Draft Agenda
SWPP Annual Conference
April 27-29, 2026
Sunday, April 26
4:00-6:00 p.m. – Registration
4:00-5:00 p.m. – Complimentary Pre-Conference Session
Roadmap to the SWPP Annual Conference. New to the SWPP conference? Come to this fun and interactive session to hear how to make the most of your time at this event. Review the agenda and learn how these key topics will give you specific takeaways for your organization and help you with business decisions down the road. – Speaker: Jessica Harris, School Specialty
5:00-6:00 p.m. – Complimentary Pre-Conference Session
Speed Networking. Everyone has heard of Speed Dating. Attend this session for a variation that will help you start off the conference with a bunch of new friends! In our Speed Networking session, you will spend just a few minutes getting to know some of your fellow attendees, and exchange business cards so that you can talk more over the next few days and keep in touch after the conference is over.
Monday, April 27
7:30-9:30 a.m. – Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:30-10:45 a.m. – Welcome & Keynote Address
The New WFM Mandate: Agility, Automation, and Executive Influence.
Workforce Management now sits at the intersection of service performance, cost control, employee experience, and technology change. In this mainstage opening panel, three WFM leaders share what they are prioritizing right now, what keeps breaking in their planning assumptions, and how they are adapting to shifting demand, channel complexity, and executive scrutiny.
The conversation covers practical realities: improving agility without sacrificing rigor, expanding WFM influence beyond the contact center into back-office and enterprise capacity planning, and converting AI and automation from hype into measurable operational wins. Attendees will leave with a clear lens for the conference, including the themes and sessions that align to today’s most urgent WFM challenges, plus questions to bring back to their teams.
Moderator: Justin Robbins, Metric Sherpa
Panelists: Tatiana Morrell, Coinbase, Mark Rhodes, Edward Jones, & Damon Spurlock, Fabletics
11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. – Workshops
Forecasting Basics: Predicting for Months, Weeks, Days, and Intervals. In this basic workshop, you will learn some of the critical considerations for preparing data for the forecasting process. Then learn how to use this historical data to identify trend rates and seasonality patterns for a monthly call forecast. After the monthly forecast is in place, the next step in the planning process is to break down the predictions to weekly, daily, and interval numbers. Hear the process and calculations to use to distribute a monthly workload all the way down into intervals for scheduling. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
KPI Drift: Why Modern Workforce Metrics Are Quietly Breaking and How Leaders Stay Ahead. Service level. AHT. Shrinkage. Occupancy. For decades, these KPIs anchored workforce performance. But in today’s AI-augmented, digitally accelerated contact centers, those metrics are drifting, and many leaders don’t realize it until performance volatility, rising costs, or agent burnout expose the gap. AI containment shifts interaction mix. Digital adoption changes demand curves. Skill complexity increases. Hybrid work alters adherence patterns. The result? Traditional KPIs no longer behave predictably, and reacting to yesterday’s numbers creates tomorrow’s disruption. This session explores why workforce metrics are evolving faster than planning models, how to detect KPI drift before it impacts outcomes, and what high-performing organizations are doing to continuously recalibrate performance in a volatile environment. – Speaker: Alain Mowad, Aspect
WFM's Unfair Advantage in the AI Era. Every contact center leader is watching their AI resolution rate climb. Fewer calls, faster answers, lower cost-to-serve — the metrics look great. But underneath those numbers, something is quietly shifting: the inputs that WFM depends on to do its job. When AI handles your simplest contacts, your historical volume data loses its reliability as a forecasting baseline. When agents only touch complex issues, handle time goes up — not because they slowed down, but because the work got harder. When deflection absorbs volume without reducing headcount, capacity planning needs a new framework entirely. The teams that recognize this first aren't scrambling to keep up with AI. They're using it as the reason to finally get a seat at the strategic table. This session makes the case for why WFM is the function best positioned to lead in an AI-first contact center, and what it takes to step into that role. – Speaker: Ryan Wang, Assembled
Beyond the Basics – Transform your operations with What-if Scenario Modeling. Forecasting errors don’t just hurt your numbers - they hurt your team. In this practical session, we’ll show how workforce planners use rapid-fire what-if scenarios to stay ahead of staffing shocks, hiring freezes, and executive pivots….because being 1% off isn’t a rounding error - it’s a risk to budgets, SLAs, and team trust. Whether you’re building in Excel or exploring a capacity planning solution like Cinareo, you’ll walk away with practical strategies to move away from being reactive to being strategic. Expect real examples, audience participation, and proven techniques you can put to use immediately. – Speakers: Mark Alpern, Cinareo, & Damon Spurlock, Fabletics
Generative AI Effectiveness in Workforce Management. Generative AI (GenAI) tools promise significant advantages, leading to increased efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and enhancing productivity by allowing analysts to focus on higher-value activities like interpretation and strategy. This session presents four practical use cases exploring key applications of GenAI in workforce solutions including: accelerating code development through AI-assisted debugging, using platforms like Gemini to streamline conceptualization into AI-powered flowcharts (which often require extensive human iteration and context to be usable), empowering domain experts to derive insights from data using natural language tools like Google Gemini, and executing complex investigative data science tasks. Attendees will gain insight for effective AI utilization and discuss why coding skills, domain fluency, and fundamental WFM concepts remain critical requirements to ensure accurate and reliable AI-generated results. – Speaker: Joey Campbell, Google
Implementing Back Office Short-Term Forecasting & Task-Based Scheduling. How do you handle seasonality factors and unexpected change in call volume and back-office task work? We will walk you through our methods of internal staffing and skilling to handle peak volume without the use of external resources. Discussion will include proactive business contingency planning, cross skilling, and real time mitigation to provide undisrupted customer service and meet business SLA's. – Speakers: Becky Denman & Kat Castro, Progressive Insurance
