she enters the office, probably by 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. You wouldn't believe the pride the employee feels when entering the office knowing that the company remembers. Of course, we also send an email to motivate them, and seniors respond to the same email, bringing happiness.

Once, an incident happened where an employee thanked HR by saying, "Thank you for reminding me, otherwise my wife would not allow me to enter the home in the evening as he forgets..."

Isn't it nice? So, keep practicing.

Regards,
Gunjan
HR.

The same practice is being followed in our organization as well. This brings real pleasure to the employee, resulting in more dedication and commitment towards his duties within the organization.

Regards,
RAJ

Well, let me add my comments too. We can nail down a few options:

1. Sending a bouquet/cake to the employee's place.
2. Gifting a voucher for a good restaurant of Rs 250 or Rs 500.
3. Gift vouchers of the same amount.
4. Greetings/emails.
5. Special time-off policy - a short leave in the evening, allowing the employee to leave around 2 hours before their normal time. Let the day be enjoyed with family. For example, we have a special day off completely on birthdays, but if there's a lot of work pressure, then the employee can take it later. 

Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Handling Sensitive Employee Information

The issue has to be handled sensitively. We've had instances of employees whose marriages were on the rocks, on the verge of breaking up, or who had filed for divorce, where the employee had not informed the organization. They weren't actually required to inform until the divorce was finalized. So, wishing them on their anniversary would be a huge faux pas and is best avoided!

Dear Sharmanessu,

In my opinion, sending birthday and anniversary wishes to employees is a best practice. It is highly motivating and creates a feel-good factor for them. Believe me, I used to manage this in my organization, and people were very keen on updating their birthdays and anniversaries with HR. They appreciated this practice. You can do the following things:

1. Tie up with a local vendor and send bouquets to spouses early in the morning with "From (company's name)."

2. Send an email from a common functional ID to all employees in Bcc, with the person in To.

3. Put up a birthday/anniversary chart in a central visible place with all the names of employees having birthdays in a particular month.

You can capture birthday and anniversary dates at the time of joining or send a common mailer to all employees to update their anniversary dates in HR records. However, one must be careful to continue this activity once started and not miss a single birthday or anniversary.

Through this activity, you are making employees' spouses and employees feel special on their day.

Regards

It will be good if the team size is adequate and everyone wants to keep things open. However, if the company grows bigger and bigger, it will become a tough job. Some people don't want this; their spouse is not staying with them. For such individuals, good intentions may lead to unintended consequences. I have witnessed this in my previous company where they suddenly stopped acknowledging marriage anniversaries.

Regards,
Raj

I think an HR team can send congratulatory wishes to an employee who has recently gotten married. However, I wouldn't advise sending anniversary wishes because it is a personal celebration for the individual. Birthday and service anniversary wishes are typically sent to our employees in our organization.

It is not the organization but specifically the HR department doing such things. It is better to send a message on the birthday and celebrate it. In bigger organizations, the concerned department/section only does that with a poster on the notice board. If possible, avoid marriage-related things as it is a sensitive area, and many people have secret marital problems, some even separated without informing others.