These instructions will help you implement automated employee rewards using Zapier and Google Sheets. The automatic workflow (called a "Zap") sends a Giftbit reward email to each employee in your organization on the anniversary of their hire date.
Before you begin setup of the Zap, gather the employee email addresses, first names, and hire dates in a Google spreadsheet. You'll also need to create an employee recognition-themed reward template in your Giftbit account.
In Zapier, make a new Zap. The Zap has four steps: a Trigger, a Formatter, a Delay, and an Action.
How to Set up the Trigger
Choose Google Sheets as the trigger app.
Choose New Row Added as the trigger event.
Log into your Google account and choose the spreadsheet (and the worksheet) that contains the employee list.
Run a test so that Zapier can detect the contents of the spreadsheet (this will be useful when connecting the data fields in the other steps).
How to Reformat the Hire Date
Since each hire date is in the past, they require reformatting in order to function as anniversary dates in the future.
Click the plus symbol between the Trigger and the Action.
Choose Formatter by Zapier.
Choose the Date/Time event.
Connect the data field to the column that contains the hire date (MM/DD/YYYY) in the spreadsheet.
Convert the value of the field to a month and a day (MM/DD).
How to Add a Delay
The Formatter step will pass the MM/DD value to the delay and schedule the trigger to fire on a specific calendar date.
Click the plus symbol between the Formatter step and the Action.
Choose Delay by Zapier.
Choose the Delay Until event.
Connect the Delay data field to the output of the Formatter step.
How to Set up the Action
In the Action step, choose Giftbit and choose Send Reward.
Log into your Giftbit account.
Choose your employee recognition template.
Connect the Recipient Email data field to the spreadsheet column containing the employee emails.
Connect the Recipient First Name data field to the spreadsheet column containing the employee names.
If your spreadsheet doesn't have any duplicate values, you don't need to enable the Reward Limit.
How to Activate the Zap
Click the Publish button to make your Zap active, and it should trigger on the next earliest anniversary date.
The Zap will work through all the rows in the spreadsheet once and process an anniversary reward for each employee. If you want the anniversary rewards to continue for another year, you can redo the setup in 12 months to restart the process. This will also give you an opportunity to add new hires and remove former employees from the list.
Troubleshooting
If an employee moves onto a new opportunity and exits the organization, you can delete a pending trigger event by clicking on the Zap History.
The trigger entries likely won't be labeled with an email address or name (because the action step hasn't happened yet), but you can use the hire date in the trigger details to identify specific entries.
Check the box next to the entry and click Delete to cancel it. If you're unable to cancel the pending trigger, you can also manage the reward in Giftbit after the trigger fires.
Need more help with the setup for your Zap? Contact us, and we'd love to help out!