Bringing Machine Learning to Life in Capacity Planning at U.S. Bank. Discover how U.S. Bank is transforming workforce capacity planning through machine learning. This session walks through the journey from identifying the right use cases to deploying models in production, highlighting key lessons in data preparation, model governance, and continuous improvement. Attendees will gain practical insights into how machine learning can significantly improve forecasting accuracy and what it takes to implement and sustain these solutions in a real-world business environment. – Speakers: Jeff Becze & Francis Martinson, U.S. Bank
Building a Capacity Framework for Effective Stakeholder Support in WFM. In this session, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to establish a framework to effectively manage their WFM team’s capacity needs, prioritize tasks, and offer tailored support solutions aligned with business objectives. It will include the implementation of this framework, emphasizing the importance of developing RACI matrices, engagement models, management processes, and service offerings. Attendees will benefit from practical insights through samples and real-world examples provided throughout the presentation. – Speakers: Jessie Cessna & Cody Janiga-Stoll, Northwestern Mutual
The Future Forum for Workforce Management. Contact center technology is changing seemingly at the speed of light. Workforce management is being redefined by technology, flexibility, and new employee expectations. What do you need to be prepared for and thinking about to stay one step ahead, not just in WFM, but in partnering with an ever-changing workforce? A panel of long-time industry veterans shares not only what they see in our future, but how they keep an eye on the current “prize” while navigating the sea of change. – Panelists: Tony Graczyk, Principal Financial Group, & Sandra McFatridge, Nissan
12:15-1:45 p.m. – Luncheon & WFM Professional of the Year Award
1:45-3:00 p.m. – Workshops
Essentials of Staffing: Models and Calculations for Contact Center Staff. Managing a contact center means managing by the numbers and the most important number is the right number of staff in seats at the right time. Learn the essentials of calculating staff requirements, including how to assemble workload and apply Erlang techniques to determine staffing to meet service goals. In addition to staffing for incoming telephone calls, learn how to calculate workload and apply the proper staffing techniques for outbound calling, email, and chat contacts. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
Beyond the Contact Center: Expanding Workforce Management into the Middle and Back Office. Customer work doesn’t stop at the contact center—it continues across multiple teams, systems, and days. Yet most Workforce Management practices still focus on forecasting and staffing only for front-office interactions, leaving gaps in visibility and planning for the middle and back office. In this session, we’ll explore how expanding WFM principles beyond the contact center helps organizations track work across its entire lifecycle—from initial contact to final resolution. Learn how modern forecasting and scheduling approaches can account for asynchronous, multi-step processes and help balance capacity across teams. - Speaker: Nathan Stearns, NiCE
Your Forecast Isn’t Broken—Your Data Is. This session introduces a different approach to forecasting: using a real-time data fabric built on event-level operational data. Instead of relying on delayed, summarized, or fragmented data, this approach captures and unifies every interaction as it happens, creating a more accurate foundation for workforce management and AI in increasingly complex contact center environments. Attendees will learn how better data can reduce forecast error, improve intraday adjustments, increase schedule adherence and agent utilization, support multi-vendor and multi-BPO environments, and enable more effective AI-driven forecasting and automation. Through practical examples and real-world use cases, this session will show how organizations are moving from reactive workforce management to proactive, data-driven, AI-enabled optimization. – Speaker: Steve Layer, QPC
Turn Insight into Action with Dynamic Workforce Orchestration. Service organizations generate more insight than ever — yet customer experiences remain fragmented because teams operate in disconnected silos. Dynamic Workforce Orchestration provides a unified execution layer that connects structured workforce teams across systems, functions, and channels. By normalizing workforce data, generating continuous operational insight, and activating real-time automation, organizations can align people, work, and demand as conditions change. The result is coordinated action and true service agility across the enterprise — not just isolated improvements within individual teams. Learn how leading organizations like McKesson are moving beyond traditional workforce management to create a more responsive, efficient, and seamless service model that delivers better outcomes for customers, employees, and the business. – Speakers: Trevor Cearley, McKesson, & Lizzie Strausbaugh & Rachel DiBello, Intradiem
YouTube’s Support Operations Transformation: From Foundational Reset to Future-Ready Workforce Planning. This session explores the strategic transformation within YouTube Global Vendor Operations, beginning with a foundational reset and progressing toward a more adaptive, future-ready operating model. We will reflect on the structural changes made over the past 3 years, including footprint optimization, service-level realignment, and channel rationalization, alongside the operational challenges that drove them. From there, we will examine how these shifts enabled new ways of operating through redesigned vendor partnerships, hybrid support models, and outcome-based billing. Looking ahead, we will share how emerging capabilities such as agentic AI and automated business planning are shaping the next phase of scale and resilience. Attendees will gain perspective on how these approaches can be applied within their own organizations to strengthen scalability, resilience, and workforce planning effectiveness across complex, enterprise-scale support environments. – Speakers: Kavya Gouni & Andrew Wang, YouTube
Workforce Management: The Contact Center MacGyver. WFM professionals are the ultimate MacGyvers and indispensable heroes who deliver consistent results that drive the business forward. We succeed despite systemic constraints or having the obvious tools to get the job done. We often lack the best technology, have limited time and resources, and almost certainly are equipped with questionable data. Despite these odds, we find that with a pipe (legacy software) a paperclip (Excel) and a little creativity, we weld things together to solve problems and prevent a staffing catastrophe. – Speaker: Jodi Maffitt, Enova
