Overview

The Employee Newsletter's People block lets you celebrate your colleagues directly in your newsletter by including employee milestone events, birthdays, work anniversaries, and new hires. Instead of manually searching the intranet or contacting HR for this information, newsletter creators can now find and add milestone recipients quickly using a built-in date filter.

This feature is available to all newsletter creators and managers.

1. Milestone event types

The People block includes three dedicated tabs for tracking and celebrating milestone events:

2. Step-by-step implementation workflow

Follow this procedure to pull and filter automated milestone data into your newsletter canvas layout:

1. Deploy the People block: canvas setup. In the newsletter editor workspace, drag and drop a People block onto your active newsletter layout structure.

1. Select the milestone target: category selection. In the block settings configuration panel on the right side of the screen, select the specific milestone tab you want to display: Birthdays, Work Anniversaries, or New Hires.

2. Apply the date filter: time window mapping. Use the built-in date filter tool to select your target time range. You can configure the query window to pull either past milestones or upcoming milestones within your specified period.

3. Review and confirm selection: data finalisation. The block will automatically populate with user profiles falling within that designated date range. Review the generated list and confirm your selection before continuing.

Technical layout and display configurations

Handling multiple milestone types: each individual People block supports exactly one milestone event type at a time. If you want to showcase multiple event categories in a single newsletter — such as birthdays and work anniversaries, you must stack separate, individual People blocks for each type.

Visual interface formats: once your milestone data is active, you can control the design density using three profile layouts:

• Large cards: a prominent, high-impact display featuring large profile photos and accompanying work details.

• List: a compact, text-focused, horizontally organised layout optimised for space-saving.

• Avatars only: a clean, minimal layout displaying only rows of profile pictures.

Backend prerequisites and limitations

Strategic best practices

• Synchronise broadcast timing: align your newsletter dispatch cadence with your date filters. For example, schedule a weekly Monday newsletter that spans birthdays and anniversaries occurring during that upcoming week.

• Stack blocks logically: when using multiple blocks for different event types, arrange them in a clean chronological sequence (e.g., greet New Hires first, followed by Birthdays, and then Work Anniversaries) to optimise readability.

• Layer text introductions: always pair your milestone block with a standard Text block directly above it to introduce the section with a warm message (e.g., "Wishing a very happy birthday to these amazing colleagues!").

• Calibrate date windows: use the date range filters carefully. Selecting too wide of a window can create a giant layout that triggers clipping, while an overly narrow window might leave the card blank.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Can one People block display both birthdays and work anniversaries together?

Ans: No. Each People block supports only one milestone event type at a time. To show multiple event categories in the same newsletter, you'll need to stack separate People blocks for each type.

Q: Why aren't any employees showing up under the Birthdays tab?

Ans: This usually means the Birthday field hasn't been toggled on in Application > Management > People > Profile fields. This field must be explicitly enabled for profiles to populate under that tab.

Q: Why aren't any employees showing up under the Work Anniversaries tab?

Ans: Check that the Hire Date field has been toggled on in Application > Management > People > Profile fields, as this is required for profiles to populate under that tab.

Q: Can I filter milestone events by department or location as well as date?

Ans: No. Milestone tabs only support filtering by date range; custom category filters aren't currently available for these blocks.

Q: Which profile layout should I use for a large, high-impact milestone display?

Ans: The Large cards layout is best suited for a prominent display, since it features larger profile photos alongside work details. List and Avatars only are more compact options if you want to save space.

Q: How wide should my date filter window be?

Ans: It depends on your newsletter cadence, but be careful not to set it too wide, as this can create an overly long layout that triggers clipping, or too narrow, which might leave the block empty.

Q: Is milestone data updated automatically, or do I need to refresh it manually?

Ans: Milestone metrics are pulled in real time from active employee profiles, so as long as organisation-wide profile data is accurate and up to date, the block will reflect current information automatically.