The WFM Professional of the Year Award – From “Me” to “We”

By Brandon Emms, Greenshield

“Music is the soundtrack of your life.” – Dick Clark

It is very fitting that each year SWPP hosts their annual conference in Nashville, which is nicknamed Music City. The city is brimming with music everywhere: from the Grand Ole Opry showcasing the strengths of country music greats to Lower Broadway downtown where up-and-comers get a chance to be discovered. When you are travelling through the city, you have a literal soundtrack being played by many, adding a pep to your step or a backdrop for exploration.
Each of these soundtrack elements in Music City come from a band: a group of people with various skills, that when coordinated together, sound amazing. The resulting sound brings about feelings of harmony, joy, and other emotions that we, the listener, often associate with our visit – the background track to our day.

SWPP is much like a band. While many members of the SWPP Board of Advisors can literally be your backup band (for example, singing Mustang Sally with the Todd-father, Todd Gladden, or Rick Seeley on the drums), the support of SWPP as a whole goes a long way for many of their members; myself included. Each year, they choose a proverbial lead singer to jump on stage with them. In 2023, I had the honor, the privilege, and the recognition to be chosen as SWPP’s Workforce Management Professional of the Year.

I recall the announcement day well. Just after lunch on the first day of the annual conference, the maestro Vicki Herrell, Executive Director of SWPP, arrived on stage to announce the nominees for the award. I joined Vicki on stage with four other extremely talented workforce management professionals, each of us being accompanied by a chorus of accolades, accomplishments, and credentials being “sung” by a member of the board. Once all five of us arrived front and center, I was able to take a moment to revel in moment as I thought of the professional horsepower that I was surrounded by. Each of my fellow finalists were all worthy and deserving of this award. Much like a record label producer visiting downtown, looking to sign a new band, and being overwhelmed with so much talent to choose from, Vicki and the board had to make a tough decision. When I heard my name called as the award winner, I was filled with a sense of joy, pride, and humbleness that swelled into thankfulness, respect, and reflection.

While the rest of the conference this year was truly great, filled with meeting new people, sharing stories with colleagues met in years’ past, and hosting a session with members of the GreenShield WFM team, it felt surreal. People stopped me to congratulate me, connect with me, and to share stories from their field. I was given an opportunity to learn so much, so fast, about many different aspects of WFM, SWPP, and the community. I felt like a mini-celebrity as the whole community embraced me.

Perhaps the most interesting element of this, however, was translating what this award meant across my professional network. In doing so, I found that there were essentially three buckets of people: those with an understanding of WFM principles (such as fellow attendees of the conference, trusted peers); friends and family members; and other business colleagues. These groups of people all reacted to the news of winning in a different way.

For those that have some investment into the world of WFM, they understood what winning this award meant. It served as a symbol for hard work spent in the scheduling windows of a Workforce Optimization (WFO) tool, the countless meetings educating staff on the importance of adherence or the Power of One, and constant barrage of sizing requests related to possible new business. The award enveloped a sense of importance and recognition for contributions that can sometimes go unnoticed. It served as inspiration for others to chase the award.

When my family and friends heard the news that I won an award, they were right there to celebrate. My wife jumped to social media and shared how proud she was of me before I even had a chance to do so. Friends reached out with congratulations, including some I don’t have the chance to chat with as often as I would like. Many had no idea what the award meant, but they were supportive of me, were proud of me, and wanted to create a memorable experience because they understood that it was important to me. For that, I am truly thankful.

On the flip side, however, business colleagues that are not as familiar with SWPP or WFM were a bit more reserved. When sharing the news, I received congratulations, pleasantries, and general remarks, but it felt like they were missing a true understanding. Initially, I was let down by their responses. Then, with the encouragement of a close friend, we tackled this element with a tool we have used many times from our workforce toolbelt: communication geared towards our business leaders.

From that moment on, we set out to explain the award to different groups using analogies that would make sense to them. Sales teams love a good winning sotry – we told them that the award was winning a competition. We competed against large, brand-recognizable organizations, skilled and talented business leaders, and a rigorous board of directors. For the Training and Operations groups, we talked about how the award demonstrated our competency and resilience. We explained to the finance gurus that we had invested in our WFM team and have a beacon to harness all those hours towards. We demonstrated in a large market that we know how to extract value from our WFO software, bringing a sense of relief to our IT partners and procurement teams.

In reading this, I trust you also noticed one important element – winning the 2023 SWPP Professional of Year award originally meant something to me, but it became so much more when the narrative transitioned to we. Like we see a lot in Music City, the songwriter gets their credit, but it is the performance of the band that brings the song to life. It’s the band that plays together, that sings the soundtrack to this chapter of my life.

Warm regards, with a slamming back beat,

Brandon Emms

P.S. Thank you to all of my WFM bandmates, my GreenShield roadies, and my family production staff.0