Real-Time or Bust: Turning AI Hype into WFM ROI. Everyone’s talking about AI, but most contact centers aren’t seeing measurable impact. The missing link? Real-time automation that connects your ACDs, WFM platform, and agent apps so the system can sense, decide, and act—instantly. In this session, we’ll show how AI-driven intraday reforecasting, dynamic skill/queue moves, and automated schedule updates protect service levels while putting idle time to work for coaching and development. You’ll see how an AI assistant can let agents self-serve schedule changes with immediate, policy-safe approvals—boosting E-NPS and reducing attrition—while trimming shrinkage costs and improving cost-to-serve. Walk away with a practical playbook to implement real-time guardrails, governance, and metrics that translate AI promises into business outcomes customers and agents actually feel. – Speaker: Damon Spurlock, Fabletics
WFM – The Foundation: Why Every Business Needs Strong Workforce Management. Most organizations think their problem is headcount, staffing levels, or “not enough people.” But underneath every operational struggle—long wait times, burnout, missed SLAs, budget overruns lives the same root issue: weak or nonexistent Workforce Management. WFM isn’t just about creating forecast and schedules. Workforce strategy sits at the core of EVERY single organization’s CX, EX, and business profitability journey. Without it, businesses operate on guesswork. With it, they operate on strategy. In this session, we’ll break down what WFM actually is, why it’s mission-critical across industries, and how even small improvements in forecasting, scheduling, and intraday execution can drive major business outcomes. Whether you’re a contact center leader, an operations manager, or a growing business with no formal WFM function yet, this session will show you why WFM isn’t optional—it’s essential. – Speaker: Juanita Coley, Solid Rock Consulting
Selling Workforce Topics to the Executive Level. This discussion will focus on how to effectively communicate and sell workforce needs to your executive team. We will breakdown how to identify the motivations of your audience and tailor detailed information to their level. If you have a particular topic you have had trouble getting buy-in for – join us! This will be a presentation full of audience participation. – Panelists: Bryan Hovasse, Point32 Health, Desiree Rivera, Google, Martin Osterman, Sentry Insurance, & Chad Pierce, Gerber Insurance
3:00-3:45 p.m. – Afternoon Break
3:45-5:00 p.m. – Workshops
Staffing Tradeoffs: Achieving a Balance of Service, Occupancy, and Cost. After determining base staff requirements, it is critical to review all the tradeoffs that impact contact center stakeholders. Learn about how callers are impacted by staffing decisions that drive speed of answer and quality of service. Review how staffing levels impact frontline staff in terms of productivity or occupancy. Finally, see how staffing levels and telecommunications factors affect revenues and costs. Hear about how one person can make an impact on service, occupancy, and cost, as well as the factors to consider when making decisions about agent group size, multi-skilling, or consolidation of sites or groups. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
Beyond the Spreadsheet: A Practical Guide to Modernizing Long Range Capacity Planning. Still wrestling with spreadsheets to manage long-range capacity? Manual planning leads to inaccurate forecasts, a misaligned internal and BPO workforce, and a frustrating disconnect from financial goals. It's time to move beyond the gridlock. Join us for a practical, conversational session on modernizing your planning. Including a demo and real-world examples, discover how to unify your data, improve forecast accuracy, and optimize your mix of internal and vendor resources with agile scenario modeling. Leave with actionable steps to build a more resilient and cost-effective contact center. – Speakers: Paul Meredith & Chris Heiniger, Anaplan, & James Wilby, Keyrus
The Politics of Planning: When Being Right Isn’t Enough. You called the forecast. You saw the staffing gap weeks in advance. You ran the numbers, built the model, and knew exactly what was going to happen. And then you watched leadership make a different decision anyway. This is a familiar moment for many WFM professionals. It is tempting to assume the issue is better data, stronger models, or more detailed reporting. In reality, it is rarely a data problem. It is a positioning problem. WFM teams often find themselves stuck in a paradox. The organization depends on them for forecasts, schedules, and real-time insight. Yet despite owning the operational data that predicts outcomes, their voice is often absent when strategic decisions are made. The better they execute the tactical work, the harder it becomes to step back from it. Over time, their strategic value becomes invisible. This session explores why that happens and how to change it. We will examine the internal dynamics that shape planning decisions, the language gap between WFM and executive leadership, and the difference between reporting on the business and influencing the business. Most importantly, we will focus on practical approaches WFM leaders can use to translate operational insight into strategic influence. Participants will leave with concrete techniques to elevate their role from tactical execution to strategic partnership. – Speaker: Natalie Perez, Cisne
From Chaos to Clarity: Building a Strategic Operations Team. This session explores the strategic restructuring of a Workforce Management team, focusing on transforming siloed operations into a cohesive, high-performing unit. We'll examine how redistributing work, redefining roles, and standardizing processes led to improved efficiency and accountability within the Strategic Operations team. Attendees will gain insights into navigating large-scale organizational changes while maintaining critical stakeholder support, learning key strategies for aligning roles and functions during transitions. This case study offers valuable lessons for WFM leaders facing similar challenges in dynamic environments. – Speaker: Rafael Liriano, LanguageLine Solutions
Change Management Driven Collaboration for Sustainable WFM Relationships. For Workforce Management professionals aiming to elevate performance and drive meaningful collaboration, the ADKAR change management model is more than a framework—it’s a catalyst for transformation. By creating awareness of the strategic value of alignment, generating desire through shared KPIs and business outcomes, and equipping teams with the right knowledge and tools, ADKAR empowers WFM to lead change with precision. It enables real-time execution and reinforces success through recognition and operational integration, embedding a culture of accountability, agility, and continuous improvement. With ADKAR, WFM doesn’t just support change—it becomes the engine that sustains it. – Speaker: Patricia Sinclair, Humana Military
