NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – May 15, 2023 – The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) has announced Rick Seeley as the recipient of the 2023 SWPP Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual who has shown outstanding leadership in the workforce management industry.

Rick currently serves as WFM Supervisor at McKesson. He has worked in contact centers for over 33 years. His interest in workforce management started when he was an agent on the phones at the onset of the Sprint Texas Relay Service in Austin, TX in 1996. At that time, Rick inquired how the Supervisors were creating schedules. Once that was explained, Rick took the data and decided to play with it to create better coverage and better staffing. This morphed into creating the Operations Administrator position for Sprint Relay Services which was the initial
RTA, Scheduler, and Forecaster for all the Sprint Relay Services nationwide. And the rest is history. Rick moved to Dallas with Sprint to work as a Real-Time Analyst and Mission Control Associate with Sprint Long Distance. After Sprint, came Mobilcomm Paging, Alliance Data Systems, Brinks Home Security, Convergys Inc, Conduent, and Everise. He also worked on the vendor side with NICE as well.

Rick honed his skills at each stop and continued to learn, innovate, and share that knowledge with user groups sponsored by NICE and Aspect (now Alvaria). Rick has been published in call center periodicals and spoken at various conferences throughout the years. Rick has served on the SWPP Advisory Board since its inception in 2002.

On a personal note, Rick has been married to his wife Becky for 40 years and has three children and one stepson along with six grandchildren. Rick is an Army Veteran with Vietnam experience. He also spent 25 years as an official in Texas High School sports and had a nine-year career in the country music entertainment world.

Rick was nominated for this pres<gious award by four different industry supporters. Here are some of the accolades for Rick submitted with his nominations:

“What sets Rick apart is his unwavering commitment to sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with others. Throughout his career, he has mentored and inspired countless WFM professionals, imparting his passion and expertise and uplifting the entire profession along the way. As a board member of the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals for 20+ years, Rick has played an essential role in expanding the knowledge of the membership, always going above and beyond to help his colleagues. His contributions to the society are immeasurable, and his dedication and service have helped to elevate the entire profession.” — Marshall Lee, ttec

“When I started thinking about this year’s Lifetime “Wizard” award, as I call it, I thought back to the early days of SWPP, when we were forming the vision and purpose of the association. There was one gentleman that was
always educating, helping new WFM’ers pick up new techniques and new perspectives. He was always willing to give his time to those that needed assistance with situations and challenges. Experience is said to be the best teacher, and he had plenty of it. He was not afraid to admit he had learned how “not” to do things, from trying and failing. Jovial, humble, and willing are some of the characteristics that come to my mind. There’s a song by Dan Fogelberg called “Leader of the Band” and in it a line that says, “A quiet man of music,” which does not describe our Award winner this year, as he is a drummer by choice. Rick Seeley is my hero on both the music front and the WFM front.” — Todd Gladden, Planmen

“Over 15 years ago, I was a relatively new addition to the WFM community. With only a few years’ experience, I attended the SWPP Annual Conference hoping to gain the insights and expertise needed to address the call center issues posed to me and my team. While I found many of the sessions I attended to be valuable, there was one in particular that stood out and had a major influence in my career. I don’t recall the name of the session, but I do recall Rick Seeley being there and providing me the guidance I needed. Rick’s extensive knowledge of the contact center and workforce management was evident in his presentation, but it was his wilingness to answer my questions and provide insights and solutions that helped me so much. I was able to bring back so many ideas and so much knowledge that I quickly rose in the ranks of WFM analyst and established processes and programs that were revolutionary to my company at the time. I never had a chance to formally thank Rick for that but it makes me
think that if he influenced my career so positively, imagine how many careers he has helped inspire and shape in the industry.” – Jeff Bretana, Navy Federal Credit Union

“Rick Seeley has been devoted to workforce management as long as I have known him, which is well over 25 years. And, if you want to know how I became involved in workforce, look no further than Rick. He was a major
contributor in turning a fledgling, struggling call center back in the 1990s into a high-performing, cost-saving contact center by helping to establish a workforce team and processes from the ground up. Rick served as my mentor in those early days, and he is a key reason I stand here today and have been involved in this field of work for over 25 years and this organization for almost 20 years. The Oxford Languages dictionary defines achievement as ‘a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill.’ I’ve had the privilege to have been mentored by Rick, to be his boss, his peer, but most of all, his friend, and I feel he is the epitome of a workforce management career that
has been done successfully, by effort, courage and skill and I submit to you this nomination for the Lifetime Achievement Award.” — Sandra McFatridge, Nissan

For this award, candidates are evaluated in terms of major contributions to the field of workforce management throughout their careers such as:

  • Service to the profession through SWPP with contributions to regional meetings, newsletter articles, tips of the week, web seminars, and/or the annual conference
  • Leadership in the WFM industry and/or SWPP
  • Contributions to the education of WFM professionals
  • Shaping of WFM technology

The award is for lifetime achievement rather than for a single contribution, and nominees should have a minimum of 25 years of distinguished service to workforce management.

About SWPP
The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) is an organization devoted to facilitating education and networking opportunities among workforce planners across all industries. Membership in SWPP is available to all workforce planning professionals and other interested parties from consulting and vendor organizations. Both individual memberships and corporate membership options are available, with full benefits and costs outlined on the organization’s website at www. swpp.org.