Celebrate Like a Boss: How to Create Office Celebration Videos for Your Team

Office celebrations hold a special power. They boost morale, strengthen connections, and remind everyone why they love being part of the team. But what happens when you can no longer head to the break room for cake or meet up for happy hour after work? A simple employee anniversary card doesn’t have quite the same effect, so you’ll have to turn it up a notch.

In this blog we’ll show you to create personalized celebration videos that your employees will love. From saying happy birthday to celebrating employee anniversaries and milestones, we’ve got the tips and templates you celebrate like a boss.

Why create employee celebration videos

In today's work environment, employee recognition can easily get overlooked. Many businesses have adopted a hybrid or remote office environment which makes public recognition difficult and insincere. Slack messages are a nice way to say thanks, but is a gif really enough to show your appreciation for an employee’s achievements?

Employee celebration videos go beyond the ordinary, offering a fun, engaging, and impactful way to show your appreciation. Imagine: a heartfelt video montage filled with funny photos, well-wishes from colleagues, and a touch of inside jokes - all delivered directly to your employee’s screen for them to cherish forever. These benefits extend beyond individual recognition - celebration videos foster a positive company culture, attract top talent, and showcase your employer brand in a unique and authentic way.

With an easy to use video maker, anyone in your organization can create a video whenever the celebration arises. You can support team cohesion and culture not just from the HR or people operations team, but managers, coworkers, and even your C-suite can get in on the action.

So let’s get started, shall we?

How to create an employee celebration video

Step 1: Plan your video

There are so many reasons to celebrate your employees! Think:

• Employee birthdays
• Team wins and accomplishments
• Anniversaries
• Retirements
• Spotlights for going above and beyond
• Promotions
• Holiday wishes
• Returns from parental leave
• And more

There’s no shortage of occasions worth a fun shoutout video. Before you get started, think about the kind of video you want to create, who you want it to be from, and who else you might want to get involved like their teammates or managers.

For this example, we’re going to create an employee anniversary video from a manager.

Step 2: Choose a template

You don’t have to start from scratch – we’ve done all the groundwork for you! Just choose a free video template that matches the theme and goal of your video. You can always customize the colors, media, music, message, and more to make it your own.

We chose the Employee Anniversary template for this video. Click the button below to use this one, or choose from our most popular employee celebration templates.

Step 3: Upload your photos and video clips

Once you’ve found your reason to celebrate, start collecting your content! We recommend adding photos or videos from past company events, professional headshots, your logo, and pictures of your team. You can upload them directly from your device or by connecting to the cloud storage platform of your choosing.

Now is also a good time to start gathering personalized messages from the rest of your team! You can copy and paste them into your video later.

Step 4: Customize the look and feel

Now it’s time to turn our templates into your very own video! Start by heading over to the design tab. Here, you can change the colors in the template to your brand colors or create your own custom saved brand. Then, select or upload the font that matches your brand.

Step 5: Add your message and media

Now our template is ready for your story. Drag and drop your photos and video clips throughout the template to show off your star employees and make them feel seen and appreciated. Play with different layouts to really make your photos shine. If you’re running short on media, just pull your favorites from our Getty Images Media Library.

Next, add a warm employee anniversary message and copy and paste any other messages from your team. To make your message feel and sound more personal, you can take things a step further by recording a message on your webcam or creating a voice-over.

Finally, close out the video with your logo or sign off from you and your team.

Step 6: Add music

No video is complete without music! Each template comes preloaded with a licensed music track, but if you want to switch things up, you can browse our full music library. Filter by mood, genre, and tempo to find the perfect match for your personalized office celebration video.

Step 7: Share and celebrate!

And there you have it! A professional celebration video for your employees, made in minutes.

You can download and share your video to your favorite messaging platform or email server. Or, share it during your next all-hands meeting or Zoom call! There are so many ways to get the word out and build your company culture with celebration videos.

Pro tips for maximizing engagement (and fun!)

• Keep it short and sweet: Aim for 1-2 minutes to maintain engagement.
• Focus on quality over perfection: Don't overthink it, have fun!
• Incorporate humor: Jokes, funny stories, and lightheartedness go a long way.
• Share and celebrate: Post the video on internal channels, tag the honoree, and encourage comments to boost camaraderie.

Popular employee celebration video templates

At Animoto, we have hundreds of templates to choose from and you can always create your own video from scratch! If you have another celebration video idea in mind, use one of the templates below and get started in an instant. Or, dig in and browse the full library here.

Birthday wishes for employee

Team wins and accomplishments

Employee appreciation day videos

Retirement videos

Employee spotlight videos

Make office celebration videos for any occasion with Animoto

So, are you ready to ditch the stale celebrations and unleash the power of video? Head over to Animoto to whip up stunning videos in minutes, even if you're a newbie. No fancy editing skills required! Start celebrating your amazing employees today and witness the magic of genuine, personalized appreciation unfold. You might just be surprised at the impact a simple video can have!