Using Your Capacity Planning Spreadsheets or System to Do Great What-Ifs. Many of the most important workforce management questions aren’t handled in workforce management software at all. Instead, they are handled in external capacity planning spreadsheets. Most great analyses lead decision-makers toward the logical best answer to questions like: What is my expected cost to service my customers? If I wanted to improve service standards, how many heads would it require? Given our economy is so volatile, what investment decisions do I need to make today to ensure we don’t have a service failure next year? How bad will service be if my attrition continues? In this session, we will discuss how you can use your WFM and cap planning process to answer these questions with some simple and clever analyses. – Speakers: Ric Kosiba & Chris Kosiba, Real Numbers
Strategic Partnership: WFM + HR + Operations. Discover how a strategic partnership between WFM, HR, and Operations can transform your organization’s agility and employee experience. This session will showcase how aligning workforce planning, scheduling, compliance, and technology enables smarter staffing decisions, seamless employee transitions, and real-time responsiveness. Attendees will gain actionable insights into building cross-functional collaboration that drives performance, reduces risk, and supports long-term business goals. – Speaker: Kirwyn Adderley & Lakeshia McKenzie, Walgreens
Communicating WFM Across Your Organization. In this highly interactive and fun sharing session, we will dig deep into the communication challenges that we usually don't talk about, because frankly, we don't know how to. We will discuss how to communicate with all levels in your organization from executives to agents, and Operations to HR. We will also talk about the importance of acronym glossaries and clear definitions that are meaningful, not convenient. Come to this session and walk away with new tools in your communication tool box. – Panelists: Jason Persico, Inspira Financial, Jeremy Krauth, Luxottica, & Kim Felice, Conduent
To the Back Office and Beyond with Workforce Management. Workforce management teams are continually being asked to support the ever-changing environments of the business. In this session, you will hear how several organizations have tackled the movement of WFM from just inbound call handling to multi-media contacts and now to the back office environment. Hear tips and techniques to make this a more successful and smooth transition. – Panelists: Bob Dobson, Webster Bank, Sherry Fetters, Metronet, & Stephanie Lanier, CNA
5:00-7:00 p.m. – Networking Reception
Tuesday, April 28
7:45-9:15 a.m. – Breakfast
8:00-9:00 a.m. – Behind Closed Doors with the Sponsors
9:15-10:30 a.m. – Workshops
Scheduling Strategies: Definitions and Decisions for Successful Schedules. A successful schedule plan involves many decisions on the front end that can impact the long-term and short-term effectiveness of the work shifts. In this session, learn about the fundamental concepts of calculating and applying shrinkage to arrive at schedule requirements, along with considerations of defining schedule components. Hear about how to decide on optimal schedule horizon, shift definitions, and schedule constraints, as well as some of the best strategies for optimizing schedule coverage and minimizing cost. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
The Real Truth (and Real Use Cases) of AI in the Contact Center. We all know AI from solutions like ChatGPT and Gemini, but turning your friends into cartoon characters doesn't have much in common with the AI we are seeing in contact centers. It also doesn’t help that it seems like the AI label is applied to everything, including functionality where AI isn’t present at all. In this session, we will take a step back and explore the different types of AI, how they are used, and how this information is applied in contact center solutions. Is workforce management a good use case for real applications of AI? Let’s explore the truths, the misconceptions, and the possibilities of AI in the contact center as well as the workforce management industry. – Speaker: Matt Duncan, CommunityWFM
Workforce Management Certification Workshop. This workshop provides attendees with information on the certification preparation and process to attain the title of Certified Workforce Planning Professional (CWPP). What is CWPP Certification from SWPP all about? What will it do for you in the workforce management field? What are the requirements for certification? How do you prepare? These and other questions are answered by a panel of workforce management professionals who have already achieved the CWPP designation. – Speakers: Kristi Holcombe, Travelers, & Ava Baxter, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
From Survey to Solution: How PetSmart Transformed Agent Scheduling with Verint TimeFlex Bot. When employee survey data exposed a breaking point in agent scheduling, PetSmart knew something had to change. In this session, Shawn Fedina shares their honest journey with Verint TimeFlex Bot — from the moment agents began managing their own schedules and understanding the business in a new way, to the measurable impact on operations and the surprising outcomes of giving employees true flexibility. If your team is struggling with retention, this is the session you don't want to miss. – Speakers: Shawn Fedina, PetSmart, & Trudy Cannon, Verint
WFM Live Lab: Fix Any Day in 30 Minutes. This session starts with a live simulation: the audience votes on a real-world scenario—unexpected call spike, sudden agent outage, or channel mix swing—and we build the response together in 30 minutes. You’ll watch how to turn noise into three decisions, a one-page plan, and a 15-minute huddle script Ops can run. We’ll publish the plan on screen in real time, stress-test the risks, and finish with the exact words to share with leaders and associates. Attendees leave with the one-pager, a repayable exercise kit, and the confidence to run the same “Live Lab” back at their center next week. – Speaker: Kevin Zimmerman & Lashaunda Bowdry, Jim Moran and Associates
Seven Tips and Tricks for Capacity Planning (And a Smidge of AI) for 2026! In this session, we will discuss seven solid tips and tricks for making budget season a little less chaotic, and our plans a whole bunch better. Accuracy and optimality! But also, given it is 2026, we wouldn’t be fashionable without discussing AI. In this case, we will chat about why there have been so few real new products in WFM, and how that will likely change. – Speakers: Ric Kosiba & Spencer Kline, Real Numbers
Fearless CX. Change is a scary thing. And, given the astronomical rate of change in the corporate world today, the workplace can be quite terrifying! Disengagement and burnout among employees are at record levels. As leaders, how can we help to turn the tide and bring real encouragement to our people? How can we both act as an anchor for psychological safety, and an accelerator towards meaningful outcomes? When we align and motivate people in the right ways, we don’t just overcome fear, but help bring about growth and innovation even in challenging times. – Speaker: Nate Brown, Metric Sherpa
