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- 🔔 Holiday OOO Readiness, Learning Videos, TikTok's Office Push - Dec 22, 2025
🔔 Holiday OOO Readiness, Learning Videos, TikTok's Office Push - Dec 22, 2025
From juggling time-off plans to mastering video learning—your HR update is inside.
Hey HR Pros! ❄️ OOO calendars multiply faster than PTO requests. It’s peak holiday season, where cheer meets coverage planning. Here’s to juggling out-of-office magic, fairness, and compliance.
On today’s agenda:
🎯 Culture crush [trend]
🏢 TikTok’s office push
TODAY’S CULTURE CUE
🕰️ Stop Holiday OOO Panic in 15 Minutes - Ask teams to share OOO dates, backups, and key tasks in one shared doc or chat thread so work keeps moving while people unplug.
THE HR SPOTLIGHT
🔔 Holiday OOO Readiness: Keeping Calm & Coverage Through the Cheer
The holiday season is here — which for HR means balancing merry time off with business needs. With nearly all employees planning to take time off and many feeling pressured to stay connected even while OOO, it’s a prime moment to get coverage right. Dayforce reports that nearly 95% of workers plan to take holiday time off, yet only 42% fully unplug — and 65% feel pressure to stay available even while ostensibly away.
📉 The coverage conundrum - Many teams shrink just when workload can remain steady. A vast majority of staff are eager for PTO, but burnout is common — 55% of U.S. workers report holiday-season burnout. With fewer employees on deck, service expectations can still hold firm. Shifts, approvals, and OOO requests pile up, and cross-team visibility is often lacking.
📌 What HR can do: Be proactive, not reactive.
1) Publish PTO deadlines early and use shared calendars so everyone can see who’s off when.
2) Cross-train teams so no one person is a single-point failure.
3) Set clear expectations about coverage and communication boundaries.
4) Encourage true disconnect, not checking inboxes from the ski lodge — it’s healthier and boosts return productivity.
Think of coverage planning like holiday cookie sharing — balance is key, and everyone benefits when there’s enough to go around!
 | WEEKLY GOODY |
TOGETHER WITH iSPRING
🖼️ Master the Art of Learning Videos
Would you like to take your training content to the next level? Our latest guide, How to Create Learning Videos: From Planning to Sharing, walks you through the entire process, from scripting and recording to editing and distribution.
You’ll discover useful tips, recommended tools, and best practices for creating videos that truly engage and educate your learners.
THE HR PULSE
📉 $1.3T Attrition Risk Ahead — HR Digest
What’s unfolding: A new report warns U.S. employers could lose at least $1.3 trillion in 2026 due to rising employee turnover tied to poor engagement and lack of appreciation.
Why it matters: High attrition directly impacts workforce costs and productivity. HR should strengthen retention strategies by investing in manager training, recognition programs, and employee development.
🏢 TikTok’s Full-Time Office Push — People Matters
What’s unfolding: TikTok is ending hybrid arrangements and requiring many U.S. staff to work fully onsite five days a week starting next year.
Why it matters: HR teams should be concerned about morale and retention as employees push back on stricter in-office mandates. Proactively support managers in communicating the business rationale and listening to employee needs to ease the transition.
🤖 Workers See AI as a Boost — HR Morning
What’s unfolding: A global survey finds that 85% of workers expect artificial intelligence to improve their jobs over the next two years, even as AI reshapes roles and tasks.
Why it matters: HR must balance optimism with strategy by equipping teams with AI skills and transparent policies, helping leaders integrate AI responsibly while ensuring employees feel supported.
RESOURCE ROUNDUP
 | Omni HR |
 | Team Sense |
COMPLIANCE CORNER
☎️ Bias Hotline for White Men? — BW People
What’s unfolding: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair urged white men to report workplace discrimination, sparking debate about DEI policies and who they protect.
HR implications: This signals stepped-up scrutiny of hiring, promotion, and DEI practices; HR leaders must audit policies now to prevent claims from any demographic group and ensure equal-opportunity compliance.
💸 HR on Trial: $11.5M Lesson — The NatLaw Review
What’s unfolding: A jury ruled SHRM liable for racial discrimination and retaliation tied to flawed internal investigations, awarding $11.5 million in damages.
HR implications: The case shows how poor investigations can be catastrophic; leaders must train investigators, ensure neutrality, and document processes thoroughly to avoid legal and reputational fallout.
⚔️ AI Rules Turf War — HR Morning
What’s unfolding: A new executive order seeks a federal approach to AI regulation and challenges state laws, but employers must still comply with existing state requirements for now.
HR implications: HR teams must prepare for shifting compliance—keep following state AI hiring rules today, plan possible changes, and track deadlines on federal guidance, evaluations, and litigation outcomes.
TREND WATCH
🎯 Culture Crush: Why People Stay (or Leave)
Digesting the data: New findings from EY’s 2025 U.S. Generation Survey reveal that workplace culture now outranks salary as the dominant factor influencing employee retention, with nearly all surveyed professionals saying culture dictates their choice to stay at a job and 60% saying it matters “a great deal.”
The most important cultural element? How people treat one another — ranking above leadership style, career growth opportunities, or company values in its impact on retention. This underscores a broader shift: in a year marked by economic uncertainty and workforce churn, workers increasingly value relational and human aspects of work over traditional compensation levers.
Outlook for HR: For HR leaders, this isn’t just another trend — it’s a strategic imperative. Retention won’t improve merely through pay adjustments; companies must cultivate an authentic, respectful culture and invest in learning, inclusion, and everyday interactions that make employees feel valued. That means auditing management behaviors, boosting people-skills training, and measuring culture sentiment regularly to close perception gaps before top talent walks.
UPCOMING EVENTS
 | Dec 8, Virtual - HR Morning |
 | On-Demand, Virtual - Lattice |
BREAKROOM
SMART READS
🛷 20 Creative Employee Engagement Activities
🍴 Yummy Christmas Recipe Ideas for the Office
⭐ Examples of Giving Constructive Feedback
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