The EA guide to finding work anniversary dates
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by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries. |
First things first, you can’t help anyone with work anniversaries if you don’t know when they are.
If they aren’t already readily available, then you’ll need to reach out to HR to get access.
You’ll want to start by requesting access to your organization’s HRIS (human resource information system, or sometimes referred to as employee tracking system). Most HRIS systems will have a level of access that provides basic employee information without any of the super sensitive stuff. This will include start dates, which you’ll need for work anniversaries, but also addresses and phone numbers, which may on occasion be useful for you to know when supporting your executive.
If HR isn’t able to give you access to the HRIS system, then the next best thing to ask is whether a monthly report can be set up to be sent to you on the 15th of every month with a list of all the employees having work anniversaries the following month, along with their hire dates. Creating automatically sent out reports like this is a very common and easy thing to do with an HRIS system.
If HR isn’t able to give you access or set up an automated report for you, the last option is to ask them to manually pull a list of work anniversaries and send it to you. The list you get should be complete until a year later, as new hires won’t hit their first work anniversary until a year later, so you only need a new list about every 10 or 11 months.
I would not recommend trying to update that initial list manually yourself by keeping track of new hires, even if you’re at a small company. With that approach, there’s a lot of risk of the two start dates diverging, and that can lead to confusion and disappointment.
If you do get access to the HRIS, then one feature to look for is that some HRIS systems will allow you to export a work anniversary calendar directly into your calendar system. If part of your reminding approach is to have work anniversaries on calendars, which is recommended, then that export feature can save a lot of work and avoid accidentally putting in the wrong date.
👉 Check out more work anniversary blog posts for executive assistants! 👈
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