Be the Best WFM Leader for your Team. Trust and engagement are crucial elements when building an effective workforce management team. But once you have your team established, how do you keep them fully engaged? In this session, learn how to build and sustain a team that is collaborative, productive and inspired, all while focusing on their personal health and happiness. – Panelists: Jessica Harris, School Specialty, Bryan Hovasse, Point32 Health, & Debbie Davis, OneGAS
Adaptive: Building Workforce Systems for an (Unpredictable) Future. The five assumptions that built modern workforce management — predictability, interchangeability, efficiency-first thinking, stability, and static capability — are breaking. This session walks practitioners through the forces driving that change, why variance should be treated as an asset rather than an enemy, and what next-generation workforce management actually looks like when you move beyond traditional planning into multi-dimensional value optimization and human-AI collaboration. – Speaker: Ted Lango, Kyōdō Solutions
10:30-10:45 a.m. – Break
10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Workshops
Managing Schedule Adherence: Creating an In-Place and On-Time Culture. An accurate forecast and perfectly constructed schedules don’t mean much if the frontline staff are not following the plan. In this session, you will learn various measures of how to measure adherence and quantify the problem of schedule non-adherence. See how common principles of performance management can be applied to identify reasons for non-adherence and what you can do to change adherence behaviors. Hear how some centers have created an adherence culture that works. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
The Evolution of WFM: Real-World Lessons from Enova International, Fabletics and Vivint. Workforce Management has transformed dramatically. Shifting from manual, resource-strained scheduling to a world of intraday automation and employee-driven flexibility. In this panel, leaders from Enova International, Fabletics and Vivint share the pivotal moments, lessons and tips that shaped their careers and operations. They’ll explore how their unique challenges led them to QStory, how they navigated change management, and how modern WFM unlocks both a better customer experience and a better employee experience, without compromise. – Speakers: Jodi Maffitt, Enova International, Damon Spurlock, Fabletics, & Riley Parry, Vivint
Workforce Management Certification Practice “Bee.” Play this fun, interactive game to test your knowledge and get a flavor for the questions included in the Certified Workforce Planning Professional (CWPP) exams. Attend this session to see what you need to know in order to be successful in the pursuit of CWPP certification through SWPP. – Speakers: Kristi Holcombe, Travelers, & Ava Baxter, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
Moments That Matter: How WFM Decisions Can Prevent Agent Burnout. The role of AI keeps growing in the contact center, but so do agent stress, burnout, and unplanned absence. Too often, they’re accepted as “just part of contact center life.” But they don’t have to be. Join Call Design for an interactive session that digs into the latest research to examine why burnout builds faster in today’s contact centers, and why so many only find out the causes in an exit interview. We’ll talk about Moments That Matter: small, everyday WFM decisions that shape agent wellbeing over time. We’ll reframe burnout as a challenge WFM can take on proactively. By proactively recognizing emotionally-impactful Moments, WFM teams can not only increase their value to the company, but also help create a work environment that’s more efficient — and more human. – Speakers: Michelle Gaffney & Shawn McCormick, Call Design
Managing a Declining Workforce using Effective WFM Techniques. As efficiencies are gained through continued globalization, automation, and AI, many WFM teams are tasked with maintaining workforce optimization amid a shrinking workforce. In this session, we will review how to fully leverage your WFM tools and processes to ensure you stay ahead of the impact of these efficiency gains. – Speaker: Jason Lasure, The Analyst Group
Back Office Task-Based Scheduling and Short-Term Forecasting. We will provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to implementing task-based scheduling for back-office operations. We’ll cover key aspects of the process, including managing change during implementation, designing effective data structures, capturing accurate task data, and building new productivity reporting KPI’s. Join us to gain a clear understanding of how to transition to this scheduling approach and leave with practical strategies to improve reporting accuracy and optimize team performance. This session is ideal for WFM professionals seeking actionable insights to streamline their back-office operations and drive measurable results. – Speakers: Abby LaValliere & Kat Castro, Progressive Insurance
Beyond the Metrics: Humanizing Workforce Management and Tailoring WFM to Your Specific Industry. This session will explore how organizations can shift WFM from being a purely operational discipline to a people-centered strategy that balances business outcomes with employee well-being. How to balance accuracy in forecasting and scheduling with employee flexibility. Ways to align real-time management with engagement and retention goals. Examples of how people-focused WFM practices improved productivity and reduced attrition. The role of AI, automation, and self-scheduling tools in creating a collaborative and empowering WFM environment. Actionable steps leaders can take to embed employee experience into workforce strategies. – Speaker: Shantae Williams, Ally Financial
The Future is WFM: The Hybrid Workforce. AI + Humans = An EXPANDED workforce! As businesses face rapid changes in customer expectations, workforce dynamics, and technology advancements, Workforce Management (WFM) is emerging as a driving force for operational excellence and creating impactful employee and customer experiences. In this session, we’ll explore the evolving role of WFM in shaping the future of work and uncover practical strategies for staying ahead. Attendees will gain insights into emerging trends, such as: AI-driven work routing and hybrid workforce strategy, the evolution of capacity planning beyond headcount, and new skills, metrics, and WFM competencies required in the AI era. Whether you’re a seasoned WFM leader or new to the discipline, this session will equip you with actionable tools and forward-thinking approaches to ensure your WFM strategy not only meets today’s demands but is prepared for tomorrow’s challenges. – Speaker: Juanita Coley, Solid Rock Consulting
