📬 Post-Holiday Inbox, January Turnover Alert, HR's 2026 Upgrade Kit - Jan 5, 2026

Hello, Culture Champs! 💪 Back from the break and staring down a very full inbox? It’s the first Monday back—let’s tackle what HR should prioritize first and ditch the busywork this week.

TODAY’S CULTURE CUE
🧹 Inbox triage - Ask team leads to flag top 3 urgent items by EOD today—delegate fast, align priorities, and reduce inbox noise before it snowballs.

Welcome back! If your out-of-office is off but your inbox is very much on, you’re not alone. The first week back is when HR gets hit with everything at once—so let’s tackle it smartly, not frantically.

👀 The situation: Too many pings, not enough time
After year-end PTO and holiday pauses, most HR leaders return to:

• A surge of benefits questions, payroll corrections, compliance nudges, recruiting follow-ups, and “just circling back” emails.

• Managers expecting instant answers while priorities are still settling.

• An inbox that quietly multiplied while you were gone.

It’s a real issue: A survey on Employee Email Overwhelm shows 44.7% of workers report negative feelings about inbox overload, and 31.6% say they’ve missed important info because of email volume—not great for focus or engagement .

🚦 What HR can do: Triage, don’t react
Implement a simple first-week filter using email tags to regain control:

• Respond (Now): Payroll issues, compliance deadlines, employee relations, legal or safety items.

• Revisit (Soon): Benefits explanations, recruiting updates, policy clarifications—time-block these.

• Defer (Deliberately): FYIs, newsletters, low-impact threads—tag or archive without guilt.

Productivity experts recommend batching and prioritizing instead of reacting to every ping .

Treat your inbox like a triage desk—not a fire alarm. Sort fast, focus on impact, and remember: not every email is an emergency (even if it’s marked urgent).

📍Managing the Post-Holiday Email Avalanche »

THE HR PULSE

RESOURCE ROUNDUP

🌍 H‑2B Lifeline for Seasonal Hiring — Percepture

🏛️ Fed Workers Sue Over Care Cut — HR Grapevine

🧓 Retiree Pay Freeze Woes — WUSA9

TREND WATCH

📈 January Turnover Alert: Employees Eye New Jobs

Digesting the data: New research shows that heading into 2026, about 38% of U.S. workers say they plan to start job hunting in January, up substantially from mid‑2025 figures — a strong early indicator that the so‑called “job freeze” is thawing.

This trend shows up before formal resignations, revealed in rising off‑cycle compensation questions, benefits inquiries and “just curious” career conversations that start landing in HR inboxes early in the year. January becomes less about seeing who actually quits and more about spotting who’s thinking about it first — and that early intent often predicts exits well before notices hit the desk.

Outlook for HR: For HR pros, this means the first weeks of the year are a strategic retention window, not a slow return from holidays — proactive check‑ins, clarity on pay/promotion timelines, and listening for early turnover signals can make the difference between retaining key talent and scrambling to fill seats later. Don’t wait for official resignations; act on those early pings so you can influence decisions before they solidify.

👉 Check out the full report on HR Morning »

UPCOMING EVENTS

Key features:

1. HRCloud – Unified cloud platform for HR, payroll, benefits, and compliance.

2. Recruiting & Onboarding Tools – Automates hiring and candidate tracking from job posting to offer.

3. Performance & Time Management – Tracks goals, performance reviews, attendance, and PTO.

4. Work Anywhere® Mobile – Mobile access and HR self‑service tools for remote teams.

SMART READS

✨ Retaining Top Talent in a Borderless Workforce

🖥️ Hot Desking 101: Guide to a Flexible Workspace

💡 Online Degrees & Employee Motivation

QUICK POLL