You’ve made it through the holiday call volume surge. Your team handled the pressure, hit their targets, and now things are finally settling down. But as January unfolds, a different challenge often emerges: agents start handing in resignation notices, and the staffing stability you fought to maintain begins to slip.
Q1 attrition doesn’t happen by accident. Post-holiday burnout, delayed job searches that waited until the new year, and the natural reset that comes with January all contribute to higher turnover during the first quarter.
Why Q1 Attrition Hits Contact Centers Hard
January often brings a noticeable uptick in employee departures, and understanding why this happens helps you plan more effectively.
Post-Holiday Burnout After Peak Seasons
The weeks leading up to the holidays demand intense effort from contact center teams. Extended hours, higher call volumes, and the pressure to maintain service levels take a toll. By January, Q1 attrition kicks in from agents who’ve been running on fumes may lack the energy to continue, and burnout often surfaces weeks after the intense period ends.
Delayed Resignations Come Due in January
Many employees wait until after the holidays to resign. They want to collect year-end bonuses or avoid job hunting during the busy season. January becomes the natural breaking point when these delayed decisions are executed. Case in point; the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), listed the total separation rate across all industries in January 2025 was 3.3 percent.¹
New Year Job Market Activity Accelerates Turnover
The new year brings a psychological fresh start that prompts career changes. Job boards see increased activity in January, creating more opportunities for your agents to explore other options. When combined with lingering burnout, this timing often accelerates departure decisions.
Turnover Costs Add Up
Replacing a single employee could cost between 50 percent and four times that person’s annual salary, depending on the role and experience level.² When multiple agents leave within the same quarter, these costs compound quickly and impact your operational budget.
Proactive Workforce Planning That Prevents Q1 Attrition Gaps
The key to managing Q1 attrition isn’t reacting faster when resignations arrive but building systems that reduce turnover impact before it disrupts operations. Here’s how:
Forecast Q1 Attrition Patterns Using Historical Data
Review the past two to three years of turnover data and identify patterns: which months see the highest resignation rates, which roles experience the most turnover, and how long employees typically stay.
Key data points include monthly resignation rates by team, average tenure before departure, and seasonal patterns that correlate with turnover spikes. This historical perspective helps you anticipate staffing needs and allocate resources before gaps emerge.
Build Buffer Capacity into Q4 Hiring Plans
If your data shows predictable Q1 attrition, plan for it during Q4 hiring. Bring on additional staff before the holiday rush with the understanding that some positions may open in January. This buffer approach means you’re not starting from zero when resignations arrive. You’ve already built capacity that absorbs normal turnover without service disruptions.
Strengthen Your Mission-Critical
Support Operations
complex workflows, regulated
environments, and high-pressure
service demands.
Strengthen Onboarding to Improve Early Retention
Strong onboarding directly impacts how long employees stay with your organization. According to the Society for Human Resources (SHRM), employees are 58 percent more likely to stay with a company for three years if they have a structured onboarding experience.
Beyond retention, the same research found that new hires are 50 percent more productive when they go through standardized onboarding, and those who had a great onboarding experience are 2.6 times more likely to be extremely satisfied at work.³
Effective onboarding should include:
- Clear role expectations and performance metrics communicated from day one
- Structured training programs that build confidence gradually rather than overwhelming new hires
- Regular check-ins during the first 90 days to address concerns before they become reasons to leave
- Mentorship or buddy systems that help new hires integrate socially and understand team dynamics
The investment in thorough onboarding pays off most during high-risk turnover periods like Q1. Employees who felt supported and prepared during their first months are less likely to join the wave of January resignations, even when external job market activity picks up.
Effective onboarding can also shave months off a new hire’s time-to-productivity, which means they contribute meaningfully to your team faster and develop stronger connections to their role before turnover pressure peaks.
Create Flexible Staffing Arrangements for Quick Backfill
Having flexible staffing arrangements means you can backfill positions quickly without lengthy recruitment cycles. Temporary and temp-to-hire arrangements provide immediate coverage while you evaluate candidates for permanent placement. This flexibility maintains service continuity during unpredictable turnover or volume spikes.
Partner with a Staffing Firm Who Understands Seasonal Cycles
Partner with a staffing firm that specializes in contact center environments and maintain pre-screened candidate pipelines for rapid deployment during high-need periods. Salem Solutions, for instance, understands the specific skills your contact center needs, reducing training time and accelerating new hire productivity. When Q1 resignations arrive, you’re activating relationships that are already in place rather than starting recruitment from scratch.
We deliver trained, dependable agents ready to support both federally regulated programs and fast-paced commercial environments.Your Next Bench of
High-Performing
Agents Starts Here
Start the Year with a Stable, Retention-Ready Workforce
Q1 attrition doesn’t have to mean starting over with new hires and scrambling to fill gaps. Salem Solutions helps contact centers in both federal and commercial environments maintain staffing stability through high-risk turnover periods with pre-screened talent pipelines and flexible staffing arrangements that adapt to your needs.
Whether you need temporary coverage during transition periods or temp-to-hire arrangements that reduce long-term risk, we provide the workforce support that keeps your operations running smoothly.
Contact us today to explore how proactive workforce planning can protect your Q1 attrition challenges before they impact service delivery.
References
1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey News Release. 11 Mar. 2025,https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/jolts_03112025.htm.
2. Warner, Carol. The Real Cost of Employee Turnover Now.HRMorning, 23 Apr. 2025,https://www.hrmorning.com/articles/real-cost-employee-turnover/.
3. Kosinski, Matthew. Onboarding: The Key to Elevating Your Company Culture. SHRM, 30 May 2023,https://www.shrm.org/executive-network/insights/onboarding-key-to-elevating-company-culture.