Spilling the Beans: Brewing the Perfect Shrinkage Strategy. Shrinkage is the one metric we constantly try to quantify, plan, and conquer, yet it remains for some a daily battle. Much like your favorite cup of coffee, the right approach depends on your unique environment and what you need in the moment. Join us as we brew a special blend of categorization methods and planning practices designed to turn you into the ultimate ally for your operations leadership team. We’ll break down the essentials of shrinkage planning and management, to ensure your strategy is as robust and effective as your morning caffeine fix. – Speaker: Marshall Lee, Human Numbers
12:00-1:30 p.m. – Luncheon & WFM Jeopardy
1:30-2:45 p.m. – Workshops
Managing Daily Service: An Intra-Day Plan to Keep Staffing and Service on Track. Achieving intra-day success involves a process of monitoring, tracking, assessing, and acting to ensure staffing levels stay intact to deliver service regardless of the events of the day. In this session, you will learn about ways to monitor and track call volume, handle time, and staffing throughout the day in time to make changes as needed to impact service. Hear about communications and reaction strategies to affect both under-staffing and over-staffing with minimal disruption and maximum coverage. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
Using Data, Analytics & AI to Deliver an Effective WFM Solution in the Back Office. This panel will tackle a rising challenge in workforce management: the gap between front‑office and back‑office WFM. Contact centers have long benefited from forecasting, planning, and real‑time management; however, back‑office operations remain fragmented, opaque, and difficult to optimize. This session brings together experts who have successfully overcome this challenge. Why does this matter now? The back office has a significant opportunity to improve - customer experience, compliance, and cost efficiency increasingly depend on how well back‑office work is run. The panel will share their experience of why, where, and how their WFM capability has delivered benefits across their back office. The discussion will focus on the technologies that are finally making back‑office WFM scalable and predictable – through data, analytics and AI. Beyond technology, the panel will discuss the organizational and cultural shifts required to execute a successful back‑office WFM strategy. – Moderator: Joy Santosh, ActiveOps – Speakers: Kelli Doherty, Health Solutions Operations, Brian Watson, Inspira Financial, & Olivia Zayas, Humana
Can AI and WFM Co-Exist? AI is reshaping the conversation around Workforce Management, but opinions remain divided on where it truly adds value and where caution is warranted. In this thought leadership session, we will explore both sides of the debate: the opportunities AI brings to WFM, as well as the counterpoints and concerns surrounding its application. Join Florian Garnier and Dave Hoekstra of Calabrio, now merged with Verint, for an engaging discussion that will challenge assumptions, spark new ideas, and invite attendees to consider what the future of AI in WFM could look like. – Speakers: Florian Garner & Dave Hoekstra, Verint
Capacity Planning at RCI: Inbound, Outbound, and Blended Teams. This session explores the comprehensive lifecycle of capacity planning within the environment of RCI, a global timeshare exchange company with over 4,300 affiliated resorts across 100 countries. Attendees will learn how the capacity analysts utilize contact rates, list efficiencies, and expected revenue per call to develop, and validate inbound staffing models. Discussion will emphasize transforming workload forecasts into actionable staffing outputs that support decision-making for finance, and other business partners; providing insights into optimizing staffing strategies in complex contact center environments. – Speaker: Scott Morgan, RCI
The Art of the Merge: Integrating Workforce Management into a Large Organization. This session explores the challenges and opportunities for Workforce Management during organizational transitions, drawing from real-world merger experiences but applicable to a wide range of scenarios. Attendees will gain practical insights on integrating workforce planning into large organizations, establishing WFM from scratch, and expanding WFM into new business areas. The presentation will cover best practices in workforce strategy, change management, technology alignment, and standardizing workforce processes. Key focuses include securing stakeholder buy in, achieving consensus on KPIs, and effectively merging or establishing teams. While rooted in merger experiences, this session offers valuable lessons for WFM professionals facing various organizational changes, making it relevant for those in operations, HR, and planning roles across different industries and company sizes. – Speakers: Dan West & Phillipe Abugan, Hilton Grand Vacations
Partnering with AI: The Next Evolution of Workforce Management. AI isn’t here to take over Workforce Management—it’s here to transform it. As automation handles more routine contacts, the work reaching your agents becomes more complex, requiring sharper forecasting, smarter scheduling, and greater intraday agility than ever before. In this session, we’ll explore how AI serves as a companion to WFM professionals—streamlining manual tasks, surfacing insights faster, and freeing teams to focus on what matters most: strategy, people, and performance. Discover how AI can become the next evolution of your WFM toolkit—making your job easier and your impact even greater. – Speaker: Troy Plott, NiCE
How WFM can Drive Performance and Productivity. In this session, we’ll explore how Workforce Management can be a powerful driver of performance and productivity across the contact center. Using a racing metaphor, we’ll navigate four key “turns” — Forecasting, Scheduling, Intraday Management, and Performance Inspection — to illustrate how each stage contributes to operational success. Attendees will gain practical insights into aligning daily WFM practices with business goals, overcoming common challenges, and ensuring all puzzle pieces fit together. Whether you're new to WFM or looking to refine your approach, this session offers actionable strategies to help you stay on track. – Speakers: John Watkinson & Todd Williams, Amplix
Sharing Key Metrics for Continuous Improvement. While there is no “industry standard” for many of the metrics that we measure, our management teams are always asking us what other companies are doing instead of just looking to improve our current state. Come to this session ready to share your key metrics – and how they were determined -- and hear the same information from the other attendees as well. – Panelists: Victoria Marcella, Warby Parker, Rafael Liriano, LanguageLine Solutions, & Adrien Seldon, Seldon Solutions
Leveraging Advanced Analytics & BI Tools in Workforce Capacity Planning at U.S. Bank. Discover how U.S. Bank is transforming workforce capacity planning through advanced analytics and business intelligence. This session will showcase practical applications of predictive modeling, interactive dashboards, and data-driven insights that enable smarter staffing decisions and improved operational performance. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of the tools, techniques, and governance strategies that make analytics actionable in large-scale planning environments. – Speakers: Kevin Olson, Jeff Becze, & Max Stevenson, U.S. Bank
2:45-3:45 p.m. – Ice Cream Social with the Sponsors
3:45-5:00 p.m. – Workshops
Signs of Success: Metrics and Measures of WFM Performance. Almost every contact center employee has a performance scorecard, outlining expected levels of performance in many different areas. The workforce management team is no exception. While the tasks may vary from center to center depending on size and functional design, there are common ways to define metrics that point to good performance and a job well done. Learn about the four components of WFM success, along with different ways to measure and report the numbers. See measurement case studies, along with best practices for defining WFM metrics. – Speaker: Penny Reynolds
Beyond Forecast Accuracy: Turning Workforce Volatility into Your Advantage. Forecast accuracy has long anchored workforce planning. But in today’s AI-driven contact centers, a strong overall score can still hide volatility, skill gaps, cost exposure, and service risk. The challenge is not more data. It is faster, governed decisions. As demand patterns evolve, traditional forecasting models struggle to keep pace. Leading organizations are moving beyond static accuracy metrics toward intelligence-driven operating models. Powered by Aspect Intelligence, these models connect real-time workforce signals to policy-aware action and measurable decision impact. This session explores how to shift from static forecasting to intelligence-driven orchestration that reduces decision latency and strengthens workforce performance. -- Speakers: Alain Mowad & Emily Heavner, Aspect
Scheduling for Businesses That Broke the Model. The frameworks underlying workforce management were built for a specific kind of operation: a contact center with established routing structures, inherited processes, and a team that's been doing this for years. But a growing number of businesses don't fit that mold, and applying a playbook that wasn't designed for you creates a different kind of complexity. When the model breaks, scheduling stops being a process problem and becomes a strategic one. In this fireside chat, workforce leaders from NEXT Insurance and Checkr explore what it looks like to rethink scheduling from the ground up, navigating complexity that's specific to your business, shifting from reactive to proactive, and designing for a future where the schedule is never really finished. – Speakers: Claire Donovan, Assembled, Christian Shrader, Checkr, & Daniel Swartz & Carson Edmunds, NEXT Insurance
The Planning–Execution Gap: Why Workforce Strategies Break Down in Outsourced Environments—and How to Fix It. Even the most thoughtful workforce plans can break down in execution, especially when scaling outsourcing across vendor capacity, cost control, and operational accountability. This session presents a practical, end-to-end approach for closing that gap. Attendees will learn how leading organizations: convert demand forecasts into actionable vendor staffing plans; align internal teams and BPO partners to a unified plan, link operational output to financial tracking and vendor invoicing; and continuously refine planning decisions using performance data. Grounded in client experience, this session highlights where outsourced workforce planning efforts most often break down—and what distinguishes organizations that get it right. Attendees will leave with a pragmatic framework to bridge the gap between planning, execution, and financial oversight across an increasingly distributed workforce. – Speaker: Jack Simone, Keyrus Consulting Group
Build It Live - Capacity Planning: How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Process. Learn the essentials of workforce capacity planning from Adrien Seldon, an industry expert with 16+ years of experience. In this hands-on session, you’ll be guided through building plans in real-time using Google Sheets & Excel, covering topics like forecasting volumes, workload, and headcount needs. A powerful, ready-to-use template will be provided, so by the end of the session, you'll have both the skills and tools to effectively manage your organization's capacity planning. – Speaker: Adrien Seldon, Seldon Solutions
Deploying Schedule Optimization Capabilities Using Third Party Software. Google-YouTube manages a complex, global, AI-driven back office operation charged with Content Moderation and platform safety. In this case study, we will review the pros/cons and cost benefits of integrating scheduling optimization techniques such as: arrival pattern mapping, peak volume deflection techniques, early warning systems and shrinkage-reducing strategies. All modified to fit within this back office use-case and managed via third party WFM software. – Speaker John Garza & Jason Moseby, YouTube
Curriculum-to-Cognition Apprenticeship Model. This session reveals how the structured planning and content of a WFM apprenticeship, from lesson plans to mentor Q&A, can be systematically leveraged to create and continuously refine a formal, AI-driven WFM knowledge base. Discover how to shift your organization's perspective, turning the process of training people into the parallel process of training your own specialized AI, ensuring WFM knowledge is captured, scalable, and immediately accessible. – Speakers: Michelle Donnelly & Sean Hostetler, Home Depot
Are We Measuring The Right Things? We have all heard that “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” so we start measuring everything. But ask yourself this: “Do the numbers provide an accurate and complete picture of what is going on in our organization? Do they reflect both the agent and the customer experience?” In this session, we will look at not “what” the story was but “why” things happened. We will dive deep into ensuring definitions are standardized and look at whether the calculations we are using are all the same. Finally, we will figure out how many numbers are enough – and how much is too much. – Speaker: Todd Hixson, Personify Health
Determining the Best Measures of WFM Success. There are so many different metrics that come out of our workforce management efforts. But which ones should we use to measure our success as a workforce management team? Come to this panel session to hear how different organizations measure the success of their teams and demonstrate their accountability to the rest of the company. – Panelists: Jason Hilliard, Petsafe, Bob Dobson, Webster Bank, & Mark Rhodes, Edward Jones
6:30-9:30 p.m. – Evening Event
Wednesday, April 29
7:45-8:45 a.m. – Breakfast
8:45-10:00 a.m. – Workshops
60 Ideas in 60 Minutes – WFM Tips & Techniques from Real-Life Experiences. This fast-paced session with a panel of your WFM peers will have you writing furiously as you try to capture an idea a minute on paper! This format will give you some last minute tips to take home and implement immediately – if you can catch them all!
Modelling the Future Workforce as AI Changes Jobs. Call centers and other hourly workforces have seen disruptions before. They have moved through robotic process automation and automated routing to chat bots. But how Generative and now Agentic AI, coupled with Natural Language Processing is changing call centers (and every other job) is on a scale not witnessed before. In this session we’ll build upon other conference themes around what those changes mean in the centers and how, as planners, that changes how we go about looking at staffing. Direct vs. Indirect labor, volume of workers needed today vs a year or two down the road, etc. But more than how the call center job changes we’ll look at what is coming as Agentic Bots find their way into the software and other tools that planners use to schedule, to model and to help headcount forecasting. What is changing in the way the planners conduct their work and ultimately what does that mean for the planners’ careers. Knowing what is coming near term, and likely mid-term time horizon helps both do the job more efficiently but also prepare oneself for the world of tomorrow. We’ll look at not just workforce management, but what those changes mean to the strategic workforce planners who are looking organization wide at the skills of tomorrow, and the build, buy, borrow bot equation. – Speaker: Russell Klosk, Deloitte
Precision Forecasting with Python Prophet: Unlocking Accuracy with Hyperparameter Tuning. The session focuses on using Python’s Prophet library for workforce forecasting across various time horizons. It emphasizes hyperparameter tuning to improve accuracy, interpretability, and automation. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of Prophet’s capabilities through real-world examples, though not at an expert level. The session is designed for forecasters seeking modern, scalable solutions. – Speakers: Joshue Hernandez & Alfred Macaspac, Barclays
On the Tightrope: Balancing Service Goals With Employee Development & Customer Satisfaction. Frontline leaders are constantly challenged with balancing service goals with the development of the employee. Is there a way to achieve both? Hear from industry leaders share their tips to maximize training/development plans and the customer experience. – Panelists: Kirwyn Adderley, Walgreens, Jason Persico, Inspira Financial, & Tony Graczyk, Principal Financial Group
How to Advance Your Career in WFM. An engaged, ambitious professional will always want to know how to improve in their job. Whether you’ve been in workforce management for a few months or few years, you should always be listening, learning, and looking for ways to advance your WFM career. This session will provide tips to improve your career outlook and offer sound advice to improve your relationships with your customers, colleagues, and leaders. – Panelists: Mark Rhodes, Edward Jones, Sandra McFatridge, Nissan, & Tatiana Morrell, Coinbase
Best Practices in Schedule Creativity. Ever wonder what other companies have done to get the most out of their schedules using creative scheduling and flexibility? Come join this interactive panel where we share our success/failures, best practices, and tips and tricks for you to put your ideas into place. You will also have the opportunity to share some of your own creative options that you have implemented and your experiences. The panel will also look at how different states, nations, and geographies impact scheduling and how to effectively manage these challenges – Panelists: Kristi Holcombe, Travelers, Teresa Howe, Gerber Life Insurance, Nicki Coppock, Petsafe, & Lance Muzillo, Sentry Insurance
Tactical AI-Enabled Tools for Workforce Management and the Behavioral Competencies That Sustain It. LLMs, APIs, and modern productivity platforms are enabling workforce management (WFM) teams to build targeted, high-impact solutions without extended dependency on engineering or analytics. By combining clear problem framing with lightweight architecture and rapid prototyping, WFM can move from ideation to MVP in days. We will walk through practical examples, including internally developed event scheduling automation and alerting tools that reduced manual intervention and improved operational visibility. At the same time, sustained advantage will depend less on tooling and more on mindset. As agentic systems become embedded in workflows, WFM professionals must cultivate curiosity, resilience, and strong process engineering instincts. The ability to question assumptions, redesign inefficient workflows, communicate cross-functionally, and iterate through ambiguity will cultivate high-performing WFM teams. – Speakers: Thomas Kim & Jordan Sams, DraftKings
10:00-10:15 a.m. – Break
10:15-11:30 a.m. – Workshops
60 Ideas in 60 Minutes – Tips & Techniques for Making the Most of Your WFM Software. This fast-paced session with a panel of vendor experts will provide you with a practice idea each minute. This is not a sales pitch for products. These are the vendor experts that can provide tips on how to get the most out of a WFM investment from the early planning stages, implementation, training, and ongoing use. This format will give you some last minute tips to take home and implement immediately!
Building & Evolving WFM. In this session, we'll cover four topics that novices and veterans alike can find value in: building a WFM team, evolving WFM once you're established, WFM talent management and career pathing, and being a trusted advisor. The speakers will share their experiences building and evolving WFM at CNA Insurance, a commercial insurance carrier, and Raymond James, a financial services and wealth management firm. Some key topics will be the business case for WFM, how to manage stakeholders, how to deal with work and requests that are not traditional WFM, what to look for when hiring, and the importance of building trust. – Speakers: Stephanie Lanier, CNA, and John Campbell, Raymond James
Embracing Change. Change is constant—and it’s coming from every direction. Whether it’s shifting workplace dynamics, the upheaval of global events like COVID, or the everyday fluctuations in our environment, we’re all navigating a world in motion. This interactive session explores the human side of change, offering practical strategies to not just adapt, but thrive. Attendees will engage in hands-on activities that illuminate how we can embrace change with resilience, clarity, and purpose. – Speakers: Jason Hilliard & Nicki Coppock, Petsafe
Hey — We’re Part of the Team, Too! Do you sometimes feel like the punter on a football team with a good offense? You put in the work, everything runs smoothly, and occasionally you are asked to contribute to the team. Does customer support understand what workforce management does? Does the Senior management team understand how WFM contributes to the overall team win? In this session, hear how to communicate with leaders to share why we are a vital part of the contact center. This session will be interactive, sharing ways we make sure we are not just at the table, but a key part of the conversation. Attendees will walk away being able to share that your team “fosters holistic serendipity.” Not sure what that means? Come and find out how you create a place where magic can happen. – Speaker: Todd Hixson, Personify Health
Seasons of Change: Lessons Learned from Changes in Systems. So you are getting a new WFM software system. You might be really excited or you might be really anxious. Hear from a panel who has been through the process as they share information about common issues and pitfalls to be aware of. Hear how to navigate pain points such as loss of functionality, user acceptance, and changes in processes. The biggest lesson is: it will all be OK! – Panelists: Jeremy Davis, AAA, Victoria Marcella, Warby Parker, & Cooper Taylor, 8x8
Breaking Down Silos. It can be stressful when communication breaks down and different departments look at the same issues through different lenses. The reality is we are most often trying to get to the same result. This session helps us understand what we can do to increase communication and stay on the same side of the fence. Hear what organizations do to get along and how increased understanding is paramount in service to delivering in every arena of the contact center. Come and hear their experience in being successful “partners” through the evolution of our industry. – Panelists: Tyler McGary, Clinch Home Services, Darlene Parks, Travelers, & Brandi Tifft, AAA
No Cap: Decoding the Multi-Gen Workforce for 2026 WFM. Gen Z, Baby Boomers, Millennials, and Gen X. Between the shifting years and labels like "Xennial," does generational theory actually impact the contact center? Be it a it a holiday gathering with family, or a shift bid, these cohorts often struggle to connect. Understanding their context is vital as the world evolves. This session explores how today's main workforce generations influence your WFM strategies and team dynamics. We will equip you with current definitions and meaningful engagement strategies to help you bridge the gap and avoid the "cringe." No cap for real. – Speaker: Marshall Lee, Human Numbers
11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Closing General Session
12:00 p.m. – 2026 SWPP ends
